Female service members from the Kunar PRT attended the ceremony. “Attending the Fatima High School graduation gave us the opportunity to ask questions on the Afghan school process, and educate us on what the young female students plan for their future,” said Navy Chief Petty Officer Jacqueline Riner.
Each graduate received a gift in recognition of her hard work and dedication to her education. Three were recognized for outstanding achievement. “I want everyone to succeed in the women’s society,” said Mina Rahmani, one of the girls recognized for outstanding achievement. “The women are the future, and will bring peace and prosperity.”
Nargis Abassi, another top graduate, added, “I want a brighter future for all of the young girls in our society. Women should be able to become a doctor, an engineer, a scientist, or part of Parliament.”
Shah Jahan, deputy director, Kunar Board of Education, also attended the graduation ceremony. He presented the girls with gifts, and words of encouragement to further their education.
Nasima Sadat, dir. of women’s affairs, and her 16-year-old daughter Nadia, attended the graduation ceremony as well. “I'm grateful to see so many girls graduating, and I would like to thank the women of Kunar PRT for being here and showing their support,” Sadat said.
“The noteworthy thing for me was how these young women interacted with each other. Just like the young women of the States — giggling, whispering, getting together in groups. Some being shy, some very outgoing and charismatic,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Lynn Redman, a nurse practitioner with Kunar PRT. “Then, they put on their burqas and disappeared into the day, each going their own way, some holding the hands of children.”
At the end of the graduation ceremony, the graduates congratulated each other and thanked their teachers, Sadat and Jahan, and the PRT reps for encouraging them, and supporting the graduation ceremony.
“We went to Qual-e Jala within Koh-e Safi to search for known weapons cache sites, and we wanted to detain a known insurgent we believed was in the area,” said Capt. Randall Stanford, the Troop B cmdr. “The sources we used didn’t work to get our primary objective, so we just continued with our clearing and searching ops.”
The company spilt the village and cleared the compounds 1 by 1. Throughout the day, they killed an insurgent, detained 4 others and found grenades, rockets, landmines and IED making materials. The ANA, with minimal guidance, took the lead on the majority of the searches.
2nd Lt. Andrew Smith, 3rd Plt leader for Troop B said that the ANA soldiers did a great job, while they cleared 3rd Plt’s sector of the village. “We had 10 ANA soldiers with us, and one spoke pretty good English,” he said, “which worked out very well, because without him we would've had to do a lot of hand signalling. He really helped out.”
Stanford said Troop B had trained previously with the ANA and ANP unit. He was happy with how much the ANA took the lead in clearing the village. “They really got in on the questioning of detained individuals,” he said. “Without having to go through an interpreter, the ANA had a lot of questions they would fire at them. It’s good when they can ask the questions and do the searching. We're getting where we need to be, which is us backing up, and them going forward, and that’s happening already.”
“We were very satisfied with the cooperation we had with Bravo Troop,” said ANA Lt. Aimal, EO. “We did what we came to do, and it was very successful. We hope that in the future we've many successful missions like this with other CF.”
"The mission went off flawlessly," said Stanford. Not only did Troop B have ANA and ANP along on the mission, but they also had a French Operational Mentoring Liaison Team, a law enforcement professional, a female engagement team (FET), military working dogs, and air assets to name a few.
1st Lt. Ed Zerwes is the distribution platoon leader for 54th. He and his Soldiers comprise the bn’s combat logistics patrol (CPL). Every week or so, the CLP departs from bn HQ on FOB Shank to move supplies, equipment, and personnel to and from the 6 other FOBs that the 54th units occupy.
Dealing with the affects of Afghanistan’s unpredictable weather is just part of an FSC logisticians’ job. Although the CLP doesn’t leave the wire looking to engage insurgents, as many combat units do, they still have obstacles to surmount. "The greatest challenge facing the CLP on a daily bases is the terrain," said Zerwes. "The huge trucks used to transport heavy equipment often can’t handle the rugged, unimproved roads, which are the best Afghanistan has to offer. Often times, the trucks don’t have enough room to turn around or maneuver, and there's a constant danger of getting stuck, or rolling over on the uneven terrain," he said.
Spc. Devon McMullen, a distribution platoon gunner, recalls one occasion when the patrol encountered a particularly rough stretch of road. “They told us it was going to be a hard-ball road all the way, but when we hit this one part, the vehicles were bouncing so much, that the butt stock of my M240b machine gun actually broke.”
"As TF Dolch’s FSC, the Spartans are responsible for providing support for the 8 route-clearance platoons spread across RC-E; no easy task for a bn stretched from the Pakistani border to the boundary of RC-S," said Zerwes.
“We carry everything from ammo, to trucks, to bulldozers,” said Zerwes, “pretty much anything that needs to be carried.”
