I started the day getting my "ghost written" request for a laptop donation staffed. I drafted this request for the NMAA Superintendent some time last week and just got it back from the translators today. I've been in contact with a charitable non-profit in the US inquiring about raising some money to buy laptops for the next entering class. Once I had the translated version I went and spent a bit of time with the XO and put it into the "staff process." We'll see how it goes. There are a lot of hurdles to clear on this one, and invariably, someone will have to pick it up when I leave.
Later in the day I conducted a faculty development workshop on IPv6 and teaching networks. We had a really good time. It is a nice interchange. In addition to expanding the instructors' knowledge base, I get to step out of that role and talk to them about how I approach teaching various topics to students as well. I learn from them, I think they learn from me. It all works well. We joked a bit about an event in 2008 when Pakistan inadvertently took youtube down for several hours with a black hole route they let get into the greater internet. Things are pretty strained here between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's no secret that Pakistan has been hedging their bets and continuing to support the Taliban just in things don't work out here in Afghanistan. The degree to which they are doing this is in debate, bit it seems that it is even now still occurring.
It is interesting to talk to the Afghans about their Iranian and Pakistani neighbors. There isn't a lot of love lost with either. If you step back from the situation, it really is in both Iran and Pakistan's best interest to maintain a weak Afghanistan. I hope things continue to change over the next several years though.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Day 45 - English Class and just a bit of Controversy
Worked today on a seminar for the CompSci department this morning. I was supposed to have it in the afternoon, but it was postponed until tomorrow. Col Rahman decided to have another feedback session instead at the same time. This one was a bit more interesting than the last two. The previous sessions were with the juniors and seniors, so primarily all CompSci majors. This one was with the Sophomores, so they were asked to give feedback on the core course. Cadets at NMAA take two CompSci core courses. This feedback session was attended by the Dean since he really enjoyed the last one. However, the atmosphere was much different.
The students showed a lot of courage and hit the issues head on. It turns out that the CompSci majors get much better access to the labs and do a lot more hands on work in the upper level courses. The core courses on the other hand, while lending themselves very well to hands on activities, are very much taught in a lecture style without a lot of activities. When you consider the content (a lot of MS Office and Windows usage training), sitting through a lecture where an instructor demos how to do equations with Excel, but doesn't let you reinforce anything by trying it, can be extremely frustrating. I get the feeling that the CompSci instructors and upper class cadets are cautious or protective of their labs. They don't want the core courses to "mess up" their lab machines. Therefore, lots of demo/lecture, with very little practice.
Unfortunately, even though the students had the courage to politely challenge this practice, the instructors, department head, and even the Dean, pretty much shot them down. I had to bite my tongue pretty hard. This means I'll have a lot of chai to drink while doing as much behind closed doors mentoring as possible. I've been trying to persuade the department to open up the labs to all the students since my second week here. You've heard the old saying "give me a fish and I eat for a day, teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime." Well, the Freshmen and Sophomores are only getting daily rations.
I did have some fun before lunch. One of the other mentors grabbed a few of us and asked if we'd help with an English class. It is more effective if we can get the students in smaller groups for discussion and practice. It was a lot of fun. The cadets are very anxious to work on their English and talk about themselves, but in a large class they don't always get the opportunity. I had about six of them in a small break out group. We talked about where they were from, what the wanted to do after graduation, why they came to NMAA, etc. We also talked about food to increase their vocabulary. Turns out they all think tomatoes are a vegetable. I tried to reason with them, but to no avail...
The students showed a lot of courage and hit the issues head on. It turns out that the CompSci majors get much better access to the labs and do a lot more hands on work in the upper level courses. The core courses on the other hand, while lending themselves very well to hands on activities, are very much taught in a lecture style without a lot of activities. When you consider the content (a lot of MS Office and Windows usage training), sitting through a lecture where an instructor demos how to do equations with Excel, but doesn't let you reinforce anything by trying it, can be extremely frustrating. I get the feeling that the CompSci instructors and upper class cadets are cautious or protective of their labs. They don't want the core courses to "mess up" their lab machines. Therefore, lots of demo/lecture, with very little practice.
Unfortunately, even though the students had the courage to politely challenge this practice, the instructors, department head, and even the Dean, pretty much shot them down. I had to bite my tongue pretty hard. This means I'll have a lot of chai to drink while doing as much behind closed doors mentoring as possible. I've been trying to persuade the department to open up the labs to all the students since my second week here. You've heard the old saying "give me a fish and I eat for a day, teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime." Well, the Freshmen and Sophomores are only getting daily rations.
I did have some fun before lunch. One of the other mentors grabbed a few of us and asked if we'd help with an English class. It is more effective if we can get the students in smaller groups for discussion and practice. It was a lot of fun. The cadets are very anxious to work on their English and talk about themselves, but in a large class they don't always get the opportunity. I had about six of them in a small break out group. We talked about where they were from, what the wanted to do after graduation, why they came to NMAA, etc. We also talked about food to increase their vocabulary. Turns out they all think tomatoes are a vegetable. I tried to reason with them, but to no avail...
Monday, June 28, 2010
Day 44 - ANATEC and Palaces
We drove down to ANATEC today for a meeting. ANATEC is the Afghan National Army Training and Education Command. It is at the southwest edge Kabul, and we conveniently are on the north edge of Kabul. I had never been south of the mountains that split Kabul in half from east to west. One of them is called TV Hill since it has most of the telecommunications antennas and facilities located on top of it. The basic route is due south, through the green zone, and then right through the middle of downtown, past the two big mosques (one has a light brown dome, the other a turquoise dome), and then southwest to the edge of town. The worst drive I've been on so far. The final several miles are riddled with the worst potholes I've experienced. The central part of the road is being repaved, so all traffic is limited to the access roads on the sides. In a space that we would put a two lane road with no shoulders, the inventive and aggressive Afghans manage to fit five cars wide, bouncing through two foot deep potholes, traveling faster than would seem possible. Tons of fun.
We left mid-morning, so heading down, traffic was quite moderate. Unfortunately, after our meetings, the return trip started at 4pm, so we came through downtown Kabul during the peak of rush hour. Brutal! At least it was interesting people watching while we crept along through the crowds and traffic. Needless to say, there are no freeways.
The purpose of our meeting was to discuss the entrance qualification testing for prospective NMAA cadets as well coordinating some of the cadet summer training at KMTC. In the past, all the interested high school students that aspired to attend NMAA would travel to Kabul to take a placement exam here. They all did this at their own expense. This really tended to limit our applicants to those geographically close males from higher income families. The government is really striving for ethnic and socio-economic diversity, and this wasn't supporting that goal. Many really qualified and intelligent kids just couldn't make the trip to Kabul to apply. Additionally, NMAA is trying hard to recruit more females. In Afghanistan, a single teenage girl can't travel alone. In order for her to get to Kabul for the entrance exam required significant time, risk, and her mother, brother, or father taking time to travel both ways with her. Clearly another approach was called for.
Currently, any eligible teenager can take the national concord. It is a test like the SAT to help rank high school students and aid in college acceptance. The NMAA entrance exam is the same test re-branded. Our going in position was to just start using the national concord as a first cut. This would allow NMAA to make attendance offers to kids of all backgrounds, regardless of geography and other factors. Well, I've discussed the wide spread corruption here before, so the leadership is reluctant to just accept the scores from the national concord. A good compromise was reached to create five regional testing centers around the country and have NMAA staff proctor entrance exams in a distributed fashion. This will help.
Of course we scheduled in time for lunch when we first arrived at Camp Dubs. The ribs there were some of the best I think I've had. Honestly. A few of the cooks are transplanted contractors, and must be from somewhere in the south. The meat just fell off the bone. I'm usually a pork rib fan because beef ribs tend to be over cooked and sometimes tough. We had beef ribs that fell off the bone and just melted in your mouth. It is the little things like this that can become the highlight of your day sometimes. I've put the chow hall at Camp Dubs right up there with the one at the Alamo on KMTC. Perhaps not worth enduring the brutal drive, but great none the less.
There are a few interesting things to see down at ANATEC as well. Darul Aman Palace, or "the king's palace" is adjacent to ANATEC. We drove by and took a few pictures, but weren't able to go in. The adjacent Tajbeg Palace, or "Queen's Palace" was accessible, and we did climb around it in a bit. This first picture is taken from the Queen's palace looking back at the King's palace and the southern part of the city.
Of course Ada came with us. This picture is of the Queen's palace in the background. Here's a bit better picture looking at the front as we were headed into Camp Dub's for lunch.
We climbed around inside the Queen's palace a bit. Here's an interior view looking up from the second floor ball room. It must have been quite opulent in its time, but of course in years of war and poverty, these are the types of buildings that fall into disrepair first.
We made it all the way into the attic of the palace (four floors up). Here's a few pictures of it, along with Ada posing for a shot.
The views from the palace windows of the southern part of the city were excellent and quite dramatic. Here's a few shots looking north. You can see TV Hill in some of them.
Our last bit of exploration was to a dilapidated Russian Officer's club that is on a much higher hill overlooking both of the palaces. The final four pictures are of the hill and Officers' Club, looking down on the two palaces. Finally, I decided to take a quick swim in the pool in the club compound.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Day 43 - Seminar Prep and Feedback
I spent part of the morning preparing my faculty development workshop materials. I'm going to do a series of three workshops before I leave. One will be on information and cyber warfare, one on IPv6, and I think the third one will be on establishing a student ACM chapter at NMAA. By the way, did you realize that we're going to run out of IPv4 addresses some time in 2011? Of course NAT will keep us going for a while, but I think it's finally time that we take IPv6 transition seriously. No offense intended to anyone that has already been taking it seriously, unfortunately, most of us haven't been.
