It's been a year since my last entry from Kuwait. This time I'm heading home through Navy's Warrior Transition Program (WTP). Lot's of downtime...and I haven't heard anything but good things about this place before I came. The Navy gets this one right.
The building I'm in now is the Keith Springle Memorial Transition Tent. I entered with a moment of pause as Keith was the Navy MSC who was murdered in Iraq in which I assisted with the Lejeune Chiefs on CACO duty. A tough time for us all in many ways. Geez, that was over 18 months ago.
Didn't do much today except turn in the weapons after a thorough cleaning. It's good to get rid of the M9/M4. I know they are good to have and brought me comfort at times, but I'm looking forward to walking into a hospital unarmed. Also, went for a good run today. Tomorrow will be the same as we actually begin the WTP program on Saturday, which includes giving all the Army stuff back to Army. a small yippee.
Last mission today. Went to the Ministry of Interior and briefed the results of the PAI biometrics, drug testing and personnel inventory to the International Police Commission Board (mid-level Embassy Reps). The PAI is one of the projects I started with and now ended with.
We did our convoys and now we are done. All Wookies got our blue stones to represent the effort of achieving a certain number of missions.
The team will take the next couple of days for checkout, pack and then start our journey home. Thoughts on mission and more pics to follow sometime in near future.
Hey, it's 1 October. Yippee. Last planned month in Afghanistan. Of course, we continue to do what we do but there is a new pace in the office with the finish line in sight. Sure beats the summer duldrums.
My "pace" continues as the Tashkil (manpower requirements) process is upon the Ministry of Interior again and some how I'm in the middle of it again. No doubt it is my own doing. I suspect if I go back 10-11 months in my blog I would find I was doing similar work. However, this time around the Surgeon General's staff has the lead (a very good thing) and he will be defending his requests. I'll 2nd chair him on Monday but the outcome, good or bad, will be based on his efforts This is transition in my book...and it's the manpower inch we were looking for.
Here's another interesting read that I found on the Tolo News sight (news channel in Kabul that is translated). The responses to this blog are interesting as well.
Included in this post is a link to an interesting article I found on line. What I like, beyond the content, is that Lt Gen Rodriquez is using relatively junior officers to think out of the box.
This post is just an observation I had of my recent eating habits...after over a year of dining hall food I truely think I've succumbed to eating like I'm 5 years old...lol! Really into PB&J for lunch with a side of jello (particularly if the jello has fruit in it...yumbo) and fruit juice or milk boxed drinks.
I sneer at the veggies and am tired of the chicken...and way past the weekly steak and lobster. Now, fully understand that the food here is not bad at all, relatively speaking, since it is shipped in frozen - how bad can it be. There is variety of every meal (see steak and lobster), but even the lobster, which I have a problem eating unless I'm in Maine, seems a bit of character for Afghanistan or Army cuisine.
Eggers is holding a memorial service today for 9/11 victims. Staff from every nation here are standing tall throughout the day near the flag poles which fly flags from each NATO country and Afghanistan. I walked by the ceremony on my way back from the gym and then turned on the news that is replaying the horrific events of this morning 9 years ago. I remember that morning well...2nd floor conference room of National Naval Medical Center...and the long days that followed.
Beyond the lives lost I can only think of how the world has changed. In DC we went from schock, to rebuilding under the United We Stand banners, to barriers around every monument, and now there is a well landscaped barrier that you can't see around the Washington Monument.
The "longwar" continues. People continue to argue about religions with less and less tolerance and the news just becomes tiresome. I don't know what peace should look like but I think we need more of it.
My earlier post included 2 articles on future strategies in Afghanistan and corruption. Here's another good link from the 3-star general at NTM-A/CSTC-A (my boss), LTC Caldwell.
