I’m sooooo cold
HA Drop
24 Nov
Rose and set out early this morning to carry out a Humanitarian Assistance (HA) mission. I was stuffed into the back of a Humvee loaded with blankets, clothes, shoes, and food. It was a very cramped journey, as we climbed high into the mountains. We arrived over 1000ft higher than we set out. It was extremely cold, with snow on the ground in the shade and on the mountains peaks around us. It was a beautiful setting, reminiscent of an Alpine village.
The ANP came with us, and the Chief Petty Officer (CPO) from the US Navy who is responsible for Civil Affairs was keen to have them hand out the goods, as it helps to legitimise them in the eyes of the locals. As soon as we arrived the CPO sat down with a retired commander (probably from the Soviet war), as the elders were away. The village has four different tribes in it, which is unusual, and can lead to tension. The commander suggested making four separate bundles in plain view of all the people gathered around, thereby ensuring that everyone knew the sharing out was fair. The children went crazy trying to grab silly baseball hats that were handed out initially, making them look way too Western. I hate those hats, but the kids love them.
As the divvying up began, I noticed several children hauling firewood on donkeys. These donkeys are the workhorses of Afghanistan, especially in the mountains, as there are many tracks that are impassable to vehicles but which man and donkey can use. This of course is a huge part of the problem that the Coalition faces, as it is difficult for them in their modern vehicles to reach some of the more remote areas where the Taliban hide.
Once the sharing of goods was over, we had a quick walk around the area with our Retired Commander. He took us to the Madrasa (school), which to my delight was downhill. We walked through the wadi and I made friends with one of the ANP. His name was John, my name is John (Nobody here seems to get that my first name is John D) so we were destined to be best buddies. He told me that this area was very dangerous for Americans, as it is the heartland of Maulvi Jalauddin Haqqani. Haqqani was one of the most influential leaders of the Mudjahadeen during the war against the Soviets (during which time he was an ally of the US) who then allied himself with the emergent Taliban. Believed to be Commander-at-large of the Taliban’s revitalised war against the coalition, he is a High Value Target (HVT) which makes him one of the most wanted men by the US, right up there with Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
The Madrasa was yet another dishevelled looking mud building, with a couple of black-boards inside, covered in drawing of flowers. It didn’t really inspire confidence in the educational curriculum in this village.
I had hoped that the convoy would make its way back down to us, saving me the hike back uphill, but of course that was wishful thinking. Gasping from the thin air at close to 8,000 feet, I eventually made it back up. We loaded up, and headed back to Firebase to load up for another HA drop.
The roads here are of course terrible, not the place to try a bit of drunk driving, and remember there is no snow or ice on them yet. Once the real winter sets in these villages will effectively be cut off. The other danger on these roads is the fact that once you go up a road, then the ACMs know that you will eventually go back down it. This gives an ideal opportunity to set an IED. One of the more disturbing tactics employed is to set the IED on the mountainside of the road, trying to blow the vehicle off the road and down a few hundred feet drop.
Arriving back to Wilderness we were given half an hour to reload and regroup, and then we were off again. The second village was much closer, and we were there in no time. At this village there were no elders available, so the Civil Affairs guy sat down with some men that were present. Usually these guys say everything is fine, and that they need nothing from the Americans. Surprisingly this time these guys were quite open about their problems. Their village was bombed by the Russians (the Afghans always blame Russian rather than Soviets for the war) and still has several collapsed buildings, and damage to others. They spoke of their need for health care, education for their children, problems with the ACMs that operate in their area. They said that this was the first time the Americans had offered help, and that all other visits consisted of kicking in doors and searching houses. They were friendly, and we sat and had Chai with them during the discussion. I know the soldiers are on antibiotics (Cipro) to help them fight off illness from these Chai encounters, but I’m relying on my cast iron constitution.
During the discussion an old man sitting at the back seemed amused all the time. I think he might have been a little crazy, as he wasn’t really included in the talks. I shot some portraits of him, and he seemed to find that amusing too. He ran his fingers through his long wispy beard, and I tugged my own in return. He found this hilarious, which is a change from the continual question “Are you Special Forces?” The US troops don’t wear beards, so I get a lot of attention for mine. When we left, the old man shook hands with the soldiers, but grabbed me in a big hug, which caught me by surprise. He was a funny old guy, and was still chuckling to himself as we walked back to the vehicles down in the wadi.
