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Before I go any further, I want to thank everyone involved in sending clothing donations and helping pay to have them shipped here. There will be more missions to come, and I promise to post many pictures so you can see the fruits of your kindness.
It's hard to describe the humanitarian assistance program here at Camp Alamo. So many people contribute in so many ways. Unfortunately, it's hard to have a lot of coordination because all of us have full time jobs mentoring the Afghan National Army.
This particular mission evolved after a flood devastated a section of downtown Kabul. We were told that over 6000 people lost their homes. A police chief contacted our intelligence officer and asked for assistance.
Our intelligence officer took the lead as the Mission Commander. He asked me to be the Alternate Mission Commander and assist him.
Last week we visited with the police chief and assessed his needs. Based on his request, we put together 100 bags of food and clothing. We also obtained shovels, tarps, saws, hammers and other tools that they could use to help rebuild their homes.
As I've tried to explain before, these missions take a lot of planning. You can't just roll out to a neighborhood and drop stuff off. Obviously there is a constant threat level in Kabul. In addition to getting the goods organized, you have to pick personnel, vehicles, weaponry, plan routes, plan for attacks and develop strategy. We worked late into last night putting all of this together.
Perhaps the most difficult task I had was giving the pre-mission briefing to the convoy. For security reasons, I can't go into the composition of the convoy, but it was significant. During this briefing you tell every person what their task is going to be during the mission, what they are expected to do during any contingency and make sure that every person has water, weapons, communications equipment, etc.
There was added pressure (probably self imposed) because I am a JAG. In the past, we haven't been tacticians. But in an asymmetrical war, everyone is expected and trained to be a warrior and a leader. So I felt confident.
On the way to the distribution site I was the commander of my convoy. This is a tense experience because you are responsible for all vehicles and all personnel in those vehicles. We have constant communication between all vehicles and we are always coordinating how to deal with perceived and real threats. I have headphone communication with my driver, gunner and all other vehicles to make sure we target and steer clear of all threats. This is "Top Gun" in a humvee. "Watch your six!" "Motorcycle at two o'clock!" "Pedestrians entering road at eleven o'clock!"
The H.A. mission itself went real well. We cordoned off the street in front of the Olympic Stadium. Here's a picture of the outside of the stadium.
The barbed wire was a strange contrast to the Olympic rings.
The Afghan police did a good job of lining the family members up to receive the aid. My only regret is that we didn't bring water for the villagers, but they didn't have to wait long and they seemed to do ok. Of course, with 80+ degree heat and about forty extra pounds of gear on me, I thought it was quite warm. I had a camelback of water so I was alright.
The Afghan Air Force flew by while we were downtown. There were MIGs, HIND gunships and more. Quite impressive. I have some video but it would take too long to upload.
People carrying their food and clothing back home. A man on a cane had a badly disfigured foot. There were several amputees in the crowd with missing legs. No doubt victim to the many mines in this country.
The mission was a great success. The problem was that we couldn't take everyone who got up early on Easter to sort the food and clothing. Security was just too tight. We only had about ten percent of our personnel helping distribute while everyone else handled a security function.
Some of our people got their feelings hurt by the fact that they couldn't go. We are having a meeting tomorrow so that we can make sure that everyone can go out on the future missions that we hope to organize very soon.
Since the bags were so heavy, many of us helped the women, children and frail men with the packages. I helped one woman and a beautiful little girl carry their packages. After I put them down, this sweet little girl turned to me and said "tashakur" - which means "thank you."
This was the highlight of my day, and maybe the greatest moment of this entire deployment.