Presidential Palace...AWESOME!!!!

Today was a great day to be a communicator in Afghanistan. If you had asked me a year ago or even a month ago if I would ever get to go inside the Afghan Presidential Palace, I would have laughed. But as of 1035 local Afghan time, I can laugh no more.

Going to the Palace requires some pre-approval and some pre-planning. First, just like going to the White House, no weapons are allowed. Yes, leaving the camp without a weapon does feel weird after 2 months of taking my musket everywhere with me, but hey, the Palace is just a short walk from our camp and is still in the Green Zone, so I felt relatively safe. Once we reached the first checkpoint, the fun began. Our pre-approval was not there, so we were held up. The Presidential Palace is guarded by the Afghan Special Forces and they don’t play. If you aren’t on an approved list or don’t have an approved pass, you don’t get in…period! Of course, I don’t mind being held up due to strong security. It makes me feel good that they take it very serious. On the upside, our escort told us not to worry. In fact, only one time has the right list been at the first checkpoint on all of his previous visits. After about 40 minutes of waiting and multiple phone calls, we finally cleared the first checkpoint. Our walk continued down a long shaded path. It was very pretty and peaceful. In fact, it didn’t even feel like a warzone.

After walking about 300 yards or so, we came to the second checkpoint. This one went fairly easy. A check of the list, we are all on it and inside the perimeter wall we go. Once inside, we were able to bypass what I am told is the first strip search. Yeah for us! We then walked up a drive and around a corner. WOW…what a view. Here is the Presidential Palace with the beautiful Afghan Mountains behind it…still capped in snow! Awesome! Another wall surrounds the actual palace, so even though I thought we were done with checkpoints…another one is coming. Evidence of the long standing wars in Afghanistan can be seen in the damage to the buildings that has been repaired or the repair work that is still going on in the compound. So, we hit our final checkpoint and the list is once again verified. 3 ID checks…and I am still not in the actual Palace yet. At this point, we have to wait for our escort. Now, comes the strip search…or so I thought…thank you LtCol Vrable…I was actually expecting a strip search…it wasn’t actually a strip search. We had to empty our pockets of all things, take off our belts, go through a metal detector, get patted down, and have our things checked. They kept cell phones and 3 of 4 ink pens (I got to keep mine for some reason), everything else we got to carry in with us.

After we cleared security, our escort walked us to the building inside the inner Presidential Palace grounds where our meeting was held. We waited in a very nice sitting room until person we were meeting came to get us. He led us to a conference room where we had tea and proceeded to discuss possible options for the comm build out of President Karzai’s Situation Room. WOW again!!!! I was just in awe that I was actually meeting to discuss it...seriously, I never thought when I came to Afghanistan that I would be meeting with one of President Karzai’s IT consultants to discuss the Afghan President’s situation room. Pretty amazing…or as I said in the beginning of this story….AWESOME!!!!

Convoy with a Twist…How Training and Being Lucky Pays Off!

Today started out like every other Sunday has started for me here…a chance to catch up on rest and sleep in just a bit before I got up and headed to work. I arrived at work at my normal time. Now, I say “my normal time” because apparently I have been coming in 30 minutes late for 2 months on Sundays. Of course, when the Ops Senior is “late”, do his people question him? No, they just say good morning and smile. Okay, well I digress, this story isn’t about being late or on time, it is about training and being lucky.

Since, the political uprising in Kyrgyzstan, new arrivals have been a little out of whack and folks have been stuck waiting for flights at different locations in and out of Afghanistan. It means that if a chance to move closer to your destination comes along…you take it. Well, that is exactly what 3 of our newest NTM-A members did. Trying to get to Kabul from some other location in Afghanistan, they were offered a helicopter ride and took it!

Well, soon after they arrive in Kabul, I get a phone call from our Master Chief saying I need to get a convoy together to go pick up our two new CJ6 guys plus 1 at the airport. No problem, it is an easy convoy, one I have done several times as a driver, a Truck Commander, and Convoy Commander, so in the words of the Army…too easy! I get my team together, brief and we move out. As planned, we complete a smooth trip to the airport and begin our search for the new folks. I check all the usual places only to be told by someone who was traveling with them that they weren’t on the flight. At this point, I am beginning to think we just convoyed to the airport for no reason. I call the Master Chief and he informs me that they are still waiting and to keep looking. Aye, Aye Master Chief. The search continues. In our searching, we have now added an AF Col to the convoy. (He was trained with me at Fort Dix and needs a lift back to Eggers. I have offered him the last seat and he has accepted.)