All around the vehicles children and adults had gathered, waiting for the provisions that had been promised. Unfortunately the elders (who had appeared as if by magic once they heard about the free supplies) grabbed some blankets and food and then just buggered off, leaving the soldiers dealing with total chaos. There was pushing and shoving and people fighting over clothes, and it was ugly. The soldiers tried to keep some semblance of order, but with great difficulty. The kids were getting coats, and I saw one man take a coat from a little girl and give it to what was presumably his son. The girls did fight their corner though, and kept running off to add to their stash, guarded by the smaller kids, and then charged back into the mêlée to get more.
One soldier had picked up a small boy who he had seen shivering on the outside of the chaos. He was too small to hold his own in the pandemonium, so the soldier had briefly adopted him. The soldier shouted for a coat and one was thrown to him. He helped the little boy into it, and zipped him up and showed him how to use the hood. Then the soldier climbed into his Humvee, remerging with a muffin for the boy. The kid just crammed it into his mouth before anyone else could wrest it from him, and the soldier was delighted. This soldier is a 19 year old kid with a heart of gold, despite his sometimes foul mouth. The photos will no doubt be written off by some as propaganda, but the truth is several other soldiers behaved in the same way, I just happened to photograph this guy because it occurred right beside me.
Eventually everything was gone, and we loaded up into the trucks to move out. The warm glow from seeing the excited children get new coats, etc was still with all of us, when I heard a soldier say, “Now let’s see if their friends fucking blow us up on the way back to base.”
25 Nov
Stayed up late last night, which was stupid last night, as I knew I was scheduled to go out on another mission today, but the stories being told in the TOC (Tactical Operations Centre, I think) were real gems.
One of the stories was about an operation that some of the guys were on in Iraq, where they raided a house looking for weapons. The women were screaming and shouting and trying to fight with the soldiers, and a translator had to be brought in to calm them down and explain what was going on. This took some time, and meanwhile the search was proving fruitless, and the soldiers were beginning to think the had been given bad intel. However, once the women found out that their husband would be arrested and taken away if any weapons were found, they immediately lead the soldiers to his stash. He must have been a really abusive asshole, because they couldn’t wait to se the back of him.
Another source of amusement was some of the antics that the young soldiers get up to, and their total ignorance as to how much the senior officers actually know about the goings on. And the merciless way that the NCO’s work the young guys to shape them up as soldiers. The drivers seem to come in for a real hard time, as they are driving these huge cumbersome vehicles while being monitored by the Vehicle Commander. It seems that the more they try not to get in trouble, the more trouble they get themselves in. And there is one young lad here who doesn’t even have a driving license back in the States, but they don’t let that excuse him from his driving duties.
Anther story was about a Senior Commander who was attending a high level meeting with various Afghan representatives. His Personal Security Detail (PSD - bodyguards) was outside, when things started to get heated inside. Suddenly a cup was thrown by one Afghan at another, and guns were cocked. The Commander sent a text message to his PSD saying things were getting ugly and he might need rescuing, and the PSD, thinking he was joking, texted back, “Roger.” The Commander, realising the confusion, sent another text, saying “This is going bad,” to which he received the reply, “Roger that!” Finally he sent a message saying, “If you hear shooting, don’t worry, I have a plan, I’m going to jump out the back window.” They laugh about it now.
And on and on it went. Unfortunately there are loads I can’t repeat, but if you buy me a pint when I get back I might be able to remember a few more.
So anyway, I woke up late and had 15 minutes to get some coffee into me and get to the convoy briefing. Yet again, the threat was assessed as “Very Fucking High!!!” At least there is continuity. I squeezed into my place behind the CPO, and as we drove he explained the difference between what we did yesterday (HA) and what would occur today. This was a joint HA and Medical Tailgate mission. A Medical Tailgate is where medical assistance is offered on the spot, by the military’s medical personnel. Today we had a Physician’s Assistant, which is one step below a Doctor, and a medic with us. We climbed into the mountains with a bigger convoy than yesterday, and along even worse roads. When we arrived at the village, it was a strange arrangement of a few villages really, in close proximity. A central area was designated as the treatment spot, with the HA set up off to one side. The plan was to get the locals to form an orderly queue (wishful thinking in Afghanistan) and then bring them for medical treatment first, and then on to the HA handout point, and then out the other side. Again, we had ANA with us to give an Afghan Government face to the operation.