Time has flown by since I returned from R&R. Okay, maybe this wasn’t entirely true as I believe there were 59 days in August. Nonetheless, we made it through July and August and are now in our second week of September. Ramazan in over, the Eid (small) holiday is here and next week are the parliamentary elections. In the meantime, Team Wookie has begun all the necessary paperwork required to ship out of here. Things like evaluations, awards, release from theater letters, are all in the works. If nothing else, we will not be denied exit from here because our paperwork was not submitted on time.
So, it’s good to look forward and see the glimpses of a turnover coming. In the meantime, we still have over a month of mission to complete. This means a couple of things:
Meetings for Tim. New MOI leadership (btw, the new minister moved 21 generals around) and new NTM-A/CSTC-A police leadership means new ways of thinking on how to approach problems…and it means another round of new and improved meeting sets. Of course, I fully understand as new leaders they have the prerogative and I would expect nothing less. What I find interesting is that I now have some perspective on what has been done before. Honestly, it can be frustrating to watch someone new come up with the great “new” idea that was tried before.
Planning for the future mission. The ANP medical mission continues to occupy a small slice of this whole mentoring mission. We, happily, continue to be outsiders to the larger ANA medical mentoring mission and, while I attend police development meetings with our police mentor, I’m the “doc” so there little impact on the larger police mission which is more appropriately concerned about logistics, personnel, facilities, etc. (This is not much different than any other DOD service where medical is very much in a supporting role.) Being the small slice of the mentoring pie has allowed us to craft our own goals while providing mostly good news stories along the way. I think, for the most part, we’ve been successful. The next question is what the follow-on steps are. Ultimately, this will be up to the next team chief but I have a few thoughts. First, it means turning off mentoring where it no longer is needed and then working with the Surgeon General on where new mentoring is required. Over the next month we will begin this process in order to assist the new team. I’d like to think that some future mentoring efforts can be concentrated on the younger medical officers. Second, the time for “stove-pipe” mentoring is over. I think there needs to be more focus on mentoring teams by bringing multiple players together to solve problems. This seems to be the next step in the development of true managers and leaders. Third, and related to two, is the need to provide program management skills to the leaders of the ANP medical system so they can think systematically through a problem. Discussions have already begun on this issue within NTM-A/CSTC-A for MOI leadership. The ANP medical mentors need to latch on to this in a big way.
Finishing up where we started. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be going over the medical Ministerial Development Plan (MDP) (remember that thing…with ratings for tasks) with the Surgeon General. This will help me present the MDP status to the police leadership on base, but will also help focus the next team’s efforts. Honestly, I’d like to think the Surgeon General uses the MDP as is playbook, but I highly doubt it since we didn’t force him to. (Probably good advice for my successor). Nonetheless, the MDP successes are how things are graded on around here so it’s important.
Before I start writing as if this is my final week (which it is not) there is much going on in the news that bears mentioning. First, Afghan elections. Election posters are everywhere. Of course, I’d like to be able to read them but at least in Kabul they are all over. We are hoping for a relatively peaceful election cycle. Second, a few reports on Afghanistan came out recently They are interesting reads and I’ll let you make your decisions. Here is a link to the one on possible future Afghan strategies and another link on corruption.
So, as of 10 September the end is now on the horizon, but there is no let up in mission, safety, and meetings. We will continue to roll on and “Wookie Up” until the end.
1. Geez, I knew I sweat a lot, but then there is Kuwait (see weather map of Kuwait).
2. You can see 5 movies on your plane ride between Kuwait and Atlanta.
3. Camp Lejeune is a wonderful place to live. You can't beat coming home on R&R and have the USMC/UK Commando's doing a full scale exercise in your "back yard", including the complimentary perimeter security of the beach head as you drive by.
4. Leipzig Germany milair terminal...not so much.
5. The young men and women (18-25 years old) of our Armed Forces our hero's. They see way too much over here.
6. It's great to see family and friends...in person or through Skpe.
7. Remember, work to get a side seat on C-17. Was successful coming back.
8. The women of the Atlanta USO are wonderful. Thanks for volunteering.
9. Beth...thank you. MG
Hope to be back in Kabul tomorrow. Just need to get over a mountain range.
