Adraskan

In early April I travelled to Adraskan District in Herat Province which is in north western Afghanistan. The purpose of the trip was to attend the opening of the new Afghan Civil Order Police (ANCOP) training facility.

The dark circles in the background are the tents of the Kuchi, which in Persian means "those who travel". The Kuchi are bedouins or nomads, and their tent villages are scattered all over Afghanistan. They always settle near a water source and all of them have large herds of goats. They live just like Abraham did in the Old Testament.

The terrain in north west Afghanistan is hilly but not as mountainous as the east. The environment is dry and arid with scattered green zones near rivers and water sources. The specks in the background are a Kuchi goat herd.

This is one of the green zones fed by irrigation ditches by the river in the far background.

A close up of one of the goat herds

Another Kuchi settlement with a cemetery in the foreground

Irrigation fed fields with a goat herd on the slope in the background.

A permanent village, and much like Farah, the dwellings have a domed roof.

Even though many Afghans have vehicles, most still rely on beasts of burden. It is not unusual to share the highway with donkey carts and cars.

A hasty formation of the 1st ANCOP class at their new facility.

A fish out of water. An Italian HH-3F Sea King Helicopter. This bird brought in the General and the Minister of the Interior to visit the facility.

The Italian version of the Apache flying escort for the Sea King

ANP LTV (Light Terrain Vehicle), the work horse of the ANP.

J-Bad April 08

On my birthday in April, I flew down to J-Bad to inspect a Afghan Border Police (ABP) training site. We rode on a State Department, Soviet built Mi-8. The State Dept. does not use Americans as pilots and generally hires out all security functions to Gurhkas.

Here are the ABP recruits taking in some class instruction.

This is a picture of a "green zone". The green zone obviously gets its name from being green in contrast to the overall brown arid surroundings. Green zones are located near rivers and wells. Since there is no concealment in the desert, the enemy will hide in the green zones, especially larger ones.

When we arrived back in Kabul, the helicopter landed just before a dust storm struck the city.


This picture is a Soviet version of the C-141 , except the engines are much smaller on the Soviet aircraft. This particular bird, flown by contractors obviously had an engine fire and the guys crawling over the plane are stripping its parts. I spotted this damaged aircraft on a quick trip to Kandahar.

Farah II

Due to a deteriorating situation in Farah, I travelled out west again in mid-March. This time with the 1st Deputy Minister of the Interior.

Much of Afghanistan is littered with battered Soviet armor. This is a BTR-60 Armored Personnel Carrier lying off the side of the road.

This is a Afghan cemetery.

The Farah Bazaar

Another street scene in Farah City.

Among the many groups we met with, this one was the most interesting. The Farah Provinicial Jihadi Council. No kidding.

This guy is one of the ANP servants for the Farah Governor. I asked if I could take his picture and he straightened up and posed for me.

This is what we call the Gloryhole. Everyone squats when they do their business here.

This is one of the gardens in the Governor's compound. All gardens in Afghanistan are planted in depressions because of the arid environment. The water pools in the depression and soaks the plants roots.

These two guys were my travel companions. I call the guy on the right, "Haji Eddy" the ceremonial head of the Jihadi Council.

At the Farah Provinicial Police HQ are these stacked Soviet APCs. The one on top is a BTR-60 and the one on the bottom is a BRDM.

The following group of photos were taken at the citadel in Farah. The citadel has walls that are about 50' high and 50' thick. It is over a kilometer across on the inside. Up to about 90 years ago, the entire city of Farah was located inside the walls. The citadel was built by Alexander the Great's occupation troops over 2000 years ago.

Interior walls.

Me inside the citadel. You can see the far side walls in the background.

This is the one of two gates entering the city. This is the west gate which is the smaller of the two. This was taken from the inside of the citadel.

The ceiling of the west gate.

The exterior of the west gate.

This is a shot of the exterior walls of the citadel

The main gate or east gate of the citadel. The vehicles in the foreground are more derelict Soviet vehicles. The Soviets utilized the citadel as a base during their occupation of the region.

All of the mounds in the foreground are the ruins of ancient homes within the walls. In the background is the Bala Hissar which to this day serves as a base for an ANA Kandak (Afghan Army Battalion).

This structure on the north east section of the citadel was built much more recently. It now houses a ANP checkpoint.

March 08

The picture below was taken on 13 March 08 while we conducted the Change of Responsibilty Ceremony for the CSTC-A Command Sergeant Major. CSM Espinoza handed the reigns over to CSM Coleman. While we participated in the ceremony, one of the Camp Eggers convoys was struck by a suicide bomber. The up armored vehicles the Americans were travelling in saved them from serious injury. However, the insurgent cowardly suicide bomber managed to kill 8 Afghans and injure 20.

Later in the week I flew out to FOB Bastion, a British base in Helmand Province. The guy below is one of the Helmand Chief of Police's PSD.


In order to get to Bastion I had to go through Kandahar Air Field.

I took this while flying out to Wardak Province from a UH-60 Blackhawk.

The two following pictures were taken on the flight to Wardak. Both are aerial shots of Kabul.

Herat Feb 08

I went to the Herat Regional Training Center, located in north western Afghanistan in order to attend the ANP graduation. The Police had just completed an 8 week period of instruction much like Basic Training.

This is the graduating class, the guy goose stepping up to the podium is going to recieve an award from Deputy Minister Mangal. I find it ironic that the Afghans take great pride in defeating the Soviets, yet they emulate the Soviets in many ways. Such as their marching techniques.

There I was minding my own business, when all of a sudden some dude is hugging me. I was just reaching for my "nine" and while I was gaining PID (positve ID of my target) I realized I knew the guy. When I was here in 2006, I served with the guy I am stading next to in the photo, his code name is "Silverback". The Colonel behind us is a good friend from Texas and still lives under the illusion that somehow the South won the Civil War.

Afghan Airlines, whoa. We fly military, thankfully. This is the high tech baggage unloading system at the Herat airport. The guy in the white turbin is the conveyor belt and the push cart is the baggage tractor. However, I admire the efficiency of the system. This area serves as baggage claims as well. The guy on the left is patiently waiting for the "conveyor belt" to throw his bags at him.

This is a Tajik (Tajikistan) Air Soviet built MI-8.

Farah

We travelled out to the western Province of Farah and visited the City of Farah in Mid-February. While it was about 25 degrees in Kabul, it was about 75-80 in Farah. The province sits on the border with Iran and is a fairly strategic region. The people obviously have more of a Persian influence, yet most are Sunni opposed to the dominant Shia in Iran. Flying into Farah was quite the adventure. The C-130 had to make a stop in Kandahar first and we ran out of day light. The Farah airstrip has no landing lights, so the crew got out their night vision and drove on.

Some local kids looking for candy or water. The contraption to the right, is the communal well.

Another street scene in the city. Notice the domed roofs of the houses. This helps keep their homes relatively cool in the 120 degree summers.

This is looing across the airstrip. The dots in the background are burned out and destroyed Soviet APCs (Armored personnel carriers).

Here I am with some NDS (National Directorate of Security, dudes in green) and the 1st Deputy Minister of the Interiors PSD (guys in blue).

This little guy belonged to one of the Afghan airport workers. He would break my heart a month later when I re-visited Farah. I saw him barely walking and obviously not eating.