The FSC concept is relatively new, and the Spartans are in the unique position of being the only non-engr company in an engr bn. “It’s hard, because a lot of engrs don’t understand logistics ops; they’ve never worked with it before,” said Capt. Deosaran Pokhai, FSC cmdr.
Additionally, although not typically part of a FSC, the cmdr. created a Co Intel Support Team (CoIST). "The CoIST allows the company to gather and analyze its own intel on CLP routes, to better prepare patrol personnel for their missions," said Pokhai.
Whether through maintenance, training or transportation, the Spartans are daily living up to their motto, “Support Starts Here.”
"Hurry up," Beullens yelled at the helpless little dog as it scurried across the road. "I'm not going to run over any puppies today. I couldn't do that to an animal." Beullens honked his horn and wiped the sweat from his brow. His eyes darted around the road scanning for danger.
Like the unpredictable and sometimes perilous roads of eastern Afghanistan, Beullens leads a life that sometimes doesn't always take the smoothest route. "It's kind of my character to go toward a head-on collision; then, at the last moment steer away," said Beullens about his philosophy on life.
The 35 year old, born in Leuven, Belgium, speaks with barely an accent. He's had hundreds of hours to perfect his English, since joining the U.S. Army in 2008. At the age of 16, just barely out of high school, Buellens decided to join the Belgian Army as a truck driver. He went right to NCO school, and came out a year later as a sgt. in charge of transportation.
"As an NCO there, most of the time you spend on a motorcycle weaving through the convoys," said Buellens. "Your whole job is to make sure the convoy gets there." He explained there are about 43,000 personnel in the whole Belgian military. That's just a fraction of the amount of people in the U.S. Army. Therefore, he said that he had to learn all aspects of the 88 series military occupational specialty (MOS). Since they were such a small force, soldiers in the Belgian Army couldn't afford to specialize in just one transportation MOS.
He enjoyed his job, and they promoted him to try to give him a desk job. He couldn't imagine living behind a desk, so he joined an elite parachute regt. similar to Special Forces. They couldn't make Beullens stay in one place too long. He deployed to Bosnia 3 times, Somalia, Columbia, Venezuela, and all throughout Europe.
After his knees and back started to hurt from doing so many parachute jumps, he decided he had had enough. At the time, he thought he was saying goodbye to the military. Years later, he found himself itching to see what the U.S. Army could offer him. "Even in Belgium, the U.S. Army was always appealing," said Beullens. "They got the big toys and they got the big budget."
That wasn't the only thing that drew him to his recruiter's office in Virginia, after he had spent a few months living in the U.S. "The second thing is - I personally feel if you get taken in by a country, I think you should give something back," he explained with tight lips and serious eyes. "I truly believe the Army as an institution stands for something bigger than the people who are in it."
Now, working for his U.S. citizenship, Beullens said he enjoys his time in his truck, where he is the master of his destiny. He also remarked that it hasn't always been a smooth road for him in the U.S. Army. It's sometimes hard for him to keep his mouth shut, and just be a private, when he's had so many experiences on life's roads.
"It's been kind of bumpy; then you have the hardball where it just rolls a little smoother; then it gets bumpy again," Beullens explained about his life. "Right now I'm on the bumpy part. I've gotten in trouble a couple of times, but yeah, I'm working on fixing that. I'm trying to get back on the hardball. I know it's there; I just have to steer toward it. For the most part, it's me doing the steering, and the obstacle in the way you can always avoid."
The skinny puppy finally made it to the other side of the road. Adroitly, Beullens got the 40-ton vehicle moving again. The puppy turned his head back toward the vehicle, and the convoy continued down the road in a cloud of dust.
Photos by Pfc. Angel Washington
Story and photos by Pfc. Alyxandra McChesney
Due to damage of the main dairy processing plant in 2003, dairy production had all but ceased within the communities and districts of Kirkuk, depleting the resources of local farmers. “One of our goals in making these small dairy production plants, is to give the local farmers an opportunity to sell their milk to the dairy plant, have the dairy plant turn the milk into cheese and yogurt, and distribute the products to the local markets,” said Ken Apple, the PRT industry advisor.
Reps from Kirkuk prov., and the 4 micro-dairy plants visited the newly opened site to receive training from M. Germaiani, a dairy specialist hired to manage, mentor and teach local district dairy farmers on the proper way to use and sanitize the equipment.
“It’s amazing to see these districts, who typically don’t get along, put aside their differences and collaborate with each other, to help the local farmers and the city of Kirkuk,” said Apple. He explained how this project reminded him of a 'barn raising,' an event where individuals commit their time and labor to rebuild a damaged barn, benefitting the entire community.