By happenstance the article on ANP came out yesterday (see yesterday's blog entry) and then my blog posting on the DoD site about mentoring. The blog posting is part of DoD's "Medical Monday" web series and I was asked to write something by my boss. Frankly, this blog entry was written after I had got my thoughts in order from writing my blog entry on this site on 25 June.
I think DoD was kind to use my submission since I suspect they were looking for something more concrete related to medical issues...but that's not my line of business. I'm the advisor. I hope some day they'll ask an Afghan to write something.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been collecting tidbits of information on paper and in my brain for some sort of retrospective review of this deployment experience so far. There are so many possibilities to cover, including the time away from Beth and family/friends, the mission and its every changing priorities by leadership, the heat/dust in Kabul, the politics of Afghanistan, the constant pressure on this command to produce, the continuous 6 hour news cycle that I’ve talked about before, etc. Because of the myriad of topics I’m just going to start writing. I’m curious to see how it ends…join me.
Col Chester, the departing ANP Surgeon General Advisor, who has led our advising effort over the last year has been our guide on how to do this mission right. Col Chester constantly reminds the team that the Afghans must learn how to do for themselves, the advisors must allow the Afghans to fail (we can be there as a backstop), and we must plan to go home. These 3 fundamentals of advising continue on our team, but I grow more frustrated as I see others continuing to do Afghan work. I know when these concepts fail when an another advisor approaches our team to help with Afghan medical training, acquisition of drug test kits, solving medical training, etc because the Wookies (our team) are the ANP medical advisors. The good news is I have a very simple answer for them – have your senior Afghan advisee call the ANP Surgeon General. Here is his cell number….” I fully understand that I’m putting more pressure on the Surgeon General but I also know he and his staff will come up with a far better solution to the problem than a bunch of US Navy medical advisors would. Plus, the more I’m here the more I’m convinced that while we (coalition advisors) think we run the Ministry of Interior (who the Surgeon General works for) the more I’m convinced that the best solution is an Afghan solution for they own the subsystems that make the personnel move around the country, they own the manpower documents, they own the logistical system, the own the political power base to get thing down. Plus (x2), it is clear to me that the most improved Afghan departments, and I would include the Surgeon General in that group – largely due to Col Chester’s philosophy, are those that have advisers who step away. This is not to say that these successful departments don’t get significant adviser or resource help but it does tell me that the right thing to do is push the Afghans to act.
Having said all the above, there are still problems within the ANP medical system and there is still much work to be done. I can provide a long list of basic things that need to be improved (pick up your garbage on the other side of wall, improve infection control, don’t think that only once person can use a copier, work together as a team – not in silos – to solve a problem, learn the science behind why you are doing something medically, etc, etc) and get frustrated that things aren’t moving fast enough. But, in moments of reflection my frustration is calmed because of the following reasons:
1. MOI is a mess and this leads to many problems. For example, the aforementioned garbage problem. The ANP SG has requested numerous times for MOI to have garbage pickup since the city says it’s an MOI problem. MOI says no. Now, why would they do that for their own hospital?! I can’t blame the SG’s staff. They try.
2.Here’s a great quote I heard today, “The Afghans can add, but they don’t know how to subtract.” Of course, they know math but the system, which frankly I think history of having little is at fault, doesn’t know how to say I have enough stuff or that let’s get rid of this or that.
3.No one is teaching Afghan leadership on the basic principles of business, management and strategic planning 101, or how to use Microsoft Office. Frankly, I blame the mentoring mission for this. We, mentors, want the Afghans to move at the “speed of (Western) business.” But, how can this be done when the mentoring mission forgets that the Afghan general officers in power today were never taught Westernized business thought. They are still operating in mid 20th century management theory or old school Soviet management theory- they use what they know and I can't fault them for that. When I remember this idea it makes sense to me that eyes glaze over when an intricate power point slide depicting a 2 year strategic plan with cross-functional offices are all responsible to another team in developing a widget. Further, we have to remember that most Afghan senior officers, while they have computers on their desk – thank you very much mentors, do not know how to use much passed basic MS Word. Inputting a formula into a basic spreadsheet is just foreign to them. But then again, it was foreign to most of us 20 years ago.
