OPERATION SECURITY BLANKET: DONATE BLANKETS TO AFGHAN CHILDREN DURING THIS HARSH WINTER

Please see the link below about how to donate blankets to the kids in Afghanistan. The 218th BCT is spearheading this drive. The 218th replaced the 41st BCT, which I was a part of in Afghanistan.

http://www.gxonline.com/gxintelnews?id=53666

This is a very worthy cause. I can tell you that the winters are very bad and many of the kids don't even have shoes. Please see my 2/19/07 post for pictures.

Please help if you can.

CLOTHING DONATIONS FOR AFGHANISTAN

If you are interested in sending clothing donations to help the people in Afghanistan, please contact me at my email address, which you can find under the "my profile" section to the right.

Any clothing that you want to send must be practical. The Afghans live in a very harsh environment so things such as dress clothes, dress shoes, etc. can't be used.

Practical clothing such as jeans, sweaters, sweatshirts/pants, coats and baby clothes can be used. If you have a large amount of items then it is important to organize your shipments. Baby clothes in one box, boys pants in one box, girls pants in another box, boys shirts in another box and so on. This will save the soldiers a lot of work when the time comes to deliver the clothes.

Thanks for your help. I look forward to hearing from you.

HOME

I am finally back home from Afghanistan.

This banner has two stories behind it.

The first has to do with the quote, which was taken from a picture in Allyson's dad's office.

Colonel Bruce Garnett was the head of the Patriot Missile Project in the U.S. Army and was a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran. After his untimely passing a few years ago, we discovered a picture from his office that was given to him by his co-workers on the occasion of his retirement that said, "Ya done good Trooper." So this has special meaning for Allyson.

The second story has to do with the banner itself.

Prior to my arrival home, Allyson went to a local printer to have the banner made. When she tried to pay for it, the clerk told her that another customer had seen it being made for a soldier, and paid for it anonymously. That was a wonderful gesture.

We will take some vacation time together and then work on restarting my law practice.

I am thankful for this journey, for my family, my friends and for arriving home safely.

PERSONAL INVESTMENT

I will be heading home soon so I probably won't post again for some time. Thanks to all who have supported me through your encouraging words and prayers. A big thanks to everyone who donated to our humanitarian efforts.

If you would like further information on our ongoing Afghanistan humanitarian efforts, please contact me directly. My email address is located under "My Profile" to the right.

A whole new group of soldiers has arrived to take our place. Please don't forget about them or their families. Those soldiers will be here for at least twelve months, and with the recent extension, many will be gone for fifteen months.

FIFTEEN MONTHS.

Think about what that means. Kids will spend over a year without a parent. Some kids will have both parents deployed. Spouses will be without their husband or wife. Many marriages won't survive. One thing is certain. Lives will be changed forever.

Could you handle it? Could your spouse? How would you feel if it was your child, your father, mother, brother or sister? We've even got grandparents serving here.

I can tell you how you'd feel. You'd be worried. You'd take an interest in the people and the politics. You'd count the days until your loved one could come home. You'd voice your opinion.

You'd get involved.

That's the problem as I see it today. Many of us don't know anyone who is deployed. We're not personally invested in the outcome.

Don't just say that you "Support the Troops." What does that really mean? Does it mean thinking about what the troops believe? What they're going through? What their families must endure? Does it mean taking some kind of action in order to influence the outcome?

Or does it mean what the t.v. or talk radio tells you?

I think it means more than sending a card, a care package or placing a yellow ribbon magnet on your bumper. It means getting involved. It means participating in the American political process. It means pushing outside the boundaries of the world that you have created for yourself.

Consider it your duty to follow what is happening and to form your own opinion. That's the least you can do.

But if you really want to support the troops, you must find a way to become personally invested.

AFGHAN SCHOOL CHILDREN

During a recent village recon I had the chance to see an elementary school and visit with the kids.

Like all kids, they were a bit shy. I guess I would be too if a couple of fully armed soldiers walked into my classroom. That can't be helped because we're required to stay in our body armor.

Despite our appearance, the kids opened up to us really fast and were glad to see us. A great icebreaker is to show the kids digital pictures of themselves. They've probably never seen pictures of themselves so they're fascinated by the camera.

Notice anything? All boys. I really couldn't get a straight answer as to whether the girls attend school or not. I know that this school is so small that the kids have to attend in shifts; some in the morning and then a new group in the afternoon.

Overcrowding is a common problem. The typical Afghan family has between five and ten children. It's also hard to get the teachers paid sometimes. This school house is in the middle of nowhere and is not easily accessible, which exacerbates those problems.

Anyway, it was fun visiting these kids and hopefully we will be back soon to deliver more help to them.

A BIG STEP FORWARD

(CNN) -- Top Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah Lang has been killed in a military operation in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Forces said Sunday, confirming earlier reports by the Afghan government.

