Afghan National Army « Afghanistan My Last Tour

Organized Chaos

Posted on 04/08/2010 by Rex Temple

Now that we had a solution, it was time to implement an action plan. The next day, my teammates and G-Company, 186 BSB combined forces and loaded a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle (LMTV) with the boxes packed full of school supplies. Before loading them, we stacked them in the parking lot by type of item [...]

Filed under: Missions, School supplies project | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, convoy, Deployment, ETT, humanitarian mission, photography, U.S. Air Force, war | 6 Comments »

Case of a Mistaken Village

Posted on 04/07/2010 by Rex Temple

Now that our mission is over, I will reveal what I couldn’t yesterday about the potential of being the biggest blunder of my deployment. It took some real finesse and some sheer luck to resolve the situation. Some 173rd teammates and I joined forces with G Company, 186 BSB and our mission was to perform [...]

Filed under: Missions, School supplies project | Tagged: 173rd, 186 BSB, Afghan National Army, ANA, convoy, Deployment, education, ETT, G Company, humanitarian mission, school, U.S. Air Force, village elder, war | 8 Comments »

Two Missions and a Surprise

Posted on 04/06/2010 by Rex Temple

The past few days has been nonstop planning, coordinating, analyzing, and preparing for these missions. The first leg of the mission had the potential to be the greatest blunder of my deployment. For OPSEC reasons, I can’t provide any more detail or pictures until later on this week. I even penned a catchy headline entitled [...]

Filed under: Mentoring ANA, Missions | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, Darulaman Palace, Deployment, ETT, Kings Palace, U.S. Air Force, war | 2 Comments »

Eating With the Interpreters

Posted on 04/03/2010 by Rex Temple

Today was another opportunity to cross another item off my “Things To Do List.” Time is running out and the clock is rapidly ticking away, so I am steadily crossing items off this list. Omid, my interpreter, returned from his temporary duty at FOB Shank and I wasted no time putting him to work. Our [...]

Filed under: Mentoring ANA | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, Deployment, DFAC, ETT, ink cartridge, interpreter, U.S. Air Force, visa, war | 2 Comments »

An Interview With Female ANA soldiers

Posted on 04/02/2010 by Rex Temple

No Tom Foolery here! It was one more thing I could cross off “My Things to Do” list. Today I had a unique opportunity to interview two female ANA officers. Judging by their attire they were wearing, you would easily mistake them for a housewife or local citizen and never know they were proud officers [...]

Filed under: Mentoring ANA, Missions | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, ANP, Deployment, ETT, female soldiers, military spouse, wife | 3 Comments »

A Visit to the Past

Posted on 03/31/2010 by Rex Temple

My curiosity finally got the best of me and today I would pacify it. I’ve driven past it dozens of times and had hoped to see it up close. Today a handful of teammates and I would visit the 14th century ruins that reside on a portion of ANA land. We were a bit skittish [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: 14th century ruins, Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, basketball, historical strutures, Kabul, photography, Tajbeg Palace | 2 Comments »

Winding Down

Posted on 03/27/2010 by Rex Temple

Shortly approaching 11 months of deployment, we are starting to wind down. In fact, we received notice our tours may be cut short by a couple of weeks. The mission we had has changed and the Army is implementing the partnership concept. This means they will work much closer with the ANA counterparts and they [...]

Filed under: Mentoring ANA | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, Deployment, ETT, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, war | Leave a Comment »

View From A Gunner’s Turret

Posted on 03/27/2010 by Rex Temple

It has been awhile since I have crawled up in the gunner’s turret and took on the responsibility of a gunner. On today’s mission, this was my position. Admittedly, I don’t favor being a gunner because of my height and size (and age) because it’s very demanding and your team relies on your keen sense [...]

Filed under: Missions | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, Deployment, ETT, M-240, MRAP, turret, U.S. Air Force, war | 3 Comments »

A Long Friday

Posted on 03/19/2010 by Rex Temple

Yesterday we did our sensitive items check (weekly check of our weapon serial numbers and other devices), which allowed us to sleep in a little bit longer today. Today is also Jumaa and our ANA counterparts are off or at least most of them. They are preparing to celebrate the New Year on Sunday. So [...]

Filed under: School supplies project, Uncategorized | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, ANA, day off, Deployment, ETT, Jumaa, war | 1 Comment »

Relocating ANA Library?

Posted on 03/18/2010 by Rex Temple

I woke up energized and motivated for today’s tasking. We have been planning for weeks to open up a new library for the ANA soldiers and relocate the literacy room to a larger room. I attended our morning meeting and the Sergeant Major unveiled a large chocolate cake. Not sure if he was planning on [...]

Filed under: Mentoring ANA | Tagged: Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghanistan, ammunition, ANA, ANP, contractor, Deployment, ETT, inventory, library, literacy, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), war, XE (formerly Blackwater) | Leave a Comment »

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