Day 16 - Glorious Morning

Today was a fairly low key day. A bit more of the same. I'm working on getting the CompSci mid-terms translated so I can review them, and I spent more time configuring the language lab. I did have a success there. My new configuration brain storm worked out. I was able to load the language lessons on our one Terra-byte server and modify the start up files so each client machine can run them from one place. Now I just need to get the IT guys to load the rest of the 24 language CD's and write/modify 8 batch files per CD to start the correct lessons and we can move on to the hard part, training the instructors how to use it all. They only have 176 more batch files to go since I did all the ones required for the first two CDs. Oh yeah, and then distribute the start up files to all 16 user workstations. Should be done tomorrow.

Congratulations to Dario Franchitti on his second Indy 500 win! I just got off Skype with Gina and she put in a request for Indy tickets for our whole family next year. It will be the 100th anniversary of the first 500-mile race on the track (but really only the 95th running of the Indy 500). I hope we get them. Wow, I have an amazing wife!

Back to work. Lots more summer mentors are arriving. We had three Westpoint mentors fly out today, but are getting in 12 more for the summer. We'll all have room-mates within a few days. I hope mine doesn't snore, and I hope he doesn't mind snoring ...

I picked up a mentoree today (I think that's a word). My assigned translator (tajiman, not sure I spelled it correctly), Mansoor, has asked me to tutor him in Linux and networking. I'm thinking about working through the final project we used for our networks course at USAFA this spring with him. It should be fun.

As an aside, I got my first care package from Gina the other day. She included a small box of the new (to me anyway) Starbuck's instant coffee mixes (Via). Awesome. I never thought instant coffee could taste that good. Maybe I'm a bit out of touch though. It's been over two weeks now since I had my last really good coffee at the Zurich airport (for $8 I might add).

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING! TMI alert. If you're easily offended read no further and tune in tomorrow.

OK, you kept reading, so really anything is fair game now. You were warned.

In the true spirit of blogging (revealing something personal for the whole world to know) I have to explain today's post title. I had my first solid BM this morning since I arrived in country 16 days ago. I was shocked that Wikipedia even has an entry for it, just click the link above. I guess my stomach is finally getting used to whatever Afghan food it is that I'm eating. I'll discuss the challenging toilet situation in another post, but all in all, it was a glorious morning!

Day 15 - Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day. Take a moment and thank a Veteran today.

In Flanders Field
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
3 May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We went to the Afghan Engineering District's (AED) Memorial Day picnic today. Traditional burgers and potato salad. They even had ice cream cones. I just wish I could watch the Indy 500 with a beer. I did get a little taste though. Here's Ada and I enjoying a cold, non-alcoholic Becks.

We're trying to cultivate more outside relationships with other US units in Kabul. It is purely selfish. We're staying on a NATO compound with 20+ other nationalities. There isn't much traditional US influence to remind us of home, so we're always looking for other US units to hang out with. It turns out the AED folks have steak and lobster a few nights a month, so our attendance at the picnic today, aside from having something nice to do on Memorial Day, was a thinly veiled attempt to be invited back for steak and lobster night! Of course our attendance at the German embassy was totally an effort to foster (no reference to the Australian beer) international relations as well.

I got a Memorial Day email today from one of my Florida friends. It is a picture of his neighborhood waitresses flashing the "Vi Gang Sign." If you know what this is, congratulations, you're a true geek. If not, you can read about it here. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Day 14 - Frustration

Everyone here told me, but I didn’t listen. They all said, whatever you’re trying to do, plan on doing half as much and having it take twice as long. Such is the case with my efforts trying to set up the English language lab with my Afghan colleagues. I contacted a local civilian here deployed from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) and asked if he could come train the NMAA instructors on the new system. We had it all set up for today, but when he got there, it turns out we mis-communicated badly. He had never seen the system we had set up before. It wasn’t a total bust though. It turns out that he gave me a 24 CD set of all the training materials they use to train the Afghan AF pilots, and I’ve now got a way to integrate their training with our system, and it should turn out quite well. Just a bit of “customization” and a few more days work. I’ll hit that on Monday.

Saturday is really the start of the week here since they take Fridays off. This week began mid-term exams. They call them the 30% test. Most of the courses at NMAA only have two major graded events, a mid-term (worth obviously 30%), and a final, worth the remaining 70%. Their grading is a bit more “generous” than ours. Anything above 50% is passing. We’re working with them on this to make it more stringent. As one of our departing mentors said it well, “50% passing really means you know somewhat less than half the material.” Actually it means you know a bit less than half the test questions, which may or may not be representative of the material, and you have some luck guessing just enough other questions to pass. There is also no concept of failure. Everyone that starts graduates one way or another. If they fail a test, they take it again, usually the same exam, and the two scores are averaged. This is another of our challenges, and the reason we’re here as mentors. The Dean is receptive of making academics more rigorous, but it will take time. We joke that time is measured somewhat differently here.

I’ve requested all the computer science mid-terms to review and comment on. I should have them on Monday. I’ll have them translated and take them myself. The CompSci department is one of the most rigorous and has the best administration of any of them. The course sequence covers all the necessary topics quite well. So far, I’ve found the breadth of coverage is adequate, but there could be more depth and emphasis on detail. I do applaud Col Rahman for his efforts. He is a conscientious department head and wants to ensure he prepares his students well.

Tomorrow is another day off for Memorial Day, but we have a few things planned. More then.

Day 13 - German Embassy

Today was my day off, so I slept in a bit. I was a little under the weather, so the rest did me good. In the afternoon we were invited to the Germany embassy for a party and BBQ celebrating three of the German's birthdays. It was a very nice, relaxing evening at a wonderful German oasis in Kabul. Of course there was German Beer (Bitburger), champagne, red, and white wine. We however stayed true to General Order Number 1 and had water and sodas. I did eat a good bratwurst that they had flown in from Deutschland for the occasion.


