I know it has been a while since I posted on here. There hasn't been a whole lot of new stuff going on. I have been running on average a couple of missions a week to look at sites. That can be rewarding as we are helping to hand over the responsibility of security for the Afghans to the Afghans. Our facilities are built by Afghans for the Afghans with the US Army Corps of Engineers providing a technical expertise to the Construction Firms. I decided to post some different photos on this post as these are a little different from the Afghan countryside photos that I have been posting in the past.

Once a month I am able to use the USACE Helicopter to do flyovers of the sites that we are constructing out of my office. This is a pic of me from inside the helicopter!!


This pic was taken on a site visit. Notice the ANA soldier who is supposed to be pulling security for us while we are on site!!! Whats he watching? The back of his eyelids?



We had a mission the other day where we were going into the city and thought we were going to have to wear the clothes of the local populace. This is what an Afghan would wear on a typical day.


This is another pic of Sean and me in our "ManJams" Sean is one of the guys who works in my office. He is a really good guy... Even if he is in the Navy!!!

January 22, 2010

Hello All!!! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! The holidays are over here and everyone in my office is back from leave. My office is responsible for 33 projects totaling $300 Million in construction here in Nanagahar Province. We are building Afghan Police Stations and Afghan Border Police Stations across the province, so that the Afghan people can transition into supporting themselves instead of relying on the Americans to do it for them. With each site that we turn over, we are one step closer to the Afghan populace protecting themselves. We have turned over 8 sites since I arrived in Jalalabad and are scheduled to turn over 14 more sites in the next 90 days. It is very rewarding for our office to see these facilities, which are built by Afghans, turn over to the Afghan people. In most areas the people are excited to be receiving the facilities, but there are instances where you will find the occasional unreceptive police chief, which is usually due to the fact that he didn't receive his kickback.

Afghanistan has a culture that is unlike any I have ever seen. Corruption is the status quo and is accepted as a means of supplemental income. It is common for politicians and military officials to shake down contractors for payments that go straight into their pockets. Torkham Gate for instance is a great example. Torkham Gate is the main thoroughfare connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan bringing at least 25% of all the goods for the country through that checkpoint. I have been told that up to $25 million daily comes through the gate. The governor has been known to take a cut of that off the top, lining his pockets and giving none to the Afghan people. It would be one thing if there was a portion of the Tax Revenue that was coming off the top was going to help the people of Nangahar, like the taxes that we have in the U.S., but when it goes into his pockets is when something is wrong. The people here live in mud huts with no basic amenities, yet they have so much money coming through their province with no ability to benefit. It's things like this that make what the US is doing here so important.

I debate whether or not to include stories like the following one, due to the fact that I don't want people to worry about me back home. But for the third time in the short period I have been here I saw the fruits of all of the prayers from back home. We struggle getting support from the supporting units here in our Area of Operation, unless there is a potential photo opportunity. Then everyone wants to help!!! Last week we were scheduled to turnover one of our sites and as usual one of the supporting units decided that they wanted to go for the photo op. Our office has instituted a policy of allowing our Local Nationals to do the final turnover, giving the smallest amount of visibility to the Corps of Engineers for final site turnovers. We wanted to show the Afghan people that the Afghans were building these sites, not the Americans thus trying to instill a sense of national pride here in Afghanistan. So since we implemented that we decided not to make the trip. The supporting unit here didn't ask us if we were going, and went out on their own, and got blown up. That has now happened three times to me so I guess someone somewhere must be looking after me!!!

School in Afghanistan

Here are two of the outside classrooms that we visited!!!

December 23, 2009

On many of our missions we are able to interact with the Afghan locals. This is sometimes the first and only interaction many locals have with Americans. Recently we visited a school in Muhmand Dara. Like many schools in poverty stricken countries, the school had to be segregated to provide more space; boys went to school in the morning and girls in the afternoon. Even still many of the classes were held outside because of the lack of room.

While at the school we are able to hand out Humanitarian Aid (HA) to the kids. Even though the girls were the only ones in class, the boys showed up quickly to get the soccer balls and backpacks among other things that we were passing out. The locals also gave us a tour of the school where we quickly noticed the shortage of adequate resources for the students. Several classes were sharing textbooks and some didn’t even have notebooks for the kids.

As I have been here in Afghanistan, I have been reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. The premise of the book is how education can promote peace, and how one person can make a difference. It has great principles and is a recommended read to all ages. Because of both of these I feel led to make a difference but I need your support.

I think that education is foundation for a solid future. While a solid future in America is different from that in Afghanistan, education can still improve it. We never stop learning and should never want to stop learning, but it isn’t fair to someone who never gets to start. Education is also an avenue to help bring peace. If we can show the different villages that we travel into that we want to help them, then that also increases the chances that the American soldiers serving today can come home safely!!! The culture here is of a tribal nature, if we can show a tribe that we want to peacefully help them our chances increase when it comes to them helping keep us safe.

The fact is less than 30% of adult Afghans can read. Only about 10% of Afghans make it to high school. These two statistics illustrate how important it is for the Afghans to get that foundation at an early age.

My belief is that we can use education as an avenue for peace. I am initiating a program in several schools across the United States. My hope is to get each child at the school to bring one notebook and one pen to donate to the children of Afghanistan while we are on these missions. For about a dollar per student we can help out these schools and try to make a little bit of difference.

If anyone is interested in getting your school on board or would like more information,
please email me at
stewartcatheyjr@gmail.com

Christmas Tree

December 22, 2009

Let me begin this edition of my blog by apologizing to all who read this for not updating more often. I am sorry for not keeping it better updated, but these past couple of weeks have been extremely hectic. However, I promise to better update it in the future.
Thanks to all who sent Christmas ornaments from the states. I have the best tree in the FOB, and the top of the tree even has a ULM ACE where the Angel normally would sit. It's things like that make spending Christmas away from home a little easier!!!
December is usually hectic as people go on leave and the work that is usually done by 7 or 8 is now being done by 5. Last week I had three Generals in from Washington that I had to brief regarding one of my sites. Whenever stars (Generals) show up people get flustered and you have meetings before a pre-meeting and walk-throughs followed by dress rehearsals. All that being said I really enjoy that aspect of my job and everything went well. I am going to post some pictures tomorrow and update again. But until then I will post a picture of the tree!!! Enjoy!!!