The villagers started to gather as word spread, and very quickly a large group, maybe 100, men had turned up, plus hoards of children, but not a single woman. I was informed that this was normal, and opinion seamed split on the issue. Some soldiers believed it was better to help some people than none, while other soldiers said they should force the villagers to allow the women to be treated too, or treat no-one at all. “If we’re here to spread freedom and democracy, doesn’t that apply to medical treatment too” one soldier said to me. However, as some of the little girls came forward to see the Doc, I began to suspect that some of the ailments that they requested medicine might in fact be those of a mother hidden away, and not the child at all. There were all sorts of shenanigans going on, with every patient it seemed asking for extra medicine and claiming a multitude of different complaints. At one stage the Doc had an argument with a man claiming that a prescription he had was for his daughter, and the Physician’s Assistant (PA) eventually losing her patience and telling the man that a little girl does not have a prostate.
Painkillers and multi-vitamins were handed out liberally, but there were some other diseases which would require further treatment, and the PA recommended to these that they visit a hospital before the weather got worse.
After each patient was seen, they had an X marked on their hand with a magic marker, and then they headed to the CPO for their share of the blankets, school packs, dental care packages, etc, that he had to offer.
As I tried to capture the scene it became apparent that while the men and boys were keen, almost demanding, to be photographed, the girls would turn their heads or pull their scarves over their faces. It was a shame to see these young girls already programmed to hide themselves away, and I did my best to get pictures of them while they could still be seen. After a while some of that Afghan pride began to exercise itself, and a few of them stared straight down my lens, while others had to be stalked like game.
As the day progressed more people arrived from outlying areas, and the crown just got bigger and bigger. I was moving amongst them when I was accosted by an old man, who berated me in Pashto. I was rescued by an Afghan who spoke good English, a Doctor from Kabul it transpired. He said he visited the village once a month to try and help the people there, and we spoke for some time about the security situation and how it made life difficult for these ordinary Afghans. As always, the Pakistanis were held by this man to be the root of all Afghanistan’s ills. He also told me that after a recent HA mission in a village in nearby Ghazni, the Taliban turned up after the US forces left, and they gathered up all medicine, blankets, and any other piece of Western Aid, and burned the lot.
We were still chatting when I heard the call to mount up, and after a brief goodbye I dashed back to my designated vehicle. On the way back I told the CPO about the Doctor, but it turned out he hadn’t come forward and identified himself to his visiting counterparts. I later learned this was quite common, bt no-one knows why.
When we returned I was worn out from the trip, as it is physically draining to be bounced around in the back of a Humvee, especially in this unforgiving terrain. I was looking forward to grabbing a nap, when the guys from ANO Platoon came looking for me. Two of their soldiers were re-enlisting, and they wanted me to photograph their swearing in. That would have been OK, but they wanted to do it at one of the Ops, which meant a long climb up a mountainside. I decided not to bring my body armour, as it is technically inside the wire, but even so it was exhausting. What made it worse was that on my way up a Sergeant came running up behind me, and I thought, “There is no way I’m getting passed by him.” So I dug in and ran as hard as I could. For about 20 yards. Then, I thought, “Hmm, I am getting passed after all, and also, my chest is about to explode.” By the time I got up there I was shaking so bad we had to wait 5 minutes before I could hold the camera steady. It was worth it though, as the sun was just setting and I the photos came out well. Not the sort of stuff that would go on the AFP wire, but the guys seemed pretty pleased.
After that I needed to eat, and sleep. The newest addition to the food options here are Cold Weather MREs. These are like the ordinary MREs I have described before, but with much higher calories. They require hot water, because they are just dried food, but they taste great and the extra heat is much appreciated by my weary body. Not long after, the food coma effect took over, and I was out like a light soon after.
26 Nov
Very quiet day today. Was supposed to go on a patrol, but it was cancelled, which meant I sat on my ass for a lot of the day. I was stressing out by the end of the day, because I had nothing to send. I was wandering around the Firebase bugging everyone for something to shoot, when just before sunset the 105 Howitzers rolled in. These are big guns, towed behind Humvees on their own axles, and I ran over to get some pictures before the light faded. I though they would just drop them off and set up camp, but I had underestimated these artillery guys. They drove into position, and immediately the started setting up the guns to fire. I spoke to their First Sergeant, and he said their job is to set up under pressure and defend their infantry in the field. It seemed to be a race between the gun teams, and I got the whole sequence before the sun was down behind the mountains.
27 Nov
It’s snowing now. I thought I was cold before, but this is a whole new experience. I am wearing all my snivel gear (Cold weather clothes) and I am still freezing. This trip is going to hell in a handbag. But at least some of the soldiers have gotten their hands on near bear (alcohol free, dammit) so we are going to try some psy-ops (Psychological Operations) on ourselves tonight and trick our minds into believing we are drunk. I’ll let you all know how it turns out.
John D