I attended another feedback session with the CompSci faculty and students. This time we met with the NMAA Juniors. They are all taking networks and Java programming right now. I think I mentioned this before, but they start the whole session by reading the names of the failing cadets. Interesting approach. The NMAA Dean (BGen Hamdallah) was there with us today. He was upset that not all the Junior CS majors attended, and basically threatened to punish those that didn't come. They are reasonably strict, and very direct about some things. I noticed also that he was handed an attendance list on the way out, which I have no doubt he'll follow up on. I'm glad I was there...
I got some good news today from the ACM. They've been negotiating with the Ministry of Culture already, and plan to have a deeply discounted access rate for the digital library in place by the end of the year. It looks like the US CDRF (Civlian Development and Research Foundation) is going to cover nationwide access for the first year to two. They did this in Iraq, and it got the ball rolling. I also worked a way with them to stand up a student chapter here for a much more reasonable cost than I had thought. I'm planning to be the faculty sponsor since I already pay annual dues for the ACM, so we should be able to get things going in the next week or two.
Our planned softball session with the cadets was postponed today until tomorrow. I'll try and get some pictures if possible. Like I said, we're working hard to ween them off cricket...
I attended another feedback session with the CompSci faculty and students. This time we met with the NMAA Juniors. They are all taking networks and Java programming right now. I think I mentioned this before, but they start the whole session by reading the names of the failing cadets. Interesting approach. The NMAA Dean (BGen Hamdallah) was there with us today. He was upset that not all the Junior CS majors attended, and basically threatened to punish those that didn't come. They are reasonably strict, and very direct about some things. I noticed also that he was handed an attendance list on the way out, which I have no doubt he'll follow up on. I'm glad I was there
I got some good news today from the ACM. They've been negotiating with the Ministry of Culture already, and plan to have a deeply discounted access rate for the digital library in place by the end of the year. It looks like the US CDRF (Civlian Development and Research Foundation) is going to cover nationwide access for the first year to two. They did this in Iraq, and it got the ball rolling. I also worked a way with them to stand up a student chapter here for a much more reasonable cost than I had thought. I'm planning to be the faculty sponsor since I already pay annual dues for the ACM, so we should be able to get things going in the next week or two.
Our planned softball session with the cadets was postponed today until tomorrow. I'll try and get some pictures if possible. Like I said, we're working hard to ween them off cricket...
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Day 41 and 42 - Sleeping In, Library, and Firing Range
No post yesterday sorry. It was Jumah, so a day off. I slept in, watched a video, worked on the course I'm teaching in the fall, did some IPv6 reading, wrote some cards to my girls, and capped off the day with a few chapters from "The Great Game" by Peter Hopkirk. I recommended this several weeks ago, and now that I'm about 3/4 of the way into it, my recommendation only gets stronger.
If only those imperial powers had let the borders develop along ethnic and traditional lines, we might all be better off than our current haphazard system of borders arbitrarily drawn to strengthen the positions of the few and the wealthy. Many of the modern problems we see today, from ethnic conflict to the challenge of governance in Afghanistan can be traced directly back to the arbitrary nature of modern nation state borders. I guess we all had to agree to recognize some borders at some point in time, but we didn't do very well. Oh, and we really didn't ask many of the people that it impacted at the time either. Yugoslavia, the recent ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan (which looks to have been started by the ousted regime by the way), the ongoing Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iran/India disputes, and oh yeah, all those problems on the African continent.
I'll cut this little rant short, but before I do, perhaps we should consider a city-state model again. It works for Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong in the past, and even the Vatican. It would keep militaries necessarily small, encourage cooperation and trade, and even limit taxes to a much lower governmental level, which would appeal greatly to my libertarian ideals. Big governments, especially ours, have become way too distanced from and unaccountable to the people (Don't even get me started on the EU). But then, I'm a big fan of the 10th Amendment too, and think it may have even stopped a bit short. Maybe the founding fathers should have worded it "...are reserved to the People respectively, or to the States." This is a rich topic, but I'll move on for now.
Due to our influx in people, and a more security focused climate here in Afghanistan, we went to the firing range today at KMTC (Kabul Military Training Center). We had a few new M-16's we had to zero, and any excuse to shoot, er train, is usually good enough. The picture above is Larry (organizer of the girls' school assistance) making sure his reflex sights on his M4 are still on target. We all took turns with the new sights, and I'm hugely impressed. I've fired with them before and never cease to be amazed. Just put the red dot on the target, ignore the peep sites, and pull the trigger. The consistency is impressive. These sights are virtually parallax free, so your head and eye placement just don't matter. Red dot, target, exhale, squeeze, hit. Really nice. It is these types of technologies that soldiers really appreciate. I'd take a nice reflex sight on every soldiers' rifle over all our F-22's every day of the week, and twice on Sundays (Sorry Bob).
We left for KMTC about 1130, after the weekly staff meeting, morning coffee, email catch-up, and planning for the week. KMTC is an interesting place. You may notice that the big earthen feature we are shooting into is the same mountain I climbed a few weeks ago, the Gharib Ghar. This is the primary reason we had to be back off the mountain by 0800. It wouldn't be good for anyone to be on the trail after the firing ranges open.
Sorry for the blur on this picture, but if you look closely (click the picture for a large version), you can see two spent casing still in the air. We practiced a bit on our three round burst firing (boy does that short barrel heat up!). Contrary to popular opinion, it is quite possible to stay on target with every round while firing on burst. All of us were able to do it. Plus, it just feels better putting three rounds down range with every trigger pull. I wouldn't resort to it often, but it is comforting to know that it is only a thumb flip away. It is even more comforting to know that one can hit what they aim at (the classical definition of "gun control"). Even in burst.
I had to include just a few other pictures of KMTC. Like I said, it is an interesting place. Firing ranges on US bases don't have the same look. KMTC has piles and piles of tanks, APCs, and any other kind of blown up, burned, and mangled metal war machines you can think of, mostly old Soviet era stuff. It is sort of a bone yard for all the military equipment that has been destroyed in the country over the last 30 years. We are all hesitant to go and climb around on it, so I took some pictures from a ways off. You never know what kind of UXO could be lurking in these hulks.
This a closer view of the bombed out building in the background with a turret and APC closer to the foreground. Pretty dramatic images if you think about the background and stories that probably landed them here. Trust me, there are thousands and thousands of burned and blown up pieces of equipment littered all over KMTC. I have no idea how many other installations in Afghanistan exist with this much evidence of destruction, but just seeing this one sobers you more than a bit.
Back to a quick political commentary to end things off for the evening. That's how this blog entry started after all. While I was blathering on at the beginning I found a description of an interesting book titled "A Nation Among Nations: America's Place in World History" by Thomas Bender. It looks compelling after reading the authors essay and premises. However, it does argue against American Exceptionalism, which I still haven't decided upon one way or the other. I've had too many conflicting experiences so far in my life to take a firm stand on either side. As an American, it's comforting to think you are "Exceptional", and I'm deeply committed to the Constitutional foundations and principles that started the notion. However, I often come back to a profound piece of wisdom that my Father-In-Law shared with me. His Dad taught him "Never believe that you are better than anyone, but never believe that anyone is better than you either." This resonates with me often. Thanks for sharing it Jeep.
If only those imperial powers had let the borders develop along ethnic and traditional lines, we might all be better off than our current haphazard system of borders arbitrarily drawn to strengthen the positions of the few and the wealthy. Many of the modern problems we see today, from ethnic conflict to the challenge of governance in Afghanistan can be traced directly back to the arbitrary nature of modern nation state borders. I guess we all had to agree to recognize some borders at some point in time, but we didn't do very well. Oh, and we really didn't ask many of the people that it impacted at the time either. Yugoslavia, the recent ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan (which looks to have been started by the ousted regime by the way), the ongoing Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iran/India disputes, and oh yeah, all those problems on the African continent.
I'll cut this little rant short, but before I do, perhaps we should consider a city-state model again. It works for Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong in the past, and even the Vatican. It would keep militaries necessarily small, encourage cooperation and trade, and even limit taxes to a much lower governmental level, which would appeal greatly to my libertarian ideals. Big governments, especially ours, have become way too distanced from and unaccountable to the people (Don't even get me started on the EU). But then, I'm a big fan of the 10th Amendment too, and think it may have even stopped a bit short. Maybe the founding fathers should have worded it "...are reserved to the People respectively, or to the States." This is a rich topic, but I'll move on for now.
Due to our influx in people, and a more security focused climate here in Afghanistan, we went to the firing range today at KMTC (Kabul Military Training Center). We had a few new M-16's we had to zero, and any excuse to shoot, er train, is usually good enough. The picture above is Larry (organizer of the girls' school assistance) making sure his reflex sights on his M4 are still on target. We all took turns with the new sights, and I'm hugely impressed. I've fired with them before and never cease to be amazed. Just put the red dot on the target, ignore the peep sites, and pull the trigger. The consistency is impressive. These sights are virtually parallax free, so your head and eye placement just don't matter. Red dot, target, exhale, squeeze, hit. Really nice. It is these types of technologies that soldiers really appreciate. I'd take a nice reflex sight on every soldiers' rifle over all our F-22's every day of the week, and twice on Sundays (Sorry Bob).
