Greetings Again Friends,

I’m going to see if I can share a few things of more substance and do so fairly quickly. Of course, I always start out with good intentions, but suddenly I find myself wondering, “Where am I going and what am I doing in this hand basket?” As it’s been a while since I discussed our mission and actual experiences, I’ll begin there.

I’ll start by drawing some contrasts between Nangarhar Province – where I was for my first two and a half months – and Kunar Province where I am now. From a mission standpoint, things are very different. Whereas in Nangarhar our team was working exclusively with the Provincial Police Headquarters (PHQ); in Kunar we are working with the PHQ and all the Districts – of which there are 14. The reason for the difference has to do with the number of police mentors available and the number of provinces and districts in need of mentors.

Anyone who has been following the news about Afghanistan knows there is a push to get as many as 20,000 more U.S. military personnel here. One of the areas to be addressed by this increase would be Police Mentor Teams (PMT’s). Certain reform efforts for the police have proven to be very effective. However, those reform efforts require PMT’s for every district that goes through reform. PMT’s are typically around a dozen people – a combination of mentors and Security Forces (or SECFOR) – and there are hundreds of districts in Afghanistan. The PMT’s come from the U.S. and other countries, but the U.S. is the primary force provider.

So until more forces are directed here, only select districts go through the reform process. In some cases, such as Kunar Province, none of the districts have gone through the reform process. Consequently, these provinces only have one PMT for the entire province. Now, the PMT’s are not the only police trainers. There are MP units, groups called the Police Training Assistance Team (PTAT), and the DynCorp contractors who do police training and mentoring. We are working closely with all these groups to train and mentor the police in Kunar.

In my third update, I talked about what we actually do as mentors. In Kunar we are trying to do the same basic things as we were in Nangarhar, but in a different way and with a different degree of emphasis in each area.

The Nangarhar PHQ – in part because some of the districts have gone through the reform process and in part for other reasons – seems to function much better with most of its systems than does the Kunar PHQ. While the mentors there are still working to make the systems function even better, they can focus more on the values and leadership aspects of mentoring. In Kunar, we spend a lot more time working on the systems and helping the police with the systems. In addition, we spend a lot of time going to the individual districts in order to help them. That has helped me better understand the full spectrum of how the ANP operate within the province. Since arriving in Kunar just over two weeks ago, I have been to Mara Wara, Sarkoni, Asmar, Mongai, and Watapor (AKA Dara Noor) districts and been to the PHQ several times.

Our visits to the district typically consist of meeting with the Chief of Police and sometimes with one or more of his staff. In some cases, I have time to just talk to the Chief and get to know him. In Watapor, I had chai with the chief and learned that he had 10 children – the oldest 24 years old and the youngest five. While there, the “Company Commander” – sort of the operations officer for a district – from another district came in. He was in the district for a meeting but wanted to stop and see his friend the chief. He sat and had chai with us and joined the conversation. While I was talking with them, one of the other mentors was visiting some of the staff to gather information on personnel, logistics, security, equipment, and other concerns.

We had chai at each of the other districts along with cake in Mara Wara (like that served by the Construction Officer in Nangarhar) and bananas in Asmar. At least three of the chiefs asked us to stay for lunch, but in each case we didn’t have time. A couple days ago I visited and had chai with the Deputy Governor of Kunar Province after having had chai and some snacks with the “Techniques” Officer; he is in charge of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and similar equipment.

So you can see we are definitely running at a high OPTEMPO (Operational Tempo). At the same time, we are seeing progress. Our entire team definitely seems to prefer this mode of operation compared to sitting around doing little or nothing. And there is no doubt it’s making the time go fast.

As for the people we have met, they are really incredible. Which means, in large part, they are very much like us. That shouldn’t be a surprise, but I think most of us wonder – when we meet someone from another country and culture – how different are they? Of course there are differences, many of which are based on the Islamic religion and some on culture. But by and large, once you spend a little time with most Afghans, it is pretty easy to relate to them and get along with them.

