Day Forty Five

I woke up to another beautiful day today. It was sunny and the temperature was mild as I made my way to the shower and went through my morning routine. I remember thinking that it felt like a spring day in New York almost...mid-60's and no humidity...I guess I better enjoy it now.

We went over to the ANA PA office this morning because the Command Sergeant Major for NTMA and CSTC-A (I really don't want to spell them out - just know that this is the top enlisted guy in these parts right now) was here to visit with the ANA Command Sergeant Major to talk about some ANA issues. I was there to train with my ANA PA guys, but that last all of 5 minutes when my PA guy just left the room the meeting was in. Go figure. Actually, I found out later that they had another shoot to go to. They didn't really see the importance of this meeting and didn't view it as news. Interesting. The top enlisted guy in Afghanistan is here talking to your top enlisted guy about YOUR Army's issues. That's not important?! Really?

I documented the meeting myself and after it was over, I conducted an interview with the ANA Sergeant Major. The Army Sergeant Major had to leave, as the roar of MRAP vehicles there to pick him up could be heard from inside the building. So, I did the interview and brought all the footage back to our office to start digitizing and working on it. I had Bari translate the ANA CSM's interview so I could use a voice-over to post to YouTube in English (it will be up there tomorrow). I didn't get it quite finished, and decided I needed a break. To the gym I went.

I was sitting on eighty nine miles to start the day. Sandy was at ninety five and was sure to hit one hundred today for sure. Chris is back a little ways, and wasn't a threat to hit one hundred for a few days with the schedule he's on for marathon training. So...as I left for the gym a little earlier than usual, I thought about a comment I made to Chris a couple days ago. The comment was, "I will be the first to break one hundred miles." I didn't honestly think I would be at the time, but I thought about it long and hard as the dirty rubber mat underneath my feet started spinning at the 7.0 level I had set it on.

After three miles, I felt real good and knew I had a shot to go the full eleven miles I needed to get to one hundred total. I knew that Sandy would run at least five later in the day when she works out, so I could definitely be the FIRST to break one hundred...as long as I do the eleven I needed. Three miles turned into six miles...six miles turned into nine miles. At this point, I had to start the machine over again and tell it I wanted to run for twenty more minutes. The maximum time the machine will let you run is ninety minutes at one time. Well, the first ninety minutes only got me to nine miles, so...I did what I had to do. The last couple miles weren't as bad as I had thought they'd be. Sure, I was tired and my knees ached, but I did run the eleven miles needed to be the first one in the office to one hundred miles total. I was happy. One hundred miles in twenty eight days (not counting the days off I took - so it was actually less than twenty eight days)...not too bad...and I'm down twelve pounds. That is not the end of the story however. Sandy did run this afternoon, and she had seen my one hundred prior to running herself. She was sitting on ninety five miles, and I knew she'd just go run six miles to break one hundred herself AND maintain the lead. She did. I got my photo first though. HAHAHA I also got an updated one after she ran too...ya know...just to be fair.

I worked some more on my video, but just wasn't feeling it tonight. We went to dinner, watched a movie in the office, then everyone went their separate ways like usual. So here I sit, trying to keep this damn thing up to date. It's tough sometimes with the work picking up here, the amount of people waiting for computers growing, and the internet connection being so slow because of it. I'll take what I can get though. It's better than nothing.

Today was a pretty good day. It seems like the days are moving along, and they don't seem so much the same like the "Groundhog's Day" mode I was in early on. Things are good here. We're progressing and doing many "firsts" here. It feels good to be a part of that, and set the bar for those that follow. I have a great team here and it's nice to get up in the morning and be happy to go to work. Any of my Airmen will tell you that I'm big about that for them. If you wake up in the morning and hate going to work to do what you do...well...I just can't imagine it. I have the greatest job in the Air Force and am thankful every day that I'm not smart enough to be a 3C0 computer operator and washed out of that tech school before retraining into the video field. [OK, I know the comments are coming about that one - I don't go around "bragging" about that one!] My wife is a 3C0 too...so don't think I don't hear about it all the time! Regardless of that, I love my job and it was just meant to be this way. I've been very successful despite many ups and downs in the past seventeen years, and now I get to teach NCO's from another country how to do what I do. Amazing.

Tomorrow will be here soon, so it's time for this one hundred mile runner to get to bed (ok, I'm bragging...I just ran eleven miles, give me a break). I'll do my best to keep this updated daily, but as I've said, there might be a few things going on here to prevent it. I'll do what I can though. Again, I'm thankful for what I do have here, and if I can get on once a week...at least it's something.

Days Thirty Nine - Forty Four

WOW. Seems like forever since I wrote my last post on day thirty eight. Things are happening here finally, so it's been harder to find time to get in here to post my daily blog messages. Plus, the internet connection is getting worse and worse here now that more people are coming to camp. But, I'll try to catch everyone up on what's been going on.

The weather has taken quite a dramatic turn for the better as of late. It's been near or over seventy degrees for the past few days, and looks like that is going to continue. I don't want to jinx it, but I think winter is finally behind us. It's been beautiful outside, but makes you really wonder about the summertime here. I've heard that 120 degrees is not out of the question. OUCH.

Work has been good. We have alot going on now, and you can see it all by logging into our Facebook and YouTube pages at:

Facebook - RC North PAAT
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/TheRCNorthPAAT

After the session we had with our ANA PA soldiers where I had to be a little bit more "firm" than normal, things have progressed rather well. I've trained them quite a bit on shooting techniques, camera angles, camera setup, importing and digitizing video, and some basic editing techniques. It's fun to see the excitement in their eyes once they finally start to catch on to things and can do them on their own. Of course there are problems initially, but for the most part, they're getting it down pretty good.

We're working on a couple projects right now. One is the video of "A Day in the Life of an ANA soldier" that I have mentioned before. The other is a promotional video for a new concept just added to the ANA; allowing more women in the military. We've done interviews with commanders and women already, and have put some things together to get on Afghan news to promote more women joining. It's interesting, as the videos that I work on in my little office can help boost the numbers of the Afghan Army, and ultimately help the Army secure their country. The "big picture" sure is fascinating when you stop and think about it for a second.

I've been running still. My "runner's knee" hasn't been too bad after I took those couple days off a couple weeks ago. I'm up to eighty nine miles now, and in a distant second behind Sandy. Chris is still doing his marathon training, but know that he could run circles around me if he wanted to - like I've said before. Chris and I are lifting together now too, so I'm getting back into the weights like I should be, along with the running. It feels good. I plan to be in pretty good shape when I leave this place in a few months.

Work, work, work. That's what I'm here for, and I'm glad we're finally getting into things, and glad our ANA guys are receptive to what we're trying to teach them. We have some pretty lofty goals set for ourselves over the next few months, but I'm sure we can achieve them. Much of what we do depends on things we cannot control, so we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm alive and well and happy...and making a difference I think. That's what I'm here for.

Day Thirty Eight

I woke up this morning after an amazing night's sleep. It's getting warmer here, and the heaters are working good in my hut. I had some back problems yesterday that were bothering me, so I took some medication before bed and woke up feeling great.

The weather was fairly decent outside and the bathroom/shower facility was back up and running. Did I mention that I had to walk across camp yesterday because my bathroom/shower facility was "out of order?"

