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Notes from the "Eastern Front," Dec 04
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After that we almost suffocated because the buildings that we were housed in used a propane heater...the flame went out but it kept pumping gas into our room. I woke up which a massive headache and laid back down and that was all I remember. They woke us up and told us that there must have been a problem with the stove and that they smelled gas and we should not light a match. It took several hours of driving to clear my head. The night before that we stayed with Special Forces who were pretty cool and we had a long talk about our mission and their mission. They want us to come and work with them when possible.
Dec 16 - We had a couple of interesting days. 3 days ago we had a guy who came and told us that he knew of a weapons cache. We went and checked it out and it was like walking through a minefield. There was so much explosives lying around and a lot of it was old Russian ammo from the 70's, which means it was probably made in the 60's. We wound our way up and down a couple of hills watching for this stuff sticking out of the ground until we came to the top of one hill and looked down at about 12 mounds. Each mound was about 30 meters long x 20 meters wide and 15 meters deep. We crawled down the hole of one and it was full of tank rounds almost 3 feet in length. We contacted Ronco (mine clearing co.) and they said "Oh yeah we know about that place we just have not gotten to it yet." They said since most of it was buried and still be guarded by the AMF they were not concerned.
Yesterday Devitz and I were heading to catch Tighe at the Kandak and we decided to check out a couple of old mud buildings. Guess what we found - more stuff, mortars, artillery, etc. Since we found stuff there we decided to check another building and found cannons. WW1 era cannons. We went to the range yesterday and fired our weapons. Pistol, M4, MP5 and we were teaching Raziq and Ramin and they were pretty good shots. We had fun and fired a lot of ammo. I shot pretty well and was happy with my accuracy.
Dec 27 - It has been cold and raining for the last couple of days. We have been working with our Kandak counterparts on different missions. The Recon Company has been doing security patrols around the airport for the influx of people attending the Hadj - on their way to Mecca. The HQ Company has been guarding an ammo cache site that is at least ten acres wide and we keep finding more to add to it. The problem we are having is the de-mining companies and the UN-backed disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program cannot keep up with the removal and disposal of weapons and ammunition. Yesterday we were checking out a weapons cache site that our Major told us about and 2 locals came and told us that they knew of more and took us for a walk. Unfortunately we ended up in a minefield and picked our way through cautiously. They looked like they knew a path so we followed their tracks but we gave them a wide berth just in case. As we kept walking I told the Captain to keep an eye on them so we weren't walking into an ambush. They eventually took us to a hill that they said held pistols, rifles and machine-guns. They had put rocks on top to make it look like a grave but they told us that there wasn't anyone there. We didn't think we would be gone that long so we gave our interpreters the afternoon off. Of course all of this was done without our interpreters so there was a lot of talking with gestures on their part and ours and a lot of drawing in the sand. The locals also showed us some mortar rounds, artillery shells and trip-wire devices.
The Captain took the Kandak XO back to look today. We are going to head back tomorrow and let the locals dig since it looks like a grave and who knows what is underneath. Today I took the Supply officer to the ammo cache site from last week so that the ANA can stock up on needed ammunition. The ex-military that are lumped together with the title Afghan Military Forces (AMF) are still there but were hired by the de-mining companies as guards. There are only about a dozen left here for the 100-acre site and they looked pretty despondent since their way of life is over and they are now relegated to being security guards for a dead site.
So we are still here and another holiday has passed and we are coming up on the New Year. Most people at this time of year think to themselves about resolutions and what they can change. I am just looking at working with the Kandak and trying to mentor them the best that I can. Our main goal is to come home in one piece and know that we have the done the best job that we could for the Afghan people.
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Dec 12, 2004 - Remind me never to buy a Dodge truck. We had to take a leased truck back to Herat that had a few problems. We arrived at Qalat and we were supposed to go to the top of the mountain where there is an old castle but we missed the turn. As we turned around the front wheel fell off and the truck took a nosedive into the dirt. I am glad it happened at the bottom of the hill and not halfway up. Took 2 hours to get that fixed. The next day the alarm system on the truck would not allow us to start it. That took an hour to fix. Later we ran into a little trouble with illegal checkpoints. A lot of guns were drawn but the first checkpoint went quiet. The 2nd checkpoint we ran into some more trouble and we took them down. Luckily there was no shooting but it was very, very close. We disarmed them and took their pictures (which really scares them) and told them that we were going to check with Special forces (which scares them). The media reported that the ANA had taken down several illegal checkpoints so at least it was positive.