As promised, I took the lovely Ada with me. We're standing in front of the German embassy here. It's a bit hard to see because of the way the compound is set up and modified for increased security, but hopefully you can make out the German flag in the background. Sorry about the cheesy grin, but it was the only picture like this we took.

I was doing some reading over the last few days and discovered the website of Transparency International. Their mission is to lead the fight against corruption world wide. I agree that it is one of the leading causes of poverty in many disadvantaged nations. If you read the summary on Wikipedia it turns out that Afghanistan ranks 179th out of 180 countries as the second most corrupt according to TI's corruption index. What's more discouraging is if you examine the ratings since 2005, things have gotten even worse (i.e. more corrupt). Day to day I work with a lot of senior military and civilian Afghans. I wonder how much knowing this will temper my interactions with them. I am normally eternally optimistic, but I do have a very pragmatic outlook at times. In most cases, our aid and military contracts are purposely given to Afghan businesses to help develop the economy here. I've only recently been exposed to how much some of the contracts cost vs. what I've discovered is actually being passed down to the individual workers. It is a big delta.

Tomorrow's a new day and I'll try and be more up beat. We're training the NMAA English instructors in the new lab and helping them develop ways to use the technology in their lessons plans and classrooms. I'll include pictures and discuss how it goes next blog.

Day 12 - Ada Tours Kabul and Afghan Salaries

It's right at two weeks since I left home and I was getting a bit lonely. I do get to talk with Gina and the girls most every day on Skype, sometimes twice a day, but still, I really wanted a travel companion. Even more, since nearly all my travels have been with Gina, I really wanted a female travel companion. It's just not quite stable enough here for Gina and the girls to come over, so I had to find someone else. After thinking just a very short time, I decided upon Ada, yes, Augusta Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace. What, a countess you say? Yes, she's a fairly old friend of mine. We first met when I was a cadet at USAFA back in 1988. It's been an on again, off again affair. She was one of the people that taught me how to program. I figured, why not take Ada with me as I visit places around Kabul and do my work here, and she graciously agreed. If you're wondering who Ada is, you'll have to visit the links above for the background and history. If you already know, then congratulations, you're a fellow geek.

If you've ever heard of the "Flat Stanley Project", this is sort of the same thing. I had a friend while I was stationed in Korea that traveled everywhere with Flat Stanley. I figured it was Ada's turn to see Kabul.


Here we are at the start of our adventure in the rose garden at NMAA. We're headed to the German Embassy for a dinner on Friday, but more about that next post. The plan is to have Ada with me wherever I go and share pictures of our adventures. I hope she's up to all the travel at her age. By the way, I ran this by Gina ahead of time and she understands given my long relationship with Ada. I'm not sure she approves though ;-).

Last post I mentioned that I would give an overview of the personal economic conditions here. On day 6 I discussed an overview the cost of the war and the Afghan GNP. Afterwards I started asking around about the salaries of some of my Afghan colleagues and learned some interesting and troubling things. Here's what I found.

The cadets at NMAA are paid like those at the US service Academies. They are paid between 2000 Afghanis (Afs) per month for freshman and 3500 Afs per month for Seniors. At the ballpark exchange rate of $1 = 46 Afs, that's between $43 and $76 per month. I'm willing to bet an aweful lot of US teenagers make more than that every month in their allowance. The majority of cadets take that money home to their extended families (parent, siblings, grandparents) to help support them. A mid-level NCO here is paid about $130/month, and junior officers are paid about $300/month. Our translators are paid by their employer between $2 and $4 per hour, although I'm told we pay the contracting company that hires them quite a bit more. Needless to say, almost everyone I talk to has a second job. Not the cadets, they're busy full time and then some, but most of the Officers and NCO's working here and virtually all the civilian support staff. Many days at 4pm the IT staff I'm working with has to stop what we're working on so they can catch a bus to their second job, which typically starts at 5pm.

It is true that the cost of living is lower here than many other places, and I plan to try and figure out some of those numbers. I'll share them on the blog if I can. I have a very open relationship with my translators. I answer pretty much any question they ask me, and they reciprocate by doing the same.

Next post I'll have pictures of Ada and I at the German Embassy dinner and will discuss another disturbing thing I discovered about the level of transparency and corruption here.

Day 11 - Language Lab is 5x5 and More Going Aways

First things first. We have a few people attached to us at NMAA doing Dari and Pashto language immersion. One of them started blogging his experiences here too. He did a four month intensive Pashto course at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) and is here for a year as a liaison to the ANA. Check out his blog at http://pashtoninja.blogspot.com/ if you get a chance.


The language lab is up and going as of about noon today. The picture shows 8 of the 15 student work stations. All are equipped with specialized software, headsets, and are networked to the instructor's machine. This is a pretty big accomplishment over here. Parts and expertise are fairly sparse. We had to postpone instructor training until Saturday because I wasn't confident it would be up and running by 1400 (although it turned out it was). I'll take more pictures then with the machines running and people actually using them. The whole system is pretty slick, and once I got the right information from my new friend at Tobyhanna Army Depot, everything works great. After instructor training here I'll head up to KMTC some time next week to help set up and configure the lab there. I'm just pitching in wherever I can.


This is Ziar. He's one of the two system administrators in the computer science department. He's helped with the lab and a number of other things I'm working on for the department. I found out today while having chai with him in his office/server room/closet that his wife is due any day now with their first child, a son. His name will be Mozamel. Congratulations to Ziar and his wife.