I got to work and Rohullah Amin showed up shortly afterwards. We sat down and went over basic editing information and I
taught him how to import video and start laying shots down on a timeline. He is the type person that just wants to play, so it was hard keeping him tempered for a while. Once I did finally cut him loose to try and do it on his own, he did very well. Despite not being able to read English and read all the things in the program, Rohullah Amin does a good job memorizing what I do instead. It's an amazing thing. Just think about it. Try to navigate from your home page to Google to search for something in particular, type in what you're looking for, search all the links it provides, then choose the correct one...and do it while all the words are in Dari of Pashto language! I couldn't do it. That's kind of what he's dealing with in this program, and his only choice is to memorize the steps, or learn the words. Rohullah Amin does both.

He was very excited about making things flip and turn. I think he might've used every single possible effect there was in the program's effect palette. I taught him how to create new titles and put them over video. He struggled with "in" and "out" points in order to select the clips he wants to use. He kept hitting the "in point" and "out point" at the same point in the tape, which wouldn't allow him to do anything. I finally explained it to him so he understood. I told him to hit the "in point" at the beginning of the General's speech and then hit the "out point" at the end of his speech. Then I told him that he was now going to select everything in between. He finally got it. It was cool to see the smile on his face when he figured things out. He kept saying "Brother good teacher" to me. He calls me "brother" all the time. I just kept telling him that it wasn't me...he was the one doing the work.

Three hours went by and we finally parted ways. I went and got Rohullah Amin and our interpreter lunch, so we ate before they left. I walked them to the gate and Rohullah was very happy. I think he now realizes what potential he has and can run with it. He told me that he was going to go back to his office and put together a video for me to review when I go there tomorrow morning. Perfect. Now he's getting it. WE'RE TRAINING! Sweet.

My time in the gym was good tonight. I went earlier than normal, and got a great arm workout in after running three miles (I wasn't feeling it today - go figure, right?) After that, I hit my abs good again. We went to have dinner after that, which was different for me, as I normally work out late and don't eat with everyone else. It was nice to sit and relax. After that, we went back to the office and watched a movie and Sandy showed us this site called "People at Wal-Mart." WOW. If you haven't seen that site, go check it out. You'll see what I mean when I say, "WOW."

That's all for today. I'm anxious and excited to see what Rohullah Amin has for me to review tomorrow. It's great that he has the initiative and great that we're headed in the right direction. More training is needed, but we're getting there at a little faster pace than we were before. That's a good thing and hopefully a sign of things to come. Regardless, I'm still doing what I do...and doing it one step at a time, one day at a time.

Day Thirty Seven

Apparently, someone left the door to our hut open in the middle of the night, as the temperature inside was a frigid twenty degrees when I woke up this morning. I might as well have been outside. It was so cold in our hut that the heater was turned off due to "defrosting." Yeah.

Today was "tough love" day. The ANA guys were about to see a side of me that most don't normally see. I didn't plan to get too crazy with it, but I was going to be firm. I've given in to their social pleasantries for too long already, and this time...I was going to get my point across.

We got to the ANA office and exchanged our normal "good morning" greetings. Sandy kind of started the conversation off and it went from there. We talked about them leaving the ceremony yesterday and their mismanagement of the situation. Of course, there was an excuse...everyone was "off" of work yesterday. I told them that if two of them were there, FOUR of them could've been there! Who made the decision for two people to show up? If you made two people work that were supposed to be "off," why not make four people work? We also explained that they shouldn't have ALL left the ceremony, and someone should've stayed behind to finish the job. That, they admitted to and said they'll make better arrangements next time. Again, since everyone was off work and not in the office, there was no one available to go on the next shoot with the General when he left...hence them all leaving the ceremony. Trackin' so far?

I finally started getting into some of the things I have been feeling over the past month or so. I let them all know everything I was thinking, from my thoughts of them just going through the motions and that they'll go back to doing what they want when I leave...to Rohullah Amin's "I know it already" attitude...to my thoughts of the fact that I feel I'm wasting my time and I could be at home with my kids instead. That turned some heads. They knew I was serious. Sandy was talking about things that she's said numerous times already that they still don't get, and Chris was piping in information too about them pretty much pulling their heads out of their asses. We were all getting into it at this point, and they were all listening...for the most part. The deputy was flipping through a magazine the whole time, but caught a fierce glare from me at one point and realized that maybe he should stop reading it. That lasted...for about thirty seconds.

One of the main problems we heard during the course of the conversation was that they are there to document their commander, Major General Murad. Sandy explained to them that that is NOT their job, and that they're failing at their job. Their job is to report news, not be the General's very own little papparazzi. I think it's a matter of not knowing in some aspects, as they don't think outside the box too much. They don't see the stories for what they really are. Yesterday was a perfect example. They left that ceremony to go follow General Murad around. They didn't have any idea why, they just knew they were going to go follow him with cameras. And, when we asked them today, they did nothing with the video and photos but give them to General Murad for him to have. WHAT?! That's not your job. Your job is to get news out to media outlets. So, we explained it. Why did General Murad leave (as rude and disrespectful as it might've been)? He left to go visit with a U.S. General to talk about new facilities and weapons and how they were going to expand and add another ANA corps in the southern region. OK, now why is this important? It's important for the security of Afghanistan. And why is the security of Afghanistan important? So the Afghan civilians can live a better life and the country can function on its own. BAM! There's your story. It's not about GENERAL MURAD. Find out where he's going, why he's going there, what he's doing, how it's affecting them, who he's talking to...THAT'S your story.

We talked about many things, and I could go on and on. I have to say that the end result was much different than I anticipated. At one point, LtCol Naim (who seemed to be our only ally in the office this whole time) seemed very frustrated, and that worried me. I even turned to Chris at that time and said, "if we lose him, we're through." But when it was all said and done, the dynamic changed completely. Next thing I know, Chris is teaching two of them how to work with a camera and one interpreter was helping, Sandy is talking with LtCol Naim, his deputy, and Nasir about training schedules while the other interpreter was helping them out. I was sitting there on the floor taking photos of it all and couldn't help but think to myself, "Could it really have been that easy?" All this time we've gone around and around...did I just have to be firm and take control? Did WE just have to be firm and take control? We let them know that they were doing things wrong and failing as a section. We let them know what their mission was and told them they weren't doing completing it. We told them that they were lazy. We told them they had mismanagement issues. We told them everything. It was amazing to sit there on the floor and watch the transformation. It was almost like one of those moments in a movie where you see a guy in a cubicle in the middle of a busy office, where everything around him is moving like clockwork. I was that guy in the middle, and this...this was clockwork.


Again, it was so unexpected to have things play out the way they did. As I was walking out, LtCol Naim stopped me and told me that he liked the things I said and how I said them. He told me that if I wanted to come in and "control" his office anytime, I was welcome to do so. He also said that he wanted me to go to the Brigade level PA and "use same voice" on them. That was a shock. Sandy, Chris, the interpreters and I walked away so happy today. In fact, it was probably the happiest I've been with them yet. To go from one extreme to the other in a matter of an hour was quite amazing. I'm not saying it will stay this way...but I'll take it while I got it. At least we have figured them out a little bit, ya know?

