(20NOV2008)
When I go to chow, I generally go by myself and bring a book. It’s really my only form of escape and relaxation here, with the exception of an occasional sporting event on television (though the time difference makes them tough to catch).
The last couple of days the DFAC has been very crowded and I’ve not been able to find a seat by myself like I usually do. Tonight I sit next to some soldiers and airmen, and am shortly joined by another airman who sits across from me and we strike up a conversation.
He comments on how crowded it is and I tell him it’s usually not like this. He suspects it’s the 400 personnel backed up to leave for R&R; he knows because he’s one of them. His usual job is down at Kabul, at the airport, KIA – a poor acronym if I ever saw one. Even though KIA is a major airport, almost all personnel leaving theater come through BAF on their way out.
As we describe our work to one another, his story sounds similar the Air Force captain I met several weeks ago. He, too, works to help the ANA set up and secure their communications hubs, and has been frustrated by their still nascent computer knowledge. Worse, he tells me, half of the ANA signal corps is completely illiterate. How do you show someone how to use a computer who can’t read anything on the screen? In the US military, the signal corps contain generally very well-educated, bright, whiz-kid types. Not so in the ANA, where they’ll generally take anyone who’s willing to join up.
To compound the problem, the programs they use are partly in Dari (with Pashto, one of the two major Afghan languages), and partly in English. Being illiterate in every language doesn’t particularly put you in a prime position to learn two quickly, and it’s been a struggle for the US forces trying to train the ANA.
He recounts more frustrations with the ANA, many of them seemingly typical problems of any fledgling military organization. I’m told they have a reluctance to remove disabled vehicles from their inventory, even when they’re taking up valuable real estate. The unit he works with went so far as to tow 20 completely unusable trucks from one base to another when their HQ moved, despite the fact that the US Army had provided them with brand new vehicles. My new friend shrugs. “They’ll learn” he says.
We go on to speak of families and home. His home is currently in Ramstein, Germany, my jumping off point into theater back in August. I lament that I have only flown in and out of Germany, and have yet to explore the country. He gives me some ideas of places I should see when I get the chance and I imagine traveling for fun – something I’ve not done in a long time.
It’s definitely a regret of mine that I travel so much for work and yet so little of it translates to any sort of wider knowledge of the world’s cultures and peoples. My dinner companion agrees; we learn an awful lot about military bases, but spend precious little time with locals.
As I’m sure I’ll fly out of Germany on my way home sometime far in the future, I’m now thinking of taking some time – a week or so – and traveling around the country before I come home.
They have beer in Germany, I hear.
DFAC = Dining FACility
KIA = Kabul International Airport
BAF = Bagram Air Field
ANA = Afghan National Army
