Airmen help rebuild a nation

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing
MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  After a six-day killing frenzy of local Afghans, the Taliban seized control of this city in 1998. In November 2001, with U.S. assistance, the Afghan Northern Alliance recaptured the city of 180,000 residents.

Today, Airmen continue to assist Afghanistan in its war against extremists by mentoring the military members of the Afghan National Army, created in 2002. 

Helping a country 

In January 2002, a Group of Eight conference -- a meeting of the world’s top leaders -- in Japan spelled out America’s role in re-building Afghanistan. With the World Trade Center attack still fresh in the minds of U.S. citizens, America focused on counter-terrorism within Afghanistan. That meant taking on the task of building the Afghan National Army.

Since then, the United States, with help from France and the United Kingdom, has been training a new national army, which is growing every day -- not only in numbers, but in experience.

“Afghanistan has been at war with terrorists for four years,” said Maj. Sarbeland, an Afghan National Army operations leader. “We have been freed, not because of our achievements, but because of (United States) achievements. Four years ago we dreamed of having our own government, and it’s a reality today because of (Airmen).”

The Airmen mentors here are known as embedded training teams. Approximately 20 teams, totaling about 150 Airmen scattered throughout Afghanistan, instruct Afghan soldiers in communications, logistics, supply, medical, and training and education. 

A few more than 20 team members at Camp Micheal Spann mentor the Afghan army in supply matters, such as storing and transporting. The trick is, they aren’t teaching the ANA how supply is done the Air Force way. Since the Airmen are filling Army shortfall positions, they must teach supply how the Army does it. Although ETTs fall administratively under the 755th Expeditionary Mission Support Group stationed at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, they work alongside other NATO trainers to teach the Afghan army how to be self-sufficient.

“The sooner we teach the Afghan military what it needs to know, the sooner we go home,” said Col. Douglas Hine, the 755th’s commander.

Fueling an Army 

With few members of the ANA able to read or write, training is difficult, especially in the supply world, where everything must be documented on forms.

That lack of documentation created a serious diesel-fuel accountability problem for the ANA, that is until Tech. Sgt. Roland Alexander arrived with the team in January.

Basically, the Afghan army didn’t have a way to measure its fuel consumption, thus never knew how much fuel was needed on a monthly basis.

With 18 years of Air Force experience in fuels, Sergeant Alexander is accustomed to solving problems in austere environments. He has deployed six times. 

“When I first got here, the ANA couldn’t account for 3,000 to 8,000 liters of fuel per month,” Sergeant Alexander said.

The first thing Sergeant Alexander discovered was the fuel tank the ANA thought held 25,000 liters of fuel actually held only 22,000. Then he emptied the tank and waited for the users to arrive, documenting every visit for a month. This gave him a baseline on monthly fuel consumption. It was during this time the sergeant witnessed Afghan ingenuity.

“The ANA bus that shuttled pilots to and from the airport was out of gas and the driver asked me if we had any gas,” Sergeant Alexander said. “I said no, but while I was talking to the driver, the ANA had lowered a little man into the tank. He was using a bucket to scoop out the last of the gas and putting it in the bus.”

Breaking down barriers 

After solving the fuel accountability mystery, Sergeant Alexander began tackling his biggest challenge -- trying to instill military discipline. His initial assessment of the ANA was that its members were unorganized and experience levels varied greatly.

“Some of them were in the previous Afghanistan army, some are young, others old, some can read and write while most can’t,” Sergeant Alexander said.

To make it easy for the ANA, he made a checklist for them to follow, which contained everything from what time to report to work, to an entire day’s taskings. Then, three days a week, he taught the platoon sergeant, who could speak English, and another soldier how to operate a computer and fill out a spreadsheet.

While off duty, he asked the camp’s interpreter to teach English, while he in turn learned their language.

“It all worked out pretty well,” Sergeant Alexander said.

Striving for a military mindset 

Sergeant Alexander and other Airmen also noticed that the Afghan culture didn’t fit the military mindset. They said it’s against Afghan customs to degrade a man in public, which they feel is happening when the soldiers are corrected for violating military standards.

When a lower-ranking soldier broke the rules, officers and higher ranking NCOs would say nothing.

“It was difficult to explain to them that we weren’t trying to belittle the man. We were trying to have him conform to a military standard,” Sergeant Alexander said.

That military bearing was also lacking in their personal lives, said Master Sgt. Mitch Mitchell, the forward support depot superintendent.

“We went to visit the soldiers’ dorms and we found the place in a mess,” Sergeant Mitchell said. “So we told them we were going to return in two days to inspect their barracks. When we came back for the inspection, the place was clean, and it still is today. The soldiers are on the bottom rung, and what we’ve tried to do is make life better for them.”

“I’ll look back and I’m going to wonder about the frontline NCOs, the young future of Afghanistan and the challenges they’ll have to overcome,” Sergeant Alexander said.

“However, I will leave them with enough tools to make a difference. To help stand up a country is exciting.”

When a bulk of the Airmen here were recently asked if they enjoyed mentoring the ANA, they all raised their hands.

“We’re a part of history,” said Capt. Brian Garrido, 209th Forward Support Depot senior military advisor. “It feels good to know you made an impact in a short amount of time.”