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Reflections on experience in Afghanistan
One of these projects created a fairly unique opportunity for my team and me. We determined one of the local district centers, in the Alasay Valley (the primary insurgent infiltration route for the region), needed to be cleaned up and refurbished. The plan created to do this involved most of my team, including me, traveling out to the Alasay District Center and staying there for 5 days, paying the local villagers to clean-up the District Center, thus accomplishing the goals of cleaning up the district center and injecting money into the local economy. When we were out at the site, almost everything went according to plan. Our first day was our arrival and setup at the District Center. We placed our Tactical Operations Center in a building next to the District Center and setup a perimeter encompassing both the district center and our TOC. The second, third and fourth days were scheduled as District Center cleanup days. Our fifth day was the payout to the local workers, site tear-down, and return to base. During the cleanup days, we were simply maintaining our position and staying vigilant to make sure nothing major happened. However, something did happen. On the fourth day we experienced a major event. We had gone through the day like the second and third, but late in the afternoon we saw several small explosions in the distance, then one big one. When everyone checked in, we determined the explosion was nowhere near us. Shortly after checking in, we noticed a plume of dirt rising about a mile away from where we were. Since it didn’t appear hostile and there were no Coalition forces in the area of the explosion, we asked the local Afghanistan National Police force to check it out and let us know what happened. Thirty minutes after the big explosion, several locals, carrying five injured children, showed up at the Entry Control Point to our site. It took us several minutes to fully respond, but our posture quickly became defensive, all gear went on immediately. The children the locals brought to us were quickly assessed by our two medics and they determined the only way for them to survive was to call in a medical evacuation from Bagram, so we called it up. After the medevac was approved, we started preparing for the arrival of the helicopter. During this time I was used as a runner, to help coordinate the preparation and also to bring supplies from our TOC out to the medics and other people working to save the children’s lives. When the medevac helicopter finally arrived, I switched to covering a position around the makeshift landing site until the helicopter took off back for Bagram. On our fifth day we found out the nature of the explosion. The children had been playing with a rocket mortar they had found and they had all been standing very close some even squatting down next to it, when it exploded, quite literally, in their faces. By the time they were brought to us, two of the five had lost so much blood; there was nothing that could be done for them and they died before the helicopter ever arrived. However, the other three were stabilized and within two weeks after we left the district center, all three had been discharged from the hospital. Most of my time in Afghanistan consisted of the normal day-to-day routine, but the nature of my team’s mission caused me to be outside the wire several times during my deployment. My trip out to the District Center was only one of several trips I took. My experience at the Alasay District Center was the most intense and memorable experience I had during my deployment. I believe the work we did there had a real impact on the lives of those we met and their community. |
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