I've been hanging out in the department more and more, and many of the cadets are starting to recognize me. Today when I asked one of them to take the picture of Ziar and me they wanted to be in a photo too. Here is the bunch of them. This is not all the CS majors here, just those that were in the hall at the time. They are all seniors but one. You can tell by the number of red stripes on the left side of their uniforms above the pocket. The one with 3 stripes is of course a junior.

CompSci is actually one of the few majors here. There are a total of six (CS, Civil Engineering, Legal Studies, General Engineering and Science, Leadership and Management, and Language and Culture aka English). I think the limited number of academic majors here is actually a positive. They need civil engineers to help build/re-build the infrastructure. They need computer scientists because this could be an ideal country to vault into an information centric economy. Of course management, leadership, and language and culture make good sense too. The only thing I'm suspicious of is legal studies. I wouldn't think that we'd need any more lawyers in the world, but it is a popular course of study here too.

We had another going away luncheon for the four departing Westpoint mentors. This one was quite nice as our group of translators organized it and presented all the departing personnel with nice gifts and even nicer words and wishes. We ate lamb kabobs wrapped in nan that they picked up locally. We employ 10 full time translators and have hired four more for the summer surge of mentors. I'm amazed when I talk with them about the diversity their backgrounds and how well educated they are. Many studied in Iran or Pakistan since their families relocated there temporarily during the Taliban rule and the most turbulent times in Afghanistan. Incredibly interesting stories. I'll have to remember to take a picture with Monsoor. He's the translator I work with most since he has a strong CS and IT education and background. Personally, I'm not sure the translators get the credit they deserve.

Tomorrow's a short half day for us since all the Afghans are done at 1pm to leave for Jumah (Friday), their one day off. I'll fill you all in tomorrow with what I've discovered about the salaries here. I find it interesting, perhaps you will too.

Day 10 - Nug work in the lab

Not a lot to blog about. My day was devoid of cultural significance. I spent most of it setting up the English training lab. While I enjoy this level of work, it doesn't make for very interesting blogging. We've got two pallets of Language Learning Lab gear from Tobyhanna (the Army's big communications and computer depot) that we're trying to set up. It will eventually be two 15 seat advanced language labs. One here at NMAA, and the other at the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC, the location I blogged about two days ago). It is a really nice setup with user workstations and a centralized teacher's console. All the participants wear headphones with microphones and the teacher can selectively enable conversations with and between students to work on specific language learning objectives.

Our problem is, the machines were supposed to be pre-configured and plug and play. Well, that didn't work out. There is a bright spot in this whole thing though. I tracked down a general purpose customer support email from Tobyhanna on the web and sent a shot in the dark email to them about 1630 local. Well, I've already got a reply from the lead tech engineer for the language lab system and we're working through the problems as I blog this. Awesome customer support of the folks in the field! Kudos to the Army.

We did have one nice social event today. Four members of our team from Westpoint are heading back at the end of this week after four months working at NMAA. They are all awesome individuals that have taught me a lot about maximizing my effectiveness mentoring the Afghans in the 10 days I've been here. Our Turkish counterparts that are also providing mentors gave them a nice going away get together today and we spent a bit of time having coffee and tea complimenting each other. That's how these things must go. It's all about fostering good international relations after all...

Just got another email from my new best friend at Tobyhanna and we may have a solution for the morning. If so, I'll take some pictures of the lab and include them in tomorrow's post. It won't be as compelling as the Kabul photos yesterday, but if you're a geek you might appreciate them.

Day 9 - Visit to the Girls' School

We had an awesome day today. It started with a visit to the local girls' school to celebrate teacher's day and the installation of the new playground equipment that a member of our team helped raise money for. Here is the link to the site in case you missed it in an earlier post ("Help Educate Afghanistan's Girls" on Facebook.com). This is a really noble effort. Today the whole neighborhood/village around the school celebrated the school's teachers with a party and gifts. They invited us to participate to recognize Larry for all the help with school supplies, backpacks, books, and the new playground. All this has been funded through private donations from the US. Gina is thinking of organizing a complementary effort to provide additional supplies from the Colorado area. If you're interested, stay tuned to this channel and more details will be on the way.

That's Larry there by the slide with one of the neighborhood boys. It was a nice gathering. All the local kids, and most of the parents and grandparents that were available attended. The village/neighborhood elder presented Larry with a nice gift, a beautiful green and blue "Karzai" coat.

Interacting with the kids and locals was really a treat. The girls were quite shy and didn't know what to make of us. In many cases our uniforms and required body armor and weapons scared them a bit. It is unfortunate, but standing orders require this whenever we leave the compound. The boys from the neighborhood were drawn to us however. The boy in the blue t-shirt in the left of this picture followed me around like a magnet the whole time, and the little boy in the most excellent outfit came up and asked to shake my hand. Of course I taught them both the bump and high five. Behind me you can see the new school building being built by the government.

Working at NMAA is certainly rewarding, but being able to do something for the local community in a country with a security situation like this is just icing on the cake.


We violated our rules a little bit today as I took a few representative pictures of a typical Kabul neighborhood. This picture was taken a few blocks from the Girls' school compound. It is very representative of all the suburbs of Kabul I've seen so far. Everyone is rebuilding and trying to make the best lives for themselves and their families that they can. Many houses are in compounds behind gates and walls, and the majority are in varying states of construction and repair. Pavement is rare, which only adds to the terrible dust problem. Getting to the school today would not have been possible without high clearance vehicles. Larry and I were actually discussing the cost to have the road repaired and graded. Infrastructure is really way behind. The next picture is the ditch full of sewage adjacent to the street picture. I thought twice about posting it, but thought it would provide the most representative view.