It’s time for another story. One day last week we were in one of the PHQ offices when a boy came in who looked to be around seven or eight. He was wearing nice clothes with an NBA athletic type jacket (like a high school or college “Letter” jacket). He saw me and came right up to shake my hand and say hello. There seemed to be a lot of ANP sort of hovering around him. One of the officers – who I guess is Russian and speaks pretty good English – walked up to the boy and with great drama stood at attention and saluted him. Then he leaned forward to say hello and shake his hand. He was clearly playing around with the boy. It turned out the boy was one of the Governor’s sons. He seemed to clearly relish his stature and the way the ANP treated him, but it was also kind of cute.

Back to working with the Afghans. One of the biggest differences from working with people in the U.S. comes from having almost no female Afghans around except for children. We see a lot of women out and about in the province – many more so than in ABAD the city – but they are almost all in burkas or otherwise covered except for the eyes, hands, and feet. They are not, however, around when we meet with the ANP. To some degree this isn’t that different than the military in general as the number of women, especially in combat zones, is significantly less than the men. But with the Afghans you really won’t see any women. And, as I think I’ve mentioned previously, you don’t talk about women with the Afghans unless they bring it up. At times, however, the subject does seem fine as we will talk about our wives and kids much like we would talk with an American. Almost all of them with whom I have met have made statements along the lines of, “We are so grateful and fortunate to have you here helping us. We know what a sacrifice it is for you to leave your beautiful country and your families in order to be here.” And I believe they really mean it.

Something else that comes up in some of the conversations is Pakistan. There are some ANP who have strong feelings against Pakistan. They believe that Pakistan wants Afghanistan to be unstable so Pakistan is doing everything they can to help make that happen. Others believe that Pakistan has the same goal as Afghanistan which is to get rid of the Taliban. One thing that we do know is that there are a lot of refugees in Kunar who came from Pakistan. Most of these are people originally from Afghanistan who escaped as refugees to Pakistan when the Taliban was in power here. Now they are trying to escape the violence in Pakistan caused by the Taliban.

With Thanksgiving only a couple days away, I want to talk a little about the holidays here. The first American “holiday” for which I really noticed any effort being taken was Halloween. I was at Camp Dubs in Kabul on Halloween. The Dining Facility (DFAC) was decorated for Halloween and on Halloween they had a number of activities going on. We were at meetings all day so I don’t even remember what they had going on, but we were around in the evening when they had a costume party in the DFAC. I didn’t go, but some others from our group did and took pictures, which I saw. Several of the people stationed at Dubs did have costumes – some pretty elaborate – and there were a number of games and a drawing for door prizes. It was probably a nice distraction for the people at Dubs.

Now, of course, we are approaching Thanksgiving. Most of the bases of any type with a DFAC will have a fairly traditional Thanksgiving meal. At FOB Fiaz, we will be preparing our own meal – as usual. We could go to Camp Wright which is very close, but the consensus was to do our own. Part of the reason was that we have a couple guys who plan to deep fry a turkey. They even managed to come up with peanut oil in which to fry it. So it should be very good.

As for people missing being home for this traditional family holiday, I don’t think it’s too bad; at least as we get close. One thing that I believe helps is the ease with which we can talk to, e-mail, and even video chat with our families. While we are still far from home, we are connected and able to stay somewhat involved with many of the day-to-day things there. So while it will be hard to not be with our families, most of us will likely at least talk to everyone we want to. And since we will be able to have a good meal with our “family” here – and since we aren’t living in horrible conditions like the soldiers in Vietnam, Korea, and the many places of previous wars – we probably won’t miss home quite like those brave souls.

Even so, on Thursday I do hope you will give thanks for the blessings all of us have in the United States – especially for the opportunities that our country affords. We are able to help countries like Afghanistan – and even have an obligation to do so in many respects – because there were people with a vision of democracy and freedom and millions more people willing to sacrifice everything to pursue and protect that vision over the past 200 plus years.

Now, go enjoy a turkey leg, some stuffing, and a piece of pumpkin pie for me!

Kevin