Now for the twist…I receive a phone call and find out that our personnel flew in on an Afghan National Army helicopter and are waiting for pickup at the ANA side of the airport. Great, I don’t know where the ANA side is. And I soon found out nobody at the KAIA terminal knows either. My first stop, a German coalition NCO or Officer (I’m not sure since he never got up to talk to me and never took his foot of the desk) who was clueless as to the location when I asked him where the ANA planes and helicopters land. Glad he works ISAF travel arrangements at the airport! Yeah for us! (Insert sarcasm sign here). Anyway, I was getting nowhere asking around, so I decided to phone a friend and ask my CJ6 embedded training team members for help. After 10 minutes of confusing directions (my fault, not theirs), I think I understand where to go and we brief everyone and move out. We make the left, then the right past the hospital, then we hit the dirt road, another right, then another right…we are headed back in the direction from which we came…no good. Convoy halt, regroup, I use another lifeline and call my phone a friend one more time. Apparently, I didn’t have the directions straight. I had missed the left behind the dining hall…anyway; we find the secret gravel road out the back of the airport and take it. Yes I say out of the airport, because that is where it took us. Looking for the first left, we continue on past the first left since no one was manning the checkpoint and the gate was closed. We are definitely getting closer to our goal, but we don’t really know it yet!

Now for the lucky…we arrive at the second left and find the entrance to the ANA ramp, only to realize it is a fully equipped ANA training base. Apparently, this is where we train the ANA pilots. This is a high security base. This is a base that requires a vehicle pass to get on. Not today my friends. See, if you pull up to the gate and the captain of the guard cannot get through on his radio to ask if you can get on the base for some unknown reason…and you don’t have an interpreter and they don’t have an interpreter… and you look like you should be allowed to get on the base, show your ID card and look just a little confident (or a bit confused), you can get on this particular base. Of course, once you get on the base, you instantly realize that you have zero clues on where to go.

But I tell you this story is about training too and I have been in the AF for over 20 years and if there is one thing I know, I know where helicopters and planes land! Drive towards the flight line! Which we do, only to realize there are too many possible buildings where they could be waiting…we need some more luck…phone rings and it is the new folks. The Master Chief gave them my number and they are going to guide us in…great...if only we had some green or red smoke to pop…it would be so much easier. So, while talking, I see someone in AF PT gear…the first American we have seen on this ANA base…they have to be able to help. I get out of the truck; start to talk to them when I hear the man on the phone say he can see me. I look to my right, and inside a glass door way waving both arms over his head I see our newest CJ6 member. Success, we can pick up our new guys.

After loading up all their gear, we made the trip back to Camp Eggers without any more twists, training, or luck. Everything went smooth and we all made it back safe…which is why we were all trained in the first place!

Happy and Sad...

Well, I really should be sleeping, but I can’t stop thinking that I really I hope the work I do over here pays off in the end. I have been on a few convoys since I arrived and have seen glimpses of how the Afghan people live, work, drive, walk, play, and just get though life. Today, I was the convoy commander on a trip which got two of my folks off on their return trips home. I was happy and sad to see them off. I get the same feeling every time I convoy. I am happy when I see the children going to school, or playing, or giving us a thumbs-up as we drive by, but I am also sad when I see the conditions in which most Afghans have to live. This place has certainly seen its share of hard times and deserves the best we can give to make it better! While I am frustrated with living conditions, I do see some of our successes. I love it when I see the traffic police directing traffic. Yes, I know this seems like a no brainer, but here very few people follow any basic driving rules and when I see the police turning around the cars going the wrong way down a street, I see a little progress. The same is true when I see them controlling traffic at the traffic circles. When I got here it was a 100% free for all. Now, I think it is only 80%...now that is some progress. I love it when I see the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Afghan National Army (ANA) manning checkpoints together. This is progress since the ANP and the ANA do things differently and don’t tend to get along too well. This little progress tells me that we are inching forward. Of course, I am also frustrated when the ANA or the ANP force their way through traffic blaring their sirens when there really isn’t an emergency for them to get too. While they may be making progress on the drive home or to dinner, it is not the progress they need.

Over the next 120 plus days, I hope I continue to see the inches of progress forward. If I do, then I really think my time here will have been successful. If I don’t, well there is always next tour…