On the way back to NMAA we got held up a bit by a herd of goats and their Kuchi keepers. The Kuchi are a nomadic tribe here in Afghanistan that come down to the valley floors and set up camp during the winters and then move up to mountain pastures for summer. They appear to be breaking their camp and starting the migration to higher elevations as spring comes to an end. This picture is just one of the goats with the contrasting backdrop of a modern gas station being constructed. There are signs of recovery, building, and modernization everywhere, but they all appear to be going slowly.

Oh yeah, and at work today I did some things too. In addition to mentoring the CS department, I've become the NMAA IT guy. Today I helped set up the computers and software in the new English lab with the two NMAA full time IT contractors, Meti and Masood. We hope to finish up tomorrow. I linked up with some of the civilians teaching English to the Afghan Air Corps crews to provide instructor training for the systems on Wednesday. I hope we can get everything operational tomorrow. Things look good. I also helped make sure the planned relocation of our microwave network connection to the MOD downtown won't break our VoIP phones. We came up with a cut-over plan that should ensure continued phone connectivity after the microwave shot is relocated.

I'll close with a final picture of our gathering today. Behind me are all the female students of the school with the old school on the left and the new construction on the right. As I've said before, having three girls of my own, seeing the Afghan people put so much effort into educating their next generation of women is one of the most promising signs I've seen here. It is truly a beautiful sight!

Day 8 - Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC)

We took a trip to KMTC (Kabul Military Training Center) today. It is the biggest Afghan National Army (ANA) training base in the area. There are a total of 13,000 soldiers here at any one time, and they graduate about 1,500 every Thursday. It is a lot like our big basic training bases. They have lots of space for firing ranges and maneuver training. We were here to coordinate the NMAA cadet's summer training. Every summer for about 45 days the cadets and faculty deploy here for field training. This year they will arrive just after Ramadan.

We traveled with Major General Sharif (the NMAA Superintendent), and were met by Brigadier General Aminullah (I hope I spelled that correctly, my apologies if I didn't), the new KMTC Commander. He just got this assignment after several years of combat tours and leadership in the six southern Afghanistan provinces. These places, like Hellmand and Khandahar province, are the most volatile in the country. Most of the Taliban have been pushed into the south were the major US, ANA, and allied offensive is this summer. You may recognize Khandahar from the news today because there was an attack on the allied airfield there by the Taliban.

Much of KMTC is a dusty, rocky, maneuver and training area, but I must say, portions of it are breathtaking! The roses here are more spectacular than those even at NMAA. One thing I will always remember here are the roses. I commented in an earlier post that MGen Sharif doesn't like anyone to pick them, but I'm going to ask for special dispensation so I can press one blossom and take it home to Gina and the girls.

A quick discussion on BGen Aminullah's recent re-assignment is in order. There are a few historic traditions about the ANA that we are trying to overcome. One of them is assignments. In the old days, postings were doled out as favors. Who you knew, who you were related to, etc. If a soldier was unlucky and had no connections, they could be assigned to a place like Hellmand province essentially for ever. All the privileged or well connected got nice staff positions in Kabul at the Ministry of Defense (MOD). The ANA is making good progress to change this. BGen Aminullah's assignment to KMTC is just one example. They have taken a combat tested leader and put him in charge of training the next generation of soldiers. They are starting to see the value in periodic re-assignments to spread experience and also share the load amongst the troops. Not many US soldiers and their families like to move that often, present company included, but there is definitely a big benefit in it.

One side comment about the above photo. This is our current team chief and one of our newly arrived Navy mentors with MGen Sharif (far right) and BGen Aminullah. I was sitting next to MGen Sharif for the whole meeting and if finally hit me. If you see him in profile, you'd swear that George Costanza had an Afghan cousin...

In this photo you can see one of our up armored Toyota Land Cruisers (click the picture for a higher resolution version). It looks like most other Toyotas from the outside (aside from all the antennas), but the entire interior skin has added armor and bullet proof (resistant really) glass added. I apologize for not taking more pictures of Kabul as we transit from place to place, but when you combine the dust, mud, and windows that don't roll down, pictures of the city scape speeding by just don't turn out. Plus, we are usually fully engaged trying to identify the route and possible threats while we are moving. Finally, there isn't really any good time to stop for pictures, because one of the few advantages we have is mobility and speed. We try hard not to stop for anything. It just prolongs our exposure. By the way, look closely at the photo and you'll notice a Dell laptop box. It could be an advertisement. Actually, we stopped by NKC (New Kabul Compound) on the way back to NMAA to pick up 40 new laptops for the cadets that are tracked for medical school.

Each class at NMAA has between 10 and 20 cadets that spend the first year at NMAA and then go to Kabul University for medical school. Interestingly, they are bringing females into NMAA now, but only those tracked for medical school. This afternoon some of us had a Chai with MGen Sharif and he explained that in 2012 the first ever class with women would be fully integrated into NMAA with a graduation date of 2016. This will be a momentous occasion when the first female lieutenants graduate from NMAA and go out into the ANA to take command!

Lastly, I had to include this final photo. I'm still amazed and interested in all the Soviet era weaponry on static display at bases and posts throughout Kabul and the country. This is a picture of me standing in front of an old Soviet era light tank. Not sure the model number.

Day 7 - New Arrivals

The NMAA support team is really beginning to grow. I'm told additional help comes every summer. Two new Air Force Captains arrived a few days ago, one physicist and one civil engineer. Yesterday we got three new additions from the Naval Academy (two Naval officers and one Marine). This is a first ever for NMAA. Westpoint and USAFA have been sharing the load since 2004, with Westpoint honestly doing most of the heavy lifting. Well, USNA is in the game now so we should have a really productive summer.