I went to the gym today and got in a good back workout. Once a treadmill opened up, I got on and felt pretty good. I felt real good in fact. Eight miles later, I was in "cooldown" mode and then hit my abs good. It's still strange to me how I can struggle to run three miles one day, then run like the wind the next day.

The rest of the night was uneventful, as usual. I get to work with Rohullah Amin tomorrow and get some training done, so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully he'll have a good attitude since everyone seems so motivated now after our "discussion." I still can't believe it worked out as well as it did. It's amazing the things you find out about in this culture every day. Today was no different.

Day Thirty Six

Today was an interesting day. There was a Change of Command Ceremony for the Senior Mentor to the ANA Commander, General Murad. See, even the commanders have their own mentors teaching them how to do things...it's not just me. The outgoing senior mentor was a German colonel, and the incoming senior mentor was also a German colonel. In this part of the country, the main forces are led by the Germans, so it's only fitting that the Afghan senior mentor be German.

We got to the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) building about an hour early and I set up all my equipment. I got the tripod ready and positioned the wireless microphone on the podium. Since there was no microphone in place, and nowhere for me to clip my own microphone, one of the German officers went into the building and brought me out a tack. He pushed the tack into the wooden podium, giving me a place to clip my microphone. "Thanks," I said as he walked away with a smile on his face. That was pretty cool of him to do.

I was ready to go about twenty minutes prior to showtime. Rohullah Amin and our ANA guys were supposed to meet us at 0945 the office to be at the event at 1000 to setup. They never showed.

At 1100, General Murad showed up and so did our ANA guys. The event started and I could still see Rohullah Amin setting up his camera. He had missed the beginning. So, as you can imagine, I'm already not happy with him. I told him yesterday that I wanted him to be here with me an hour early and I was going to watch him set everything up. Obviously that didn't happen. It's getting to be a habit that he doesn't listen to me. That will change.

As the ceremony progressed, I watched Rohullah Amin. He kept his camera locked in on General Murad sitting as a spectator, and didn't move. I finally got his attention and told him that I had my camera on the main speaker, and he needed to use his camera to move around and get shots of the formations, flags, and anything else that would help support us editing the video. He gave me his typical "I know what I'm doing" look, and I could really feel my blood start to boil. Finally, he took the camera off the tripod and moved around.

Eventually, Rohullah Amin ended up back at his tripod with the camera pointed at General Murad. He just doesn't get it. That event wasn't about him. It was about the incoming and outgoing mentors that are going to be working with him. The mentality in this PA office needs to change. They are not General Murad's own personal photo and video service. They aren't doing their jobs getting the word out to the public about what's going on.

With about twenty minutes to go in the ceremony, General Murad's aide went up to him at his seat and shortly after that, the General left. Now...can you guess what our ANA PA guys did? Of course. They left too. Are you serious? You're all just going to leave in the middle of a ceremony? It was bad enough that General Murad disrespected them by leaving himself, but the PA guys left too? ALL OF THEM? so much for that story. Hell, the incoming senior mentor didn't even give a speech...why would he when his "mentee" isn't even there to say anything to? At this point, I was very angry. There was no organization, no efficient way for our guys to handle two events at the same time. As it was, LtCol Naim was there with a still camera shooting photos (like we told him to never do again), and only Rohullah Amin was there shooting video (after we told them to have one video and one photo person IN ADDITION to LtCol Naim the day prior). Frustrating. I still can't believe they all just up and left. The video Rohullah Amin shot is worthless without the entire event being captured. When will they realize that their job is not all about their commander? I did a four minute video on the event, and you know how much of it contained General Murad? Eighteen seconds. I can't wait to tell them that. It was never about him. Are these PA guys ever going to change their way of thinking? We'll find out tomorrow. I've had enough. I went ahead and did my own thing. I shot what cutaways I could to make the video work, and put it together tonight. It worked. The problem is, that's not what the Air Force sent me here for. I can still do my job and do it well. I know how to do this stuff. THEY don't. I'm here to teach, not be just a videographer. I don't mind just being one, but that's not what I'm here for. I really need these ANA guys to help me, help them.

I didn't run today. My knees are ok, but I'm really just being lazy. I'll make up for it tomorrow hopefully.

The day was frustrating, but I'm not down about it. Tomorrow, I'll deal out some "tough love" and see how it goes. Right now, I just don't know what they're thinking. I'm going to be straight-forward and honest and not worry so much about being "social" and saying the right things. I can't coddle these guys orelse they'll never change. I'll give it to them straight and see if they can handle it. Only time will tell.

Day Thirty Five

Today was kind of a slow day. I did alot of research on this script I'm putting together for this "Day in the Life of an ANA soldier" video. There's only so much I can do when I don't know a whole lot about what their normal days are actually like.

We got to see Ryan off today. Ryan was the Army photographer that was here supporting the brigade stuff. He was a reserve recall guy, and is on his way out of Afghanistan and out of the military altogether here soon. We didn't have the same mission as Ryan, but he still felt like part of the family as we were all in the same office and he's about as good of a young guy as there gets. I'm happy that he is finally out of here, and happy for him that he gets the opportunity to begin a new chapter of his life. Grow out that beard and send photos, buddy.

About the time we saw Ryan off, Rohullah Amin and Bari showed up. I talked to Rohullah Amin about his experiences in boot camp and about the Muslim religion - so I could wrap my mind around how things work - in order to try to put this script together. It really is interesting to hear how much these guys pray every day, and the rituals involved in it. I'm not one to judge anyone by what they believe in, but it's just interesting to hear how different things are. Life is centered around religion and culture here. Certainly unlike the U.S. for the most part.

After an hour or so, Rohullah Amin and Bari left and not much else happened today. I went to the gym and ran three miles, which turned out to be quite the chore. I really struggled with it today. I'm not sure what it is from day to day, but some days it's easy to run seven or eight miles...other days (like today), it's hard to run three. At least I did it. I got in an ok chest workout and killed my abs again like yesterday. I'm not working out heavy like I normally do just yet, but I'm losing weight and getting pretty cut up. I can't complain so far.

Dinner was pretty good and I watched a movie in the office. That's pretty much it for today. Hopefully the internet will allow me to post this tonight. The connection has been real bad here lately, and will continue to get worse as our small camp prepares to double in population. God help us. Another halfway decent day overall...hopefully this keeps up for a while.

Day Thirty Four

I woke up fairly early this morning, as the temperature had dropped significantly through the night and once again, my hut was extremely cold. It made it hard to sleep, and I hadn’t layered up quite as much as I had done on previous cold nights. I got up and trudged to the shower like normal and had just enough hot water to do what I had to do. It’s becoming a trend here, as hot water seems to now be becoming a luxury more than the norm.

Snow was falling as I walked to the office. .Once I got there, I grabbed my vest and helmet and my M4 out of its case. I strapped my M9 to my leg just like I do every day and made sure I had my loaded clips with me. We were headed out on a convoy this morning to the Afghan National Police camp at the Regional Training Center.

We walked to the motor pool, where we were given a pre-departure briefing - same stuff as usual - preparing us for the worst-case scenario. No big deal. We loaded up the MRAP’s and were on our way. The weather seemed to be getting progressively worse, but nothing that this monster vehicle couldn’t handle.