We left for KMTC about 1130, after the weekly staff meeting, morning coffee, email catch-up, and planning for the week. KMTC is an interesting place. You may notice that the big earthen feature we are shooting into is the same mountain I climbed a few weeks ago, the Gharib Ghar. This is the primary reason we had to be back off the mountain by 0800. It wouldn't be good for anyone to be on the trail after the firing ranges open.
Sorry for the blur on this picture, but if you look closely (click the picture for a large version), you can see two spent casing still in the air. We practiced a bit on our three round burst firing (boy does that short barrel heat up!). Contrary to popular opinion, it is quite possible to stay on target with every round while firing on burst. All of us were able to do it. Plus, it just feels better putting three rounds down range with every trigger pull. I wouldn't resort to it often, but it is comforting to know that it is only a thumb flip away. It is even more comforting to know that one can hit what they aim at (the classical definition of "gun control"). Even in burst.
I had to include just a few other pictures of KMTC. Like I said, it is an interesting place. Firing ranges on US bases don't have the same look. KMTC has piles and piles of tanks, APCs, and any other kind of blown up, burned, and mangled metal war machines you can think of, mostly old Soviet era stuff. It is sort of a bone yard for all the military equipment that has been destroyed in the country over the last 30 years. We are all hesitant to go and climb around on it, so I took some pictures from a ways off. You never know what kind of UXO could be lurking in these hulks.
This a closer view of the bombed out building in the background with a turret and APC closer to the foreground. Pretty dramatic images if you think about the background and stories that probably landed them here. Trust me, there are thousands and thousands of burned and blown up pieces of equipment littered all over KMTC. I have no idea how many other installations in Afghanistan exist with this much evidence of destruction, but just seeing this one sobers you more than a bit.
Back to a quick political commentary to end things off for the evening. That's how this blog entry started after all. While I was blathering on at the beginning I found a description of an interesting book titled "A Nation Among Nations: America's Place in World History" by Thomas Bender. It looks compelling after reading the authors essay and premises. However, it does argue against American Exceptionalism, which I still haven't decided upon one way or the other. I've had too many conflicting experiences so far in my life to take a firm stand on either side. As an American, it's comforting to think you are "Exceptional", and I'm deeply committed to the Constitutional foundations and principles that started the notion. However, I often come back to a profound piece of wisdom that my Father-In-Law shared with me. His Dad taught him "Never believe that you are better than anyone, but never believe that anyone is better than you either." This resonates with me often. Thanks for sharing it Jeep.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Day 40 - Library Ribbon Cutting
We returned to the local girls' school today for the library ribbon cutting ceremony. Overall we spent over an hour having fruit and chai with the village elders and teachers. All the older girls were assembled outside and some had written stories and poems that were read. All in Dari, and even one in English. Larry had gifts for several people, to include the school administrators, teachers, and one eight year old girl that is hard to see and not have your heart melt. Lieutenant General Sharif, the NMAA Superintendent, attended with us. One of the girls even expressed interest in attending NMAA as a medical student in a few years.
Larry also presented and laid the stone for the playground in honor of a family friend whose name many of the donations were made on behalf of. I have more pictures than words today, so I'll include them with minimal comment.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Day 39 - Decision Tendered
Gen McChrystal is out and Gen Petraeus is in. I'll comment in a day or two.
On a more important note, a buddy of mine in the UP found my vette. All it needs is a little armor, but it is surely battle tested. He was recently at the Corvette museum and took note of this beauty. I wonder if we could fit a gun turret. I never cease to be amazed at what automotive journalists will subject borrowed cars to. Here's a Car and Driver story about this one. Seems they drove it up the Dempster Highway and back. Tough duty for any car or SUV. Kabul would be a vacation. Now I need to talk GM into letting me borrow it...
On a more important note, a buddy of mine in the UP found my vette. All it needs is a little armor, but it is surely battle tested. He was recently at the Corvette museum and took note of this beauty. I wonder if we could fit a gun turret. I never cease to be amazed at what automotive journalists will subject borrowed cars to. Here's a Car and Driver story about this one. Seems they drove it up the Dempster Highway and back. Tough duty for any car or SUV. Kabul would be a vacation. Now I need to talk GM into letting me borrow it...
Day 39 - Phoenix and CompSci Seminars
I'm going to refrain from commenting on all the politics of the situation regarding Gen McChrystal until the fall out settles down a bit. That said, things are interesting to watch as they unfold.
Today started with an early run to Camp Phoenix to drop off one of our team members to catch an MI-17. He's headed down south to Khost province for some research and liaison duties with a local unit there. As our expert on negotiation strategies, which he also teaches at Westpoint, his skills should come in handy. I'm just jealous he gets an MI-17 ride...
Later in the day I did some training in the language lab with the Afghan that leads the English training program here. Then, after lunch, I participated in one of our seminars that we're doing for the CompSci instructors. Since there are three CompSci mentors here, we've split up the duties. I'm focusing on information warfare, cyber warfare, and networks, and the other two are emphasizing programming, software engineering, and information technologies. Today Mark presented a nice technique for teaching debugging to 2nd year CompSci students. The instructors are really appreciative for any help and advice we provide.
Now to my "special topic of the day." You know that "sour" smell wash cloths get when you let them sit damp beside the sink too long? Well, that is the smell that slowly develops and creeps into almost every classroom and office here as the week progresses. Tomorrow is the end of the week for the Afghans since they have Fridays off. It's becoming painfully apparent that they only launder their uniforms once a week, at best. It's been extra hot this week, so today was brutal sitting in the offices and classrooms. I may avoid it tomorrow morning, but I already have some commitments.
Most of you that know me, know that I have a really good sense of smell. To make things worse, that sour smell is my least favorite of all time. I'm a bit phobic about it. Just ask Gina. Well, I have proven that I'm extremely diplomatic. Not one comment or joke about it since I arrived (yet). If I were going to be here any longer, I think my mission would be to introduce bleach to Afghanistan. I could go down in history. Imagine what it could do for the bathrooms here, which is another topic all together.
Today started with an early run to Camp Phoenix to drop off one of our team members to catch an MI-17. He's headed down south to Khost province for some research and liaison duties with a local unit there. As our expert on negotiation strategies, which he also teaches at Westpoint, his skills should come in handy. I'm just jealous he gets an MI-17 ride...
Later in the day I did some training in the language lab with the Afghan that leads the English training program here. Then, after lunch, I participated in one of our seminars that we're doing for the CompSci instructors. Since there are three CompSci mentors here, we've split up the duties. I'm focusing on information warfare, cyber warfare, and networks, and the other two are emphasizing programming, software engineering, and information technologies. Today Mark presented a nice technique for teaching debugging to 2nd year CompSci students. The instructors are really appreciative for any help and advice we provide.
Now to my "special topic of the day." You know that "sour" smell wash cloths get when you let them sit damp beside the sink too long? Well, that is the smell that slowly develops and creeps into almost every classroom and office here as the week progresses. Tomorrow is the end of the week for the Afghans since they have Fridays off. It's becoming painfully apparent that they only launder their uniforms once a week, at best. It's been extra hot this week, so today was brutal sitting in the offices and classrooms. I may avoid it tomorrow morning, but I already have some commitments.
Most of you that know me, know that I have a really good sense of smell. To make things worse, that sour smell is my least favorite of all time. I'm a bit phobic about it. Just ask Gina. Well, I have proven that I'm extremely diplomatic. Not one comment or joke about it since I arrived (yet). If I were going to be here any longer, I think my mission would be to introduce bleach to Afghanistan. I could go down in history. Imagine what it could do for the bathrooms here, which is another topic all together.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Day 38 - Addendum
The Rolling Stone profile of Gen McChrystal and the war in Afghanistan is now posted on the Rolling Stone site here. I'll refrain from documenting my reactions and opinions to it so I don't commit the same error that the story's subject has done.
Day 38 - Ambassador Eikenberry Visit
Very interesting day in Afghanistan today. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, visited. He received the first ever honorary diploma from NMAA. As an Army General stationed here a few years ago he was instrumental in the creation and stand up of NMAA. He gave a good speech, but the auditorium was insufferably hot! Literally thought I might pass out. Not really, but there was lots of sweat.
Doing a bit of reading on the Ambassador before his visit I ran across a link from the January NY Times. I highly recommend reading it. Ambassador Eikenberry is extremely critical of the troop surge and President Karzai. He raises a number of excellent points. It turns out that the link above is an actual scan of the classified cables that were sent to Secretary Clinton by the Ambassador. Pretty heady stuff! One thing that resonates with me is his point about Karzai's motivation. As long as the international community is here dumping literally billions of dollars into the country, and Karzai, his family members, and friends are profiting substantially from it, what motivation is there to rock the boat and pursue stability. A 30,000 to 40,000 personnel troop surge only brings more money, more contracts, and more civilians in to support. Oh yeah, and more opportunities for bribes, corruption, and contracts, which seem to all be synonymous here.
This brings up another article I read today. Check out this Washington Post link. It seems there is good evidence that US taxpayer money is being used to fund warlords and even the Taliban to ensure the safety of supply convoys.
Lastly, late breaking news. Our Commander here, Gen Stanley McChrystal, has ticked off a number of people in an interview due to be released in a Rolling Stone article. He insulted a number of senior governmental civilians, to include Ambassador Eikenberry. Specifically he commented on his cables and assessment linked above. This Washington Post article has more details. Here's another good story on the topic from BBC.
