NO REGRETS ~ An American Adventure in Afghanistan by Kaelin David

Author:Kaelin, David [Kaelin, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780991142705
Publisher: Dave Kaelin
Published: 2013-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

Meeting the General

Mid-September 2007

In order to train the Afghans, we needed access to them. My team was supposed to be stationed at the regional training center whose primary function was training the Afghan police. A new regional police headquarters called a Multiple Regional Institution (MRI) was being built next to the RTC. I needed access to both the RTC and the MRI to be effective. However, the State Department owned the RTCs and refused to give us access because of their infernal feuding with Defense. This kept us off the RTC as a permanent living arrangement. Eventually, I gained access to the RTC by building relationships with the local RTC command and staff, but that took a little time.

The only other way to access the Afghan police was via the U.S. Army police mentor teams. State and Defense had redundant teams that more often than not operated independently of one another. There were also ISAF teams of Carabinieri—the Italian national military police—rolling around who likewise were coordinating effort with no one else. A by-product of this was wasted effort and confusion within the Afghan police training program. It would get better over time, but when I first arrived no one was talking to anyone else and everyone had separate agendas.

For the time being, Camp Stone was our base of operations and we would have to travel to the Afghans with undermanned and under-equipped Army teams. Herat was a sideshow in Afghanistan in 2007. And Afghanistan was a sideshow of Iraq. Concentration of effort and funding was Iraq first, southern and eastern Afghanistan second, Kabul third. Herat was somewhere down the line behind toilet facilities for detention camps in Guantanamo. The Army mentor teams with whom I would be traveling around the Herat region were equipped with non-armored SUVs, Afghan police Rangers, and a few modified Hummers. We had the worst equipment in all of Afghanistan. The teams were manned at 30 to 40 percent authorized strength. What that meant was that if three people were authorized to conduct a mission, usually only one person was assigned. We were literally a sideshow of a sideshow.

The first challenge after settling into Camp Stone was gaining entry into the system. No one had been expecting us. No one knew what we were supposed to do. No one knew if they could, or even wanted to, support us. I let Zach take the lead in introducing our capabilities and mission to the Army on the ground at Camp Stone. Two weeks passed with no progress. There was no prospect of a class. We weren’t being integrated into the police mentoring team. We were treading water and damn close to drowning. “Zach, what the hell is going on? Are we going to get classes? Are we going to be integrated? Are you doing anything to get us involved?” All I got was a sheepish grin and, “Well, I don’t know. I’ve talked to Major Green and to Lieutenant Colonel Stone.” Major Green was the operations and training officer for the region.

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