I’ve heard many stories about the Afghan National Police. If you look them up in Wikipedia, there’s a section just about “corruption.” Those are all the stories I’ve heard too. Police shaking down innocent civilians and taking their money, police shooting innocent people for no reason, etc., etc. Apparently, there are a good number of Taliban members throughout the ANP also, which didn’t do well for my frame of mind about going there to talk to the ANP General and offering help to the ANP Public Affairs office. To put it into perspective for you, we were told that once we get in the ANP compound, we were to have our weapons loaded and off safety with a round in the chamber. That says it all, doesn’t it? And to think…the Army guys were on their way to Marmal (Mazir-E-Sharif airport), and we were just hitching a ride. They dropped us off. I was a little uneasy not having all that combat experience sitting outside waiting for us in case something bad should happen. Oh well…I’ve been through thirty days of Combat Skills Training with the Army…I must be a trained killer by now. (Yes, that was sarcasm – anyone reading this who went through CST with me is laughing, trust me.)

As it turned out, the trip was rather uneventful. It was a meet-and-greet essentially. We went there and handed over the equipment to the Regional PAO and met the General of the ANP. [If you remember the story from a week or so ago, this was the same General that threatened to fire the provincial PAO if he didn’t give us our equipment back. We were there to give them the equipment and meet the General.] The visit was pleasant really. Walking into the office was much like walking into one of those old trailers that you might find at a run-down used car dealership. At least, until you walked into the General’s office. His office was decked out in leather couches, with nice carpets on the floor and crystal vases filled with treats on the nice, glass tables. He had weapons and nice photos hanging from the walls, with framed photos of him with Americans all over the place. Based on my experience and what I saw, this guy was legit. He got our equipment back in a heartbeat (albeit maybe for his own personal gain and/or self-promotion), and he seemed to be liked my many Americans. He was very thankful for us, and our willingness to help stand-up the ANP PA section. We drank Chai and talked for a while and that was that. It was a brief meeting, but good for all of us I think. It’s always nice to put a name with a face, regardless of who it is. The PA guy took photos of all of us with the General, so I got him to take some with my camera too (I can really see in these photos that all this running is making me lose weight). Now I have photos with most of the top guys in the region, and maybe two of the most corrupt. I'd like to think otherwise, but in this country I've discovered, sometimes things aren't really as they seem. I won't judge though...at least, not yet.

The convoy rolled back through to pick us up a couple hours later and we were on our way home. An Army officer rode back with us, and Chris had the amazing opportunity to ride in the seat right below where the gunner stands (see my Day One comments to learn more about this particular seat). It’s not comfortable by any means, and the mere thought of what the gunner might have eaten the night before rearing its ugly head was enough to make you hate it that much worse. Yes, in that seat, your face is conveniently located at “butt” level and only a couple inches might separate your nose from his back beltloops. Poor Chris.

We made it back to Camp Spann and it was nice to get out of the gear. I got back to the office and started researching some information for the “Day in the Life of an ANA Soldier” video that I’m going to be working on soon. I have to write a script for it, but really have no idea where to even begin. It would be easier if I understood more about what they do during the course of a day, but I really don’t. Oh well. I’ll figure it out. The video could be a vital tool in combating the Taliban in this country. I think I mentioned it before, but the Taliban often sends out messages to the Afghan civilians that Americans are trying to push Christianity on the Afghan soldiers, and the Taliban tries to make the civilians believe the ANA soldiers aren’t Muslim, so they will be against them. This just isn’t true. So, my video will be about the life of an ANA soldier, to include their religion, how and where they pray, and will show a truthful picture of what the ANA soldiers really do and believe. The video could really change things and have a monster global impact. I’m excited about being the guy to produce it for them. I’ll get it started someway…somehow. So I worked on research for a while and exported some of the videos I’ve done for Sandy, so she could post them on our new Facebook and YouTube sites. I actually felt productive today.

I went to the gym to run and do some work on my abs. I was sitting at fifty six miles, so I did a nice easy four miles to get me to sixty. It’s so nice to say that four miles is “easy.” After that, I did some ab work and then came back to eat dinner.

Not much else going on after that. It is bitter cold here right now, and I’m not looking forward to going back to my cold hut for the night. I will definitely be layered up before getting into bed. It’s the coldest that it’s been here so far, so we’ll see what happens. It’s supposed to warm up later in the week, so I’ll deal with it now while I have to. I can’t help but think about all the Afghan people out there who don’t even have any power to heat their homes. Some of them only have power for a few hours a day, and are limited to woodstoves…if they have them. So, I won’t complain too much. I know that there’s always someone out there who has it worse off than I do. Regardless, today was a halfway decent day and I got some things accomplished. My new training “plan” starts tomorrow and I’m excited about how I’m going to go about doing it. I hope the ANA guys are going to be excited about it too. Keep your fingers crossed!

Day Thirty Three

Well, with it being Friday, I got to sleep in today...again. It was exactly what I needed, as I was starting to get very frustrated as the week went on this week, and woke up feeling pretty refreshed and motivated again.

I went in to the office, where I began working on developing a Master Training Plan for the ANA guys much like the one I developed for my own Airmen at home in Illinois. I thought a lot about things as I laid in bed frustrated last night, and the one thing that kept popping into my head was that I needed to be more proactive in training these guys. I think I've been too laid back and I've been letting them dictate to me when and if training was going to take place every day that I've been over there so far. I decided that things need to change. It started with this Master Training Plan. Every day that I've been over to the ANA PA office, I've not really had a plan on what to train them on. I've said I'll train them on "shooting" or "editing" or "basic shot techniques," but I've never really gotten myself into specifics, which I think has allowed them to kind of get me off track. With this training plan I've developed, it spells out exactly what is to be learned, how it is to be learned, and how long it should take. I mirrored their plan with the Air Force's version of the Master Training List, but obviously had to take out things that don't apply to the Afghans. Obviously, the U.S. Department of Defense policy on ethics and archiving guidelines don't apply here. As well, many of the references we use for those things and others don't apply. All in all, I widdled down our three hundred plus task list down to just over two hundred tasks. That should be a good start. I'm back on track...watch out!

I received a box in the mail yesterday. Now this is something pretty amazing. My old boss, Rich Kaminsky, told me about a woman who had taken great care of him during his deployment a year or so ago. Rich hooked me up with Karolle via Facebook, where I talked to her a couple times about various things. Now Karolle is a loyal follower of my blog, and has asked me if it was ok for her to share some of my experiences with her church in their weekly newsletter. Of course I obliged...and Karolle, I hope you'll share this part with them as well. Karolle has been sending care packages to deployed troops for some time now, and lucky for me, I'm now one of those people. I couldn't help but get a little emotional as I went through the box (the sight of the Butterfingers alone made me cry), and it's even a little emotional for me now just thinking about it. In front of me right now are letters and cards and drawings; a beautifully colored drawing from James (make sure he sees this photo!)...a paper with cut-out hearts and decorations with comments such as: "Thank you!! You are our heroes! God Bless you! Helen" and "Thank you for your sacrifice! Come home safe to us! Bless you! Dottie." You see those things all the time, but when they're written directly to you, it really hits home. A nice, hand-written letter - with "Dear Dave" at the top - from Shirley Allsman also came in the box. Shirley is a retired junior high school secretary, who absolutely loved what she did, loved her staff, and loved her kids. I felt an instant connection with her, as she explained that she had three daughters just like I do. Of course,hers are a little older I assume, as Shirley is also a grandmother! She went on to say that her grandson is in the Army and has spent some time deployed as well. So, she knows how this military thing works. WOW. My eyes filled up with tears, as it just blew me away...to think that Shirley thought enough about me - someone she doesn't even know - to take the time to sit and write this letter...to me. It means a lot. More than she will ever know.