Will the madness ever end? It is hard sometimes to reconcile enthusiastic support of the mission, and to your tasks in support of it, with all this madness going on around you.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Day 37 - Kabul Women's Garden
This is bit of a cop out, but in today's blog I'm going to refer you to another article. I was forwarded this today by our resident Human Geographer from Westpoint. She's trying to work out a way to visit the Kabul Women's Garden referenced in the NY Times article. If you have the time, I highly recommend reading this. Here are a couple quotes from the article just to tempt you into reading it:
“What would I do with a husband, especially an uneducated husband?” Zehia asked. “A job is much better.”
and
"Most of all, Ms. Salik would like to see a program that would take women on brief trips to other countries, perhaps for job training, but really, she said, just to see how women live in lands where there are no women’s gardens."
Quoted from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/world/asia/21kabul.html?pagewanted=2&hp
This reminds me of a strong point Bernard Lewis makes in his excellent books "The Crisis of Islam" and "What Went Wrong." Traditional Islamic society is falling behind due in large part because they willingly squander half of their intellectual capital by not allowing women to gain an education and work. Things are turning around some in Afghanistan, but it is slower than many people realize. There are still a preponderance of women that wear Burka's in public, and virtually all of them wear conservative scarves over their heads pulled down low and tight. You can see how conservatively the NMAA female students dress in yesterday's post. I don't think this is overtly mandated, but there is certainly societal pressure that is nearly impossible to overcome.
I'm not arguing against any of the traditions of modesty, that is up to each society to decide. I just think women should be allowed and encouraged to go to school and work if they want. I sure hope my three daughters have the opportunity to attend the school of their choice and study whatever topic they are most interested in (as long as it is Computer Science or Mathematics :>)...
As for work today, I finally finished up my grunt work in NMAA's new language lab. It is now fully configured and ready to go. I'm giving it to the language instructors officially tomorrow, and will finish up the lab at KMTC in the next few days. It will be good to be finished with all that. I'm planning to send the details of what I've done back to the Tobyhanna Army Depot and DLI just in case they want to duplicate the effort. I managed to combine their two products (Tobyhanna hardware and software with DLI course content) in a way that makes use and maintenance significantly easier.
So, take some time over a cup of coffee while your boss isn't looking and read the NY Times article. Also, if you're extra motivated, provide some comments here on the blog. Too many lurkers and not enough contributors. Big day tomorrow. I'll have details and pictures in the next post.
“What would I do with a husband, especially an uneducated husband?” Zehia asked. “A job is much better.”
and
"Most of all, Ms. Salik would like to see a program that would take women on brief trips to other countries, perhaps for job training, but really, she said, just to see how women live in lands where there are no women’s gardens."
Quoted from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/world/asia/21kabul.html?pagewanted=2&hp
This reminds me of a strong point Bernard Lewis makes in his excellent books "The Crisis of Islam" and "What Went Wrong." Traditional Islamic society is falling behind due in large part because they willingly squander half of their intellectual capital by not allowing women to gain an education and work. Things are turning around some in Afghanistan, but it is slower than many people realize. There are still a preponderance of women that wear Burka's in public, and virtually all of them wear conservative scarves over their heads pulled down low and tight. You can see how conservatively the NMAA female students dress in yesterday's post. I don't think this is overtly mandated, but there is certainly societal pressure that is nearly impossible to overcome.
I'm not arguing against any of the traditions of modesty, that is up to each society to decide. I just think women should be allowed and encouraged to go to school and work if they want. I sure hope my three daughters have the opportunity to attend the school of their choice and study whatever topic they are most interested in (as long as it is Computer Science or Mathematics :>)...
As for work today, I finally finished up my grunt work in NMAA's new language lab. It is now fully configured and ready to go. I'm giving it to the language instructors officially tomorrow, and will finish up the lab at KMTC in the next few days. It will be good to be finished with all that. I'm planning to send the details of what I've done back to the Tobyhanna Army Depot and DLI just in case they want to duplicate the effort. I managed to combine their two products (Tobyhanna hardware and software with DLI course content) in a way that makes use and maintenance significantly easier.
So, take some time over a cup of coffee while your boss isn't looking and read the NY Times article. Also, if you're extra motivated, provide some comments here on the blog. Too many lurkers and not enough contributors. Big day tomorrow. I'll have details and pictures in the next post.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Day 36 - Medical Students
I probably mentioned in a past post that NMAA has about 40 or so cadets each year that are pre-identified for medical school. I audited their CompSci core class today (CS-1). We discussed formatting in MS Word, which seems to basic for college Freshman, but when I asked them, only about 8-10 had ever touched a computer before coming to NMAA. The year is about 2/3 of the way done for them, and I must admit, they pick it up quickly.
The med school cadets come to NMAA for one year, then go on to medical school after that, usually Kabul University. Most of them speak English quite well, and they are the select few Freshman students at NMAA that are given laptop computers. This year, 12 of them are female. Currently, the only women at NMAA are tracked to become doctors, vets, or nurses. Interestingly, I've been told that many practicing human doctors in Afghanistan are actually trained as Veterinarians. It's more medical education than I have, but it still seems like not quite enough for me if I was their patient.
After class I asked if could take a picture of them and they all agreed enthusiastically. They do love to take photos. I tried to take one serious picture and one goofy picture. The students here always seem so serious. Well, you can see the result. This first picture is their "serious" one, and the second picture is their "goofy" one. Not much difference huh? I didn't think so either.
Later in the day, COL Rahman (the CompSci department head) invited us to a feedback session with the senior CompSci majors. We do this at USAFA too. It is a chance to provide an open forum for students and instructors to comment on how things are going. This one was a bit different than ours though. COL Rahman started things off by reading the names aloud of all the cadets that had failed their mid-terms. And I was warned many times before I came that they didn't take criticism well, especially public criticism. He softened the blow by encouraging them, and before the session I had privately told him that he should appeal to the other cadets doing well to be sure and help their classmates. I think they got the message.
After starting on the down note, the top students and instructors were then announced, and then things were opened up for question and discussion. I was impressed with the bearing and professionalism of the students. They asked some pretty tough questions. COL Rahman shot a few questions down though. He has a bit of a tough demeanor with the students. He reminds me of my department head at USAFA when I was a student (Col William Richardson). Tough, but fair. After the whole event we posed for a picture.
I made it a point to embed myself in the back with the cadets. I was expected to stand in front with all the other instructors, but I love doing the un-expected, especially here. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but the cadets seemed to love the idea, and COL Rahman is still my buddy.
The med school cadets come to NMAA for one year, then go on to medical school after that, usually Kabul University. Most of them speak English quite well, and they are the select few Freshman students at NMAA that are given laptop computers. This year, 12 of them are female. Currently, the only women at NMAA are tracked to become doctors, vets, or nurses. Interestingly, I've been told that many practicing human doctors in Afghanistan are actually trained as Veterinarians. It's more medical education than I have, but it still seems like not quite enough for me if I was their patient.
After class I asked if could take a picture of them and they all agreed enthusiastically. They do love to take photos. I tried to take one serious picture and one goofy picture. The students here always seem so serious. Well, you can see the result. This first picture is their "serious" one, and the second picture is their "goofy" one. Not much difference huh? I didn't think so either.
Later in the day, COL Rahman (the CompSci department head) invited us to a feedback session with the senior CompSci majors. We do this at USAFA too. It is a chance to provide an open forum for students and instructors to comment on how things are going. This one was a bit different than ours though. COL Rahman started things off by reading the names aloud of all the cadets that had failed their mid-terms. And I was warned many times before I came that they didn't take criticism well, especially public criticism. He softened the blow by encouraging them, and before the session I had privately told him that he should appeal to the other cadets doing well to be sure and help their classmates. I think they got the message.
After starting on the down note, the top students and instructors were then announced, and then things were opened up for question and discussion. I was impressed with the bearing and professionalism of the students. They asked some pretty tough questions. COL Rahman shot a few questions down though. He has a bit of a tough demeanor with the students. He reminds me of my department head at USAFA when I was a student (Col William Richardson). Tough, but fair. After the whole event we posed for a picture.
I made it a point to embed myself in the back with the cadets. I was expected to stand in front with all the other instructors, but I love doing the un-expected, especially here. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but the cadets seemed to love the idea, and COL Rahman is still my buddy.
Day 35 - Turnover is Killing Us
(post for Saturday, 19 Jun) Another virtual Monday (Saturday starts our new week). We have our weekly planning meeting every Saturday morning at 0830. This week looks to be a busy one. As always, I'll share everything after it happens. I figure it's not good to advertise our activities ahead of time to whoever might stumble across my blog.
Everyone here works really hard on their assigned tasks, but one thing that just kills our ability to complete things is the turnover of personnel. I can't complain too much since I'm here for such a short time, but it sure is frustrating. Just when you think you have all the right points of contact lined up to accomplish a task, half of them rotate back to the states or are gone on mid-tour R&R leave.
This isn't new to me. It is the same problem anywhere the US military deploys people to. It even impacts places we've been for a long time. One of our jokes while I was stationed in Korea is that we've fought the Korean war 50+ times, one year at a time. I was in Seoul for only 18 months and saw a lot of people come and go. It's even worse in Afghanistan.
