The past couple of weeks has be a roller coaster of events. We first flew into Leatherneck which is kind of like the hub for all personnel in country. After spending a few days there to receive in country training ( Counter IED and Law of War stuff) and to figure out if we were going to get on a course for MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected), we decided to leave half of our team there and the other half of us moved to our permanent base of Delaram II. Since that move, we have been working with the team we are replacing to get to know our ANA (Afghan Nation Army) counterparts and get spooled up on what operations their Kandak has been and will be doing. For you reference a Kandak is the same as a Marine Battalion with approx. 500 individuals. The one we are advising is a little different in that it has elements of Engineers, Artillery, Recon, EOD, and support. Because of this, some of the units are spread out across the area of operation. Once we had an understanding of how things were operating here, the Capt., our Engineer Advisor, and myself took a trip to one of the Patrol Bases that houses the Recon unit. A Patrol base is nothing like a regular base. In this case, a families compound was purchased, and then the Marines set-up berms and barriers around it, set up some tents for command and control, and that’s about it. It also housed on of our Marine infantry units, and they were sleeping on cots under some cammie netting. These guys true know what it means to sacrifice for your country. There are no toilets, so you pee in a tube that goes into the ground, and you do your other business in a bag called a WAG BAG and burn it along with the trash. Consequently, the base always smells likes……roses……well not really. We spent a couple of days there, and are not back at our home base. Today, the other teams left to transition back home and we now have full control of the Kandak. Working with the ANA is interesting. They don’t like to jump right into business, so you spend a lot of time drinking Chi (tea like drink) and talking about everything except what you want to. I am going to have to refine my skills at talking in circles to get to THEIR point. I will submit some pictures on a later post that will show a lot of what I have talked about.