I worked today on some of the computer labs with the CS department's lab technicians. We made several things work that didn't previously, but I'm not sure we actually made progress. In more than one instance, we would make a piece of software or hardware work that hadn't been, and then they would look at me and ask, "so what would we use that for?" Hmmm. These are the people that are supposed to train the instructors on new technology in the labs and help them integrate them into their courses. I guess we've got a ways to go, and I've got some more work to do. It is challenging and interesting at the same time trying to find a common ground to build upon (and sometimes frustrating too).

At the end of the day, we attended an awards ceremony for many of the sports competitions that the cadets have been involved in over the last few weeks. Just to give you a flavor of what it was like I've included a picture of the Turkish Military Attache' (dark blue suit on the left) presenting awards to the winning soccer team. The awards ceremony was sponsored by our Turkish counterparts here at NMAA. The Turks and the US are the only two countries that have full time on site mentors.

The ceremony was interesting, but I have to admit, the speeches were much too long. Not to mention they were in Dari and we didn't have interpreters, so it was all pretty much Greek, er Dari to me. This is a picture of the Dean, Col Hamdallah, giving the main speech for the event. The Turkish Military Attache' gave a speech too, and it was doubly long since he gave it in Turkish and paused every few sentences to have it translated into Dari. Wow, double the foreign languages that I don't speak. It's a shame Americans are so language selfish/ignorant.

Well, it's late here and I have an early appointment with the CS department head. He was home sick today, so we missed a meeting to line out a schedule for the mentors to audit all the instructors. I finally got my course offering schedule translated, so we're making progress. Take care until tomorrow.

Day 6 - My Birthday!

I normally don't make a huge fuss about my birthday, but hey, it's really the only thing I'm doing today, so what the heck. Happy Birthday to me. I'm now 41. Mid-life if I make it to 82. Hopefully I'll do a bit better than that, but one never knows. I think the down days in this environment are harder than the work days. At least you have something to make the time pass when you're working.

I slept in until about 8:30, rolled out of bed and went to yoga class. I really have to put together my own routine so I can increase the number of sessions I do. My back is a bit better afterwards. Seems that everyone I talk to feels the same about these mattresses. I guess no mattress would be worse, but I'm not so sure having slept on this one for a week.

After my post a few days ago I was a bit introspective about the cost of this war. Then I thought about the title I chose for the blog. Gina and I love to travel, and we've used the "Pick your place on some number of dollars per day" books quite a lot. The less you spend, the more you can travel. So I thought the blog's title would be a bit funny until I thought about the reality. While me being here isn't costing me anything directly, it is costing all of us plenty. By us I mean pretty much every US tax payer.

According to this link, the cost for one soldier for one year in Afghanistan averages about $1 million, or approximately $2,740.00 per day. Wow, I didn't know I was worth that much. So, I'll be here for 62 days (really about 70 with travel, but let's be conservative), or just about 17% of the year. So my cost to the US tax payer is $170,000.00 to be here. I promise I'll do everything I can to earn my pay, but I must be honest, I'm not sure I can do enough to equal that sum. Nevertheless, you have my word that I'll try.

By the way, even if the above estimate is off, it really does make for nice math, so I'm going to stick with it. The FY2010 budget request for the war in Afghanistan is $300 Billion. This is just from the DoD, not any of the money any other agencies are requesting or spending. Open source news reports put the US troop level here at 68,000 starting 2010, with another 30,000 due in by summer. Let's round up to 100,000 US troops here. So, the $300 Billion budget request, divided by the 100k troops makes it about $3 Million per soldier. However, assume we spend 2/3 of that money buying weapons, paying the Afghan Army, reconstruction projects, etc., then the $1 Million per soldier estimate seems like it might be in the ball park.

While looking around at web sites discussing the costs of our two wars, I stumbled across widely varying sources. I must say, this link posted on the Federation of American Scientists site seems the most reliable. It is a very informed document, which was prepared by the Congressional Research Service for the members of Congress. I guess we can't get much more authoritative than that unless we go through all the US government's credit card receipts and add up all the bills. After watching Gina get ready for taxes this year, I want no part of that.

Since it is Jumah, and I'm off today, I'll make this a short post. Take care and wish me a happy birthday if you get a chance.

Day 5 - It's Lamb!

Big news today! We finally confirmed that the meat we eat at lunch is lamb. It is quite tasty and tender, so I suspected as much. Beef was the second leading guess, with goat not far behind. Camel was a distant fourth guess, but with the help of the language immersion officers here on our team, we confirmed it was lamb.

I realized the last few days have been terribly devoid of photos, and perhaps a bit heavy given the recent few attacks we've had. I'll try to lighten up a bit and provide some photos. By the way, if you click on the photos in the blog you get a much higher resolution version. Try it with the one below of the Afghan cadets marching so you can get a better look at the beautiful roses in the foreground. I'm really smitten by them. I do plan on a separate post today to further comment on the costs of war, this one in particular.

Today is Friday for me... Not really. It is Thursday May 20th, but tomorrow is Jumah here, so we don't work since all the Afghans are off. It is their one non-working day of the week. We take advantage of it, but go back to work on Saturday and Sunday. Basically 6 days on, and one off for them and us. When in Rome, er Kabul, as they say. Most of the historically Catholic/Christian NATO nations here take Sunday off as well, but we work. I'll go to service tomorrow after yoga. Pretty cool that I'm deployed in Kabul and I found a yoga class on base. It helps to offset the cement mattress I've been sleeping on. My lower back can't decide what to do.

