History Repeating - Humanity in Conflict
Part 1: History Repeating
This quadriplegics thoughts about Afghanistan
1. The Taliban retaking the country is a travesty
2. This happening was predictable but is tragic nonetheless.
3. I enjoyed my small piece in helping with training the Afghan Army & it is sad to see them losing the fight on their own.
4. Afghanistan is a mess of a country & probably always will be.
5. The handoff of the country was not done correctly, but how exactly would you leave a country after 20 years?
I personally have mixed emotions. I’ve made close friendships with many men and women that have lost limbs over there. Friends who have been blown up by cowardly used IEDs. Friends that have been shot in the head and survived. Friends and inspirations who were shot 10+ times and motivate me daily from their wheelchair. Friends that have been killed. Blood spilt on foreign soil. Soil that is now reclaimed by the fuckers plaguing their own country. That makes me mad.
At the same point, I’m glad that the blood shed of Americans in Afghanistan will be, for the most part, done. At some point it was going to be sink or swim for the Afghan government. They can only be supplied and trained for so long. It is sad seeing them sinking. I’m sure that some of the men I met & helped train over there have died fighting, trying to better their country. That is admirable.
Truthfully, I am glad that I had the opportunity in my military career to step foot in Afghanistan. I deployed there as a lower enlisted Ranger, so realistically my impact there was minimal. I deployed with a platoon who’s mission was to help supply and train Afghan Commandos. It was during a “peace” time there but this retaking of the country has me wondering how some of those Afghan men are doing. I hope that they’re getting after it and fighting terrorism head on.
Part 2: Humanity in Conflict (one week later)
I pulled these out after getting home and catching up on the news about Afghanistan.
In 2014, I traded one of my Ranger Scrolls with the first Afghan National Army Soldier that I met in our compound. He gave me this green and yellow patch and to this day I don’t know what it means. He was an older man who looked like he was hardened already. His face lit up like a child when I held up my unit patch to trade.
I wonder how he is doing…
The white and brown bracelet was given to me by an Afghan child who lived in one of the villages within our training area. I was on a week long detail providing security outside of the EOD training area and this boy would come up every morning to watch the explosions. He stayed away from our Toyota Hilux but I would give him a friendly wave whenever he looked over. On my last day working the detail, I went to the Porta-Jon to use the bathroom and when I came out, my friend that was pulling security with me had two of these and the little boy was gone. A hello/farewell gift I suppose. I kept this bracelet on my kit throughout my deployment and it now sits attached to the lamp in my study. I never said a word to that kid but he gave me a keepsake I’ll never forget.
I wonder how he is doing…
During deployment we wore the Afghan Partnering Unit patches. “Partner”
Pray for Afghanistan and for everyone that is experiencing turmoil from this fallout.
Instagram post:
My first impression of Afghanistan was that it was beautiful. It was my first time leaving the US and we landed in Bagram in transit to our compound. Me and a couple of buddies played Uno in an empty hangar to kill some time. Massive snow capped mountains looked over us. I felt light headed from the combination of the elevation change and the Ambien wearing off.
We left in Chinooks & flew over Kabul to our compound. Once there we settled into a wooden platoon barracks. We trained ourselves and the Afghan Army for months after getting settled.
We convoved in armored trucks through Kabul regularly and there were constantly mixed stares coming from the locals. I was never sure if they wanted us there or not. Some would throw rocks or whatever, but most smiled and waved.
Part of our physical training was climbing "the Ghar".
Once at the top you could see the old machine gun fighting positions staggering up the mountain.
Positions that the Old Afghan war fighters used against the Russians in the 80's. You could see the old tank positions as well as the abandoned Russian tanks. I collected old expended bullets from their past war while I climbed.
This country has ALWAYs been at war. It's all that
they've known. Seeing the Tal!ban retake this country stings & my impact there was extremely minimal...
I hope the dudes that we trained over there are bringing the fight to those terrorist shit heads. The story of Afghanistan, to me, is a travesty.
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