Fighting Taliban, recruiting challenges in Marjah

The heat was intense and stunning; as we stepped of the helicopter, the rotors pushed waves of suffocating hot air toward us. Sweating under 40 pounds of body armor, I stumbled over the rocky ground escaping the noise, dust and heat and climbed into the dirty and hot vehicle waiting for us. Baking under the southern Afghanistan sun, Helmand province is flat, dry and dusty. It is also home to Marjah, a district recently in the news as the site of major military operations conducted by U.S. and Afghan forces in order to clear out Taliban insurgents.

On a recent visit to Marjah, my boss, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan commander, met with Afghan National Civil Order Police leadership to discuss challenges in the area.

The training and development goals of NTM-A are multi-faceted, and although great strides have been made, there remain many hurdles to overcome. From recruiting to literacy development, building the Afghan National Security Forces is a complex challenge and nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in the Taliban strongholds of Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

Working side-by-side with U.S. Marine police mentor teams, the ANCOP, an elite police force, are continuing to provide a majority of the security in the area despite large scale operations ending two months ago. The goal is to recruit and train enough Afghan Uniform Police so that the ANCOP units can be utilized elsewhere, or return home for a rest.

The problem, Regional Command – Southwest leaders told us, is with recruiting enough local police officers to take over permanently. Afghan Police, unlike their Army counterparts, are recruited locally, and once they complete basic training, serve in their home districts. Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban; with a strong insurgent presence lingering in there and in Helmand province, police recruitment is a difficult process at best.

During a meeting with Afghan Maj. Gen. Sharif, ANCOP commander, the RC-SW commander, U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Mills, told us his training center at Camp Leatherneck is ready to take on more ANP recruits. The Afghan manning document, or Tashkil, authorizes 311 police officers for Marjah, but there are only 90 currently serving; a class of 32 police officers started their eight-week basic training course June 21, however only eight of the new recruits were from Marjah.

“We keep hearing that there are young men out there who are interested in joining, and are on the fence. Many are concerned about their families and what would happen if they joined,” said Marine Lt. Col. Carlos Orellana, RC-SW C-10 director.

Our visit took us to Combat Outpost Turbett, a small U.S. Marine post in Marjah where the Marine PMT’s live and work with ANCOP forces. From there, we walked through the village directly outside the post. Everywhere we went, we drew attention, and some friendly stares; a few villagers came up to shake hands with the Afghan and U.S. military leaders. On a stop in an unfinished building where Afghan police were taking shelter from the sun, little kids came up to us, curious as always. One little boy pointed at me and asked, “Is that a woman?” Sigh. I’m not sure if it was the armor I was wearing or just the fact that a woman walking around on the street with a group of men is a very rare sight. In fact, during our entire time down there, I didn’t see any women or even the little girls that I typically see out playing on the street.

While we were talking to the boys, me kicking myself for not bringing candy, the sudden burst of gunfire broke through our conversation. Everyone stopped, and in the silence one of the boys said what we were all thinking, “Taliban” with a scared look on his face. Turns out there was a gun fight taking place in the street near-by, so after the marines and Afghan police cleared our new route, we headed back to the combat outpost. Gunfire broke out again during our stop at the new government district headquarters; this time we were getting into our MRAP’s when the gunner in my vehicle shouted down “Contact to the south, we’re getting contact to the south.”

I twisted in my seat to see Afghan police running to get into defensive positions and ducking as bullets hit the walls around them, sending up plumes of dust. Ordered to stay in the vehicle, I could only watch and try to get a few pictures through the dusty window; the gunner was told not to engage unless our vehicle took a direct hit. In those few minutes, I could fully understand the frustration many Marine and Army ground forces say they feel with the restrictions on enemy engagement.

Our visit only highlighted the challenges facing us as the U.S. and Coalition forces work with the Afghan government to create a safe and stable presence in the area. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot more time and effort from the Afghan government, military and civilian population, to completely remove the grip the Taliban has on the area. The civilians may be tired of fighting, but their fear of Taliban retaliation and their lack of education keep them repressed.
When it comes to securing their provinces, Afghan leaders, both civilian and police, recognize the challenges facing them and they seemed, more than anyone, to want to bring peace and stability to their people.

In my father's eyes

Sometimes it’s the oddest things that can remind you of a loved one, a song, a person, a place. For me it’s the sound of a train whistle or a motorcycle revving, the scent of a cigar or burgers cooking on the grill that bring back memories of my father.

I arrived at Eggers the day before what would have been my dad’s 59th birthday, so he was on my mind a lot during my first few weeks here. While I still think of him constantly, the pace of work soon distracted me, as it did during my first deployment to Afghanistan, during which my dad passed, and at the time I was grateful for return to the deployment tempo. So the other day, I was a little surprised to find myself thinking about my dad while flying down to Helmand province with my boss and his staff. I was in full work mode, writing notes and thinking about what I would try to get photos of, while listening to my boss talk to his staff about the day ahead, and I was reminded so much of my father. They don’t look alike, and while he served in the Navy, my dad was nowhere near the rank of general, but all the same, my dad had a similar commanding presence of my current boss.