I spent a bunch more time in the CompSci department today with their lab techs and department head. By the way, I partially decoded the naming system here. One of my predecessors here told me the CS department head was named Col Rahman (pronounced Rock-mon). He introduced himself to me as Col Fazel as I mentioned in an earlier post. I asked him today how he preferred to be addressed and he of course replied "however you wish." Well, that's a frustrating answer. With the help of my interpreter I learned that his full name is Col Fazel Rahman Fazle. His ancestral family name is Fazle, but his immediate family name is Rahman, and his first/nickname is Fazel. Well from here on out he's Col Rahman to me. I'm a stickler for respecting people's names and titles, so I'm glad I figured this one out with help.

I finally got a few decent shots of my cell, I mean living quarters. Yup, that's all there is too it. These are views of half the room, and there is an identical desk and bunk bed in the front half. This summer we may end up with 3 per room, but hopefully only two. Notice the awesome sheets! I asked Gina to buy me some sheets a few weeks before I left mentioning something about them being "tactical green." Well they are green all right. And even made by Izod. I'm the height of fashion and talk of the barracks. They are quite soft and cozy though .

I spent time walking around the NMAA campus today and watching the cadets. They tend to use their after lunch time for military training, athletics, and studying. Academics are mainly in the morning. It was fun to watch them practice marching with their NCO's. They have an interesting combination of arm swing, goose step, and facing movements. It must be handed down from the Soviet involvement here for so many years. The NCOs and cadets were having a great time though, and it's a lot of fun to participate. They love to practice their english on me with every imaginable greeting from very polite "Hellos" to the occasional "What is up dude" followed by a laugh with their friends. I take it all in stride and have thought about teaching them the high five and bump as an alternative to saluting. Not sure how the Commandant will like this when I leave though.

I've gone on long enough for this post. However I had to share this photo of an old Mig-21 (we called it the Fishbed in NATO) that sits behind the dorms. There are a few of them sitting around in multiple states of decay. I climbed up on it and even took a picture of the weathered out cockpit. It's cool for me to see all the old Soviet aircraft. As a Lieutenant in Germany just after the wall came down, these were the same jet fighters that we spent so much time tracking and gathering intelligence on. Now I get to climb all over one. In a future post I'll try and include some photos of the current operational aircraft the Afghan Air Corps is flying. They utilize the Mi-17 helicopters very heavily, as well as a few other Russian built aircraft (most notably the Mi-24 Hind). They are transitioning to European and US built planes, but still have quite an interesting hodgepodge of aircraft on their flight line.

That's all for now. As they say here, Jumah Hoch, or happy Friday.

Day 4 - Working with the CompSci Department

Woke up this morning and got Intel about another offensive. Seems the Taliban are stepping things up for the summer season. This time they staged an attack on Bagram Air Base. Based on the security posture here, a direct assault on a fortified base with many thousands of armed soldiers by 20 or so terrorists seems more than a bit futile, but it does make the international news, so I guess something is accomplished for their side.

For me it was a fairly nice, calm day. After the initial morning emails I headed over to the Computer Science department. I met for a time with the department deputy, LTC Haroon. We talked about the status of their programs, I got a teaching schedule from him, and then we toured the classrooms, labs, and popped into a few classes in session. I visited an introductory computing class where they were teaching Excel fundamentals. In the senior level database course they were covering normalization, data decomposition, and re-factoring. It looked pretty good the short time I was there. Finally we visited a junior level java programming class. They are only a few weeks into their "spring" term and the programs they were working on showed good progress. The semsters here are different than ours in the US. The spring term goes from now until some time in August and summer break is timed to coincide with Ramadan. Fall/Winter semester starts not long after Eid al-Fitr, the celebration at the end of Ramadan.

The Dean's number one priority here is faculty development. Much of my effort will be focused on working with the instructors and lab technicians to help improve their teaching and the student's learning. The CS department has a mix of Afghan military officers and contract civilians teaching. I found out from my chai with the Dean today that the contract civilians make a substantial amount more than their military counterparts. This leads to some un-spoken friction in the department, and seems to hurt the motivation of the military instructors. Hopefully we can find a way to work through all that and convince everyone that the cadet's learning should come first. This will be a challenge.

As I alluded to earlier, I had my first social call with the Dean today, Col Hamdallah. He is one of the eldest officers here, and based on the cultural tradition is given a great amount of respect regardless of his rank. It was interesting to learn that his son had just graduated from Westpoint with a Civil Engineering degree and is pursuing a Master's degree in Nebraska. In fact, one of our newly arrived team members from Westpoint had him as a student. More evidence of the smallness of our world.

One thing I'm going to pursue while I'm here is establishing an ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) student chapter and perhaps find a way to send some of the instructors to SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) next year. We'll need to find sponsorship or get some kind of special support to make it happen. I did a cursory check of the dues for a student member of the ACM in Afghanistan and it is $18 per year. This does not seem like much to most of the people reading this blog, but it is a prohibitive amount to ask of one of the Afghan cadets. That much money can do so much more for their families during the rough years ahead. I hope we can find an alternative. ACM involvement will go a long way to helping faculty and student development.

Which leads me to my last topic for today's post. I thought hard about including it, but in the interest of fair and balanced blogging I realized I must. If one searches the open source press about the international involvement here all these numbers are available. The Afghan National Army (ANA) is currently at just over 100,000 soldiers. The US is currently contributing approximately 49% of the salaries for all the Army's soldiers each month. The planned goal is to have a well trained and well equipped standing Army here of about 171,000 soldiers. This has been determined to be the number required to provide a stable enough security environment to encourage foreign investment and economic development. The estimated cost to support a standing Army of this size is just over $12 billion per year. Yes, billion with a B. Now the shocking part. The GDP/GNP of Afghanistan right now stands between $800 million and $1 billion per year. I know GDP and GNP are different, but in Afghanistan's case they are currently one in the same since there are minimal or no foreign investments to make GNP greater than GDP.

