HUMANITARIAN MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Today we packed two 7 ton trucks filled from floor to ceiling with boxes of clothes and took them to a village outside Kabul for distribution. One truck was filled entirely of clothes that I collected from around the U.S. The other one was filled with boxes collected by the Alamo commander, COL Lyman.

It's hard to describe the size of the interior of a 7 ton truck, and we had two of them filled with large boxes. This was the largest distribution of clothes that I have ever seen. We were able to put shoes, pants, shirts and jackets on over 500 people and size them correctly. That is a massive undertaking.

I was the convoy commander for this mission. It took about two weeks to plan. I reconned the village three times, planned the route and organized the personnel. However, it's a lot more detailed than that and there were many people that volunteered their time. I don't want to give the impression that I did it all myself.

As a matter of fact, this mission would not have been possible were it not for the generosity of my family and friends back home who collected, packed and organized the boxes of clothes for shipment. The clothes were sent to us pre-sorted and labeled. That meant we only had to unpack the boxes and set up stations for the clothes.

This is a "must" for anyone organizing this type of endeavor. Make sure the boxes are pre-sorted and labeled before they are shipped out.

Of course, this mission would not have been possible without the 50+ volunteers who selflessly helped today. This picture shows the line of American and British soldiers formed to unload the goods. It's the largest turnout I've ever seen. Remember, this is everyone's "off" day. They are donating their personal time to do this.

Here we are setting up the stations. Shoes on the left, coats in the back, shirts on the right, etc.

Baby clothes being unpacked.

Look at all the shoes. Someone even donated football cleats.

Here the villagers are lining up. Crowd control became the biggest task. This is where I spent most of the day, helping to placate the villagers and assure them that there was plenty for everyone. They understandably jockeyed and tried to push to the front of the line because they're desperate.

Note the sign outside the school where we distributed the goods. It was built by the French.

As most of you know by now, females are treated quite poorly in Afghanistan. You will notice that there are no women in line. Young girls showed up, but they had to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, they couldn't do much. The men and boys kept pushing them aside.

Well, we fixed that problem. We moved the girls to the front of the line! You'll be happy to know that the girls got all the clothes that they could carry.

The inside of the courtyard as we're distributing goods. We had a controlled entry point, which was key. A soldier escorted each person through every station to make sure they got a fair amount of clothes that fit them.

The kids are fascinated by the digital pictures of themselves.

Some of the bags were bigger than the kids trying to carry them.

We took good care of over 500 people today, sizing them all up with shoes, pants, shirts and coats to fit. It was great.

This is the last humanitarian mission that I will lead and organize. All of the clothes that I have collected have now been distributed. I will also be coming home soon.

Mobilizing and getting to Afghanistan has been difficult. But these missions have made it all worthwhile.