Day Twenty Three

It was another uneventful day today here at Camp Mike Spann. I got up and performed the normal routine, as I do every day. I know, I know...but what else do you want me to say?

I got to the office and we all headed over to the ANA camp to talk to our guys about things coming up. We discussed the ANA boot camp graduation that is happening on Thursday, and it looks like this will be our first "training" opportunity. We will all be out there shooting, and Rohullah Amin will be by my side the whole time. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I have him and can start training him finally.

We introduced the ANA's to the American candy WARHEADS today. Chris got a box in the mail that had some candy in it, and he took some over to the ANA office with us this morning. Now, for those who don't know what WARHEADS are, they're about the most sour candy on the planet. It was hilarious watching the ANA's faces as they stuck the candy in their mouths. I just couldn't stop laughing. "It's good," I kept saying. Of course, I didn't have one of my own at the time.

We asked LtCol Niem to come to our office at 1400 to discuss where we wanted to go with his team. He did, and we discussed many things. We tried to explain how things in his office should be, as he is the only one doing anything. He writes stories, videotapes, take photos, and does everything else. He contends that his soldiers are great people but very lazy. I tried to explain to him that he has to LEAD them, and that he shouldn't put up with them not doing anything. His response was that he was going to need us to help him with that. I thought "oh yeah, no problem there." I can turn on my serious switch at any time, especially if guys working for me are not doing the things they need to do to get media out on time. Sandy, Chris, and I are going to have the reigns tight on these guys for a while, now that we have the go-ahead from LtCol Niem. He even said that if someone gave us trouble or if we didn't like them, they wouldn't be working in that office the next day.

A disturbing thing we found is that the deputy PAO, Major Ahmad can't read or write. Neither can the other E-7 (who will be a Captain soon) who is taking over as a deputy PAO in another unit. LtCol Niem said that they are great guys, but don't know how to do anything. I asked him, "how can you expect them to LEAD a group of people if they can't even do the basic job themselves?" His response was, "this is Afghanistan." That was frustrating. I know we're here to teach, but there's only so much we can do. If you can't write, and can read but not comprehend what you're reading (not because of a language barrier), what am I supposed to do? Right now, that's our biggest hurdle to overcome...and I have NO IDEA how we're going to overcome it.

Overall, it was a great meeting. LtCol Niem is on board with all the things we want to do for training, and that's good. However, I'm just not sure how we're going to go about doing them. We definitely have a huge challenge ahead of us now that we've learned some of the things we learned today.

The rest of the day was uneventful as usual. I ran just three miles on the treadmill today because my right knee was killing me. I'm not sure what's up with it, but might have to get it checked out if that keeps up. With all the sports I've played over the years, I'm surprised I've never had any trouble with them before now. After that, I had dinner and watched Paul Blart Mall Cop. It was ok, but nothing I'd go out and buy or rent.

Not much else to tell. We're going over to the ANA office tomorrow to lay down some groundrules. They probably aren't going to like us much at first because they are going to work...not be lazy. I'll make sure of that. I have a job to do, and with that, I have expectations of things they have to do to. If they want my help like they say they do, they'll comply. If not, we're going to have problems. We all have a great relationship and that's cool...for now. I'm a "work hard, play hard" type of guy, but at the same time, there's a time and place for working and playing. These guys need to learn when those times are. It's going to be part of my job to teach them I guess.

Again, we have some huge challenges ahead of us, so we'll see how it goes. We have to dish out some "tough love" tomorrow, so it will be interesting. Their reactions will tell alot. If they are receptive to what we say, that will be a very good thing. But if not, we could be taking a huge step in the wrong direction. I can only do so much, as motivation and initiative come from within. As it stands, how we progress from here is now up to them.