Hello Everyone,
Well, we are in from our first "training" mission. The objective was to set up a platoon patrol base, from which we would run Traffic Control Points. Anyone who has driven in a third world country is familiar with military check points on the road. This was called a training mission, because the ANA had never conducted a real mission before, and the area was considered relatively safe. It was a rural area on the south side of Kabul that the Canadians believed to be the source of rocket attacks against Camp Julien. Each of our companies sent out a different platoon for a night, meaning the ANA only had to do the mission for one night, but we ETTs had to do it for three.

Day One:
This day was an entire fiasco! The ANA want to operate like the boy scouts, fires, tents, loud talking etc... We want to operate like professional modern soldiers. This caused a big fight, and we had to compromise on something like vietnam. We started with a tactical road march to our position, everyone carried ruck sacks and weapons, except the Platoon leader, who forced his troops to carry his. Then, we got to the patrol base area and everyone just flopped down, while a squad ran up some hill. Then, we found out the PL (Platoon Leader) forgot his map, and the Platoon Sergeant (PSG) did not make sure his troops brought all their supplies. Captain Oles and I were livid and gave a major scolding to the PL and the PSG, threatening to fire them, which was inevitable. These guys might have been very brave fighters against the Russians, but they have no idea how to run an Army. The logistical plans fell apart immediately and food, water, and supplies were not delivered. This caused the troops to riot. Finally, the ETTs took over the entire operation and got them their supplies. Then they went to set up the Traffic control point. This they did well, but any thug with a gun can pull cars over and search them. After the TCP and the chow fiasco, I decided to take over the platoon, so that we could set up a tactical patrol base like we were supposed to. It seemed like the PL and PSG were relieved when I did this. CPT Oles was too disgusted to talk to them at all and had a very bad headache. I ran operations for the rest of the night--no sleep.

Day Two:
The second Platoon leader had gotten word from the first PL and remembered to take the map, and actually came up with a plan, which looked very similar to what I had set up the night before. Also, the PSG did a much better job, and the day was running pretty smoothly, until..... The platoon from the third company, which was situated just around the hill from us got word that a drug lord lived nearby. Unwisely, they decided to conduct a hasty raid and captured 17 people and 40 pounds of opium. Unfortunately, we did not have the resources to deal with the situation, and we had to involve the police. As many of you know, the police in third world countries are very corrupt. Somewhere around 12:30 am, four police returned with one suspect unannounced. They told us that they wanted to do a second search for Al Qaeda suspects, which was total bullshit. We called higher HQ, and they told us to stay out of it. OK, so here is the situation: We have three platoons from three separate companies all within close proximity, but no coordination was made between them. No one has any communication, and four armed policemen were going to be searching an area just in front of all our positions. This made me very nervous, because there was a real opportunity for a friendly fire incident, between us and the cops or between platoons. Captain Oles and I got no sleep this night. About an hour after the police went in we were scanning the village with night vision goggles (NVGs), when a shot rang out. Soon after, the four policemen came out without the man and ran to a car that drove away with its lights off. Luckily, we were able to prevent our guys from firing the cops up, although they probably deserved it. We never found out what happened, but my guess is that the cops tortured the man trying to get more drugs out of him so that they could sell them. They brought the man to the point, and after they got what they wanted, they shot him and drove away with the goods. I have no way to prove that, but it was awful suspicious.

Day Three:
This day was scary from the opening minutes. It was Mohammad's birthday, and many people were celebrating at a local shrine that was located near the drug den between ours and third company's position. When we walked through, there were men shouting at us, and our interpreter got very frightened. He told us these men were dressed in Taliban outfits and he wanted a gun. He didn't get one, but we confiscated AK 47s from at least one of the men at the shrine. Then, at the traffic control point, a man approached to inform us of a cache of rockets he found on his property. Luckily, a Canadian patrol of armored vehicles was passing by, and I waved them down for support. We recovered 17 RPG rounds. I began to become worried about our patrol base operations. One of the lessons learned from Vietnam is never to set up a Patrol base during the day, and never set it up in the same place twice. Well, this was our third night in the same place, and we had set it up during the day in plain sight of many civilians. I got no sleep that night, because the ANA kept falling asleep on the line. At one point, I looked around the perimeter with my NVGs and the soldiers on the entire eastern half were sleeping. So, I walked over there and pulled security myself. Someone could have just walked straight into our perimeter. Oh well, nothing happened. This was probably due more to the civilians in the area who liked us than anything else. If any enemy had the notion to attack us, they could have caused some serious damage. Well, back to the drawing board with the ANA. We go out again in two days. Hopefully, we can go on the lessons learned. Although everyone keeps talking about what a smashing success it was.

This is our area of operation. The picture in the middle is of the shrine, just to the right is the drug den.

This is our traffic control point (TCP)

This is some of our soldiers with the SPG 9 that we had no rounds for because the PSG forgot to bring them. So for us, it was a big club that looked intimidating.

Moonrise over the mountain.

These are the ANA Battalian comander's bodyguards. They wear ski masks which make them look like Zapatistas. I call them the Colonel Nazir Fedayeen. They have no formal training and amount to little more than a rap stars posse. I laughed out loud when they allowed a bicycle to ride right between them and actually bump into the person they were supposed to be guarding. That is the white truck they roll around in. We are afraid that they are going to get shot at by an American helicopter or something who identifies them as thugs with guns.