Friday, July 19, 2013

Month 11 Day 19

Notebook entry
13 reports given, Carambul game, class to Qais and Najib good, terrain analysis, class with Tawoos afternoon, military a combined obstacle overlay 18 month burn, Elton John Flack under uniform, general paranoid soldiers killed, Corps you're not lying.

Journal entry

My stomach has really been bothering me, and that soured most of my morning.  

I went to see the S2 and talked about the Military Decision making process.  After I spoke with him, I went to the COC.  I found the Afghans in there playing a game that resembles pool very closely called Carambool.  I took a picture.  Capt Nowak was sitting in there just watching, there was a time when he would have been pissed and stormed around, but he's just exhausted and he's given up.   I met up with Qais and Najib in the morning on terrain analysis.  I put them in competition with one another.  I had them race to find the areas on the map, and the first guy who did the correct cardinal directions got a point.  I had them into it, they were fully participating in class.  By the end Qais came up to me and told me 'you are a good teacher and I will make sure I always come to your classes from now on." I was really stoked about this, but I am trying to not get my hopes up. As I walked out of the class Capt Nowak was playing Carambool, stood up and yelled America because he had just won. 

I took the terps to chow, and they we all had fun saying what a pain-in-the-ass my guys were, how they didn't learn properly, and they were altogether too careless.  

In the afternoon the net kept cutting in and out.  I tried to make it work, but I ended up giving up and working mostly on the job and Master's degree stuff.  

I waited to teach a class to Bernie at 1530, but he didn't show.  I found him sitting outside with the General, they were about to drink tea.   The General kindly allowed him to go to class after I told the story of how he killed the most dangerous Talib in the AO a few days prior (he was a 3 in mouse). 

The class went well and Bernie was engaged. we talked about trends in the AO. 

In the evenin meeting a few interesting things came up.  First, elton John, the GSU S3, wears an flak vest under his uniform because he's afraid he'll be shot.  Second the General is using the shooting of Karzai's brother as the fodder to claim he needs a private shower, he's scared for his life.  Whatever. and 18mo old girl 'ran into' a pot of boiling oil and burned her lower extremities.  I hate these people.  the Major reported that the Corps has finally realized that we are not bullshiting them about how fucked up the ANA are, they finally realize admitted that the MoD-14 process is broken and that sending the body of a dead ANA soldier to the wrong house is sub-par performance. Finally one soldier straight up killed another soldier today in Nawa after an arguement, this could be the source of some of the paranoia. 

hhhhh






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