Here are two of the outside classrooms that we visited!!!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
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!!!
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!!!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Pictures November 12
My team and me at an inspection. (We are the ones in the brown hard hats)
Me and a camel
Feeding a camel
MRAP that was hit by an IED.
There really are some pretty places in this country!!!
Me and a camel
Feeding a camel
MRAP that was hit by an IED.
There really are some pretty places in this country!!!
November 12, 2009
Well it has been three weeks since my last post, so I guess I should give all of you an update of whats going on over here. The last time I posted I had just completed a week long visit to Asadabad, and was on my way to Jalalabad. I am now here in Jalalabad and enjoying the work here as well as the people that I work with.
Our primary mission here in Jalalabad is building facilities for the Afghan National Army, Border Police, and local police forces. There are about $250,000,000 worth of contracts that our office is responsible for and it is a constant uphill battle here with local Contractors and the challenges that we are faced with. The culture here is much different than ours and it took me a while and a lot of frustration to realize that. An example of one that we face everyday, is the attempted extortion of our contractors from the Afghan authority figures who are gaining the facility. There was not a day that passed for a couple of weeks where I was ready to start the paperwork to try to cancel projects, because extortion is something that I will not stand for. Luckily, I had people in my office to reel me in and say lets see what we can do about that tomorrow. It's amazing what a nights sleep can do!!! To no fault of the Afghans, they had no idea that they were doing something wrong. Its part of the culture. Its part of being a man here. Apparently you have to show your manhood by getting more out of people, no matter if its money or stuff!!! It took me a couple of weeks to understand that!!! So now that I am learning more about the culture and getting more tolerant of it, my frustration has gone down significantly, and I am becoming more willing to try to work out these issues!!!
My mother tells me that lots of people at home have me on their prayer list and I see evidence of those prayers more and more as I continue to go on missions outside of the wire. The most recent event happened last week while I was on a site visit. I was up at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) north of a Jalalabad to do an inspection of a site that our office was getting ready to turn over to the local police. Our original plans were to fly up north, catch a convoy to the site, then come home. When we got off the helicopter we were informed that the unit we were going to ride with were hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) the night before an were going to spend the day recuperating and we would go out the next day. The IED killed a dog handler and its dog, so they were not going to go out. The convoy commander also made the decision, much to my dislike, that we would leave at 10:00 am instead of 8:00 the next day because they felt like they needed to change up their sequence and try to not be so predictable. When I am going to be out I like to get out early, do my work, and get home. On this convoy I was just a passenger and had no say in the matter, which ended up being a good thing. We were getting ready to leave the next day and were told that our mission had been changed because another unit that had left at 8:00 traveling our same route was hit with an IED and we were needed to provide security until the site could be cleared., which lasted all day. Its instances like those that show me how lucky I am and how much prayer really does work!!!
That is really all that is happening here, I am heading out to another site tomorrow and look forward to getting out a couple of times next week. Thanks to all those who read and I hope that I am giving you all a little insight as to life over here. Til next time...
Our primary mission here in Jalalabad is building facilities for the Afghan National Army, Border Police, and local police forces. There are about $250,000,000 worth of contracts that our office is responsible for and it is a constant uphill battle here with local Contractors and the challenges that we are faced with. The culture here is much different than ours and it took me a while and a lot of frustration to realize that. An example of one that we face everyday, is the attempted extortion of our contractors from the Afghan authority figures who are gaining the facility. There was not a day that passed for a couple of weeks where I was ready to start the paperwork to try to cancel projects, because extortion is something that I will not stand for. Luckily, I had people in my office to reel me in and say lets see what we can do about that tomorrow. It's amazing what a nights sleep can do!!! To no fault of the Afghans, they had no idea that they were doing something wrong. Its part of the culture. Its part of being a man here. Apparently you have to show your manhood by getting more out of people, no matter if its money or stuff!!! It took me a couple of weeks to understand that!!! So now that I am learning more about the culture and getting more tolerant of it, my frustration has gone down significantly, and I am becoming more willing to try to work out these issues!!!
My mother tells me that lots of people at home have me on their prayer list and I see evidence of those prayers more and more as I continue to go on missions outside of the wire. The most recent event happened last week while I was on a site visit. I was up at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) north of a Jalalabad to do an inspection of a site that our office was getting ready to turn over to the local police. Our original plans were to fly up north, catch a convoy to the site, then come home. When we got off the helicopter we were informed that the unit we were going to ride with were hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) the night before an were going to spend the day recuperating and we would go out the next day. The IED killed a dog handler and its dog, so they were not going to go out. The convoy commander also made the decision, much to my dislike, that we would leave at 10:00 am instead of 8:00 the next day because they felt like they needed to change up their sequence and try to not be so predictable. When I am going to be out I like to get out early, do my work, and get home. On this convoy I was just a passenger and had no say in the matter, which ended up being a good thing. We were getting ready to leave the next day and were told that our mission had been changed because another unit that had left at 8:00 traveling our same route was hit with an IED and we were needed to provide security until the site could be cleared., which lasted all day. Its instances like those that show me how lucky I am and how much prayer really does work!!!