My dad was a tall, broad-shouldered man with red hair and large features. When I was young, he was a giant and when I was older he was the man I most wanted to impress, with my accomplishments in school and then in the Air Force. I know he wasn’t perfect, and he had his flaws, but people gravitated toward him. He had a way of making people feel comfortable, to tease them and joke and tell stories until you were on the floor laughing, barely able to breathe. His self-deprecating humor and story-telling ability are things I miss almost constantly.

But even more, I miss something I took for granted when I was young: the opportunity just to talk to him, to get his advice and perspective. I found as I grow older myself (and supposedly more wiser) I valued the inputs my father had on my life more and more, and I wish I could still have him in my life, to talk with him, to bounce ideas off him and to just have him listen and be there.

I wonder what he would think about the decisions I’ve made and how my life has changed in the two years he’s been gone - getting stationed in California, getting divorced, starting my master’s program, running my first marathon - and what he would think about my being in Afghanistan again.

All I know is as I sat on that plane, I was overcome by a longing so fierce for my father, that I had to fight back tears. It took me a long time to be able to talk about my dad without crying and even longer to look at his pictures. It’s been two years since we lost my dad, and while the pain lessens over time, I miss his presence in my life every day.

A true partnership

“Oh my god. I’m going to fly right out the back of this thing,” I thought. On jell-o legs I clung for dear life to what I termed the ‘oh sh&t’ handle the gunner pointed out, braced myself against the tug of the wind and snapped picture after picture out the back of the Osprey as we zipped across Helmand province.

Not quite a helicopter and not quite a traditional airplane, the Marine-owned V-22 Osprey is something I soon learned was a very cool aircraft. When I told my co-workers what I’d be traveling in, they were pretty envious, so I was expecting something pretty neat and the Osprey definitely didn’t let me down. Operating as a helicopter when taking off and when making vertical landings, the Osprey can convert mid-air to a turboprop aircraft for faster and more fuel-efficient flight; it also allows the aircraft to perform rolling take-off and landings. When the aircraft makes the change, it almost feels like it stops completely and you get the brief moment of weightlessness, followed by a powerful surge, where, if you happen to be standing on the edge of the gunner platform, you feel like you’re going to be sucked right off. I wasn’t sure if I was more worried about me, or my very-expensive camera, flying out.

The purpose of our visit was for Gen. William Caldwell IV, commander of NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan, to get a better picture of how the Marines in the south were partnering with the Afghan National Police. Our journey took us from Camp Leatherneck to Forward Operating Base Delhi in Garmsir district of Helmand Province to Delaram where a unit of Afghan National Auxiliary Police live and work.

One of the biggest goals of NATO Training Mission is get the Afghan National Security Forces up and running so they can train and equip their own forces and secure their own country. So far, more attention, time and money has been spent on the Afghan National Army and they are far more capable than their police counterparts, something that has been noticed and mentors and trainers are working alongside the police to bring them up to speed. This pairing up is exactly what the Marines of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of Camp Lejune, N.C., are doing in the south of Afghanistan.

At FOB Delhi, the Marines have created a police mentoring team (PMT) that is embedded with the ANP, living and working alongside them. This, they found, has been successful and plans are underway to create more PMT’s at the police district centers. The police and the local population see that the Marines are in it with them; they are living in the same conditions, they are training the police hands-on and are eating, sleeping and patrolling together and this, more than anything, has had a positive effect on the reception U.S. forces have received. The police recruits see that we are here to help them, we won’t abandon them and that we’re trying to improve security in their country, now and for a lifetime. But let me tell you friends, I will NEVER complain about deployed conditions ever again. These Marines are tough – it was 85 degrees at 10 a.m. and as I ran around taking pictures in my body armor, I thought I was going to pass out. These guys live with no air conditioning, no dining facility where someone else makes the food, no real toilet that flushes and hot water with the turn of a knob. They are truly hard-core.

As the Marines and the ANP took us on a tour through the village outside FOB Delhi, it wasn’t obvious at first (I was too busy keeping the sweat out of my eyes) but soon I noticed that there were no women around. I saw two girls, too young to be in burqa’s, but other than that, nary a woman in sight. It was something I had gotten used to on my last deployment to Afghanistan, where I traveled to rural provincial areas like Teg Ab, Panjshir and Sharana, but in Kabul it’s quite common to see women walking around, both in burqa and in more western-style dress of jeans and dresses, with a simple scarf over their hair. Also noticeable was a less-friendly atmosphere; the people, while not hostile, were definitely less open and quick to interact with us as we walked through the town, even the children, who were curious but didn’t come up to us like usual. When one of the interpreters came up to me and quietly suggested I put something over my hair, I complied, although I don’t like wearing a hat when shooting; the brim always hits the camera.

In addition to the PMT station where the Marines live and work with the police, we saw their Operational Coordination Center-District, which is essentially an operations center where the Afghan police can communicate emergency situations around their district; and the Afghan National Auxiliary Police station, where again, Marines are working side-by-side with the Afghan forces.

Overall, despite the heat, it was a good trip. It’s also interesting to see other parts of the country and get a feel for how different life is for the people here in the rural and urban areas, and to see what progress has been made by our efforts. I only wish there was some way to show the Afghan people that we don’t want to make them into America and we don’t want to be in their country permanently, but we just want to leave them a country that is safer, more stable and secure, where they can live and work in peace, and have a future other than poverty and violence. We just want to give them a chance.