Another thing that meant a lot to me was inside a small manila envelope in the box. Inside was a laminated prayer written specifically for me. It was accompanied by a card that read: "The enclosed prayer has been written specifically for you. The person who signed your prayer is committed to praying for you daily throughout your deployment. We are grateful to you for your service to our country. We ask that God keep you in His loving care and bring you home safely." I couldn't believe it. Just when I thought I couldn't get any MORE emotional about this box, I did. I won't get into what my very own personal prayer says (there's a photo of it), but I will say this much about it. Thank you Mike Hyland. The fact that you're there praying for me means a lot. I will do my best to be the best person I can be to be worthy of all this. I promise you that. The card is in my ID card holder that I carry around my neck with me everywhere I go. Know that you and all the people of Christ Lutheran Church in Valencia, California will always be close to my heart - literally. I can't thank you all enough.

And Karolle...God truly has blessed me with an angel. I can't thank you enough for what you do - not only for me - but for all of us who are in harm's way. I'm so very thankful for you and for all the people of your church for thinking of me, and of us, as we do what we were sent here to do. Know that I am very grateful; as I'm sure everyone is whose lives you've touched with blessings such as this. One day I hope to be able to visit Christ Lutheran Church...there'd be no better feeling in the world than to see the smiling faces of those very people who helped me get through my time here. I honestly believe that the box and the blessings inside it were right on time, as I felt completely lifted out of the "funk" I was in yesterday when I woke up this morning. Thank you ALL for that...and thank you Karolle...thank you for all this...and for just being my friend. No words will ever be able to tell you how thankful I am for that.

This afternoon, I went to the gym for a run after a couple days off. My knees felt fine, and the stretching I've been doing has obviously helped. I only ran for three miles today, as I just want to ease myself back into it. It's strange for me to say "only" three miles. It seems so easy now to do that after running seven plus miles for almost a week straight, to include that ten mile day - something I've NEVER done before in my life. My knees felt fine throughout, and still feel fine now. I just have to let my body talk to me and, of course, I need to listen. That's my biggest problem. Next week, I'll start two-a-days in the gym, running early in the day and lifting later on in the evening. I'm feeling some motivation now on many fronts...so I have to take advantage of it any way I can. When I go home, I want to feel accomplished...not only professionally, but personally as well.

I went back to the office, where I continued to work on the Master Training Plan (MTP) until it was finished. With that completed, I was able to create Individual Training Plans (ITPs) for each of the Afghan soldiers. The MTP is the guide that I follow to train each individual. The ITP's are pretty much the same as the MTP, only the ITP's have dates, annotations made about particular training, signatures, etc.,etc. Each person progresses on their own at their own level. Some of the stuff they might all learn together and be able to be signed off on together...other stuff one of them might get faster than the others. It's all on them. Regardless, now I will have a good gauge on who's doing what and I've established a better way to keep me FOCUSED. I think that was my problem before. I wasn't focused on anything. My thoughts were kind of all over the place - as far as training goes - due to the barriers I have to deal with there on a daily basis. Since I can't control the barriers, I decided to do something about the things I CAN control. I think this plan will work out well. In addition to that, I think I'm going to start pulling one or two of them over to our camp and train them in our office once in a while. That was actually Sandy's idea. She's noticed my frustration, and has done everything she can to help. I would work for her anytime, anywhere, any place. She's a great boss who really knows her stuff. And, she lets me do my job. I have so much respect for her, as she's just a great PERSON in general. Anyway, bringing them to the office will give me more individual time to train, without the annoying distractions that we've been having. That's the plan as of now anyway. We'll see how it goes. Again, I'm motivated now, and I just don't think I was thinking clearly before. I can't fail these guys though, and certainly can't fail those above me in the office, at IJC, or in the Air Force, who have put full faith and trust in me to do what I'm best at. I will not fail. I will not let these ANA soldiers fail. I'm back in business. It feels good to be back on track again.

Another mission outside the wire is coming up. As my faithful followers already know, that's all I can say about that. Just know that if the blog isn't updated for a few days, there's a good reason for it. I'll be typing on my own laptop in MS Word, or writing the old-fashioned way - with pen and paper - keeping up with my daily events while I'm gone; whatever it takes to keep this thing going. I'll get the site updated as soon as I'm able, and I'll let everyone know what happened afterwards. I'd love to share it with everyone ahead of time, but it's just not safe for me to do so. Once it's over though, I'll tell you what I can.

As you've all seen, my emotions continue to go from good to bad, satisfied to frustrated. This life I'm living right now is unlike anything I've ever gone through. I'm a positive and happy person for the most part, so it's hard on me some days to feel the way I have. It definitely wears on you to feel so much negativity and feel like there isn't much you can do about it. One thing is for certain though. I have to be true to ME, no matter what or who I come across. I'm probably learning as much about myself right now as I ever have. Some things I like and some things I don't. I'm hoping that once all this is said and done, I'll have discovered a way to rid myself of the things I don't like. I'm getting there. Again, this is definitely an experience for me at this point in my life and career. It's nothing like I ever expected, and I don't think I was prepared for that. But as I've said numerous times, I'm taking things day by day and trying to keep my head up. I continue to put my full faith and trust in God that He will lead me down the right path and help me get to where I'm supposed to be going in all this. That, coupled with listening to words of wisdom from a few friends...I know I just can't go wrong.

Day Thirty Two

WOW. Hard to believe that seventeen years ago today I was flying over the bright lights of San Antonio late at night, with Military Training Instructors waiting to yell at me when I landed. 11 February 1993…the day I joined the Air Force and landed at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas for Basic Training. Sometimes it seems like yesterday, as I can vividly remember looking out my window seat window at the lights of the city wondering just what I had gotten myself into. Little did I know that I’d be sitting here doing this seventeen years later. On the flip side, it’s hard to believe that I only have three years left. Tomorrow, it will be cool to say that I have LESS than three years left. Yes, I’m counting down the days.

Today was pretty uneventful, as are most Thursdays. Sometimes I wonder why we even bother going over to the ANA camp on Thursdays, as all we do is socialize for an hour or so, then it seems that all the ANA soldiers are just ready to punch out and go home.