We visited the CJ-6 (Director of Communications) staff today about the new cost estimate for the IT infrastructure and computing support at the new NMAA site near Qarghah, and of course, the key person was home on leave. Predictably, they didn't fill anyone else in on the project details before leaving. Two steps forward and one step back... We re-educated the existing folks in the office and at least one of them seemed involved enough to continue helping us. The coalition countries here are spending more than $200 million building the Afghan Air Defense University (ADU), and it turns out that nobody planned for phones, networks, and computers. I think they at least remembered electric power. The current estimate is that this will add another $5M or so to the price tag. They broke ground on the foundations months ago, so we're scrambling around to make sure the buildings have fiber and wires pulled in before the construction is too far along.
Speaking of electric power. The current estimate is that the new ADU site requires 16-20 Megawatts of power. The power generation capability in Kabul can't support that much added demand, so we're installing diesel generators to make it a stand alone site. I've learned that the cost rule of thumb for diesel power generation is about $2.1M per year per Megawatt. That's a $40M+ per year budget requirement just to keep the lights on. Additionally, our IT infrastructure cost goes way up because we have to put back up power supplies on everything since the generators go up and down periodically. Our current NMAA site suffers at least 3-5 short power outages every day. After a while you learn to just tune out the incessant beeping of UPSs in the background.
I was a bit under the weather yesterday, so I went back to my room and "took a short nap." This nap turned into me sleeping till about one in the morning, eating a bit, and going back to sleep until this morning. I'll try and get back on track with blog posts tonight.
Everyone here works really hard on their assigned tasks, but one thing that just kills our ability to complete things is the turnover of personnel. I can't complain too much since I'm here for such a short time, but it sure is frustrating. Just when you think you have all the right points of contact lined up to accomplish a task, half of them rotate back to the states or are gone on mid-tour R&R leave.
This isn't new to me. It is the same problem anywhere the US military deploys people to. It even impacts places we've been for a long time. One of our jokes while I was stationed in Korea is that we've fought the Korean war 50+ times, one year at a time. I was in Seoul for only 18 months and saw a lot of people come and go. It's even worse in Afghanistan.
We visited the CJ-6 (Director of Communications) staff today about the new cost estimate for the IT infrastructure and computing support at the new NMAA site near Qarghah, and of course, the key person was home on leave. Predictably, they didn't fill anyone else in on the project details before leaving. Two steps forward and one step back... We re-educated the existing folks in the office and at least one of them seemed involved enough to continue helping us. The coalition countries here are spending more than $200 million building the Afghan Air Defense University (ADU), and it turns out that nobody planned for phones, networks, and computers. I think they at least remembered electric power. The current estimate is that this will add another $5M or so to the price tag. They broke ground on the foundations months ago, so we're scrambling around to make sure the buildings have fiber and wires pulled in before the construction is too far along.
Speaking of electric power. The current estimate is that the new ADU site requires 16-20 Megawatts of power. The power generation capability in Kabul can't support that much added demand, so we're installing diesel generators to make it a stand alone site. I've learned that the cost rule of thumb for diesel power generation is about $2.1M per year per Megawatt. That's a $40M+ per year budget requirement just to keep the lights on. Additionally, our IT infrastructure cost goes way up because we have to put back up power supplies on everything since the generators go up and down periodically. Our current NMAA site suffers at least 3-5 short power outages every day. After a while you learn to just tune out the incessant beeping of UPSs in the background.
I was a bit under the weather yesterday, so I went back to my room and "took a short nap." This nap turned into me sleeping till about one in the morning, eating a bit, and going back to sleep until this morning. I'll try and get back on track with blog posts tonight.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Day 34 - Not a Lot of Excitement
Another Friday came and went. I spent the day reading, watching movies, working out, and doing a bit of coding. It's good to have a day off each week, but is sometimes hard when there is not a lot of choice to spend your time. The highlight of my day was sharing a fresh pot of Kona coffee. Our team chief had some mailed in, and it is quite good. Other than that, I'm going to make this a short post. More fun tomorrow.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Day 33 - Thursdays are Slow
Another Thursday. Things are quite slow on Thursdays. It is a mix between our Friday and our Saturday. Most Afghans, the NMAA folks included, only work until just after lunch (1330 or so) since tomorrow is their day off and 1400 is prayer time. I wrapped up my audit forms in the morning and did a bit of java API "research". Otherwise it was a quiet morning.
I spent a bit of time with the Dean's Executive Officer (Colonel Amin) before lunch as well. We're trying to get laptops for all the NMAA cadets. The normal approval process through MOD (Ministry of Defense) won't happen in time for the new class this fall, so in addition to the official process we're trying to find a non-profit that would be willing to donate 600 mid-range laptops. We have a good lead with "Spirit of America", but as US Military folks, we can't legally solicit donations of this sort. As a result, I'm ghost writing a request from the Superintendent (MGEN Sharif) to go directly to them. Things look promising. My visit with Colonel Amin was nice too. He has relatives coming to town for a picnic tomorrow.
Later in the day we got a short notice request for a meeting on Camp Eggers with an SES (civilian General Officer equivilant), LTG Caldwell's Deputy. Not something we can say no to or postpone, and they needed another driver. On the road again (the link is to the Willie Nelson version...Here's the link to the Canned Heat version. Turns out a bunch of people have recorded songs with this name. Who knew?). I've put in a fair number of miles now around Kabul and am getting the hang of the traffic. The thing that worries me most when I drive (or when we travel at all), is all the small children that dart in and out of the traffic. They don't seem to have the same regard for the lethality of a fast moving vehicle as most other places I've driven. Seoul included.
This was our second trip to Eggers in two days. Yesterday on the way home I was the lead vehicle and we had to get creative since our normal route and Massoud Circle were closed due to a VBIED threat. All went well, but I'm still hoping for that up armored convertible Z06...
I spent a bit of time with the Dean's Executive Officer (Colonel Amin) before lunch as well. We're trying to get laptops for all the NMAA cadets. The normal approval process through MOD (Ministry of Defense) won't happen in time for the new class this fall, so in addition to the official process we're trying to find a non-profit that would be willing to donate 600 mid-range laptops. We have a good lead with "Spirit of America", but as US Military folks, we can't legally solicit donations of this sort. As a result, I'm ghost writing a request from the Superintendent (MGEN Sharif) to go directly to them. Things look promising. My visit with Colonel Amin was nice too. He has relatives coming to town for a picnic tomorrow.
Later in the day we got a short notice request for a meeting on Camp Eggers with an SES (civilian General Officer equivilant), LTG Caldwell's Deputy. Not something we can say no to or postpone, and they needed another driver. On the road again (the link is to the Willie Nelson version...Here's the link to the Canned Heat version. Turns out a bunch of people have recorded songs with this name. Who knew?). I've put in a fair number of miles now around Kabul and am getting the hang of the traffic. The thing that worries me most when I drive (or when we travel at all), is all the small children that dart in and out of the traffic. They don't seem to have the same regard for the lethality of a fast moving vehicle as most other places I've driven. Seoul included.
This was our second trip to Eggers in two days. Yesterday on the way home I was the lead vehicle and we had to get creative since our normal route and Massoud Circle were closed due to a VBIED threat. All went well, but I'm still hoping for that up armored convertible Z06...
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Day 32 - What's in a Name?
I spent the morning auditing an Operating Systems and Architecture class and also hanging around with the cadets and instructors. Lately the instructors have been giving me the last ten minutes of class or so to answer questions from the students and just talk with them. Today I recruited a few more Ultimate players. The students also put me on the spot with a couple questions. One asked me to teach him cryptography in the five minutes remaining in class. Another asked me my opinion of NMAA, the instructors, and the curriculum. The cryptography question was sort of easy to dodge once I told him we teach an entire semester course on it and still don't offer the full depth it deserves. I did commit to doing a one hour presentation/overview to the students and faculty though. The other question was a bit tougher because I wanted to be as candid as possible about the current developmental state of NMAA.
Since I've been auditing and teaching from their syllabus for a while now I was able to provide a decent answer for the second question. Essentially, they are very much at the technical training/system administration level with the CompSci major now. It is much better than any other college or university in Afghanistan except perhaps the American University of Afghanistan. Continuous improvements are being made, and the US mentor role will be involved for some time to come. As primary and secondary schools continue to get better over the next 10 years or more, NMAA will be able to continually get better as well.
I just read that June 2010 is shaping up to be the worst month in the history of the nine year war here in Afghanistan. The coalition has lost 44 soldiers already this month and two US and three British soldiers were killed in action today. Much of it is down south where the major offensive is. Keep their families in your thoughts and prayers.
So, what's in a name? It turns out, an entire family history sometimes. One of the things we're assisting with at NMAA is a database system to help track students. NMAA has graduated two classes now, and the registrar's job is starting to become a bit tougher. Managing grades, class standing, graduation order of merit, and transcripts results in a lot of data. The problem is, love it or hate it, Afghanistan has nothing akin to the ubiquitous US social security number. Uniquely identifying students (and citizens for that matter) is quite difficult. The tradition here is to name your children after a fondly remembered relative or two. After just a few generations, you can imagine how repetitive some of the names become. Sometimes it may help to include a town of birth also, but even that doesn't result in much uniqueness given the population density and mass migration of people to the cities. The cities is where all the foreign aid is directed after all, so everyone migrates to them looking for ways to provide for their family.