4.There are moments of great discovery for our team. We had a couple this past week. First, it turns out the ANP SG does send teams out to assess regional/provincial clinics. After 7 plus months here we found this lieutenant at the hospital who is the planning officer and he coordinates these things. This is something that probably every team who’s ever done this mission has worked on in one form or another. Probably time for the mentors to stop doing this or accompany the Afghans on their trips…not the other way around. (Note: I was very excited when we discovered this, but still frustrated that I wish the Afghan SG would have told us. Maybe he didn’t think it was important...maybe it's not to him.) Second, the same lieutenant mentioned previously collects workload stats for the hospital and is starting to track all ANP patients in the country. Not by computer or sent in reports but by call, via cell, various units. Both examples show there is progress being made. Maybe all this mentoring is rubbing off and there is a shyness to showing progress? Who knows?
Given above, I thought you might be interested in a standard question that Col Chester asks pretty much every Afghan leader he meets. This is what he wrote in an email to our team this week.
When was the last time you asked your Afghan counterparts (or any Afghan for that matter) if they are ready for July 2011 (White House timetable for the beginning of withdrawal)? This week I put that question to BG Qhandahr, ANP Surgeon General. Here's the exchange.
Col Chester: "Gen Qhandahr, what are your thoughts as the planned withdrawal date of July 2011 approaches?"
Gen Qhandahr: "If you leave, it will be a big problem for Afghanistan."
Col Chester: "But isn't the growth of the ANA and ANP to over 300K (police and Army personnel) enough to secure Afghanistan?"
Gen Qhandahr: "Yes, but they also need to be educated."
Col Chester: "As you know, sir, there are efforts underway to raise the ANA and ANP education level to the 3rd grade. Is that adequate?"
Gen Qhandahr: "Yes, but there must also be support that will allow Afghanistan to begin to take care of itself."
Col Chester: "Sir, it has been widely reported that the governments supporting Afghanistan plan to provide assistance for up to 20 years in order to get the economy on track. Should that be sufficient?"
Gen Qhandahr: Long pause..."Yes."
We must ask such difficult questions so that our Afghan friends begin to understand we will not be here for "100 years," which is what another Afghan said that's how long we should stay.
Asking such direct questions is difficult but it must be done. I don’t think enough people are asking such questions. An interesting blog posting related to the above can be found at here
Given above, one would think that the code is cracked and more of this type of advising would be done. However, the facts, or at least my perception, of the situation make this a murky proposition specifically given that the pressure to see success quickly is so high. This is manifested in our 3-star general’s top “mid/long” priorities. Any guess on how mid/long range is defined…..tick, tock…..the answer is 60+ days. This tells me that pressure is mounting by the Coalition to get things done, now! (Or, maybe I'm just not a good war planner) But, how do you get things done when you need time for the Afghans to fail? Unfortunately, in my opinion there is little overlap here. So, you end up seeing Coalition advisers being told to take charge, accomplish X, Y, and Z, and then teach the Afghans latter. I see this time and time again on Camp Eggers.
The pressure to see success is not all bad – I get that. In fact, the sooner success is achieved the sooner we can bring everyone home. But, I just wonder what the endgame will be….blocks checked or sustainable systems in place?