When we go to their office, we discovered that they had a new soldier and he was getting some basic camera training from Rohullah Amin. It was nice to watch him show this new guy some of the very things I had taught him myself. I got Rohullah Amin to sit down and walk me through the digitizing steps I had shown him yesterday, but for the most part, he forgot it all. It was frustrating, as we’re in this ten by ten foot room with about fifteen people in it. Everyone is talking and it just wasn’t an environment fit for training. We decided to leave, and Sandy mentioned that maybe we should bring Rohullah Amin to our office once or twice a week to train instead. I think that’s a good idea. My goal is to just train him up on everything I can, then he can train the rest of the soldiers himself long after I’m gone. Sure, I’ll spend time with others as well when I can, but that’s my goal. If I can get one of them to know as much as I do, I’ll feel better knowing that the others can eventually learn it from someone who speaks their language.

After getting back to camp, I decided to take a nap since there really wasn’t much to do. I’m taking another day off from running today since my knees feel pretty good and I want them to stay that way. I really need to get in the gym and start lifting. I’ve done a little bit of lifting, but not like what I’m used to doing. Omar wouldn’t be happy with me right now. I have to stop being lazy and get into a routine.

Mentally, I’m just so out of it lately. It’s hard sometimes to be sitting here so far away from home doing nothing. Sometimes I wonder if it was even worth it to come here, as these 1-2 hour workdays are pointless at times. Sure, we find other things to do to fill our days, but there’s only so much you can do around here. My range of emotions is crazy…some days I feel like I’m doing some good, and other days I wonder if anything I’m doing is ever going to make a difference. It’s hard for me to get motivated about anything when I’m as frustrated as I have been.

Tomorrow is an off day, so I’ll probably sleep as much as possible in order to pass the time. It’s been just over a month and I’m already ready to go home.

Day Thirty One

Well, it’s definitely not getting any warmer here. It’s not often that I wear multiple layers of clothing to bed at night, but I sure did that last night. It was one of those nights where you laid on your stomach with both arms underneath you. If you stayed absolutely still, you could get warm…but if you moved at all…even an inch…you’d get cold again. You just gotta love it when you sleep in a hut that’s 30 degrees, with only two space heaters in it that have no business trying to heat an area that size.

We went over to the ANA camp where I was able to conduct some video editing training with Rohullah Amin. I showed him how to capture footage from the camera and digitize it to the computer. He didn’t do too bad on his own, but did have a couple problems along the way. I’d say it was pretty successful training though, considering the magnitude of what he learned and how fast I “forced” him to learn it. I’ll continue to reinforce things with him as we go along, until it becomes habit and he gets used to it.

In the middle of our training, he got called out to go document the After Action Review wrap-up of the exercise the ANA has been going through. Of course, Rohullah Amin grabs a video camera and a still camera, while others just stand around in the office. We still have to work on that. I was a little frustrated, as we were in the middle of training, but I just grabbed a still camera myself and went over to shoot photos, while standing by Rohullah Amin’s side training more on shooting video. From what I heard, the ANA as a whole did very well in the exercise. That was good to hear. The more they practice and plan, the better prepared they will be to defend themselves on their own in the future.

That was pretty much the end of our day over at the ANA camp. We came back to our camp at had lunch and worked on the new Facebook and YouTube sites we’re building for our work here in the region. The internet was crazy, as it didn’t work for most of the day and caused us many problems.

I decided not to run today, as my knees are pretty sore. This “runner’s knee” thing doesn’t sound too serious, but I do have to take it easy for a little while, and do some stretching to help get things back to normal.

Not too much else to talk about. Tomorrow’s a half day and I assume we’ll get no training done. Here’s hoping that something happens that will surprise me.

Day Thirty

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any colder, I woke up this morning to that being just the case. It was a frigid 20 degrees outside and the rocks that normally fill the road were barely visible underneath a thin layer of ice formed from the unusually low temperatures and the rain and snow that fell last night.

I was able to sleep surprisingly well last night once I went back to bed after my twelve hour “snooze” following the Super Bowl. It’s strange how a day can get lost when you go to sleep at 8am and get up at 9pm. I guess in this situation I’m in, any way to make a day go by fast is a good way.



Today was a good day. We went over to the ANA camp early this morning for a mock press conference with the Commander. It’s the norm during exercises to have the commander speak to the press regarding what is happening. In this case, as I said before, the event was an earthquake exercise, so the commander had to respond to questions about that. Generally, our job as Public Affairs is to prepare the commander for the questions he’ll be asked and take care of the media. In this case, with us mentoring the ANA PA soldiers, we had to teach them how to prepare the commander, show them how to set up cameras, deal with the media, and so forth. Most of this was done by Sandy, as she is kind of “shadowing” the Public Affairs Officer. I videotaped the event along with my ANA soldiers, and talked them through some things on how they should prepare their equipment. The ultimate goal is to make the commander look good, and have him say the right things to the media. Sandy came up with some tough questions, but the commander handled himself very well. After it was over, LtCol Niem said that the commander was very happy with him and his PA office, and felt that things went well. That was great to hear. We discovered that this was the first time in four years of exercises that the PA office was even involved. WOW. I can’t imagine how things were before, as press conferences are normally a PA-controlled event. We heard that many people didn’t even know about LtCol Niem and what he did, so putting him “on the map” was a good thing. Ultimately, the commander was happy and again, that was great to hear. It means we’re doing our job…and doing it well. How they got along doing this stuff for four years without PA is beyond me.

Of course, after the press conference, everyone in their office had somewhere else to be, so that ended training for today. I interviewed Sandy after the press conference so I could use her words to put a story together, so we made our way back to our office where I started working on it, along with finishing up what I was working on the past two days. Sandy and I kicked around the idea of creating our own Facebook, and YouTube pages to give us another outlet for our media. I created a Facebook account, but we’re still working on it. Once we get it done and ready, I’ll send out the link and friend requests.

I decided after a while that I had to run, since I didn’t run yesterday due to my long Rip Van Winkle type day. As luck would have it, neither Chris nor Sandy ran yesterday, so I didn’t lose any more ground than I already had starting a day after they did. Chris ran for four miles putting him at fifty three total. Sandy ran later for six miles putting her at fifty three total as well. I was sitting at forty six when she got done, so you can probably guess what I did. Yes sir…I ran for seven miles to tie us all up at fifty three total. I’m back in the game! I have to be fair though and say that Chris just started marathon training and is on a strict schedule. The schedule for today was for him to run only four miles. I’ll be honest and say that Chris is a much better runner than I am. He could probably run ten miles per day without any trouble, whereas I struggled mightily to do that myself the other day. I have never, nor will I ever, have the desire to think about, train for, or ever run a marathon. There’s just no way. Running for one hour straight has been hard enough…running for three plus hours is unthinkable. So give Chris some credit here. The numbers might say differently, but he would whip me good if he wanted to. If he does happen to run that marathon in Kansas City he keeps talking about, I might just be there…not to run it…but to support him of course. (I just said I would never think of running it myself…weren’t you reading?) Kansas City isn’t far from where I live in the states, and I might just make the trip. I have much respect for him and the goals he has set for himself.

It’s cold sitting here, as it’s about 15 degrees outside and the heater is NOT working in here. I really hope the heater in my tent is working tonight. Can you picture me in my fleece jacket and hat covering my ears while I type with gloves on? OK, so I don’t really have gloves on. You’d probably be able to tell if that was the case as mie ryting wood prolly luk sumting lyke ths if eye wuz. Yes, that was done strictly for entertainment value. If you’re laughing, good…if not, then…ummmm…whatever. Pretend you didn’t see it. [Wow...spellcheck just went nuts on me!]