A NATO statement said Dadullah had "left his sanctuary in southern Afghanistan where he was killed in a U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO."

The operation was made possible "by the Afghan National Security Forces and the Afghan people," the statement said.

The elusive commander was in charge of day-to-day military operations for the Taliban and, according to ISAF, his death has struck a "serious blow" to the resurgent Taliban in the region.

According to Afghan government spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad, Dadullah was tracked down Friday by a joint Afghan army-police operation backed by NATO air support in southern Helmand Province.

Ahmad said Dadullah, who he described as the "killer of killers," was located through intelligence reports and by following leads closely.

"We had some reports that there were some major figures in the area of the operation," Ahmad told CNN Sunday. "We were going for some significant figures who were hiding in Helmand province."

Ahmad said the announcement was made Sunday because that was when the government's intelligence service confirmed the body was Dadullah.

The one-legged Dadullah figured prominently for the Taliban in media interviews.

In April, he told al-Jazeera that Osama bin Laden helped plan a deadly suicide car bombing outside Bagram Air Base targeting a "very important American official," apparently referring to Vice President Dick Cheney. (Full story)

Referring to bin Laden, Dadullah told the network, "Praise be to God he is still alive, and we have information about him and praise be to God he orchestrates plans in both Iraq and Afghanistan."

On March 1, Dadullah said his forces were poised for a spring offensive against NATO-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, and that he was maintaining a regular line of communication with bin Laden. Dadullah spoke in an interview obtained by Britain's Channel Four.

Journalist Tom Coghlan told CNN on Sunday from Kabul that he had witnessed a shift in NATO battle tactics.

NATO has been moving away from killing large numbers of low-level fighters to targeting Taliban figureheads in an "aim to decapitate the leadership," Coghlan said.

And Dadullah's death is "perhaps the biggest military loss" the Taliban has had since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

In December, the U.S. military said another top Taliban military commander was killed in an airstrike close to the border with Pakistan.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed by a U.S. airstrike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said.

I FRATELLI DI ITALIA

The title of this post means "My Italian Brothers." Yesterday marked my last visit to Camp Invicta, the Italian FOB, and the last time that I will see my friends Giuseppe and Erman in Afghanistan. I say "in Afghanistan" because my wife and I plan to travel to Italy later this year. I hope to see them again then.

Pictured from left to right are SSG Bobby Jory, Italian CPT Giuseppe Lorusso, me and Italian LT Erman Panarese. Giuseppe and Erman gave SSG Jory and I the t-shirts that we're holding. We gave them our American Flag patches. You can see Erman holding his.

I can't say enough about Guiseppe and Erman. They kept me sane by feeding me great Italian food and through their friendship. Visiting with them was a welcome break from Camp Alamo and it gave me something to look forward to each week.

To my Italian friends, "Mille grazie."

OPERATION BACKPACK

We are currently in the process of filling over 2000 backpacks and duffel bags to give to the Afghan school kids. This is proving to be one of our biggest logistical challenges.

This must be done during our "down" time, and there isn't much of that. Each backpack or duffel must be unwrapped from its packaging, unzipped and then put through an assembly line of packers. Here you see backpacks waiting to be stripped of their internal packaging, which consists of a lot of useless cardboard and plastic.

Each packer has an assigned task. One person is in charge of pens and pencils, another handles crayons, another handles notebook paper, and so on. Then a person has to zip up the backpack or duffel and place it back into a box for shipment. As you can see, this is a very labor intensive process.

Two days of work and we've only been able to stuff about 800. Here you see the stuffed backpacks that have been "re-boxed." These are now ready to be delivered.

See all of those boxes in the back? Those are the duffel bags that we haven't even unpacked yet.

This is going to take a while.

Soviet K-9 Dog Kennels

Soviet Combat Engineers used dogs to sniff for land mines during their war in Afghanistan. German shepherds were the breed of choice.
These pictures show the remains of a Soviet K-9 dog barracks. They were built using the same mud construction that the Afghans use for their homes.

You can still see the small kennels used to house each dog. It's amazing that the mud construction has lasted this long.

The Afghans tried a number of ways to baffle the Soviet Union's dogs, like wrapping the mines in cellophane or sprinkling them with motor oil. Neither method was very successful.

Dogs are still used today to help locate the thousands of land mines left in this country.

AWARDS CEREMONY

Today the Training Assistance Group held an awards ceremony for many of its departing members.

It is nice to be recognized for a job well done, but people don't do things here for medals.

I personally did not set out on this tour to chase medals either. We only wear them on our class "A" uniforms, and being in the National Guard, I have only donned mine a few times. However, now that this deployment is almost over, it does feel good to know that people think you did a good job.

I received the Meritorious Service Medal and the Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. We will all receive several other medals for participating in this tour.

Colonel Lyman said today, and I agree, that the Volunteer Service Medal is the most meaningful. I'm very proud of the humanitarian work we've done here.