Wookies still on a roll…
Above and below are some pictures of a recent trip to the MOI Tech Center Clinic in Kabul. (The Tech Center is where the ANP truck fleet is disbursed from.) The mission for the day was to get the doc there to get his rear end over to the medical depot and get the supplies he needs. Frankly, he’s a smart guy that is very busy but we’ve told him before he just needs to submit the right Afghan acquisition form and the depot folks will issue him his stuff. While this was occurring by some of my staff the others (including myself) were hanging at our humvees. The first picture is of me and this random Afghan who wanted to get pictures with us. The second picture of the day is enroute to the Clinic. I call this picture, “No Ass Zone.” Poor little donkey.
Here is more Afghan humor…below is a slide that someone at Camp Eggers. A little background…the Tashkil is the manpower and equipping authorization document for a unit. This document allows for units to be stood up, manned and provided weapons. If you will notice, the picture has red circles around the hands of some of these high-speed police guys. Apparently, they are missing something…we manpower pukes have to wonder if the Afghans forgot to put the weapon requirement on the Tashkil?
Comparison of the Police and Army medical systems…
The Army medical system is much bigger, has one of the largest hospitals in the country, more residency programs, more mentors and more money. But, I see the police system moving much faster in being self-sustaining. Something good happens every day (whether we, ANP medical mentors see it or not) and I am proud to boast about it. Army…I never hear goodness. I'm sure it is there...but, I don't hear it. I think this is largely because of our team’s attitude and the teamwork between the ANP medical leadership and our team. I give the ANP SG credit because he a) thanks the advisers often and b) reinforces that we are one team. So, I think our team continues to do what we do…advise, keep a low profile within the larger Camp Eggers medical directorate, and continue to allow the ANP medical system succeed.
So, these are some of thoughts for the day.
Peace,
Tim
While I have many thoughts on this change of leadership I will offer two here:
The action by the President was firm, fair, and very Presidential. I feel the President's statement was very well done and provided appropriate insight into his decision making process.
Fortunately, the President has General Patreaus to head back over here.
For all the Fathers out there. Happy Father's day. As I write this bog entry the day in Kabul is ending and I can tell you the day turned out great!
A couple of funny things happened today. First, as we were driving back from the hospital we saw another Tim first (Reminder, my exclusive list of first over the last couple of months include 1) first sighting of lawnmower, 2) first sighting of working traffic light, 3) first sighting of asphalt truck repairing road). This time we not only saw a man, who was rather large, riding on top of a Toyota Corolla yellow cab (this is not acutally a first...it's a third time I've seen this) but the amazing thing was that the sheep were in the back seat of the same car. Unfortunately, we were moving to fast to capture this but believe me...man on top of cab with sheep in car. You just don't see that everyday and it still cracks me up. Second, I saw someone in the dining hall put a large serving of tuna into his chili. Never seen that combo before...and frankly once is enough.
We did have a good day at the hospital. It's amazing what we don't know about this place. A little background...for generations of advisors I suspect we've been looking for long-term healthcare facility use/demand data. Turns out that the Planning Officer, LT Muhummad - who we don't mentor currently and I just recently met, has been collected weekly data for EIGHT years - a gold mine of information. And now he's collecting injury data on all ANP personnel by calling all there units. Bingo!
So Pres Karzai had the jirga. A few rockets got fired...oops. Hiding as a man in a burka...oldest trick in town! The linked article describes the fallout of these rockets, including Minister Atmar (Minister of Interior) resignation. This is the Ministry I work under. Will be interesting to see who else rolls by the wayside.
Honestly, I know the article says the US is supportive of Atmar (Kings English and all) but new blood is definately needed. Personnally, I think we got too close (from my very low level perception) and lost the "Afghan Do, We Advise" motto.
Today (Friday) ends the Jirga and time will tell how successful it will be. Curious to see what the Afghan populace thinks of the outcome...I suspect not much. Since the Jirga security has been very tight (a good thing!) we've been confined to the base. We're ready to get back to our advising mission.
Today the weather was great - sunny, blue sky and mid/high 80's - and got a good run it. Would have been great to get a round of golf in. To top it off several of our enlisted get promoted today! The team's own Petty Officer Second Class Reyes got to put on First Class. Fantastic and we are all very excited for him and his family.
