Not much of a day today, pretty quiet all around. I am sure that is something my family likes to hear. Had a lot of paperwork to catch up on with the terps and all. The terps are allowed 4 days off a month to go home, but since we are so far from Kabul where they all live 4 days is not enough when they have to bum rides with the ANA to get back there. So we combine their 4 days per month together from a 2 month stay of 8 days. Yesterday I had to sit down with them all and pencil on a calendar who was going when and all of those details. So today I had to build a calendar and spreadsheet to track all of that. It is a pain because we have to track for which month they take their for days. We are also putting together some training plans for the ANA so I had to work on that also.

I did have a good meeting with the Zabita Kandak (that is Dari for Command Sergeant Major) whom I mentor. He just got back from Emergency Leave in Kabul a few days ago so we have not had a chance to meet yet. He and I walked around the FOB and talked about a variety of issues. For me it was like Déjà vu since the things we talked about where just about identical to the things I talked to the ANA CSM about in Orgun-E. Just like the CSM down there, this CSM agree with everything I said and claimed he had the same concerns. They may, but the problem is getting them in a position to do anything about it. I talked to him about my priorities with this Kandak, with those being soldier safety, soldier health, soldier training, and soldier discipline. I explained that we have to have as many soldiers as possible mission capable and ready to fight the enemy. In order for us to do that, they cannot be sick in the infirmary. To keep them from being sick, we have to keep the trash picked up, the latrine barrels have to get burned and the soldiers need to practice good hygiene. It is small things like that which make a big difference. I will not go into details about the latrines, but lets just say I have been dealing with this issue since I got here in Sharana and it has not approved. It would turn your stomach for me to describe it in any bit of detail. I talked to him that we must keep soldiers safe and that means instilling discipline. Making them stay in uniform, clearing their weapons (read Medevac blog entry) before cleaning them, and taking care of them in the field. I stressed the need for muzzle awareness and keeping their AKs on safe.

We also talked about earning respect from the soldiers and how that will get the soldiers to follow the NCOs anywhere they want and even have the soldiers lay their lives down for the NCOs. I stressed hard training and how important it was since he or any of his NCOs did not want to live with the guilt of a soldier getting killed in combat because they did not train them properly or not enough. As I mentioned he agreed with everything and said he has the same concerns. Tomorrow I will check the areas I told him needed attention today and we will see what happens. Like I mentioned before, they talk a good talk but having them walk it with the officers is around is tough. This army only has the Russian army as a model where the officers do everything and make all the decisions. We are working hard to break them of that concept since it does not empower the NCO, whom is the real backbone of the army.

Other than those tasks and a few other house-cleaning paperwork tasks, team meetings and other one on one meetings it was a chilled day. Dinner tonight was not bad either. We had seasoned broiled fish, peas and rice. Not bad and it was something different. It was 100% better than the last time the same group cooked as the last time they had burnt and dried pork chops. I think they got the message since just about everyone cooked their own dinner that night and did not touch theirs.

So today was quiet and nothing outside the wire, but tomorrow won’t be so. We will have to see if any interesting stories come out of the next 24 hours. Until then…..

This is a just an FYI entry to let all who read this know there are much easier way to read blogs, like via RSS readers. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, and has been a technology available for a while (originally developed by Netscape) but just not real popular until the last couple of years. I know many like to come to my site to see the webcam and the pics so this tip may not be for you. But if you would like to know when I update this Afghan Blog, you can either use your existing RSS Reader, download many of the free ones out on the internet or add this to the content of something like your Yahoo personalized page. The URL to get this blog via RSS is www.bouhammer.com/nucleus/afghanrss.php

You can also check out that cool site I mentioned before called at www.milblogging.com. My site is registered there and when I update the blog here, it also updates the entry on that site also.

RSS is great for people who follow a lot of blogs or just like to have updates to websites delivered to them rather than going to each one and reading it. For example, in my RSS feeds I have latest Yahoo Buffalo Bills news, latest Buffalo Sabres news, latest updates from foxnews.com, latest updates from Scott’s blog that I have talked about here, and the latest updates from miblogging.com. This keeps me from having to go to each site in order to read the latest stories. They are delivered right to my desktop.