One might consider using current addresses or birthdays also. However, addresses are out since they don't exist for most of the country, and birthdays simply aren't tracked. Many of the NMAA cadets aren't really sure exactly how old they are. They can get within a few years plus or minus, but that probably varies depending on when they're asked. There are no birth certificates. Also, birth dates are totally unimportant. Over half the entering class at NMAA, when asked, said they were born on January 1st of some year. Technically, NMAA has a maximum age for entry and graduation which is in the mid-twenties, but I swear some of the cadets I see must be in their early thirties. Maybe it's too much exposure to the sun. Who knows. The bottom line for a database developer is, there is no key field!
We have yet to crack this nut, but we don't feel too bad since the government and NATO coalition here haven't worked it out either. I'm not sure what we'll come up with, but we're still looking. We're open to suggestions. The current administration is considering a national ID number of some sort, but there is a lot of resistance to that. On the one hand, the government really needs a way to track folks and to raise taxes to pay for the ANA, ANP, and infrastructure improvements. On the other hand, people would have to start paying taxes! I really should have reconsidered that tax exemption when my daughters were born and allowed them to choose whether or not they wanted a social security number...
Since I've been auditing and teaching from their syllabus for a while now I was able to provide a decent answer for the second question. Essentially, they are very much at the technical training/system administration level with the CompSci major now. It is much better than any other college or university in Afghanistan except perhaps the American University of Afghanistan. Continuous improvements are being made, and the US mentor role will be involved for some time to come. As primary and secondary schools continue to get better over the next 10 years or more, NMAA will be able to continually get better as well.
I just read that June 2010 is shaping up to be the worst month in the history of the nine year war here in Afghanistan. The coalition has lost 44 soldiers already this month and two US and three British soldiers were killed in action today. Much of it is down south where the major offensive is. Keep their families in your thoughts and prayers.
So, what's in a name? It turns out, an entire family history sometimes. One of the things we're assisting with at NMAA is a database system to help track students. NMAA has graduated two classes now, and the registrar's job is starting to become a bit tougher. Managing grades, class standing, graduation order of merit, and transcripts results in a lot of data. The problem is, love it or hate it, Afghanistan has nothing akin to the ubiquitous US social security number. Uniquely identifying students (and citizens for that matter) is quite difficult. The tradition here is to name your children after a fondly remembered relative or two. After just a few generations, you can imagine how repetitive some of the names become. Sometimes it may help to include a town of birth also, but even that doesn't result in much uniqueness given the population density and mass migration of people to the cities. The cities is where all the foreign aid is directed after all, so everyone migrates to them looking for ways to provide for their family.
One might consider using current addresses or birthdays also. However, addresses are out since they don't exist for most of the country, and birthdays simply aren't tracked. Many of the NMAA cadets aren't really sure exactly how old they are. They can get within a few years plus or minus, but that probably varies depending on when they're asked. There are no birth certificates. Also, birth dates are totally unimportant. Over half the entering class at NMAA, when asked, said they were born on January 1st of some year. Technically, NMAA has a maximum age for entry and graduation which is in the mid-twenties, but I swear some of the cadets I see must be in their early thirties. Maybe it's too much exposure to the sun. Who knows. The bottom line for a database developer is, there is no key field!
We have yet to crack this nut, but we don't feel too bad since the government and NATO coalition here haven't worked it out either. I'm not sure what we'll come up with, but we're still looking. We're open to suggestions. The current administration is considering a national ID number of some sort, but there is a lot of resistance to that. On the one hand, the government really needs a way to track folks and to raise taxes to pay for the ANA, ANP, and infrastructure improvements. On the other hand, people would have to start paying taxes! I really should have reconsidered that tax exemption when my daughters were born and allowed them to choose whether or not they wanted a social security number...
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Day 31 - Teaching Networks
I went of to the CompSci department today after a coffee and quick look at email. I was scheduled to audit another networks instructor, however, when I got there it turns out he called in sick and they had no one to cover the lesson. Col Rahman asked me if I could do it, with about 5 minutes notice. Luckily it was a lesson on RIP, so I agreed and it all turned out well. I enjoyed interacting with the students at this level, although I did need a Dari interpreter. A hand full of the students spoke English well enough to follow along and ask questions, but I was careful not to focus the lesson interacting with just them.
Several times the cadets brought up the fact that they do too much theory and not enough hands on at NMAA. However, based on the classes I've sat in on so far, I think NMAA has a bit too much skill training and not enough education (aka "theory"). That's one of the reasons we're here as mentors. When I got to the end of the class period and summed things up by talking about the Bellman-Ford Algorithm that is behind RIP, I asked two of the students their names. Once they told me I said, "Don't you want to develop the next great routing algorithm? We can call it the Najibullah-Muhsini algorithm" (or something similar). The "theory" in computer science is what sets it apart from system administration, which is what it seems many of them want to do. I can't think of much greater fame than discovering an algorithm and having it named after you. I tried to convey to them the immortality of it all, and I think most of them got it. Hopefully it will help them appreciate the "theory" a bit more. Perhaps, perhaps not.
Later in the morning I audited a data structures class. Pretty painful. In the interest of diplomacy I won't be too critical here, but suffice it to say, I've now seen the whole spectrum of instructors, and the others were quite good. Now I have to figure out a way to report back to Col Rahman in a delicate way that doesn't do any damage to the instructor or his pride. This will be a tough one.
Well, I'm pretty much at the half way point now. My orders were for 62 days and this wraps up day 31. Time has gone fast, and there is lots more to do. More tomorrow.
Several times the cadets brought up the fact that they do too much theory and not enough hands on at NMAA. However, based on the classes I've sat in on so far, I think NMAA has a bit too much skill training and not enough education (aka "theory"). That's one of the reasons we're here as mentors. When I got to the end of the class period and summed things up by talking about the Bellman-Ford Algorithm that is behind RIP, I asked two of the students their names. Once they told me I said, "Don't you want to develop the next great routing algorithm? We can call it the Najibullah-Muhsini algorithm" (or something similar). The "theory" in computer science is what sets it apart from system administration, which is what it seems many of them want to do. I can't think of much greater fame than discovering an algorithm and having it named after you. I tried to convey to them the immortality of it all, and I think most of them got it. Hopefully it will help them appreciate the "theory" a bit more. Perhaps, perhaps not.
Later in the morning I audited a data structures class. Pretty painful. In the interest of diplomacy I won't be too critical here, but suffice it to say, I've now seen the whole spectrum of instructors, and the others were quite good. Now I have to figure out a way to report back to Col Rahman in a delicate way that doesn't do any damage to the instructor or his pride. This will be a tough one.
Well, I'm pretty much at the half way point now. My orders were for 62 days and this wraps up day 31. Time has gone fast, and there is lots more to do. More tomorrow.
Day 30 - Ultimate Frisbee!
(Post for 14 June) We started the day off with yet another trip to Camp Eggers (YATTCE? I know, a sad YACC style acronym). We spend a lot of time driving back and forth between different installations. We have to travel with more than one vehicle and at least two people in each one for security reasons. This means that if only one of us has a meeting off site (and most everything is off site), we tie up at least three other people. Of course, most folks don't mind heading to a post/camp with a Base Exchange, and we try hard to schedule multiple meetings for different people at once. It still eats up a considerable amount of time and effort though.
This meeting was called by the CJ-6 (director of communications) and his staff. It seems they finally got the full requirements for all the IT at the new Air Defense University site. With all the turn over of personnel here, they had no recollection that everything was provided to them last summer, so we started over pretty much. You've heard the old expression one step forward and two steps backward. Well, this was our three steps backward. Things seem to go like this over here sometimes. Ever since President Obama and Secretary Clinton began announcing a pull out of American troops in the summer of 2011, everything has seemed to shift into high gear. I just hope we can accomplish enough by then to allow the ANA and ANP to provide the required security for the people of Afghanistan. We're working hard at it, but so much is uncertain and unfinished.
Now to the good part. We got back from Camp Eggers just in time to teach the NMAA cadets how to play Ultimate Frisbee. This was one of the most fun things I've done during my deployment. We plan to play again in the next few days. After a quick introduction to the rules, we were off. They picked it up really fast, although there was a real tendency to run with the disk. Here's a few select action shots of the game.
This meeting was called by the CJ-6 (director of communications) and his staff. It seems they finally got the full requirements for all the IT at the new Air Defense University site. With all the turn over of personnel here, they had no recollection that everything was provided to them last summer, so we started over pretty much. You've heard the old expression one step forward and two steps backward. Well, this was our three steps backward. Things seem to go like this over here sometimes. Ever since President Obama and Secretary Clinton began announcing a pull out of American troops in the summer of 2011, everything has seemed to shift into high gear. I just hope we can accomplish enough by then to allow the ANA and ANP to provide the required security for the people of Afghanistan. We're working hard at it, but so much is uncertain and unfinished.
Now to the good part. We got back from Camp Eggers just in time to teach the NMAA cadets how to play Ultimate Frisbee. This was one of the most fun things I've done during my deployment. We plan to play again in the next few days. After a quick introduction to the rules, we were off. They picked it up really fast, although there was a real tendency to run with the disk. Here's a few select action shots of the game.
Day 29 - Network Troubles
(Post for 13 June) Sorry there have been no updates for three days. I'll catch up tonight. Basically I've been without a network in the barracks until now, but I'm back. First, here are two pictures I scrounged up from our little vehicle mishap on Saturday. You can see all the coolant on the ground in the right of the picture. The next picture shows a decent view of the protruding hitch on the lead vehicle that did the damage. It was a good thing we were back on base by the time we had the incident. It allowed us to sort things out at a leisurely pace and leave the vehicle till the next morning. I saw the folks I traveled to KMTC with on Camp Eggers today and they said all the reports were completed and the vehicle made it to the shop. Masha' Allah as they say here.
