Fobbit travels part 2

Needless to say I was very happy to be out and about. We rode to the Cops in the back of an MTVR-Armadillo ( 7 ton truck with an armored shell covering the troop compartment in the back). There is no better way to travel and see the land. You are up high and have tremendous 360 degree field of view. I’m a grunt and would have preferred walking but this was the next best thing. We drove through ‘downtown’ Deleram, I’ve seen poor and impoverished places before but this was the worst. Although the multi-color camel fur gas tank covers on the on the various local motorcycles added a touch of class. We were in and out of the town in a blink of the eye, it reminded me of Tombstone in Arizona, but more of a one donkey town vice one horse.
We started out on Hwy 1 called the ring road, one of two paved roads in our area of operation. Then turned offroad at a random point and bisected the rte 515. I had no idea we were on rte 515 because it looked just like the offroad track we had just taken. The only time it began to appear road like was when we approached villages and wadi crossings. The natural choke points. It was flat brown country, broken now and again by small green poppy fields and round mud hut villages that had a lot more in common with Star Wars than anything really had a right to.
The country was a unique drab brown, even the air looked brown. Only the dirt faced and muddy footed children had any color, they wore bright green and red loose fitting smocks, the girls had theirs decorated with tiny bells and light lace. The only other color came from the cemeteries; like in any dispersed farming community in the US they had cemeteries for each village. These they decorated with silver, red, black and green streamers anything to break up the gloom of the surrounding country.

We made it to the COP with no incident. There we had short tour, not much to see. It was cold, raining and getting muddy. The company commander who ‘owned’ the COP was an old acquaintance of mine. He had been a student at the Naval Post Grad and Defense Language Institute when I was the MARDET CO. I even had the opportunity to be his instructor for the Expeditionary Warfare Seminar—so I taught him everything he needed to know! Mike was doing great things, he spoke Arabic which didn’t help here since they were Pashtu speakers but his knowledge of the culture and his leadership skills combined to make him the right man at the right place. He was in his element.

The locals responded very well to him.

Life in the COPS is rugged, as I said they were built in 48 hours or less. Tents, wag bags and piss tubes, we did not have these in Iraq when I was there but they are all the rage here in Afghanistan.

What is a wag bag? It is a rugged foldable commode and degradable waste bag system for use anywhere, even has the instructions written on it so you cannot mess up.
What is a piss tube? Well this ingenious invention is a pvc pipe jammed into the earth at an angle with a funnel type top, the theory is you pee in it and the urine is run deep into the ground. It works far better than a standard outhouse. Oh and it is one more reason we don’t’ have many women in these places.

I have often found it a truth that the better the facilities the greater the civilization. Bathrooms, clean and cool are the pinnacle of modern society. I figure I’d be mighty angry and prone to fight all the time too If I had always had to relieve myself outdoors and in a dirt hole with only my left hand and the stars in the sky to wipe with.

The trip out was fun the time was well spent, talked with the Marines, got a feel for what they needed. More importantly what I found out what they did not need. The ride back this time in an Up armored Hummv was uneventful, all it did was confirm my hatred for that vehicle. It looks big but it is built for short folks.

Back at Deleram we had the opportunity to witness a rare event. A presidential visit, Hamid Karzai was going to dedicate the grand opening of the newest paved road in Southern Afghanistan. It says a lot about the importance of roads in this country when you have the Presisdent come to dedicate a two lane road. Rte 606 truly was a backcountry road but it was the best road in the place. It had just been finished by the Indians. It ran from Deleram to Zanranj a straight line to the Iranian border. Great for every sort of commerce licit and illicit. The president, Indian ambassador and US Ambassador all came to the event. It was a very big deal. Security was tight. We did our part by staying out of the way and only providing transport Helicopters for the Dignitaries and over watch. It was a evolution to watch.

When it was over though we had to go back, we had meant to stay two days we ended up staying a week, but we had to get back to our reality. Back to the grind of power point and paper pushing. It was fun though.