If you don’t know about RSS or where to find free readers, just google it and you will find out more about it than you ever wanted, plus links to free stand-alone readers and some that interact with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox (my favorite browser).

Yesterday I mentioned a big mission today, and even though it was important, it was very boring. We had an early start so we could be in place for today’s big meeting. See, the Governor of this province wanted to have what was essentially a fireside chat with all the big Mullahs of this province. This has been planned, but we did not find out until yesterday. Needless to say we were not that happy as it required a lot of last minute planning on our part and did not give the ANA a lot of time to work on their own mission planning and prep.

With this kind of audience, it makes this place a high-priority target for the bad guys to have all the chiefs in one place essentially. So we had to lock this place down. There were lots of ANP guarding the Governors compound, including snipers (if they can really shoot) on the rooftops. The ANP also has various roadblocks and checkpoints setup. The ANA and us went out and conducted random vehicle checkpoints, hasty checkpoints, QRF, and Random Patrols. Our purpose was to be out and about and hopefully interdict any bad guys that wanted to try and infiltrate the town to attack.

I was with Scooter, SFC R and Amail our terp. I was up on the gun all day, which turned out to be a wonderful 6 hours up top, in the sun riding all over the place south of there. We drove through trails barely wide enough to fit our HUMVEE, all around KULAT settlements, in the open desert of rolling hills, and on major (dirt) roads of traffic. Luckily I had my ipod to keep me company up there along with lots of candy throwing. Scooter brought 3 bags of Sugar Daddys and I brought a bag of Cinnamon hard candy and Smarties. Also, there is nothing like a little System Of A Down, Motley Crue, Greed Day, and Elvis to keep you focused. For the most part the kids made the day, and as the day went on I developed good TTPs (acronym we use for Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) on how to throw the candy to kids. I will talk more about the kids later.

So we were out and drove everywhere, but we did stop for a while and setup a checkpoint on one busy road. Little bit of excitement there when we discovered several cars with weapons, but they all panned out ok. One was Afghan Special Forces with this uncles and the other was a Governor security detail that was late getting in place. While there we had two boys that came up behind my truck and kept blowing a whistle to get our attention. They wanted candy, pens, whatever we would give them. I kept telling them to go away and had my terp tell them to go away but they stayed. I just turned up my ipod to drown out the whistle, but it really started getting on the nerves of the other ETTs and the ANA. After about 30 minutes of them begging us, the ANA must have told them I was going to shoot them or something, because I looked at them and they hauled butt all the way across the fields. Not sure what he told them, but it scared them. I will never give anything to kids while we are stopped like that as it will create a mob scene. Stopped for a few minutes maybe, but not when we are running something like a checkpoint where I need to focus on my mission and not on kids begging from us. I did notice one of the other ETTs making that mistake, when we drove by their point and I saw at least 35 kids surrounding the ETTs on the left side of the vehicle. I just kind of smiled to myself and thought that would be the last time they make that mistake.

One of our other trucks that was out did not have such a good day. Theirs was boring like ours, except for one incident that I know they wished never happened. Instead of seeing smiling kids, they saw a dead one. While they were setup in an overwatch position of an ANA Checkpoint, they saw a car flying down one of the few hardball roads in all of Afghanistan and watch them hit a kid and kill him. Apparently the guy in the car was rushing to Kabul (several hours away) to catch a flight and because of this urgent need, there is one less 8-11 year old boy going to bed tonight. To see that happen right in front of you is very disturbing, and even more so for a guy that is a father of small children himself. I am not sure what the outcome was, but I think probably nothing. There are no speed limits here, no minimum age to drive, no licensing program and no traffic laws. So how can you punish someone if there is no law? Another problem this country needs to fix one day.