Most of today (Sunday) was spent auditing and mentoring the CompSci instructors. I sat in on a networks class and spent time having Chai with Col Rahman. The instructor covered router and host configuration using CISCO simulator software. It was a pretty good lesson, but much more akin to training than education. I have to rate all the instructors I audit, which is a delicate process. They need feedback, but there is a delicate line between constructive criticism and insulting them and their pride. I'm doing my best to be diplomatic.
A fairly slow day as far as blogs go, plus I'm three days behind. I already have pictures for the next post, so I'll start that after dinner.
Late addition. Thought I'd add a few pictures of the actual lab we put together with the Afghans. I realized I probably focused too much on the auto incident and didn't actually show off our lab construction.
This is the director of English language training at KMTC. He's was really excited about adding the new lab to his course offering.
Here's all our conscripted help unloading the lab pieces from the shipping crates. The entire 16 workstation lab, with desks, network wiring, and electrical wiring all come in two 4x4x4 foot containers. The classroom building we installed everything in is in the background.
Here things are mid-build. We're headed back to KMTC to finish things up in a few days and ensure all the software and lesson materials are loaded up properly. I'll include final pictures in a future post.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Day 28 - First Accident
O.K. so I know I criticized the Army's driver's training just two days ago... Well, we got in our first accident today. There are some extenuating factors though. I wasn't riding with any of the NMAA team, AND, I wasn't driving. Just an innocent passenger sitting in the back seat.
The folks from the English Language development section picked me up this morning to go to KMTC to help set up their language lab there. One of the things I jumped on early after arriving, was setting up and configuring all the software in NMAA's language lab. I came up with a few innovations and things worked out well, so the staff folks that provided us the equipment asked me to help install some other labs around Kabul.
We got to KMTC around 0930 and started work. After a break for lunch at the Alamo (see last post), we finished most of the physical set up (desk builds, computer cabling, etc.) around 1700. I'll need to go back one more time to finish all the network, server, and software configuration. On the way back to KAIA, the lead vehicle, which I was in (and not driving), stopped abruptly, and the second vehicle creamed into the back of us. Nobody was hurt. We were driving up armored Ford Expeditions, and the knarly hitch on the back of ours pierced the radiator and power steering pump of the trail vehicle. It pretty much "bled" to death right there in the road. Luckily, we were already back on KAIA (inside the wire), so they were able to leave the poor dead Ford on the side of the road until a tow truck can come and get it tomorrow morning. Pretty ugly stuff. Sorry, no pictures. Perhaps tomorrow.
Long story short, after contacting the base MP's (the Greeks fill this roll here) and the clean up of the "hazardous material" (aka radiator fluid), I called the NMAA team in our Land Cruisers to help escort the folks from Camp Egger's back before night fall since they were down one vehicle. The whole ordeal capped off what was actually a pretty good day. Such is the fog and friction of war...
The folks from the English Language development section picked me up this morning to go to KMTC to help set up their language lab there. One of the things I jumped on early after arriving, was setting up and configuring all the software in NMAA's language lab. I came up with a few innovations and things worked out well, so the staff folks that provided us the equipment asked me to help install some other labs around Kabul.
We got to KMTC around 0930 and started work. After a break for lunch at the Alamo (see last post), we finished most of the physical set up (desk builds, computer cabling, etc.) around 1700. I'll need to go back one more time to finish all the network, server, and software configuration. On the way back to KAIA, the lead vehicle, which I was in (and not driving), stopped abruptly, and the second vehicle creamed into the back of us. Nobody was hurt. We were driving up armored Ford Expeditions, and the knarly hitch on the back of ours pierced the radiator and power steering pump of the trail vehicle. It pretty much "bled" to death right there in the road. Luckily, we were already back on KAIA (inside the wire), so they were able to leave the poor dead Ford on the side of the road until a tow truck can come and get it tomorrow morning. Pretty ugly stuff. Sorry, no pictures. Perhaps tomorrow.
Long story short, after contacting the base MP's (the Greeks fill this roll here) and the clean up of the "hazardous material" (aka radiator fluid), I called the NMAA team in our Land Cruisers to help escort the folks from Camp Egger's back before night fall since they were down one vehicle. The whole ordeal capped off what was actually a pretty good day. Such is the fog and friction of war...
Friday, June 11, 2010
Day 27 - Climbing the Gharib Ghar
We climbed the Gharib Ghar on our day off today. Ghar is the word for mountain. It is a 7200 foot ridge right in the middle of KMTC (Kabul Military Training Center). The first image here is an overview of where the Ghar is, and the second is a 3D rotation from Google Earth. By the way, Google Earth and Gimp are just awesome. We stay just to the north west of the airport (marked KAIA on the map). The Gharib Ghar is due east of us.
It was a tougher climb than I anticipated. Mainly due to the steepness. We went pretty much straight up the trail with minimal or no switchbacks. The climb starts around 6000 feet, so it was about 1200 feet straight up. Aside from the climb, there are two real difficulties getting up the Ghar. First, this big ridge is the back stop for all the firing ranges on KMTC. Small arms fire into it from the south, and larger artillery and tanks fire into it from the north. We left here at 0500 and were on top by 0630. Range control wants everyone off by 0800 for safety concerns. We were highly motivated to get back down with time to spare. The other principal difficulty is staying on the trail. There are no guarantees what you'll run into off the main trail. Between the Ghar being the recipient of countless firing range rounds, and Afghanistan being among the most heavily mined countries in the world, again, there is power motivation to stay on the trail. Even if you think you see an easier route up.
The views are breath taking from the top. This is the Kabul valley looking just west of south from the top of the Gharib. I have to say, if I were meandering along the old silk route and was looking for a place to settle down, this huge bowl of a valley would have been high on my list. I would have loved to see it before many of the trees and farmland were devastated by decades of war. Perhaps we'll see that again.
The very top of the Gharib is called the "kife's edge." Here's a bunch of knuckle-head NMAA mentors posing with Old Glory on top. It was a joint expedition, as we've got three separate services represented. We saw people from every service, and several coalition countries climbing this morning. The weather was perfect, and since it was Jumah, this has become a common expedition during people's day off.
To give you some indication of the steepness of the ascent, I had to throw in this picture. Never-mind the funny angle to the skyline in the background (grin)... OK, we did tilt the camera just a little bit for effect. Even without the creative camera work it is pretty steep. No climbing gear needed, but you do use your hands quite a bit. At least I did. I tried to impersonate Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger, but those shots didn't turn out well enough to share...
Of course, Lady Ada made the trek to the top with us. She was a real trooper, and never complained about the slow ascent in my backpack. I wasn't the oldest one climbing, but was within a year of the oldest, and was the last one to the top. Slow and steady as they say.
Here's the after-shot of everyone at the end of the climb. No injuries. We had an ulterior motive for climbing today. It turns out that there is a US compound inside KMTC (Camp Alamo) that houses the coalition mentors assisting with the ANA training here, and it has the best chow hall in the area. We really came early so we could make breakfast at Camp Alamo. Great eggs, cheese grits, bacon, and fresh strawberries. Yum. We got back to KAIA by 0930, and I was asleep again by 1000 (grin). I ended up napping a good portion of the day away. I hope my sleep isn't too screwed up now. Back to work tomorrow.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Day 26 - Driver's School
I spent most of the day at "driver's school" on Camp Eggers. Ugh. You're supposed to take this class in order to be able to legally drive over here, but our mission has dictated that I take up driving duties before attending. I have to say, I actually think I'm a worse driver, and a bit dumber, having attended. We were supposed to go last Thursday, but due to the Peace Jirga we were all locked down. As a result, there was over twice the crowd today. It started with an Army NCO having people in the audience alternately read the bullets off the slides to the everyone in attendance. I guess this is what they mean by "Army training." A large part of my job here is mentoring the Afghan instructors on teaching. I wish I could have taken a few today, because this was a shining example of what not to do. After the first hour and a half I actually considered drawing my M-9 and ending the pain.
We did learn more about our RCIED (Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device) jammers though, which was helpful. All the vehicles have them installed now as standard equipment. However, our adversary, being smart and adaptive as always has largely stopped using these kinds of IEDs and gone to other forms of detonation, mainly via suicide detonation. The joke we have is that if you hear the IED go off, count your blessings because it means you're still alive. If you don't hear it go off, well then, you know the rest.
The Taliban shot down a helicopter today in Helmand province killing four NATO troops. Helmand is just to the west of Kandahar, and it is one of the Taliban strong holds. The big coalition push this summer is in these two southern provinces. I think things will heat up before they get any better.
Leaving Camp Eggers today, our route back to the airport was totally blocked off. We had to take an alternate. I finally figured out why. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was here meeting with President Karzai. We were worried that something bad had happened on the route, so it was good news to know it was just cordoned off for the PM's motorcade.
I'm going to make this a short one tonight after yesterday's post. Plus I have to be up at 0400 and rolling early for some activities tomorrow. More on that next post.
We did learn more about our RCIED (Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device) jammers though, which was helpful. All the vehicles have them installed now as standard equipment. However, our adversary, being smart and adaptive as always has largely stopped using these kinds of IEDs and gone to other forms of detonation, mainly via suicide detonation. The joke we have is that if you hear the IED go off, count your blessings because it means you're still alive. If you don't hear it go off, well then, you know the rest.
