Last Day Outside the US

I head to the "bag drag" at 10pm and then process to board at 1am. Our flight time isn't until after 5am. Gotta love military efficiency. We're "locked down" from 1am until boarding. The first leg is Manas to Turkey, then to Ramstein, and finally into BWI. It'll be about 22 hours from start to finish, but I think we get to stretch our legs during the two stops. I lucked out and got an aisle seat at least. No such thing as first class on these flights, but of course I did ask ...

Not much to blog about. I made a trip through all the local bazaar shops on Manas today and there was nothing I couldn't live without. I'd really like to come back to Kyrgyzstan some time as a tourist. I have a whole new appreciation for the countries and cultures in central Asia. It's an interesting mix here between the more recent Russian influence and the Kyrgyz/Turkic/Mongol traditional and cultural history. They are historically nomadic, and the yurt is a common site still, especially in the pictures I've seen of the mountainous regions.

Well, gotta go pack and get my bags together. Next stop Baltimore.

The Day After ?? - God Bless the Russians

I'm just killing time now. I hate just killing time. I spent today wandering around Manas Air Transport Station. That took about 10 minutes. The rest of the time was spent on skype with Gina, a bit of surfing, two crossword puzzles, a bit of sudoku, and eating enough to feel guilty in a country with a big chunk of the population below the poverty line.


I did have my first and second beers last night. I'm about to head over and try again. One of the local brews here is Russian. It is 8% alcohol and served a half litre at a time. Maybe that two beer limit every 20 hours is a good one. God bless those Russian brewers though. It doesn't even taste like malt liquor. It is actually a nice Pilsner with good flavor, but lots of foam if you pour too fast.

The Russians did some pretty awful things in central Asia, but so did the Brits, as well as the "fill in the imperial power or neighboring muslim country here." One thing they did do well though is pass along a pretty good brewing tradition. It reminds me of the great lagers in Mexico and central America that I think German missionaries must have passed along. I could be way off, but taste a good Dos Equis on tap side by side with say Stella (I know its Belgian) or a Bayerish lager, and you'll know where its origins are from.

Hopefully you're all getting over yesterdays post. I am, even though Gina gave me a pretty hard time about it. I did my laundry today and am eating well, so it is almost a distant memory. I start processing to leave tomorrow and catch a plane early on Friday. Should be back in the US by Friday night. Keep your fingers crossed.

Day ?? - I've honestly lost track for now

Tuesday evening, 13 July 2010 - My day tracking calendar is packed away, so I've lost track of the correct day. Sorry. The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind. Here's the summary. I'll be candid in the following, but in the interest of decency I'll have to issue my second TMI alert.

We had a going away dessert at the local Thai restaurant on KIA Saturday night. All I had was the "chocolate monkey." By about 10pm that night, my stomach was churning and doing cartwheels. Turns out at least one other of our dinner party (and likely a few more) had similar symptoms, but it hit me the hardest for some reason. After several trips to the facilities that evening, I essentially spent all day Sunday in a diarrhea induced coma. Cold sweats, stomach in knots, and no ability to get more than five meters from a toilet. Needless to say, I didn't work that day. Especially considering that the only facilities on NMAA are eastern style toilets. They are not nearly as user friendly for us westerners as the sit down type.


I was able to hold it together long enough on Monday to go to work at NMAA. I finished up all the loose ends I could, had my last lunch with MGen Sharif, gave a bunch of going gifts, and attended a nice going away get together with COL Rahman and the CompSci faculty. My assigned translator (Mansoor) gave me a really nice "Karzai" robe, and the CompSci faculty gave me an embroidered traditional Afghan outfit. I'll pose for pictures when I get home and post them. It will likely be in my last post.

It is bitter sweet leaving. The people in Afghanistan are all great, but the history of war and devastation combined with the tribal traditions of division and nepotism are hard to accept. There is so much to do and so many ways we can help. Most of them are empowering, teaching, and mentoring the Afghans. It isn't really about money, and in a lot of cases, too much foreign aid hurts more than helps. Some level of outside funding is essential, but we are caught in the typical US spiral of excess by opening the checkbook. It's costing the US taxpayers untold amounts, and in a lot of cases doing more harm than good. I hope wiser minds prevail and we balance our fiscal commitments with well thought out personnel assistance. We're out of balance right now, and have been for several years.

