INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS IN AFGHANISTAN

The Training Assistance Group (TAG) at Camp Alamo is tasked to train the Afghan Army. This is a multinational mission. Here at Camp Alamo, we have French, Canadian, British and Romanian troops performing training missions.
Here's Chris again with a great shot of the landscape below the mountain. Chris I think has now rotated back to Canada. He is a great guy and he's seen a lot of combat here in Afghanistan. Canada is shouldering a lot of the combat action and we should be very grateful for their help.

Here you see some of the Italian special forces playing foozeball. There are no Italians at Camp Alamo, but as I discussed in some of my earlier blog entries, I often went to their base and ate pizza with them. I think they have rotated back to Italy now.

Here you see a British officer with the Ghurkas from Nepal. If you have the time, do a Google search on the Ghurkas. They have a long and distinguished history of fighting in the British army. We have several Ghurkas here at Camp Alamo assisting with the training.

This is an officer from the U.K. I think he is British, but I don't want to offend if he is a Scotsman or something thereabouts. His beret and plume are distinctive and I've never seen it before or since we climbed the Ghar together.

This morning the French hosted a small party with formage (cheese) and baguettes (bread). You can see some of the French officers. Unfortunately, the beer on the table is non alcoholic. It was a bit early for cheese and bread, but it was good nonetheless. I can't bring myself to drink the nonalcoholic beer. It's not very good and it just makes you miss the real thing even more.

One of the French soldiers (Vince) actually went to law school in France but is not a legal officer. His English is pretty good and he translates for the rest of the French officers. Most of them do not speak English.

Vince is from Tours, France. Tours is right outside Chinon, where my wife Allyson was born. Although she is not French (her father was stationed in France with the U.S. Army), she has been to France many times and loves the country and its people.

I still do not have clearance to talk about the trial that concluded yesterday. I can say that we got convictions and that this is good news for a lot of reasons. Hopefully I can give you the rest of the details soon.