So I mentioned the kids earlier, and what a fun time they are and a frustrating time also. What I determined today was that when you throw 3 pieces of candy to lets say a 10 year old boy, and two smaller kids (boys or girls) he does not share one bit. If he can grab all three, then he keeps all three. I usually only throw to the girls because they are crapped on in this country from the day they take their first breath and they will be their whole lives. The boys will all grow up lazy and beating on them and just being crapheads like most of the men are here. So if there are little girls there I usually throw to them, but if boys are around they bully themselves to all the candy first. As I mentioned I was carrying hot cinnamon candy, just for the big boys. That was the whole reason I packed it. I also carry a handful of rocks up on the hatch with me and a few small stuffed animals (beanie baby types). Why rocks you ask? Because sometimes these little dirt monkeys don’t like us and throw rocks at the gunners in the hatch. They have hit some guys in the helmet or back. So since I can’t shoot these little suckers, I have a handful to hurl back at them knowing I can hit them a lot harder than they do me. As for the Cinnamon candy, someone has to eat it. I figure the bigger kids (9+) are already little crapheads and will continue on getting worse, so since they will bully their little sister or brother to take candy from them I will give them candy they will never forget.

It is not just the bigger boys either. There were some older sisters that also took candy from right in front of their slower and smaller siblings. As the day went on and I started figuring out how they worked it, I changed up my TTP. If I saw 3 kids, regardless if they are all small or some big and some small, I would throw one piece at a time. I would throw the first one and the fastest kid would be going for that one. As he/she was about to bend over and get it, I would throw the 2nd towards the other kid, and so on and so on. I found that to be the best approach to make sure all kids got something. Once a kid gets his hand on it, he/she isn’t letting go, so the trick is to get it where they can reach it. So this is my new technique going forward and I think it will continue to work well. Ohh yeah all the cinnamon candy was given out today to nice big boys and a few mean big sisters. I wonder how long they held it in their mouth before they spit it out? HAHA. Also there were no rocks thrown today, even though I would have liked to at that kid with the whistle. I did throw out two beanie babies to a pair of little girls who looked like twins. They were with their dad and no other kids were around. Scooter was good at driving close and slow to the kids so I could throw to them. I pointed to both girls, held up the beenies and then threw one to each with both hands. As we pulled away, all I saw were two cute little smiles and a happy Dad waving at me. That made for a good moment in the middle of a very boring and hot day.

My good friend, I think I can call him that, CPT T from Syracuse NY has a myspace site up and is keeping a BLOG of his experiences also. He is actually just up the road (in Afghan terms) from us and should hopefully be over here with us pretty soon. Anyway, he has a BLOG at www.myspace.com/42094372 and is definitely an accomplished writer of such things. He puts a little more graphic content in his than I do mine, probably because I got a mom and mother-in-law that would not be able to sleep at night if I mentioned everything in this blog. Anyway, Ben’s BLOG is good and I think that if you like this one, you will really like his.

While I am at it, if you are finding yourself turning into a blog-aholic, I suggest checking out www.milblogging.com. It is a collection of blogs, including this one all from military members. I have this one registered mine on there and have received a few Favorite votes already. This site is a nice collection that organizes them by country, service, etc. Check it out if you want more of the real deal here in Afghanistan and in Iraq and other places around the world where there is military.

These blogs are good releases of things to talk about. It is not like we can vent to family members when usually only have a few minutes to talk with them, or that we can vent to our teammates, since they went through this with us too. This is a chance for us to vent and just express ourselves (while maintaining operational security) and give those of you back in the world a chance to see the other side of the story, or just see the story at all.

Ben gave me an idea to put a counter on the blog so I can see how many people are visiting it. You should be seeing that soon. I have a counter on my photos site and on my webcam, but not yet one on my blog.

So for now, there has not been much else happening. Big mission tomorrow which I will write about later. Until then….peace out.
T

When we first got here and worked alongside the guys on the ETT team that were getting ready to leave after their year here, one of the things they said was no matter how long you have been in the Army, been all around the world, or been to combat…nothing would prepare you for what you are about to see and do here. Boy were they right and we saw that early on. There is no Army regulation, doctrinal handbook, field manual or lessons learned document that can prepare you for being an ETT member. The stuff we have seen here in the last two months amazes me and the scary thing is that we have 10 months left so I cannot even imagine what those days holds for us.

