Inside The Wire

Contractors Taking Tea and Working Half Days

The summer gear issue continues at the warehouse. At this point we've completed 80 percent of the summer gear push, and we've accomplished this one quarter ahead of schedule. Again, we did this with four guys at my place and with the same number out at the weapons facility that my roommate runs, both completely staffed by Navy personnel. We have been a man down this entire month due to our impending transition to the Ministry's warehouse facility. I sent my Chief over there to get that entire facility ready to go and to start driving the Afghan government officials to do something over at their place. It became apparent once Chief got out there that their civilian contractor mentors have been doing little more than taking tea and working half days and getting paid. There hasn't been any mentoring going on. My guys immediately start driving the plan, and this made them extremely unpopular at first, but the Afghans have seen results and the contractors have been guilted into doing their jobs. The contractors don't have the same vested interest in getting out of here as most of the military guys. Sad, but true.

Pushing $17 Million in Gear

The Afghani clothes given to LT Powers by the safehouse guards.

About two weeks ago I was told that my relief had just shown up in country. I was a little surprised. The Colonel had been saying for months he was going to send me somewhere else, but I didn't think it would happen. My replacement is an Army captain, a quartermaster for the Army by trade, but she doesn't have any experience in the supply world or in running her own team. So far she's been tabbed with other duties in her career and is excited about working here and taking over the warehouse. We officially turned over about a week ago after a painstaking wall-to-wall inventory. It was well worth it and I believe that I turned over a better product than was given to me. I'm confident that she can make it even better. My guys were disappointed and immediately lobbed the sellout label at me. Very similar to my Soldiers when I left Phoenix. So I was officially in charge of the warehouse for four months (although I had those duties for close to six). During this time the team received goods in excess of $10 million and pushed gear totaling $17 million. A big task for just a few guys.

On to Herat

Nomadic shepherds who appeared on the impromptu range set up in the mountains. LT Jeff Ehlenberger walks in the background.

My new job takes me out to Herat in western Afghanistan. My department here in Kabul has been reorganized, and currently we don't have a rep in the west. PRD and DRD (Defense Reform Directorate) logistics have been combined under one hat at the national level. Both groups are similar and were covering many of the same functions. Reorganizing under a unified staff as the J4 office will help streamline the logistics operation and allow us to take best practices from each organization. Most of what was PRD assumed the leadership positions. So now they need more bodies downrange. General Durbin would like Herat to be the model for the Afghan National Security Forces, and the biggest game in Herat is the civil order police mission. They're building a new camp to start training these police officers. Right now there isn't much there. I'll be heading to this new camp to help establish and push the logistical requirements so we can start training police by the end of the summer. This will mean being the point of contact for the Seabees on construction, interfacing with the police mentors as they incorporate lessons learned from other camps on the best way to set things up from the start, and working with my current office to establish key life support and sustainment capabilities. No more box-kicking, more operational logistics and hopefully travel around a different part of Afghanistan. That is the guidance as it stands now, but who knows what will happen once I get on the ground.

Seeing Kabul and Old Friends

A small reunion of shipmates from training at Camp Shelby at Bagram Air Base, before convoying back to Kabul. (L to R) LT Horst Sollfrank, LT Eric Musial, LT Josh Powers.

The rest of this month has been spent getting to see a bit more of Kabul. I've been exploring Kabul city and getting to see other camps. Once I turned over at the warehouse I was free to do pretty much what I wanted. Some of my old buddies from Shelby work at various camps in the area so I've been hanging out with them. I headed over to Camp Cobra with some of the police mentors and saw the king and queen's palace, shot foreign weapons behind the old Soviet O club up in the mountains and generally relaxing. 

I also got tabbed for my first long-range convoy duty (outside of leading my own team through Kabul). I was convoy commander for the leave and pass trip at the beginning of May up to Bagram and had the luck to run into some more of my Shelby crowd and to drive their vehicle back with them. We had a good time blazing down from Bagram and catching up. It has been nearly a year since I left for Shelby.

Losses and Farewell

May has also seen its share of tragedy. Two Camp Eggers Soldiers were killed on the drive back to base from their jobs at the prison near Pol-e-Charki. This is one of the most lawless areas of Kabul, but it was a shock nonetheless. We held a fallen comrades ceremony for them a week or so before Memorial Day. One had retired and was a voluntary recall. The other was about to head home. One of the Sailors from a group ahead of ours just recently returned home. He was killed in a car accident not long after returning home. He was a good friend to some of my guys and they took it especially hard. So senseless to make it through this and then die back home.

Other than that, not much is happening. The locals were sad to see me leave and I get reports that they ask about me often. Before I left I was able to get my workers at the warehouse written into the new contract at the government warehouse. They're leaving the current company so they can continue to work with Americans and specifically the Sailors from the warehouse. Those guys have been great ambassadors for the US and the Navy. The guards were also disappointed to hear I was leaving and all chipped in to buy me some traditional Afghan clothes and a pakol, the headgear of choice for all Northern Alliance commanders and their fighters. One of the guards was a tailor when the Taliban ran things, and he's sewing the clothes for me. A thoughtful gesture, as these guards don't make much money. I'm glad they think of me this way and hope that I've been a positive representative for our country.

All photos courtesy of LT Josh Powers, USN

About the Author: LT Josh Powers is from Tulsa, Oklahoma and graduated from the Naval Academy in 2000. After completing nuclear power training he reported to the USS Providence (SSN 719) and participated in the Tomahawk missile strikes in the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  He is currently an IA serving in Afghanistan as part of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, Police Reform Directorate.