Back to my enduro. I'd been checking the outgoing flights from Kabul to Manas for the last few days. For some strange reason, I'm manifested on a flight from Manas on the 16th of July, but I can't get a scheduled flight there. I actually understand why, but it is too much detail to delve into here. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I had to travel space available from Kabul to Manas and make it by the 15th in order to be in place for my flight home on the 16th. There were three flights to Manas from Kabul on Sunday, but I was fighting through my previously described ailments and didn't have everything wrapped up satisfactorily to leave. It turns out that two of those flights were canceled anyway. The schedule did have two flights leaving on Monday, so I targeted the one leaving at 2345.

I arrived at the Kabul passenger terminal about 2030 only to find out the flight had slipped a few hours, so I napped a bit outside the terminal, stomach still in knots and making frequent trips to the nearby facilities. My series of going away "chai's" didn't help my stomach any. They make all the chai here with the local water, and I'm sure they don't boil it long enough, if at all. They ended up getting us on the C-130 headed to Manas about midnight. I flew out with elements of an Army Brigade from Ft. Lewis Washington that did their deployment outside Kandahar. They were headed home with fewer soldiers than they deployed with. I had a grim discussion with a SFC from the unit.

We sat on the tarmac for about an hour and a half, and then did a lights out take off. Pretty cool actually, but when you're sitting in troop seats with full body armor and the load masters have to look out the back of the aircraft with night vision glasses on for the first 15 minutes of the flight, it gets your attention a little. No incidents as expected. The ride was a bit tough, owing to my stomach condition and the fact that I ended up straddling an aluminum support rod. If you've ever flown in troop seats, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, count yourself lucky.

Two and a have hours of clenching later, we landed in Manas around 0530 local. After all the in processing, I grabbed what I could eat for breakfast, and found a room to crash in for a few hours. I ended up with my first, and probably only good deal of the trip. Since I'm an O-5, I qualified for a hard sided room in transient billeting. It beats the rows of bunk beds in the mass tents most folks get when they're flowing through Manas. After a few hours sleep I had to report and turn in my chem gear and body armor at 1100. Breakfast didn't sit well by that time, so I ended up finally heading over to see a doc about my food poisoning. It finally set in to me that this bout wasn't just going to pass.

I had to walk about a half mile from the supply warehouse to the clinic, and I think I hit four port-a-johns along the way. This is really brutal stuff. A hearty thanks to the people who put the packets of Kleenexes and handi-wipes in the care packages. If you've seen the movie "I hope the serve beer in hell", my experiences at this point were eerily similar. After filling out my symptoms on a form, the doc came to find me, and I of course had to make another trip to the loo. All the medical personnel got a real kick out of that. He gave me some industrial strength intestinal antibiotics. I'm a few pills in and they seem to be helping. I can't eat much yet, and still have pretty nice stomach cramps, but at least I can hold my own.

So, I'm hanging out in Manas now, awaiting my return flight. I report with my bags about 0100 on Friday morning with an in processing brief Thursday at 1000. It should be down hill from here. The meds are kicking in, the food looks and smells good (I haven't tried much yet), and internet access is everywhere, fast, and free. The one up side, if there is one, is that I have free laundry facilities in the room right next to my billeting room. I have to admit, I have some skivvies to launder. I'd hate to take that mess home to Gina...

Day 55 and 56 - Going Away Madness

(Post for 9 and 10 July) Based on all the going away formalities you would have thought I've been here for a significant portion of my adult life. Yesterday, on Jumah, we went to Camp Dogan for a going away given to us by the Turkish Officers that have a mentoring team here also. Then today we had chai with MGen Sharif, the Superintendent of NMAA, and he gave me a pair of nice stone flower vases as a going away. Finally, we met at the on base Thai restaurant and had dessert where we had a going away from all the mentors. Geez. I don't even leave until Wednesday.


I did turn in most of my ammo, 5.56 magazines, personal recover beacon, and my individual first aid kit today though. No more missions outside the wire for me. The next time I leave KAIA or NMAA will be on a C-17 (I hope). During work I finished up my after action report and recommendations to the team chief, senior mentor, and CompSci department head. I gave a few of the higher priority recommendations to the Superintendent during our chai at the end of the day, but mostly we just ate, had tea, and chatted.


I promised a few more pictures of Panjshir valley today, so here goes. These two are titled "Bear Attack", and swimming across the 50 degree, snow melt fed, Panjshir river in my skivvies. It was quite cold, but I think the water line obscures the shrinkage, so hopefully no one will be offended or make fun. The first picture is of me tackling Larry Walker, our team chief here. He was a bit reluctant to go any further into the river, so I helped him make up his mind. The second is me after having swam to the other side and lost about 20 yards down stream. The current was pretty vigorous.