I have a lot of people that read this blog whom I know, and don’t know. But I see blog comments and emails from people that say they follow this blog and others like it from war zones so they can get a glimpse into what life is like here that does not make the 6PM news. So you want to know what a typical day is like here huh? First lets start by saying the word typical does not exist in our vocabulary here. We cannot conceive that word or anything related to it. Second, 75% of actions in combat are reactionary and not proactive, as that is the nature of this business.

Yesterday started out at 8AM when I got up to get showered, dressed, etc for the day. I chatted real quick online with my wife who was about to go to bed and then I headed to our team’s TOC for a class 3 of us were giving on Primary Marksmanship Instruction (PMI). PMI is what you give to everyone going to a weapon’s range to re-acquaint them to the fundamentals of shooting that weapon, techniques, and tips on proper stance, breathing, etc. After the class, we had some time for ourselves before taking some of the guys from our team and from BDE to the range over at the other FOB about 1 ½ miles from us.

We left at lunch time to grab a bite over there since they have a real dining facility where people cook for you and you don’t have to fend for yourself. After lunch and checking on the maintenance status of a few items and checking at the Post office for mail we headed to the range. It was a good day, but hot. It was over 106 degrees while we were out there for about 3 hours. We had about 11 guys that needed to re-zero their M4 rifles since getting in country. After that was done we worked on rapid fire drills, magazine change drills, 9mm shooting and grouping. This was the end of the official range, so then I shot 10 rounds through my SKS rifle and 2 shells out of my shotgun for the first time.

After the range we packed up and went back to our FOB. The heat and sun drained us, so we just downloaded our gear and relaxed for a few minutes before we got the call that dinner was ready. After dinner a few of us went to the corner of the FOB to work on our animal control tasks via M4 rifles. As I was coming back from that I ran into team members who told me we needed to spin up and get a force ready to go as the guards thought they saw a DSHKA Machine gun in a KULAT across the street. A DSHKA is a 12.7mm Heavy MG similar to our M2 .50 cal machine gun. This would be a huge threat to us if someone had one and was setting it up pointing to our FOB. The ANA soldiers swore they saw it, so we rolled a sizeable force of ANA and US ETT members to the KULAT to search it. Another group (that I was in) rolled out with ANA to setup a vehicle checkpoint so bad guys would not roll up and ambush the first force. The placed turned out to be a dry hole, and even worse it was a Minister of something government officials house. Needless to say he was not happy about being treated like a criminal. Oh well, it happens. After many apologies and sorrys we were out of there and back into our FOB.

I had duty that night with another ETT team member and during our duty we heard explosions off in the distance. About an hour later we got word that an ANP station was under attack and they needed help. It was decided that we would roll out there and check into what was going on. This was about 1:00 AM. The first force went out with a lot of ANA and some US ETTs, including me. We first came upon some ANP members that were out of ammo and had escaped from the station. We put them in the trucks and kept moving on. We could see light up ahead that was flickering like flames, and after a few more minutes we could actually see the smoke through our night-vision goggles. Once we got close we moved in tactically and could see the police truck in a full ball of flames in the middle of the road. As the forces fanned out contact was made and PKM Machine guns, RPGs and then AKs started shooting in all directions. After a few minutes we got things in order and were able to secure the scene. The station was destroyed with bullet holes everywhere, RPG hole in one side and that room burned up and all the weapons and radios stolen. There were two wounded ANP and one missing. By this time more ANA soldiers and several more HUMVEES of ETT personnel showed up. We controlled the area and situation. The Police Chief showed up with about 10 more ANP and we handed the station and their ANP over to them since it was now their situation. All of the ANA and all of our ETTs pulled back to our base. By the time we got back, downloaded our vehicles and dropped gear back into our rooms it was 4:30 AM. Several of us sat outside drinking sodas talking about the night’s events and trying to come down off of our adrenaline high so we could finally get to sleep. As we sat there dawn started breaking and the sun started coming up. We knew that meant time for bed.