That is really all that is happening here, I am heading out to another site tomorrow and look forward to getting out a couple of times next week. Thanks to all those who read and I hope that I am giving you all a little insight as to life over here. Til next time...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Pictures Oct 20
My Crew from the Convoy that got Ambushed
Village in Aghanistan
More Villages
Village in Aghanistan
More Villages
My ride to work!!!
K-Mart is here
So Is Target!!!
Wal-Mart is everywhere!!!
Downtown Asadabad
K-Mart is here
So Is Target!!!
Wal-Mart is everywhere!!!
Update Oct 20, 2009
So It has been almost two weeks since my last entry and a lot has happened. I have traveled throughout Eastern Afghanistan, been shot at, and met a lot of good people and a couple of not so good ones. The last time I wrote I was in Kabul, waiting on a flight and a solid set of orders. I got them and have now relocated to Jalalabad. I live on FOB Hughie which is across the street from Jalalabad Airfield. I am the Resident OIC here and have an outstanding group of people that I am working with in my office, as well as great people within reach to offer help if ever I should need some.
I left Jalalabad on Oct 12 heading for Asadabad and Camp Wright. I was to be there for a couple of days seeing how an operation similar to mine was run. MAJ William Lewis from Camden, AR is the OIC of that office and has another outstanding group of civilians. It was nice to see what right looks like. I spent 7 days there and had a couple of exciting adventures as well as learned alot.
While in Asadabad I was able to go on 2 missions. One mission I was attached to an infantry platoon who was assigned to do a Route Clearance along one of the roads that MAJ Lewis is overseeing the construction on. The second I caught a ride with the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) again to look at a couple of sites that USACE is building in the province.
The primary mission of a Route Clearance Package is to go ahead of the main maneuver elements to ensure that the roads are clear of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and is safe for travel. It is a long and boring mission, but very important.
While attached to the PRT is when all of the fun happened. We were on a mission to check out a couple of projects and a road that we were building in that Area of Operation (AO). We initially began with a Convoy of 5 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. We stopped at a FOB and picked up another group of about 15 vehicles, because apparently we are that popular!!! We went and did what we had to do as far as ensuring that construction was progressing and then began our trek back to Camp Wright. On our way out we led the convoy but coming back we ended up in the rear. We ended up stopped alongside the road in a small village when four Rocket Propelled Grenades were fired at our portion of the convoy. Now we had been engaged and had no choice but to return fire and try to neutralize the threat. The firefight lasted for about ten minutes and ended with a confirmed 5 Anti American Fighters (AAF) Killed and not a single American soldier hurt. This was the end of a long day, we hadn't eaten, and we were tired. Luckily we were able to enjoy the rest of our ride home without incident.
Going out on missions is nice. I get to just be a soldier again, there are no mission briefs to attend and no Operations Orders to write. I enjoy being an officer and love the responsibilities that come with it, but i is also nice to have the opportunity to sit back and just be one of the guys...
I left Asadabad on Sunday and got to Jalalabad Airfield and spent the night there, even though my home was literally across the street. USACE has a contract helicopter that each office uses one day a month to fly around and view their sites. When I say I am lucky to have good people around me, it all showed why on Monday as that was our day with the helicopter. Having never been in the office much less seen any of the sites I asked one of the civilians in the office to help me plan the trip for Monday. And by help me I mean plan it and tell me what we are going to do. She was required to plot our sites on a map, come up with an order and invite the necessary people to fly with us, all while also doing her other job. She did an outstanding job and we had a really successful aerial site visit.
Now it is Tuesday and I have almost gotten settled in. I think tomorrow I will finish cleaning up the 800 emails in my inbox and try to go meet some of the key people on the FOB that will hopefully help us get out to our sites. We also have an Afghan that works in our office that I am getting to teach me Pastho. my goal is to learn a couple of phrases each week, so that I can maybe be at least partially conversational with the people that we do business with. So far I know; Hello, How Are You?, Thank You!, Fine, Goodbye! Which is enough to have a 5 second conversation with the guards at some of our sites.