I’m ready for bed and ready to do this all over again tomorrow. Hopefully another good day is in store for us as we trek along this road to advance the capabilities of our ANA partners. We’re taking small steps in the right direction now it seems, so I’ll keep my head up and hope it stays that way. It’s working well so far.

Day Twenty Nine

Well, since the Super Bowl was on so early in the morning, I decided to just stay up through the night to watch it. So, that's how today started. I sat in the Dining Facility, where they had a small TV tucked in the corner with the game on, and some football streamers and stuff on the walls. It was rather inconvenient, as the area we were in was very small, and they had a huge room right next to us with a bigger TV in it that they refused to use. Go figure.

They brought out some "football food" for us; wings, poppers, cheese sticks, fries, etc., etc., so we at least had something. It was nothing spectacular, but since I had just run ten miles, I figured I could stray from my current diet a little bit. The food was pretty good actually.

I spent most of the game annoyed to be quite honest. I'm not sure if it was me just feeling tired after the run and being up all night, or if it was just stupid people. I swear that everyone around me knew exactly what was going to happen on every play. One guy behind me was the biggest know-it-all in the world. He knew everything about run plays and pass plays apparently. He would say "run play" or "pass play" before EVERY (and I mean EVERY) play. Talk about getting on my nerves. OK, let's think about this...Peyton is in the shotgun, Addai is running off the field, and there's no running back in the backfield. Hmmmm. I'm guessing that it's going to be a pass play? Give me a break...please. Another guy next to me seemed to know everything there was to know about football. Another guy knew nothing about football, but tried to act like he did. It was funny because an ESPN commercial came on and he said, "hey we get an ESPN commercial?" Now, reading that may not seem funny to you, but he actually said the word ESPN, as opposed to saying the individual letters, E-S-P-N. He pronounced it like, "ES'PIN." Again, he had probably never watched sports before in his life, but was trying to act cool. I couldn't help but laugh inside. What a dork.

The other thing that I didn't like about my Super Bowl experience was watching all the insincere scrub pro athletes on TV saying their ten seconds of "thanks for what you do" to the troops. It's so fake and virtually meaningless. I don't know why AFN or anyone even bothers to do that. And it says alot about pro athletes when it's only the backups to the backups that you see on there saying anything anyway. One guy wasn't even being serious, acting like a fool when he was saying "thank you." These guys have no idea. Come spend six months in any of our shoes and we'll see how funny you think things are then. Idiots.

The game sucked for me. I just wanted to be home eating pigs in a blanket and cheese dip and veggie trays at home with my family like we always do. I just kind of sat there by myself, cheering inside when Peyton and the Colts went up 10-0. And, when Peyton threw that last interception to pretty much seal the Saints victory, all I could do was shake my head, grab my coat and get ready to walk out. There were no football pools or friends there. There was no family. It was just me. I really missed home today.

The game was over around 8am here. I went to bed, as I was tired after the long run and being up all night. I have nothing else to write about for today, as I just woke up and it's already 10:30 pm here. I know, I know...but we had the day off today and I can. HAHAHA Hopefully after I get done with this and finish eating, I'll be able to go back to sleep after sleeping for the past twelve hours. I guess we'll see.

Day Twenty Eight

I woke up today and walked outside to head to the shower, and was hit by cold, blustery winds and snowflakes hitting me in the face. How does it go from 60 degrees to 30 degrees in one day? I thought the further away from December we get, the better the weather is supposed to be? This isn't a good sign.

We went to the ANA camp and there was an exercise going on. Rohullah Amin got called out to go to the ANA Command Post, where LtCol Niem was. Apparently, they were having a morning briefing with General Murad. I decided to go over there, since Rohullah Amin was over there.

I saw him when I got there, videotaping what was going on while he had the still camera around his neck. I swear, no one else does anything in their office. I went up to him and grabbed the still camera off his neck so he could videotape and not worry about stills. I went around and shot some still photos of the briefing and got some decent shots that Sandy submitted to various places.

After the briefing, we went back to the ANA PA office and did some training on Photoshop. Chris and I showed Rohullah Amin how to do a bunch of things in photoshop with photos. Rohullah Amin did pretty good, as he was able demonstrate rather well what we had showed him. That was a good thing.

We left the ANA office and went back to our office. I brought Bari, our interpreter, with us so he could go through my tape of the boot camp graduation and translate what General Murad had said during the ceremony. Once he got that done, I was able to record him saying it in English so I could use that over General Murad's video. Editing the video together was interesting, as I had to piece together every part just right. I worked on that for a little while, then decided I was going to hit the gym.

After my eight mile run yesterday, Chris must've felt the "heat," as he came in with his own ten mile number today. I had cut into his lead good and then he goes and runs ten miles? WOW. I prepared myself mentally to run at least what I had run yesterday. Long story short...I ran ten miles myself today. The first seven miles were ok, but the last three were brutal. Normally, I can space out listening to my iPod and the run doesn't seem so bad. The last couple minutes of this ten mile run were killers. I couldn't space out, as I could think about was my aching legs. Seeing the words "COOLDOWN" come up on the treadmill was amazing. I felt pretty good afterwards, and glad I had done it. I discovered that I have what's called "runner's knee," after much more research and talking to medical folks. I need to do some stretching and stuff like that to get it feeling better. That sure is alot better than having a "sprain" of some sort. Either way, it hurts and it's now in BOTH knees.

After the run, I went to take a shower and back to the office to work on my video. I got it done for the most part, but just have a couple things to throw in there still. The Super Bowl will be on here in a few hours, so I'll pick up the blog for tomorrow with that since it will be 4am here. I'm rooting for Peyton and the Colts!

Day Twenty Seven

Saturdays are normally "sleeping in" days ya know? The weekend and all. Of course, we work on Saturdays and Sundays here so I can never remember what day it is. It's a problem.

We went over the the ANA camp this morning to see what was going on. LtCol Inglin wasn't leaving until the afternoon on a convoy out of Camp Spann, so we wanted him to be able to meet the ANA PA soldiers. He got to meet some of them and talk for a little while. Maj Ahmad and Said Mohammad were searching through boxes of MiniDV tapes looking for a tape of the U.S. Ambassador visit from a while ago. It was funny watching them load tape after tape into their little "clamshell" video player, knowing full well that I had already hooked up their Sony source deck, and they could both be looking at different tapes at the same time. We finally powered up the system for them and told them to use both decks in order to search faster. Apparently, they're so used to doing things the way they've been doing, it slipped their mind that they had another way to view the tapes. Either that or they just didn't know how to turn it on. (No really...that IS a possibility, trust me)

There is an exercise going on here, so LtCol Niem was over in the Command Post dealing with that stuff. We went over to see him and made sure he was doing ok. Sandy explained some things to him about how to split shifts up so he didn't have to work there all night long. He seemed to get it, but I think he just doesn't want to let go. While he's "friends" with his soldiers, I'm not sure he trusts them so much. He's been doing everything in that office for so long, that it's hard for him to rely on anyone else to do anything right. Sandy will get through to him, so I'm not worried. It will all make sense to them one day...hopefully.