So from 8AM one morning until almost 5AM the next morning we were on duty. This was our day on a ANA ETT. 21 hours of 106 degree heat, shooting at all kinds of targets (live and paper), ticked off government officials, burning trucks and a still missing ANP member and a few RPGs later….one more day in this year of 365 is behind us.

The following link was sent to me by a new-found friend that I met through BooksforSoldiers.com and whom has sent me a lot of stuff already. She and I also chat via email frequently. This Air Force guys gets it right and says it right. I don’t know of any way to put his topic in better terms.

The second link is a person’s editorial response. Good for them too.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400790.html

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701192.html

Despite all the happy, feel good things we do like building roads, bringing school supplies to kids, building wells, and putting money into clinics the bottom line is we are fighting a war over here whether anyone believes it or not. Just look at the DOD notice website for the last month. US forces here have lost almost 2-3 soldiers a week here in Afghanistan over the last 6 weeks alone. Of course if you follow the media and listen to what they say you would never know there was a war here. The coverage makes it look like everything is hunky-dory except for some riots in Kabul over an accident. Scott’s BLOG is a great insight into the daily happenings here. I am so glad he is free to document some of the real things that happen here also.

As I mentioned before we always roll out of the wire with the thought that every SOB in this country wants to kill us. It does not matter how much they wave, smile or say Tashakor (thank you) we have to believe they would all shoot us if they had the chance. Comlacency kills as is often stated here. We have to take different routes, change schedules, and vary activities because if you fall into a rhythm then you could get killed.

This reality of serving here has made itself very visible in the last few days. On July 5th our Task Force lost its first ETT member in a long time. SGM Jeff McLochlin used to be the CSM Mentor in this unit where I am. They moved me here a few weeks ago to replace him. He moved to another team where his guys from Indiana were. He wanted to be with them and fought hard to get there. I did not know Jeff well as I had only met him a few times in Gardez, but from our brief conversations I had I was impressed with him and liked what I saw. He was very personable and generally a nice guy that knew what had to be done here to get this ANA stood up and operating on its own. Some of my NY guys that have been in this team served with him for about a month and developed quite a friendship. Jeff McLochlin was killed in an ambush from what I was told, leading his ANA soldiers on a mission to kill bad guys. He was a Ranger with a Ranger Regiment scroll as a combat tab. He had already been there, seen it and done it. He was a highly respected member of the Indiana National Guard and from everything I know, seen and heard, our team, the state of Indiana and our country will be at a loss without him. I know he left behind a sizeable family along with a lot of friends and he will surely be missed.

NOTE** I held off on this posting until I saw the DOD notice which does not come out until 24 hours after his family was notified.**

On July 6th, I was woken up at 6:30 AM telling me we needed to respond to an IED attack on my old unit from Orgun-E. They were about 1000 meters outside our front gate on the way here for a rest stop before continuing on to Gardez. In 15 minutes we had several HUMVEES full of US personnel and several trucks of ANA on scene. Luckily the trigger man was bad on timing and blew it between and ANA truck and a HUMVEE. Nobody got hurt, just pelted with rocks thank god. Unfortunately the trigger man got away before they could smoke him. EOD showed up and collected up the parts and pieces of the device for analyzation. We took lots of pictures of the scene for evidence and then we cleared the route to our FOB so the guys could get here and collect themselves before continuing on. (Pictures in the picture section)

So even though July 4th was just another day, you can see the days following were not just “another day”, they were suck days that just keep reminding us that this is a war zone where people want to kill us and we want to kill them. Training the ANA is an important job and a primary role here, but not the top priority. The top priority is to bring back every American we bring over here. Bring them back healthy and happy to their families. When push comes to shove protecting US butts is the top priority.

Rest in Peace Jeff. May god put his hands on your family now and forever.