This last picture is of the whole group of us having a picnic under a willow tree entwined with a grape vine on the banks of the river. We had fresh mulberries, which I'd never had before and now love, fresh apricots right off the tree, a spiced yogurt drink, which makes you nap big time, and nice conversation. Many people soaked there feet in the river. This was before the swim, and it didn't make anyone any wiser.


The Afghan with the gray hair and beard is the Commandant, BGen Hesim Udin. He grew up in a house only about 100 yards from this spot, which is still in the family. He is a very interesting man that has lived an amazing life. He was a generous and gracious host as well. I'll try and sprinkle in more of the Panjshir pictures over the next few days.

Day 54 - Star Spangled Banner

(Post for 8 July) Most of us attended the change of command for the Afghan Engineering District North today. Oddly enough, this was the first time I'd heard the Star Spangled Banner since I've been here. The 101st Airborne Division jazz band played the Afghan National Anthem, and then a locally deployed civilian sung the US National Anthem. I got a lump in my throat, but then I do every time I hear it, regardless of whether or not it is at a military formation or a sporting event.

"Oh, say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?" I really like our anthem for a variety of reasons. It is up beat, inspirational, has great lyrics, and it's not too long. The other anthem played today sounded a bit like a dirge. This is also the first time I've heard it, and it seemed somewhat repetitive.

I watch a lot of Formula 1 races, and there are always a variety of anthems played at the conclusion. One for the winning driver, and one for the winning team. For a long time it was the German and Italian national anthems. Go Schumi! He's back racing again, but not with a top tier team. He's my age, but I don't think he's lost any ability. By the way, if you're a Top Gear fan, rumor has it that he might be "The White Stig." He was revealed as such on the show, but many think that was just a hoax. Any way, the point really is, most national anthems are just too long. A lot of times when I hear them I'm left wondering about half way through, is this over yet? Little known fact, the shortest national anthem is Uganda's at only 9 bars (good choice folks). The longest is Uruguay's at 105 bars, and Greece's has 158 verses, but it's just Greek to me (it was too easy). I think ours is just right. After this whole diatribe though, I'm sure it's obvious that I'm more than a bit biased.

Not sure how I got from the Star Spangled Banner to the Stig, but that is just a glimpse into the random synaptic firings that make up my consciousness. Next post will have photos and details about our trip to Camp Dogan for a going away luncheon from the Turkish Officers we work with at NMAA. I also will post some of the Panjshir pictures as well when I have good upload speeds from work. Till then, here's just one of the representative photos from Panjshir.

Day 53 - FOSS Seminar

The bulk of my day was spent preparing for and giving a faculty development workshop on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). I mentioned in a previous blog that I've become the local FOSS evangelist. The CompSci instructors were very interested and interactive at this afternoon's session. I enjoyed it, and hopefully cleared up some myths and sowed some seeds of conversion. It is heavily frowned upon (and perhaps illegal) to proselytize here since it is officially an Islamic republic, but I think that only applies to religion and not software origins. At least I hope so.

Another spur of the moment project came up just before lunch. It seems the soldiers working in the main gate guard building don't have any network connection and would really like to access the internet. It all started when one of the local Afghan soldiers came to us with a translator asking for some spare networking parts. Rather than just cough up whatever hardware they ask for, we've learned to dig into the problem a bit and try and figure out what they are trying to accomplish. It's a good thing we did this time. They had it in their head that all they needed was to pull a network cable through the manholes from a nearby building and the internet would be theirs. We politely said "show us what you're doing."

With a bit of disdain that we didn't just hand over hardware, they walked us around and showed us the project. We spent some time tracing cables, opening up wire boxes and examining manhole covers. After about 15 minutes of searching, I located a newly installed 16 pair cable and punch down blocks with only two pair in use for the two building phones. I explained to them a reasonable solution for extending the network from the adjacent building to this one and they seemed happy for the help at last.

Then we walked over to the adjacent building which happened to be one of the three dormitories. It turns out the network has been down in that building for over a year. Really. After some more detective work we discovered that the main switch and fiber termination had been "vandalized" (broken open, fiber ends pulled off, stale bread left in the cabinet, etc.). The project started to grow. After a bit more time we located a hastily installed temporary network cobbled together with a few home switches, and no confirmation of external access. We talked them through a fix for this as well and reminded them that all the new fiber and networking equipment (that was torn apart) had only been installed two years earlier (with an accompanying US taxpayer bill consisting of seven figures).