All,
It's been a while since I've written. All is well.
Just wanted to get a quick note off that the Afghan Peace Jirga is going off now. Karzai's in a tenous political position which I can't see how he wins. He has an international force planing an operation (oops, we don't call it that here. we call it "hamkari" with is cooperation) and then the Taliban wants all foreign forces out. Oh yea, they fire rockets at the President today. Come on folks!
Anyways, all is well here. We're staying on base for the length of the Jirga, but my thoughts are with the ANP Hospital staff on standby next door to the Jirga.
16 May. Morning started promising...sunny, warm, very Spring-like. By noon, when we were leaving the hospital, the skies were dark and gloomy. I mentioned to someone that we are going to get a down pour of rain. We got in the 1151's and 5 minutes later we were about to turn on the main road and....bam. A wall of dust and sand made the skies and air brown and our visibility went down to about 3 feet (think Michigan blizzard with sand). We realized we were in first sand storm. Our trucks went about 50 more feet on the main road and we pulled in our gunners and, along with all other traffic, came to a quick halt as we waited it out for 15 minutes.
After the 15 minutes the storm had passed and we went on our way. The rain followed (I've never seen it rain brown sand as the rain was "catching" the sand on the way down) for a another 20 minutes. By the time we got back to Eggers and heading to lunch...sunny, warm, and very Spring-like.
All,
One of the many news things I have explored while in Afghanistan is the blogosphere. Really some tremendous writing out there. Of course, I've been checking out Afghan related blogs but have found others as well. The other thing I'm amazed at is all the online newspapers that gather articles through their own affiliation of reporters or bring in news feeds.
I've added a few blogs on the right you might find interesting. One is from Sean Maroney. A couple of good articles about this area recently. Also, my brother connected me with Seth Godin's blog. Seth discusses ideas in marketing and how ideas are spread. Good stuff to think about on a daily basis.
Thank you to all of you who submitted questions from my last post. Below are the questions and my responses.
Q1. This might be a silly question but...I know that you have met with Afghan men -but hearing how women are thought of and treated generally in the Afghan world, have you met any women at the hospitals, etc.?
A1. I have met several Afghan women in my travels, though it is not natural in this culture as a male to introduce yourself to a women. There are Afghan Police officers, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, interpreters, etc. (My mentoree’s, General Qandahar, daughter just got into medical school). Granted, this is still a male-dominated society driven by a Faith which I still don’t know enough about. Frankly, our team learns most of our Afghan cultural from our interpreters, good or bad, who are educated 25-30 year old males. So here is what I know. First, not all women wear burkas. Many do but not everyone. It really is a matter of beliefs I suspect. For those who don’t wear burkas, most of them do wear essentially a shaw over their head. Concerning burkas, one can’t assume that they are doing this because they are persecuted in some way. I did ask the question yesterday about whether the color of a burka meant anything (most in blue, some in black). My interpreter relayed that it is a style thing. 15 years ago most women wore brown burkas, now in Kabul they are blue. In other parts of the country they wear black and brown.
Here’s another observation about women’s rights in Afghanistan. This is a very, very conservative culture where men continue to control the actions of most, but not all, women. Until recently, women were not allowed to be on TV singing or dancing, for instance. This is now allowed but even most of our young male interpreters, who watch the TV with women singing and dancing, wouldn’t want their sisters or daughters to do the same.
Q2. How many times a week do you get "out" and is there anything that is awarded to the person that gets the most points, like Starwood points for travel?
A2. In general, we advise between 0-5 times a week. Due to operational security I’d rather not go into specifics. This will be a story I relay when I get home. Concerning Starwood Points…we have been giving a small blue Afghan stone (I forget the name) out to those who have gone over a certain number of missions. Because we had a Penn State grad on our team who reminding me that Joe Paterno always tells his players to act like you’ve been to the endzone before…upon receiving this blue stone the team member is promptly told “Go back to work.”
