Riots & Leave
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006Day 196
Section Chief’s meeting tonight. The boss took us over to Camp Souter, one of the British bases. It’s the one that the ‘Kabul hundred’ of Canadians use as a meeting place, since they’re scattered in various jobs all over the city and don’t have a base of their own.
The U.S. has the USO; the Canadians have what they call the Canadian Forces Tour. Tonight’s show was similar to a USO show, mostly County/Western, but with one REALLY hot violinist and a Quebecois singer that did some reggae and other stuff. Since I left the flyer in my room, I can’t remember all the names, and I’ll have to put them in later. The only one I remember is the Wilkinsons. Excellent show. We whine about not being allowed to have beer, turns out the Brits and Canadians are only allowed two a night. That was the subject of much humor during the show, as the MC constantly was warning the audience about one thing or another, due to the effect of those ‘two beers.’ (”Don’t fall off that balcony, etc.)
(Canadian Forces Tour lineup was: The Wilkinsons (Contry/Western family group, Amanda Stott (singer), Maritza (Quebecois singer, beautiful), Richard Wood (violinist), Michelle Wright (C/W singer), Diane Chase (C/W singer), and Julian Austin (a Canadian Toby Keith). The host was a guy named Kenny Shaw. Excellent show and great performers!
Day 198
I seem to bother some people just by being my normal self. My boss stuck his head in the other day and started talking. I had my head turned towards him on my right, to talk and listen, but kept on typing. He said I was weirding him out. Claimed he was waiting for my head to spin around. Canadians just can’t take it, eh?
My new MAJ and I took the boss over to KAIA, (Kabul International Airport) to get him on a plane for Bahrain today. Some function for a Canadian contingent, redeployment or something. We had the standard car inspection when we got to the gate for that base, with one minor twist. They had a camera/sound team, obviously civilian, taking footage of the whole thing. Nobody asked for my autograph, though.
Day 199
Back to KAIA to pick up the boss. His plane was late, but only by about half an hour, which is nearly a miracle in this place. He bought us lunch for our trouble, in the Thai restaurant near the terminal.
Because of the flight schedule and the ceremonies on the other end, he’d managed a grand total of about two hours of sleep in the last 36, and was looking fairly fried. Once we got back to the office, he took off to get a couple of hours more of sleep, but needed to go back out to Souter to meet a couple of Brigadier Generals for something. So I made sure he was up on time and we headed out there. Turned out they were back in town having dinner with someone else, so we waited. And waited. Then we remembered seeing a party on the way in, so we wandered over there. Some Brit medical people were rotating home and their friends,(to include some of the Canadians,) were giving them a send off. So we hung out with them for a little over an hour, then went back and waited for the Generals some more.
They finally showed up. Almost missed them as they walked in through the dark. They don’t make nearly the fuss an American General makes. Their Personal Security Detachment is much more low key than the American types, too.
Anyway, got introduced to Brigadiers Fraser and Grant, and to General ‘Hillary’(as pronounced by an American officer that was trying to find out what his schedule was). He looked a little familiar before the intro, but I knew I’d never met him.
His name is actually Hillier (Hill Aire) and he’s the chief of the Canadian Defense Forces. Nice guy, very laid back. The Brigadiers were real people, too. I think our Army could use a few more like this.
We went over to the club and they had a few beers and we all chewed the fat. Very informal. Nice evening, if rather late.
Day 201
Got out of Kabul today on the way to Bagram, to catch a flight for leave. We left half an hour earlier than we’d originally planned, because a Memorial Day ceremony was scheduled for our original time. We would have had to walk through the middle of it in order to leave and that would have been crass.
Turned out to be fortuitous, because a Coalition or ISAF vehicle out on the other end of town had an accident just a few minutes after we left and a civilian was killed. A riot brewed up pretty quick, with rocks thrown, so our folks beat feet and called for help. The Afhan Army responded, but the rioters threw rocks at them, too. They opened fire, apparently killing some people and wounding a number more.
All the roads were quickly declared to be in a black condition, which meant that the convoy that brought us up to Bagram can’t go back today. Even though we were still in town when the original alert went out, we kept going because it was on the opposite end of town from where we were or where we were going.
UPDATE Apparently, a HEMETT truck, a monster about half the size of a semi, lost its brakes in the middle of a traffic circle and hit a number of cars. The convoy stopped to try to sort things out, but started getting thrown rocks, so they left, as the situation was obviously deteriorating.
The papers reported ’several’ police stations set on fire, but the only picture is of one of the police shelters on a small traffic circle burning. Hardly a police ’station’.
The roads today are upgraded from black to red, which means you can only go out if you have special permission. Our convoy got permission and headed back several hours ago, should be safe home by now.
Even if this was a legitimate accident, the way that many Coalition troops drive is a source of constant irritation to Afghans. Afghans may drive like they have a death wish, but a lot of soldiers drive as if there was no one else on the road; and they have the guns to back it up.
The word has been passed several times to slow down and stop doing a number of ‘no-nos’, but it doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect.
Our RAF Squadron Leader got side swiped a few weeks ago, by a convoy of Royal Marine Commandos in SUVs. They came up fast from behind and forced his vehicle to the side when they passed, the lead one hit him. He had the deputy minister of one of the ministries in the car with him and they were all somewhat upset. He followed the convoy to its base and reported what happened to the security forces there. They told him that the incident had already been reported and that it was his fault for ‘breaking into’ the Commandos convoy!
He calmly explained that the Commandos were lying to protect themselves, but that was no problem, he would take it up with the Brigadier, which he did. He wrote a formal letter of complaint. Unfortunately, he rotated out last week and we never heard if it was going to have any effect.
Now that I’m on the manifest for tomorrow morning, to fly out on the way home, the truth can be told.
I’ve always planned to be on leave for Megan’s graduation. I had put my request in as soon as we got here, as directed, and was cleared by my section. The red tape mounted, though. First, they kicked my leave request back nearly at the end of April, because they didn’t like it being filled out by hand. (It was originally turned in on 22 March.) Then, they said they couldn’t get me on a flight, because there were no seats available. When I told them my unit already had a seat reserved for me, they got mad, because now I was ’stealing’ one of ‘their’ leave slots. Next, in order to blend back into civil society, I had to attend a chaplain’s briefing just before I leave, to ensure I don’t commit any number of despicable acts once I’m on leave. Well, I seem to have finally cleared the worst of the red tape and may be on my way in a few hours.
They flight still looks like it’s on! See some of you soon!
Day 203 1 Jun
Home today! Right now, I’m sitting in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport, waiting for my flight to Portland.. Everything I’ve heard about the welcome here turns out to be true. We actually had to go back out on the taxiway in order to come back in between a couple of fire engines, who sprayed the plane down as a greeting. Once we got through Customs, there were two routes. One led up to the gate that I needed for the Portland flight; the other led to the exit. ALL the soldiers had to take the one for the exit, even if they needed one of the other gates. That way, we couldn’t avoid the group of greeters who meet every plane. Maybe three dozen people; some of them firefighters, some of them veterans, most of them ordinary people who come out every day to support the returning veterans. It might bring a tear to your eye if you were some sort of sloppy sentimentalist……….. Which, of course, I’m not.