There's no hope really of trying to reconstruct the demise of the previously installed network. Instead, we laid out a high level plan and course of action and left it to them to make right. Of course we offered as much help as possible, but no more money or equipment (for now). I guess this is a bit like "tough love." We provided a working solution in the past, but didn't teach them how to take care of it well enough, or they didn't value it enough to take care of it since it came too easily. They've been without for a while now, and they will continue to be until they figure out a way to fix things. Hmmm. I guess there's a much larger lesson in this whole experience. I hope at least some of our Afghan colleagues that took part in the trouble shooting today realize it.

Day 52 - Panjshir Valley

We took a trip up the Panjshir Valley today. All I can say is Awesome! We were invited by the Superintendent and Commandant of NMAA, but at the last minute the Superintendent had to cancel. We did go with the Commandant though, who is an Afghan Brigadier General that grew up in the village just down the hill from Massoud's tomb. We basically toured around the area with a local hero. Imagine, he grew up in the Panjshir Valley, fought alongside Massoud against the Taliban, and is now the Commandant at what is likely the most prestigious University in the country.

I highly recommend reading the two links above if you have time. Massoud is a national hero and martyr for Afghanistan. During his time with the Mujahideen, he led the defense of the Panjshir Valley against first the Soviets, and then the Taliban. This valley is the only region of Afghanistan to have never been conquered by either! Ever! Imagine standing up to and continually defeating the Soviet military with a group of volunteer insurgents. They were fighting for their homes though, which is powerful motivation.

The whole valley is beautiful. A raging river fed by the snow melt in the Hindu Kush rages through it. There is a lot of agriculture and amazing scenery. It really reminded me of Big Thompson Canyon and Estes Park. The surrounding mountains are a bit more shear and quite a bit higher though.

We were up at about 4:30 am, on the road by 5:15, and didn't return until 8:30 tonight, so I'm going to cut this a bit short. Lots more on the adventure with pictures tomorrow. By the way, we even swam in the Panjshir river in our skivvies! I'll have some unflattering pictures of all that next post.

Day 50 and 51-BBQ and KMTC

I took Independence Day off from blogging. We worked a bit that day since we had a meeting on Camp Eggers, but most of the day was spent relaxing. We were invited to a BBQ at the Afghan Engineering District compound next door to Eggers. It is a great little oasis in the middle of Kabul. My theory is that the Army Corps of Engineers picked the best spot for their compound when they got here. The tallest, and likely the oldest, trees are dotted throughout their outdoor space. Plus, they consistently have the best food around. I think I like their place better than the Alamo. However, I was at KMTC today finishing up their lab for them, and I got cheese sticks! I actually dipped deep fried cheese strips in cheese sauce at lunch time. I could feel my heart skip a beat each time I did it. Yum. I topped it off with a bowl of really good gumbo and pralines and cream ice cream for dessert.

Our trip to KMTC was uneventful, however we did get their lab totally done and turned over to the Afghans. They were happier with the outcome than I expected. I was told they plan to start using it right away, which is pretty satisfying. KMTC is a large basic training base for enlisted and officer recruits, and it is nice to be able to contribute to soldier training in addition to working with the cadets at NMAA.

GEN Petraeus took command of the coalition forces in Afghanistan today. After reading his confirmation hearing transcripts and his acceptance speech I'm encouraged. We have done a lot here, but really have a lot more to do. I'm starting to believe that the Taliban have infiltrated after regrouping in Pakistan far more than I did before. One of our team spent a week at a forward operating base south of Kabul helping with negotiation training. His stories of the interactions between the ANA, ANP, and the coalition mentors/trainers/soldiers are a bit disheartening. Basically, the population is scared to accept help from the government security forces and the coalition troops in many part of the country. We try and get out and about, but the fall back is to hole up in our secure compounds. When we're not out with the population, the Taliban is there threatening peoples families if they have anything to do with us. We've even seen it at NMAA, but that is a topic for another story.

Day 49 - Prelude to Independence Day

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

American Independence Day was a hot topic at work today. I spent a few hours with the Turkish mentors this morning and they asked me all about "the 4th of July." Questions like "what do you celebrate?", "what does the typical American family do on that holiday?", "why July 4th?", etc. I was a little surprised at the naiveté of the questions, but then I shouldn't have been. I had to look on Wikipedia to discover that the Turkish celebrate Republic day on October 29th commemorating the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 after their war of independence.

