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