We went back to the ANA PA office and Major Ahmad and Said were still going at it. I did a short interview with Major Ahmad about the graduation ceremony the other day, so I could put something together to send up to headquarters. Of course, they lost the tape I shot during the ceremony which has the main camera footage and the main audio on it though. So, I couldn't do anything else with the video today. They really have no accountability system for their tapes. They're everywhere. That's one of the things I need to educate them on. Now that I have their new hard drive setup in there, we're going to create a new digital video library for them. That way, when they get requests like the one they got today, they can just go into the computer, find the "U.S. Ambassador Visit" folder, click on the file and export it to DVD. It will dramatically reduce the amount of time they waste searching through hours of tapes. I should know. Long before the digital video and nonlinear editing days, things were alot tougher than they are now. So I've been there. The way I figure it, these soldiers are about fifteen to twenty years behind us as far as technology goes. My goal is to fast-forward them to the twenty-first century before I leave here. Six months to move them forward twenty years. That would be good, right?

We came back to camp for lunch and to see LtCol Inglin off. He's headed back to Kabul today. We had a good visit with him and again, it was nice to have the person we work for actually come see what we're dealing with, where we live, etc., etc. Sandy had a new office sign made for our building and the four of us got a photo of it before LtCol Inglin left. Good stuff.

At 1400, we went back to the ANA camp to talk to the Religious Cultural Advisor (RCA) about doing a "Day in the Life of an ANA Soldier" video. I got the rundown of what he wanted and it was very clear that this was going to be a very significant event. He said it will be the first-ever of its kind in the country of Afghanistan, and that the General will use it where ever he goes. They will also air it on the news and other places to get the word out about the ANA and what they do. The significance is that the Taliban message to civilians is that ANA soldiers aren't Muslim. That's their "attack" on getting civilians to be against the ANA. This video will be used to "counter" (so to speak) that message. As I've said in past posts, the "big picture" here is about getting the message out to the people. To get them to understand what is really going on here and understand truth. It's these false messages that produce bad things and bad people. You can bet your last dollar that I will do everything in my power to make this happen. The ANA RCA Colonel said, "I've want to do this when I was in RCA staff...I just need a producer." If only you could've seen my face. Hell, I WISH I could've seen my face. Can you see the sly grin and imagine the thought going through my head when he said that? Oh yeah. If he only knew. He has no idea how much I'm going to blow this video up. He has no idea...and it's going to be my pleasure to knock his socks off. You need a video producer? Really? Where ever will I find one? HAHAHA Can you see me smiling?

My knee was hurting a little bit this morning and throughout the day, but after eating so much yesterday and not running, I decided I was going to run today no matter what. I was dragging today and very tired, but had to force myself to get going. I'm glad I did. I ran for six miles, but felt so good during the last mile that I decided to go for two more. So, I ran for eight miles tonight. My knee held up good for the most part. The first couple miles were painful, but after that I think it just went numb and has been fine ever since. I hope I'm not making it worse. I just can't sit still for too long, and now that I'm actually getting so into this running thing, I don't want to stop. I narrowed the gap between Chris, Sandy, and I, so I'm getting there. I pray that God lets my knee hold up so I can continue going at it.

We got a little bit done today. Tomorrow we have a meeting early in the morning with the ANA guys and we'll get some training in then. Things are progressing, albeit slowly again. With that said, I think it's appropriate to end today's post with a quote from my PA brother Chris, as it really sums up today and most of the days we've been here so far:

"Having another less-than-productive day with our Afghan partners...to say something is done on Afghan time is not a compliment and everything we do is on Afghan time...sigh..."

I couldn't have said it better myself buddy.

Day Twenty Six

Today is Friday, and as everyone knows already, it's an off day for the Afghan people. I woke up with a killer, throbbing pain in my knee and knew that the six miles I ran yesterday might've been a mistake. This is not what I need right now...not after I just started getting into running. From what I can gather, I have a mild sprain of my MCL, which is going to require some ice and rest. This, I thought, was the start of a BAD day.

I went into the office to check e-mail and see what was going on. Sandy was there, and LTC Inglin showed up shortly afterwards. After checking my e-mail, drinking my coffee, and talking a little bit, we decided to go to the Afghan restaurant for lunch.

The restaurant was empty, much to my surprise. Last time I was in there, it was packed and I barely had any room to move in the tiny space I was sitting in. We were greeted by a smiling Afghan man, who held the door for us and ushered us to our seats. I noticed the banner with the menu on it had been moved, which opened up a big space on the main wall. I said something to the Afghan man about it and asked him if he was putting something up in its place. He responded with a smile, "yeah, yeah, thank you." At that point, I realized he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I forget that part sometimes. I really need to learn this language.

I ordered the chicken kabobs and palaw (rice) again like I did last time. Sandy ordered beef kabobs, and the boss ordered a burger of some sort. The Afghan man walked through the restaurant with our meat on the skewers and walked just outside to grill it all. Funny how they do some things here. I got some good photos of him cooking out the window.

It was nice to just sit and talk about things and give some feedback to someone in a position to do something with it. We're in such a small camp that you wonder sometimes if the people above you are just going to forget you're here. I don't think that's the case now. As I said yesterday, I have alot of respect for someone who will actually take the time to visit and find out what's going on with his people. We talked about everything that was going on; some things that had to do with work...and some things that didn't.

Our food came and it was wonderful just like it was last time. I was very full by the time I was done and knew that today certainly would not be a running day due to a bad knee...and now a full stomach.

We got back to the office, where LTC Inglin talked to us about more of the things we were going through and dealing with, and responded to many of the plans Sandy had written out for him to review. I had some EPR's (Enlisted Performance Reports) I had to write on my troops back home, so I worked on that for a little while, and also worked on the equipment "wish list" of things I need to finish setting up the ANA office equipment. I also worked on getting the videos I had done uploaded to IJC Headquarters so they could approve them and send them out. I talked to SMSgt Nicolussi on e-mail until I was able to figure it out and get the videos to him. It seems that the longer I am here and the more I do, the more networking I get to do. It's hard sometimes to figure out where we fall into the grand scheme of things here. The camp leadership here is Army...but we don't really fall under them. We inprocessed the country at another place, and there are a whole bunch of different acronyms of agencies we fall under that I could throw at you to completely confuse you. Hell, I'm the one here and I'm still confused sometimes. I guess the point to saying all this is that it's nice to finally talk to some people I actually work for and know are listening to us, understanding what we do, and are able to help out with issues. LTC Inglin being here is a very cool thing, and talking to SMSgt Nicolussi (an actual AF guy like me...and I rarely see AF people here) about the video upload stuff today was also a cool thing. It's just funny how things are starting to come together all at once I guess.

I didn't run today because of the knee, so my totals on the running board remain at twenty eight. Looks like Sandy and Chris are going to run away from me, as Chris ran for six miles today and is sitting at thirty nine. Today would've been the perfect chance to pass Sandy, as she didn't run today, but I just can't do it. At least I haven't done it yet. Hmmmmm. The night's still young.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and following up on the boot camp graduation shoot we did the other day. I plan to work on interview techniques for training and put together another story to upload. Hopefully all works out as planned. Things are going good and we're making progress. I can't ask for much more than that right now.