I will leave you all with a story of an incident that happened before my first mission on Wednesday. I showed up to the group at 9:00 for our mission brief. Following the brief we were getting ready to leave and the 2nd guy in charge says alright everybody get in here. Everybody puts their hand in the middle like most sports teams do before running onto the field before a game. I was expecting some sort of 1-2-3 and then everybody would break it out and yell some type of Unit motto. Like I said I am standing there expecting some sort of chant or something, when the guy say, " Dear God..." He was praying. No loud break out, no lets go kill Al Qaeda, just a prayer to God to watch over us and bring us home from the mission safely. Maybe that is why we didn't get shot at that mission!!! :)
Until next time, please continue to keep me and the rest of the troops over here in your thoughts and prayers , as we continue to try to make a difference.
Stewart
I left Jalalabad on Oct 12 heading for Asadabad and Camp Wright. I was to be there for a couple of days seeing how an operation similar to mine was run. MAJ William Lewis from Camden, AR is the OIC of that office and has another outstanding group of civilians. It was nice to see what right looks like. I spent 7 days there and had a couple of exciting adventures as well as learned alot.
While in Asadabad I was able to go on 2 missions. One mission I was attached to an infantry platoon who was assigned to do a Route Clearance along one of the roads that MAJ Lewis is overseeing the construction on. The second I caught a ride with the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) again to look at a couple of sites that USACE is building in the province.
The primary mission of a Route Clearance Package is to go ahead of the main maneuver elements to ensure that the roads are clear of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and is safe for travel. It is a long and boring mission, but very important.
While attached to the PRT is when all of the fun happened. We were on a mission to check out a couple of projects and a road that we were building in that Area of Operation (AO). We initially began with a Convoy of 5 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. We stopped at a FOB and picked up another group of about 15 vehicles, because apparently we are that popular!!! We went and did what we had to do as far as ensuring that construction was progressing and then began our trek back to Camp Wright. On our way out we led the convoy but coming back we ended up in the rear. We ended up stopped alongside the road in a small village when four Rocket Propelled Grenades were fired at our portion of the convoy. Now we had been engaged and had no choice but to return fire and try to neutralize the threat. The firefight lasted for about ten minutes and ended with a confirmed 5 Anti American Fighters (AAF) Killed and not a single American soldier hurt. This was the end of a long day, we hadn't eaten, and we were tired. Luckily we were able to enjoy the rest of our ride home without incident.
Going out on missions is nice. I get to just be a soldier again, there are no mission briefs to attend and no Operations Orders to write. I enjoy being an officer and love the responsibilities that come with it, but i is also nice to have the opportunity to sit back and just be one of the guys...
I left Asadabad on Sunday and got to Jalalabad Airfield and spent the night there, even though my home was literally across the street. USACE has a contract helicopter that each office uses one day a month to fly around and view their sites. When I say I am lucky to have good people around me, it all showed why on Monday as that was our day with the helicopter. Having never been in the office much less seen any of the sites I asked one of the civilians in the office to help me plan the trip for Monday. And by help me I mean plan it and tell me what we are going to do. She was required to plot our sites on a map, come up with an order and invite the necessary people to fly with us, all while also doing her other job. She did an outstanding job and we had a really successful aerial site visit.
Now it is Tuesday and I have almost gotten settled in. I think tomorrow I will finish cleaning up the 800 emails in my inbox and try to go meet some of the key people on the FOB that will hopefully help us get out to our sites. We also have an Afghan that works in our office that I am getting to teach me Pastho. my goal is to learn a couple of phrases each week, so that I can maybe be at least partially conversational with the people that we do business with. So far I know; Hello, How Are You?, Thank You!, Fine, Goodbye! Which is enough to have a 5 second conversation with the guards at some of our sites.
I will leave you all with a story of an incident that happened before my first mission on Wednesday. I showed up to the group at 9:00 for our mission brief. Following the brief we were getting ready to leave and the 2nd guy in charge says alright everybody get in here. Everybody puts their hand in the middle like most sports teams do before running onto the field before a game. I was expecting some sort of 1-2-3 and then everybody would break it out and yell some type of Unit motto. Like I said I am standing there expecting some sort of chant or something, when the guy say, " Dear God..." He was praying. No loud break out, no lets go kill Al Qaeda, just a prayer to God to watch over us and bring us home from the mission safely. Maybe that is why we didn't get shot at that mission!!! :)
Until next time, please continue to keep me and the rest of the troops over here in your thoughts and prayers , as we continue to try to make a difference.