Our Afghan interpreters and colleagues were equally as curious. I made it a point to all of them that the holiday is properly called Independence Day in America, and not really the "4th of July." This has always been a pet peeve of mine, but I digress.

This whole train of thinking did get me to wondering what day will Afghanistan celebrate as its Independence Day? According to Wikipedia, 19 August has been widely celebrated as Afghan Independence Day after the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919 that formally recognized Afghanistan and ended British influence here. However, after 30+ years of alternating war and destruction first by Russia and then by the Taliban, I wonder if this will continue to be the norm. I'm not arrogant enough to suggest the Afghans change their customs because of any US, NATO, or Coalition actions, I was just wondering. There has been a major civil war here since 1978 and didn't subside much when Russian forces were finally withdrawn in 1989. One could argue the country is still in the midst of a civil war. Things are far from decided by the looks of it.

So until tomorrow, have a very happy and enjoyable Independence Day weekend. Attend a parade, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, admire a flag, meet some new people, sing "America the Beautiful" (if you can't sing, listen to this Ray Charles version from 1991), watch some fireworks, and eat some BBQ. If you have time, thank a veteran, say a short prayer for the deployed soldiers, think about voting this fall, and take a few minutes to read the Declaration of Independence. To quote the primary author:

"Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion."

Thomas Jefferson

Day 47 and 48 - Open Source Evangelism

Yesterday was a short day since the Afghans all leave after lunch. We left a bit early as well knowing that we weren't going to be able to take Friday, our one off, as usual. I came back to the barracks and had a bit of a nap. I really wish the U.S. would consider instituting the siesta. A 60-90 minute nap around 2pm is just awesome. Although mine didn't start yesterday until about 4pm, and it went a bit longer :>).

This morning I had a meeting at 0900 to talk with the NTMA and IJC C-6's regarding the Afghan Mission Network. A bit of organizational and acronym definitions are in order. ISAF, or the International Security Assistance Force (this link also), is commanded by a US 4-star General. Now it is GEN David Petraeus. He has two 3-star commanders under him. One for NTMA, or the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTMA), and one for the ISAF Joint Command (IJC). We fall under NTMA, which is commanded by LTG Caldwell. Our job is to train and equip the Afghan Security Forces (Army and Police). IJC is commanded by LTG Rodriguez and handles the tactical day to day fight. We met with both the Directors of Communication today to help work out the details of the emerging Afghan Mission Network. This will be the classified and unclassified computer networks for all the Afghan Security Forces.

Whew. All that being said, one big topic of discussion has become "how do we help set up the Afghans so they can sustain everything as we draw down forces and funding?" We're looking at everything from renewable energy to recycling. Recently, I've been aghast at what our plans are for the IT infrastructure support. Basically, we're imposing/modelling ourselves onto the Afghans. Our hard working IT folks are designing infrastructures that are totally Microsoft dependent. This is OK until two years from now when they have to pay the licensing fees and get locked into the never-ending upgrade juggernaut. We're basically saddling the Afghans with a multiple million dollar per year licensing burden. As an alternative, I've started evangelizing Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Those of you that know me know I'm a huge FOSS zealot. I've been doing my best to introduce the NMAA CompSci department to Linux, Open Office, Vayatta, MySQL, Java, and the like. In fact, I'm presenting a faculty development workshop on FOSS later this week.

In addition, I now have the job to develop an information paper for LTG Caldwell's Deputy on the pros/cons of Microsoft vs. FOSS. I pitched it to him today and he seemed to like the idea. All the European Officers that have been present in the last few meetings were highly supportive of the idea as well, in fact most of the people I've pitched have been really receptive. The biggest doubters are the legions of IT folks whose job it is to implement the solutions though, and Microsoft is the only answer they know. It looks like I have good top cover, but a steep up hill battle. How liberating would it be as a nation to be able to start from little to no automation and go straight to FOSS?



In between morning and afternoon meetings, we had a bit of time to kill in the green zone, so we decided to head over to the US Embassy and join the Tali banned Cigar Aficionado Club. I'm now a coin carrying life member. It's a group of mostly expatriate civilians contractors and Embassy employees that get together every other week. They have great support from some of the local cigar shops with donations and sponsorship. I even won the grand prize in the raffle, a nice humidor! It's funny what a bunch of guys will come up with when you take away their booze...