The bottom line, we (you, me, the rest of the US tax payers, our children, and the rest of the international community) are going be helping the Afghan people for a long, long time. It is hard to meet them, work with them, and learn about their families and not be committed to helping. It is equally as hard to quantify how much help we should provide, but if the numbers above are remotely accurate, I hope and pray that in the long run it's all worth it. Freedom and liberty aren't free after all.

Day 3 - NMAA and the playground equipment

Back at NMAA today. You'll notice that I'm caught up with my blog postings now too. I'm actually writing this and posting it the same day that it happened. In addition to reviewing the translated documents from my meeting with Col Fazel on Sunday, I traveled with one of our team members to review the progress of the playground equipment he has coordinated for a local girls' school. This is really an impressive effort. Please visit their facebook page and consider donating some money to the cause.

This is a the brain child of one of our team members here on a one year tour. He wanted to do more than work here at NMAA, and after talking with our interpreters and the ANA soldiers we work with, he took it as a personal mission to help provide books, classroom, and playground equipment for a local girls' school just outside the gates of NMAA. He started raising money through family contacts, found a way to get it all here, and has been making a real difference. I am humbled and honored to be able to work with all these great people. I hope to visit the school with him in a few weeks to see the new playground, meet the teachers and girls, and help out in any way I can. Educating the girls of Afghanistan is one thing that will make them stand out as a country in this part of the world. Plus, I have a real soft spot for ensuring the young girls of the world are educated and provided as many opportunities as possible. I hope nothing less for my own three daughters, Isabella, Abigail, and Emilia.

A bit of a mundane day. I'm getting into a routine now. The food in the chow hall is O.K. The sanitation could be a bit better (it could be a lot better really), but I've learned to use hand sanitizer regularly. This aspect is really playing a bit of havoc with my germ-a-phobia, but I'll survive. I'm glad I got the hepatitis-B shot now. I'm stationed on a coalition base with soldiers from 20+ other countries so there is a very international flavor to all the supporting shops, chow hall food, etc. So far I've got a room to myself, but there are a bunch of people inbound to augment our team in the next few weeks. I'll have at least one roommate, perhaps two for a while. My room is about 8 feet wide by 15 feet long. Reminds me of a prison cell at times, but I don't get locked in at night. I tried to take some pictures, but it is literally so small, I couldn't position the camera to give an impression of it. I'll try again later.

We came in to work today with really bad news. A suicide bomber killed 10, including at least 5 Americans this morning while injuring many other civilians. Here's a link to the news story. I'm told attacks pick up more in the summer, so we may just be getting started. Good thing we didn't need to traverse this route today. God Bless the soldiers and civilians that were victims today. Please keep their families in your prayers.

I'm going to jump into the Computer Science department here tomorrow setting up a plan for my time here. All the courses are taught in Dari or Pashto so I'll need lots of translator support. Luckily I've been assigned someone to translate and help me out.

Day 2 - Trip to Camp Eggers

Today I had to go to Camp Eggers for in processing and a few of the necessities that I forgot to bring (towels, a blanket, foot powder, etc.). I did pretty well packing, and I was able to pack much lighter than anyone else I saw traveling into country. I just couldn't live without a towel though, drying off with toilet paper was just too tough (only kidding), our incoming team lead lent me a towel for a few days. My feet did take a beating during travel though. I was in my boots for almost 72 hours, which was a huge mistake. I should have known better.

Travel from KIA to Camp Eggers is basically a straight shot down Bibi Mahru a few miles to Massoud Circle, and then straight into the green zone. This is in the center of the city and contains Camp Eggers, many of the embassies, the presidential palace, coalition force headquarters, etc. My first ride "outside the wire" was a little bit nervous, but it went totally to plan with no incidents. Our procedures are good, and we travel in up armored vehicles with full body armor and a few other trick devices.

Once we got to Eggers, things were reasonably laid back and relaxed. The international coalition here is impressive. Over 43 different countries contributing, and they all have representatives in the green zone. Add in the embassy presence and it is an interesting place to hang out for the day. I was supposed to be back by late afternoon for a chai meet and greet with MGen Sharif, but we got hung up and weren't able to leave in time for the meeting. We called ahead to make sure we didn't offend the Superintendent with our absence. Appointments and meeting times are a very fluid concept in this culture.

I ran into some of the friends I made in the Maine Volunteers while I was having a coffee and waiting for the rest of the team to wrap up their business. They jumped right into duty the day they landed. I can't emphasize enough what a good bunch of soldiers they are. I also struck up a conversation with many interesting civilians and contractors over here doing things you only read about and see in the movies.

The rest of the day was a non-eventful, so this will turn into a fairly short post. No pictures today as I was too busy with our convoy security to take any. More tomorrow.

Day 1 - Intro to KIA and NMAA

I woke up on Sunday around 5am with my eyes glued open. I tried to go back to sleep thinking I really should have some more, but it just didn't come. I rolled out of bed, cleaned up, grabbed breakfast and headed to NMAA (National Military Academy of Afghanistan) for my first day. These are instructive sites to visit if you're interested:

NMAA on Wikipedia

NMAA on YouTube


NMAA truly is an oasis in the middle of Kabul. Everyone in the Afghan, American, and NATO leadership are supporting the school as the gem of the ANA (Afghan National Army). Considering the devastation Kabul has suffered over the last many decades, it is a remarkably beautiful place. The Superintendent, Major General Sharif, has ensured there are numerous rose bushes growing all over the grounds. When one of our team members asked about picking one, the translator quoted MGen Sharif as saying "the flowers always look better in their own place." A strong hint that they are not to be picked.


