ABA Journal - Law News Now

Well that was a long trip - over a week and about 200 emails in my inbox. Yikes!

But it was interesting. We visited the PRTs in Paktya and Khost just South of Kabul.

We first went to Gardez in Paktya province. The only way is via helicoptor as you can tell. We flew in and out of the little valleys from Bagram down through Logar province and then into Gardez. The helo's can't just go straight over the mountains, they have to go through passes in the hills where it would be easy to get shot at by some enterprising (and very lucky) Taliban. But I only saw a few people hiking up one mountain - a long line of colorfully dressed women. I don't know why they were climbing the mountain in the morning. I couldn't get my camera up in time. But as you can see it's interesting and beautiful country.

Gardez is the capital of Paktya province. It's not too bad as far as security goes. They work closely with the Afghan National Army which has a large base just 5 minutes from the PRT. The PRT is about 7800 feet elevation - and yet it's in a valley. There are large mountains to the South which, as you can see from the pictures, would make incredibly good ski resorts. They get enough snow in the winter - most likely enough to bury the mines safely. I'd love to try it.

We visited the ANA hospital - run by US and Afghan Doctors. The US doctors are all females. They somehow manage to get along with their Afghan colleagues OK though. Afghan doctors are not paid very well. One doctor was working for the PRT as a translator for about 10 times what he would make as a doctor - and even that was at least 1/10th what a doctor in the States makes. We visited some wounded soldiers - one with a nasty GSW to his leg. Our American doctor told us that if he'd been in a US hospital, they would have amputated but the Afghan doctors are determined to save the leg. There are no VA benefits in Afghanistan.

While the hospital does not normally see civilian casualties, it does when there's been a mass attack as happened a few weeks ago. There's a single pass to the mountains to the South and the Taliban would love to close it as it is one of the primary links to Pakistan and the port of Karachi. Sure enough civilians get caught in the cross fire. There are no ambulance services. The casualties were just thrown into the back of a pick up truck and brought to the hospital - 8 of them. One was a 10 year old boy - in severe pain and obviously not going to make it. His mother waited outside. The Afghan doctors refused to give the child morphine, arguing that it would be wasted as he would soon be dead. The American Doctor insisted and provided some pain relief in his last few minutes and then held the boy's hand while he passed away. But no one would go out and tell the mother what had happened. She sat there for several hours outside the clinic in her burkha, sweltering. But no one in Afghanistan is allowed to talk to a woman it seems - even to tell her that her son had died. Finally the Afghans washed the body and put it in a casket and carried it out to her. That's how she found out.

We also made a road trip as you can see. This trip was from Gardez to Puli Alam in Logar province. The divide between these two provinces is a high mountain pass. We pushed through and down a steep winding road on the other side when we suddenly halted. The Afghan Army had found an IED a little ways down in a gulley. We got out, as you can see, weapons loaded (notice the difference in my magazine between here and out in Tarin Kowt?), round chambered. No messing around. I was tail end so stopped traffic coming down the mountain.

The pictures tell our predicament - we were stopped up in a ravine. The Taliban could have thrown rocks at us and killed someone. I scanned the hills with my binoculars but could see no one. The ANA commander then drove up to the back of the convoy. He said that he had stopped the IED - he had cut the wires. OK. Good job! Glad you cut the right ones! The PRT CO decided it would be best to go back to the PRT and wait for EOD to clear the IED - notwithstanding the ANA's good job of cutting the wires. First we had to let the traffic jam behind us get through. The PRT's intel officer, a female captain, had to check the cars. I guarded her carefully - several times bringing my weapon up on cars with single occupants as those are the most likely suicide bombers.

We then headed back to the PRT but returned an hour later only to be stopped again on the near side of the pass. Again we got out and scanned the hills - nothing there. The Taliban had placed two IEDs for us to find. This time the CO said he was taking it personal. We pushed on to Logar and a good visit with the incoming Czech PRT commander. They are setting one up for the Spring.

We then did a night helo ride from Gardez to Khost. Unfortunately the helos, Blackhawks, were late and we didn't get started until well after midnight. We had to go to several Forward Operating Bases along the way dropping off personnel and supplies before we made the final leg into Khost. Afghanistan at night from a Blackhawk helicopter is an interesting perspective. The moon was up and as Clement Moore put it, "the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, gave a lustre of mid-day to objects below." Only it wasn't snow, it was sand. And it was very dark. Few lights were on. We flew through the mountains and it seemed to me almost alpine - with little small villages or huts tucked away and here and there we stopped to land in a FOB. We didn't get into Khost until around 3 in the morning.

After catching a few hours sleep we trucked it over to the PRT base a few minutes away from the main base by the airfield. The Khost PRT Commander is another submariner. He was very impressive having just finished a tour of duty as a speech writer for the CNO . He impressed me with how well things are going in Khost both in development and security. But being right on the border with Pakistan (an easy 20 KM of paved road), the suicide bombers like to come over and see if they can kill the governor. They apparently don't like him. The next day I joined a team heading deep into the wilderness of Khost, Qalandar district. They assured me though that it was an absolutely safe area. The last time they were there, their vehicle broke down and they were stuck there for 5 days on the mountain road. They said they met no one but friends the entire time - a very safe area despite its remoteness.

As you can see from the pictures though it was a dangerous trip - I had serious visions of us hitting something and taking a tumble down the ravines. We were constantly an inch or so from the edge of the cliffs. We first had to go over severe rocks in the Wadi and then climb the mountain pass and finally down the other side. It took hours for just a few miles. What surprised me was that we met Jingle Trucks coming through the same road. I can't imagine navigating that road in a jingle truck. It looked more like a place for a mountain bike than any kind of motored vehicle.

When we arrived in the village the elders were waiting for us. We brought shoes for the children. We had to make them promise that they would give them to the girls. They refused to let any of the older girls (they claimed they were in school) to come down. But as you can see a few smaller girls did. But sure enough they began to argue over distributing the shoes and how it should be handled. There is never enough for everyone. We eventually left it to them to work out and fitted a few small girls with shoes that we could.

The Political Officer and I then visited the "school". Actually it is just a destroyed hut with a small blackboard set up. As you can see from the pictures the boys were reading essays that they had written. One talked about growing up to be an engineer to build large buildings. Another said he hoped we would stay a long time and come and visit. I told them that many people would come and visit this place because it was quite beautiful. (it would indeed be a great mountain bike trip!) Another wrote that he hoped we would stay in Iraq until it was peaceful! I found it interesting that they are following international events in probably the most remote place in the world. I had heard of other stories where a governor had gone to remote areas to tell the people what President Karzai was doing, and their response was "What's a President?" But these people seemed to know what was happening. Probably because we give a lot of radios away.

We finally had to go - after a couple more picture takings and we headed out. The jostling through the ride though leaves one very exhausted. I was glad to finally get back to Khost and then fly back the next day to Kabul. Home sweet home and 200 emails that I'm still plowing through. I can't take that much time away from the office and follow all I need.

Talk to everyone later!

Sterling

All photos courtesy of Sterling DeRamus.