Stewart
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Some Pictures
I will try to make another entry after this weekend, It looks like I should have alot to write about. I am leaving on Friday Oct 9 for Asadabad, for some more training and should have a pretty event filled weekend. I hope to post at the beginning of next week!!! Until then here are some pictures from the sky on my flights to J-Bad and Mehtarlam.
Aerial view from my plane leaving Kabul
View from the plane on my way to J-Bad
More Aerial Views!!!
And one final pic from the sky!!!
An Air Force Hangar
Aerial view from my plane leaving Kabul
View from the plane on my way to J-Bad
More Aerial Views!!!
And one final pic from the sky!!!
An Air Force Hangar
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Initial Posting
Hello All,
I have now been in country for two weeks and I am yet to get settled due to the constant changes that I have been going through. September 12 was when I officially reported for duty at Fort Benning, GA and following a week of shots, equipment issue, and improving tactical proficiency I finally departed for Kuwait on September 19.
The flight was long but not as bad as it could have been. I was able to get some sleep and enjoy the in-flight entertainment a couple of times. Finally after 12 hours of flight time I landed in Kuwait City where I was picked up by two men and driven to Ali Al Saleem Air Base in Northern Kuwait. Most people spend anywhere from 3-10 days there awaiting their next flight into country. Someone must have been looking out for me as I only spent 5 hours there. At 2:30 am my flight departed for Bagram Airfield (BAF). I have now been in the military for going on 6 years and this is my first flight in any military airplane. The flight to BAF made my flight to Kuwait seem extremely luxurious. It was a long 4 hours but I made it, arriving in Bagram at 7:00 am on Monday.
Following a couple of days of trying to get a seat, I finally was booked on the Corps of Engineers (USACE) contract plane on Friday, Oct 25. I enjoyed getting to relax at BAF but was also anxious to get to Kabul where I was planning on spending my next twelve months.
A common phrase here is, "The battlefield is a fluid thing" and I now know why it is so often used. Since arriving in Kabul I have now been given four different assignments. The initial plan was for me to be assigned to the USACE Headquarters here in Kabul, but after meeting with the Commander here, I was reassigned to Feyzabad as a Resident Officer in Charge (OIC). That lasted about 48 hours and then I was told to get ready to go to Gardez to do the same job. So I then made plans to coordinate my movement to Gardez. Upon arriving in the office the next day I was told that plans had changed again and I was now going to Jalalabad (J-Bad), which I am excited about. J-bad is a city along the Khyber pass that connects Kabul to Peshawar in Pakistan. It is also near Tora Bora, which was were Bin Laden escaped to in early 2002 during Operation Anaconda. The plan is for me to be in J-Bad for 2 months. I expect to be there much longer.
I have now been in country for two weeks and I am yet to get settled due to the constant changes that I have been going through. September 12 was when I officially reported for duty at Fort Benning, GA and following a week of shots, equipment issue, and improving tactical proficiency I finally departed for Kuwait on September 19.
The flight was long but not as bad as it could have been. I was able to get some sleep and enjoy the in-flight entertainment a couple of times. Finally after 12 hours of flight time I landed in Kuwait City where I was picked up by two men and driven to Ali Al Saleem Air Base in Northern Kuwait. Most people spend anywhere from 3-10 days there awaiting their next flight into country. Someone must have been looking out for me as I only spent 5 hours there. At 2:30 am my flight departed for Bagram Airfield (BAF). I have now been in the military for going on 6 years and this is my first flight in any military airplane. The flight to BAF made my flight to Kuwait seem extremely luxurious. It was a long 4 hours but I made it, arriving in Bagram at 7:00 am on Monday.
Following a couple of days of trying to get a seat, I finally was booked on the Corps of Engineers (USACE) contract plane on Friday, Oct 25. I enjoyed getting to relax at BAF but was also anxious to get to Kabul where I was planning on spending my next twelve months.
A common phrase here is, "The battlefield is a fluid thing" and I now know why it is so often used. Since arriving in Kabul I have now been given four different assignments. The initial plan was for me to be assigned to the USACE Headquarters here in Kabul, but after meeting with the Commander here, I was reassigned to Feyzabad as a Resident Officer in Charge (OIC). That lasted about 48 hours and then I was told to get ready to go to Gardez to do the same job. So I then made plans to coordinate my movement to Gardez. Upon arriving in the office the next day I was told that plans had changed again and I was now going to Jalalabad (J-Bad), which I am excited about. J-bad is a city along the Khyber pass that connects Kabul to Peshawar in Pakistan. It is also near Tora Bora, which was were Bin Laden escaped to in early 2002 during Operation Anaconda. The plan is for me to be in J-Bad for 2 months. I expect to be there much longer.
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