The Taliban shot down a helicopter today in Helmand province killing four NATO troops. Helmand is just to the west of Kandahar, and it is one of the Taliban strong holds. The big coalition push this summer is in these two southern provinces. I think things will heat up before they get any better.
Leaving Camp Eggers today, our route back to the airport was totally blocked off. We had to take an alternate. I finally figured out why. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was here meeting with President Karzai. We were worried that something bad had happened on the route, so it was good news to know it was just cordoned off for the PM's motorcade.
I'm going to make this a short one tonight after yesterday's post. Plus I have to be up at 0400 and rolling early for some activities tomorrow. More on that next post.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Day 25 - Planes and Automobiles (alas, no trains)
I promised more pictures yesterday, so brace yourselves. One of our Aviation mentors from the Naval Academy took a bunch of cadets over to the ANA Air Corps for a show and tell, so I thought I'd include a few pictures. I've also got some other photos that I snapped today while crossing the KAIA (Kabul Afghanistan International Airport) flight line. Turns out we had to run off base quickly to pick up our up-armored Land Cruisers and the easiest route there was across the airport ramp. It is kind of cool the things you get away with if you can scrounge a flashing orange light to put on your vehicle. Oh yeah, and if you make judicious use of your US military ID while carrying an M-4 and M-9 in body armor and a Kevlar. Just look serious and act like you've got urgent business, and the gate guards just wave you through. On second thought, that's not so good...
I had to start with this photo. This my friends is foreign aid! These gently used jet engines were donated by a few of the un-named coalition countries participating here. They counted as several million dollars in foreign aid. Oh, it doesn't matter that they didn't come with any documentation at all (flight logs, maintenance records, etc.). My flying buddies here tell me they are essentially worthless. I guess the metal might be worth something eventually. Perhaps we could make planters out of them for the roses.
This is an AN-72/74. I've become a real fan of some of the Soviet aircraft. They are simple, rugged, and extremely powerful. This monster has two huge turbofans with 14k+ lbs of thrust for a 19k lb aircraft (empty). I've seen several here flying every day. It is as if they jump off the runway. Simple to maintain, tough, and they'll land on grass, sand, dirt, and snow (with skis attached). Only $17-20 million each. Kind of homely, but very cool.
Here's a couple UN MI-17's. Again, a bit homely, but hugely powerful, simple, and rugged. I'm trying to get a ride on one. Sorry for the picture quality, but we were moving across the ramp fairly rapidly so nobody was able to stop and question our presence. The ANA Air Corps has several of these and they are perfectly suited to the Afghan geography. They are one of the highest flying helicopters due the two powerful engines with a service ceiling of almost 20k feet, and they carry a fair bit too. It's a shame the US can't buy some of the Soviet designs and build them.
This is the welcome sign arriving planes see when they pull up to the KAIA terminal. I thought it was a good snap shot, so here it is.
I liked the contrast between these next two photos. They were taken only 1/2 a block apart. The whole reason we had to cross the flight line today was to make sure we exited a gate as close to the vehicle repair shop as possible. It is sort of a chicken and egg problem. We can't go off base without being in an armored vehicle, but both our armored vehicles were off base. Hmmm. We took our soft skin Toyota out to pick up the Land Cruisers. Thanks to no armor, the windows actually rolls down in it, so I got to take some good photos of the passing street scenes. The first picture is a typical shot of a Kabul neighborhood. Notice the pile of dirt in the foreground and the gravel just behind. The Afghans are doing what they can to improve things. This will surely help with the mud during the rainy season and snow melt. You can just make out the small boy in the background as well (click the picture for a larger version).
The next photo is again a typical street scene. There are a lot of these small markets all over, and there are watermelons for sale everywhere. We have fresh watermelon in the chow hall on-base almost every meal. It is tasty. I hope it is still fresh when the 4th of July rolls around. This is about as colorful as it gets around here. Unless you've seen the way they decorate their trucks. I plan to do a whole entry on them if I can get some good photos. Needless to say, this store is evidence that a market economy is coming back.
As promised, here are a bunch of NMAA cadets hanging around the ANA Air Corps. They get really serious when they get to see the aircraft up close. If you consider their backgrounds, it is pretty awesome that many of them will be flying these in the next few years. Yes, that's an MI-24/25/35 Hind in the background. The ANA flies a few of these too. This is the type of helicopter that a US UH-60 was mistaken for and shot down by two F-15's in 1994. On board was a '92 USAFA grad and a friend of mine, Lt Laura Piper. We were originally classmates, although she took a year of stop out. We were stationed together on Ramstein back then. Every time I see one I think of that.
Here's the whole group that hung out with the Air Corps yesterday. Those are Czech built L-39's in the background. They are sexy little single engine jets that the some in the Afghan Air Corps really want to buy, but they are a terrible aircraft for this country and the terrain. They are fast, but fragile. If you overlay their range with the number and location of paved runways in Afghanistan, the coverage they could provide without tankers is dismal. Adding tankers to the Air Corps is a bridge too far for the foreseeable future.
Last picture. This is the obligatory picture of me in front of "No-Lemon" auto. They are the ones contracted to service all our vehicles. I was talking with one of the British employees there and it is apparently owned by a Dane. They've got quite a good business going based on what we pay for service, tires, etc. I asked them if they could get me an up armored convertible Z06 Corvette and they looked at me like I had two heads. I guess they don't see the military utility like I do.
Remind me to blog about the tragic lack of trains in this part of the world some time. That's why this blog entry couldn't be Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
I had to start with this photo. This my friends is foreign aid! These gently used jet engines were donated by a few of the un-named coalition countries participating here. They counted as several million dollars in foreign aid. Oh, it doesn't matter that they didn't come with any documentation at all (flight logs, maintenance records, etc.). My flying buddies here tell me they are essentially worthless. I guess the metal might be worth something eventually. Perhaps we could make planters out of them for the roses.
This is an AN-72/74. I've become a real fan of some of the Soviet aircraft. They are simple, rugged, and extremely powerful. This monster has two huge turbofans with 14k+ lbs of thrust for a 19k lb aircraft (empty). I've seen several here flying every day. It is as if they jump off the runway. Simple to maintain, tough, and they'll land on grass, sand, dirt, and snow (with skis attached). Only $17-20 million each. Kind of homely, but very cool.
Here's a couple UN MI-17's. Again, a bit homely, but hugely powerful, simple, and rugged. I'm trying to get a ride on one. Sorry for the picture quality, but we were moving across the ramp fairly rapidly so nobody was able to stop and question our presence. The ANA Air Corps has several of these and they are perfectly suited to the Afghan geography. They are one of the highest flying helicopters due the two powerful engines with a service ceiling of almost 20k feet, and they carry a fair bit too. It's a shame the US can't buy some of the Soviet designs and build them.
This is the welcome sign arriving planes see when they pull up to the KAIA terminal. I thought it was a good snap shot, so here it is.
I liked the contrast between these next two photos. They were taken only 1/2 a block apart. The whole reason we had to cross the flight line today was to make sure we exited a gate as close to the vehicle repair shop as possible. It is sort of a chicken and egg problem. We can't go off base without being in an armored vehicle, but both our armored vehicles were off base. Hmmm. We took our soft skin Toyota out to pick up the Land Cruisers. Thanks to no armor, the windows actually rolls down in it, so I got to take some good photos of the passing street scenes. The first picture is a typical shot of a Kabul neighborhood. Notice the pile of dirt in the foreground and the gravel just behind. The Afghans are doing what they can to improve things. This will surely help with the mud during the rainy season and snow melt. You can just make out the small boy in the background as well (click the picture for a larger version).
The next photo is again a typical street scene. There are a lot of these small markets all over, and there are watermelons for sale everywhere. We have fresh watermelon in the chow hall on-base almost every meal. It is tasty. I hope it is still fresh when the 4th of July rolls around. This is about as colorful as it gets around here. Unless you've seen the way they decorate their trucks. I plan to do a whole entry on them if I can get some good photos. Needless to say, this store is evidence that a market economy is coming back.
As promised, here are a bunch of NMAA cadets hanging around the ANA Air Corps. They get really serious when they get to see the aircraft up close. If you consider their backgrounds, it is pretty awesome that many of them will be flying these in the next few years. Yes, that's an MI-24/25/35 Hind in the background. The ANA flies a few of these too. This is the type of helicopter that a US UH-60 was mistaken for and shot down by two F-15's in 1994. On board was a '92 USAFA grad and a friend of mine, Lt Laura Piper. We were originally classmates, although she took a year of stop out. We were stationed together on Ramstein back then. Every time I see one I think of that.
Here's the whole group that hung out with the Air Corps yesterday. Those are Czech built L-39's in the background. They are sexy little single engine jets that the some in the Afghan Air Corps really want to buy, but they are a terrible aircraft for this country and the terrain. They are fast, but fragile. If you overlay their range with the number and location of paved runways in Afghanistan, the coverage they could provide without tankers is dismal. Adding tankers to the Air Corps is a bridge too far for the foreseeable future.
Last picture. This is the obligatory picture of me in front of "No-Lemon" auto. They are the ones contracted to service all our vehicles. I was talking with one of the British employees there and it is apparently owned by a Dane. They've got quite a good business going based on what we pay for service, tires, etc. I asked them if they could get me an up armored convertible Z06 Corvette and they looked at me like I had two heads. I guess they don't see the military utility like I do.
Remind me to blog about the tragic lack of trains in this part of the world some time. That's why this blog entry couldn't be Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)