I spent the majority of the day touring the grounds and facilities with our senior academic mentor from Westpoint. I asked to see the dormitory facilities that the cadets sleep in and was amazed. They sleep 12 to 14 people in each room that is only about 20 feet by 14 feet. Each cadet has a foot locker and a bed, and some share a foot locker. The discipline and bearing of the cadets is impressive. NMAA contributes less than 10% of the new officers each year to the ANA, and all the graduates are being prepared to become Afghanistan's future leaders. It is inspiring to see the level of commitment and dedication.


I ate lunch at the head table with the NMAA Afghan officers and the other members of our team. The entire cadet Brigade eats at once. I'm told the meal is the same pretty much every day. A bit of meat (lamb or beef) in a red gravy, rice, and a vegetable. The only change from day to day is the vegetable, which was creamed spinach with lentils today. Dessert is pudding with an optional banana. It was good, but this is only my first day, so we'll see if I can eat it every day. We make sure at least one of our team members eats with the Brigade every day.

After lunch I was invited to have chai with the Commandant, Brigadier General Hawsawmudin. We spent nearly an hour talking about the cadets, the past history of Afghanistan, and the many years of conflict that they have undergone. It is amazing to hear the stories of the battles and the experiences the ANA officers here had fighting with the Mujahideen and against the Soviets and Taliban. Bgen Hawsawmudin is both a distinguished officer and a gentleman.

Near the end of the day I met my counterpart, the Computer Science department head, Col Fazel. We had chai together and discussed the current state of his department and where he would like me to mentor and help out. Chai is the traditional tea they always drink here as a symbol of hospitality and camaraderie.

It was a good first day. There are numerous ways to contribute and help develop NMAA as an institution, the cadets, and their cadre. I think we're really helping the Afghans make great progress here. They have a very proud history and heritage that you can see it in all the things they do.

Travel to Kabul

My journey started on Thursday, May 13th. It started early with a quick trip to USAFA to check out my weapon and out process. I was back home, loaded, and headed to the airport by 9 for an 11:45 flight. This was the start of a long journey. My connections were Denver to D.C., then to Zurich, on to Istanbul, a 7 or hour lay over there, and finally from Istanbul to Manas International Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. My ticketed flights ended there.

Overall, the trip went as planned with minimal delays. 3-4 hours in Zurich, and about 7 hours in Istanbul. I was able to get a few hours sleep in a corner of the Istanbul airport before my flight to Bishkek. Taking off from Istanbul we headed north and climbed up over the Bosphorus just as the sun was going down to the west behind the Grand Mosque. Amazingly beautiful. Interestingly, I got to finally see "The Blind Side" on the flight to Bishkek. It was even in English.

We landed at Manas Airport around 3:30 am local. It was quite a site to see all the trappings of Kyrgyzstan's Soviet dominated recent past. Luckily they were actually expecting me and there was a local civilian there ready to usher me through the diplomatic exempt lane at customs. I grabbed my bags and headed from the civilian terminal over to our US Air Base.



They dropped me at the PERSCO tent (personnel company) that led me around to supply for my chem gear, kevlar helmet, and body armor. Once done I ate a quick breakfast and headed over see about a flight to Bagram or Kabul. They told me it was a 10 day wait to get to Kabul, and probably four days wait for Bagram. I happened to see the daily manifest behind the Airman working the counter and noticed a C-17 headed to Kabul that afternoon. I asked about it and he said it was full of a Maine Army National Guard security company. I asked what he meant by "full". He said 149 of the 154 seats were assigned, with 5 pallets of bags and gear. I told I traveled light and finally talked him into one of the last few seats. I was also able to finagle the remaining seats for some civilian air traffic controllers headed over for a year to work Afghan ATC and train as many folks as they could. It's good to be AF and be able to speak the Airman's language...

So now I had to kill time until our flight lock down about noon. After a quick breakfast I decided to walk around as much as allowed on the compound and quickly realized how incredibly beautiful my surroundings were. The included pictures here can't do it justice. It was a cool, crisp morning with the sun rising over the mountains. Bishkek is in a bowl surrounded on all sides by amazing, shear, snow covered peaks. The air was perfectly clear. I got to as high a point as I could and took a few quick pictures. Maybe I'll have a bit more time to explore here on my way out. It has been a bit tense since the Kyrgyzstan civil war several weeks ago, but so far the new local government is still supportive of our Air Base.


At noon I reported for the pre-flight lock down with my new friends in the Maine Army Guard. Good bunch of soldiers reporting over for a one year stint in Kabul. It was a taste of the Army life I hadn't experienced in quite a while. It was also interesting to talk to them all about their civilian jobs, what motivated them to come over, and stay in the Guard. I realized what fine young patriots we still have in America. Talk eventually turned to the heritage of the Maine Volunteers, the infamous battle of little round top, and BGen Chamberlain winning the Medal of Honor for his actions there. A proud bunch of young soldiers. I was proud to be heading into Kabul with them, but boy do they pack some gear. We were literally wedged in like sardines for the three hour flight into Kabul. Maybe I should have waited for that later flight... Not really, because my 62 day clock didn't start ticking until my boots hit the tarmac in Afghanistan, so the sooner I got there, the sooner I could get home.



I got to KIA where I'd be sleeping, eating, and working for the next couple of months in late afternoon/early evening. After finally getting my bags off the pallets, finding a bunk, and eating some food, I crashed hard till morning. Turns out I may have set some kind of record getting all the way to Kabul from Denver in under 72 hours. All on about a total of 8-10 hours of cat naps along the way. Oh, and plenty of coffee. Gina should see the $8 charge on our AMEX come through for the awesome coffee I had in Zurich.

My boss here told me to take Sunday off and recuperate, but my eyes opened bright about 5am, so I decided to start working off the bat. More on that in the next post.