Thinking Man's Army

17 NOV 09


What has surprised me the most about the training I have received is how intellectual both the teachers and my fellow warriors are (warriors is the new “joint” term for soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen). When a few minutes of down time comes our way, the number of IPODs coming out is actually very low. The number of books coming out is astoundingly high. I am not the exception in that I am trying to read as much as possible about Afghanistan as possible. While my training has been with only officers, I will not be surprised at all if the enlisted ranks continue this trend. I have seen one person pull out purely pleasure reading (Dune), but all the other books have been related to the War. Histories of Afghanistan, novels about the people and culture, even books about counter-insurgency in other wars. The culture of learning is fostered by the folks here at Camp Atterbury, where in addition to a crash-course in the languages of our provinces (Pashto in my case), we had nightly lectures from Indiana University on the Taliban, Afghan history, Pakistani involvement, and previous PRT experiences.

Given the mission ahead, maybe a thinking force is what is necessary. This is a battle which is fought in the mountains, in the cities, in the valleys, but it cannot be won there. No matter how valiantly the marines and soldiers fight the Taliban from outposts high above the villages, they cannot be defeated there. They can be killed, but not defeated. The only place that the Taliban can be defeated is in the hearts of every Afghan civilian. Insurgencies die when the populace no longer wills them to live. The IRA was not defeated by the British military or by the justice system. It was not defeated because the money stopped flowing in from Boston. It was stopped by an Irish population no longer willing to support it. Stopped by the fact that insurgents cannot supply themselves like an army. They must be supplied by the locals who want the insurgency to be victorious.

I think it is fitting that the Provincial Reconstruction Teams are commanded by Air Force and Navy officers. This is not an Army job, and therefore it helps to have a fresh set of eyes on the problem. While we have experienced army officers in our teams, most of the leadership have never seen combat. My team is led by a Navy Pilot (who was the CO of Brendan’s Training Squadron in P-cola). The only PRT CO who has a combative MOS is a Navy SEAL Commander, which is extremely fitting, since this is just more special operations. We have already been told that a lot of our tasks have to be approached from an un-army point of view, like taking off your body armor to go visit the local governor. While markedly unsafe, it is important to show that we are not an occupational force, but a force to help. If we take fire from insurgents, responding with 155mm Howitzer fire will cost us dearly in the hearts of the villagers, even though it will definitely kill insurgents.

You're in the Army now....

So this is my first post from Camp Atterbury IN.

Wow, this is nothing like the Navy. There are both good parts and bad parts to this. Weekend is not even defined in the Army dictionary. We got here on Friday (620 am flight out of Norfolk), and I was prepared to have my entire weekend wasted. I was hoping actually to skate out of here and see Navy play ND (and kick some ass, as it turns out!). Instead, we started my first part of training on Saturday. This would never fly in the Navy. I feel really sorry for the Air Force guys, because the only thing open on the weekends at an Air Force base is the golf course. So instead of nothing to do, I had no time to watch even a minute of the Navy-ND game. What is this first part of training? Seven hours a day of Pashto. Seven. At 5pm, my brain feels like absolute mush after it has been smashed continuously all day with a language that makes Russian seem common sense. And then there's the teacher. A Native of Afghanistan (good), he doesn't even know the difference between feminine and masculine words in his own language. This bodes extremely well. He teaches us to pronounce the words (but acts like it's soooo simple)(there are like nine ways to pronounce "da"), and we teach him about sentence structure. It's a work in progress. I think I'm ordering Rosetta Stone.

And then there's the Army. Several Issues Here....

1. The Army Combat Uniform. ACU's are an awesome uniform. Comfortable, tons of pockets, built in pockets to put in elbow and knee pads, pocket for pens, velcro name tapes and rank badges (so getting promoted is not much of a hassle like the Navy). It's durable, rugged, and has a digital camo pattern. Unfortunately, it blends into nothing. Nothing. It's not green enough to blend in with a treeline. It's too green and not brown enough to blend into the desert. Seriously, it's a combat uniform that makes us stand out like sore thumbs. HO-AH

2. Army regulations. Once the whole PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) comes, we fall under General Order #1 of the First US Army. In short: No civies, no alcohol, no going off base, no private vehicles allowed. I'm a plebe at USNA all over again. Also, we have reflective belts. From dusk till dawn, all personnel are required to wear reflective belts. Even in my Navy PT uniform (which is bright yellow and has releftive lettering spelling NAVY on both sides).

3. Army bases: Makes me know how nice we have it in the Navy. Evey building here is a trailer. Seriously. Think of the Palm Harbor Homes display on the side of I-45, and then make it acres. About 95% of the buildings here could be moved if necessary. The Exchange is the size of a large gas station. Golf Course? HAHAHAHA.

Well, I have to go study my Pashto

Asalam Alekom, everyone.

Stuck inside of Norfolk with the Memphis Blues again...

Well, I will finally update my blog, this time with its original purpose-- to chronicle my adventures in Naval Expeditionary Warfare... (aka doing the Army's job for them). Let's get to the highlights of my last week. In five days, we managed to do about 2-3 real days' worth of work. Probably more like 1.5. We had training on the Army (apparently they do things differently than the NAvy),we had training on fraternization (apparently I'm not supposed to have nefarious affairs with enlisted women), we had briefs I've had a thousand times before. The only thing that surprised me in a positive way was the way we got uniforms. We tried on some uniforms, got measured on Monday. Friday, a nice neat seabag with all my army uniforms is ready for me, complete with my name stitched on the bag.

The nice feeling did not last long, however. The next base I'm supposed to be training at called Norfolk, telling them that they weren't ready for us, and to postpone us for a week. This does not bode well for future planning. So now I'm stuck in Norfolk for an extra week with not even a desk to occupy my time. So here's the run-down of week one....

1. My own army uniforms (pictures to follow)
2. My own gas mask
3. Dog Tags (make this seem all too real)

Well, I expect updates to be slow this week (nothing to do), but next week should be nice and exciting.