Camp Eggers

I've been at Camp Eggers in downtown Kabul for the past several days, meeting with the other ETT (embedded team trainer) JAGs from around the country.

If I haven't explained it before, the entire 41st Brigade mission is essentially a training/mentoring mission. We each work with various groups within the Afghan National Army (ANA). For instance, a U.S. artilleryman will work with ANA artillerymen, U.S. JAGs with ANA JAGs, etc.

In the picture above, you see (clockwise) MAJ Waldron, MAJ Arntt, LCDR Holifield (Navy), me, LTC Church (my immediate boss), LT Womble (Navy), CPT O'Day, CPT Kawai and LTC Fleming, who is the 41st Bde Staff Judge Advocate (head of all 41st Bde JAGs). Fortunately he's also a fellow southerner from Arkansas. With the exception of the active duty Navy folks, everyone else is from Oregon or Utah.

Being from Oregon or Utah isn't a bad thing, but they just don't understand a southerner's need for BBQ and all things fried.

All of these JAGs are in different parts of Afghanistan performing different mentoring missions. And no, I haven't been here for four years. The date stamp on someone's camera must be off.

This was a productive conference. We met with many of the ANA judges and generals trying to improve the performance of various Afghan court systems. I am working hard to build an entirely new court system at my base, the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC). I am hopefully going to get all of the equipment I want and hope to have the personnel approved soon. This is a major initiative.

If I am successful in building this new court, I will have met my goal of making a real difference here.