Q3. How’s the traffic, getting better?
A3. Traffic is not getting better, but the roads are. The city is really shaping up, relatively speaking, as most of the major roads are being paved.
Q4. What guilty pleasure do you miss the most?
A4. Running in the woods. Not sure if this is a guilty pleasure or not but I do miss it. Along the same lines I miss not being able to move around unencumbered.
Q5. And now that you're almost half way through, what do you wish they would have told you more about before you got there? Culture? Scope of mission?
A5. There were so many things that would have been nice to know. Things like…where is Fort Polk, LA and what is the actual mission over here. To ensure this doesn’t happen to the folks who follow us I use a couple of means to get the information out. First, this blog has been useful in describing most of what we do here. Also, all the Q&As that I get from my replacements I have compiled and sent out to all.
Beyond the above, I think one just has to experience this place to understand what is occurring here culturally, politically, militarily, etc. Fort Polk gave us the basic skills but you don’t know until you know and that it takes living over here to figure it out.
Q6. Would you describe your average work day, sun up to sun down?
A6. Get up around 0530/0600 and read the news via computer. Get to breakfast and usually in the office by 0715’ish. Make lunch and dinner at normal times and then catch up on emails usually until 21/2200. Walk back to me room, read, sleep and do it again. Pending the day we advise or do other missions around town. We also have an office movie night at least once a week and then on Thursday nights there is usually a game of Catan (board game) going. Oh yea, I also try to get a workout in there most days (though haven’t been too successful on that lately)
Q7. What do you do on your day off?
A7. Most Friday mornings (our ½ day off) I clean the room and then catch up on personal correspondence or my blog writing.
Q8. Do you always wear a uniform?
A8. Yes. I either wear my Army-provided uniform or my Navy work out gear. It’s under some regulation that I do this. Kind of boring but makes life simple.
Q9. You are halfway home. Do you feel that the mission you set out to accomplish will be accomplished in the next six months before you come home? (Hurray for the coming home part!)]
A9. Our team’s advising goal, even before we knew what the mission was, was to move the mission forward an inch. Granted, low expectations but then again we didn’t know what we were going to encounter. Are we going to accomplish this…I believe so. But, as I have learned the mission goal was stated wrong. The better question is really whether or not the Afghans have moved forward and accomplished their goals via our assistance and mentoring? I still believe the answer is yes. The Surgeon General’s staff have done great things over the last couple of months and this is very positive. I wonder though is this because of our efforts or because they are getting the resources they need, they’re “more” motivated…who knows. In the end, I feel strongly that there is an end in sight to my particular mission. We don’t need to be here for another 5 years. Ultimately though it will be up to those who follow us to make the call on when this ends.
Well that’s all the Q&A I have for now. As usual, thanks to the readers for asking great questions and getting me to think about things from a broader perspective.
In others news…
Related to Q9 above, I will be presenting on Monday to senior staff here a slide that hopefully will move us from a CM3 to a CM2 level. (See previous articles on CM ratings). This means that globally the Surgeon General’s organization only receives minimal assistance (us) from accomplishing its mission. Of course, there is still work to be done but getting to CM2 is big step forward.
LtCol Julia Stoshak, our AF nurse, started her trip back to Idaho yesterday. Julia was a great teammate for 6 months who fit just right into the Wookie culture. It is noted that Julia could not only superbly mentor the hospital’s director of nursing service but also drove a humvee like a pro. We’ll miss her but I know she’ll do great things as she moves to Keesler Air Force Base this summer.
Finally, I've posted another blog site on the right of the screen. The blog is named "Healing those you Provide Our Freedom". This blog from a John, a nurse at Camp Lejeune, is chronically his experiences in Afghanistan as well. As you will read our experiences are much different from mine as he is a nurse at a forward operating base that takes care of casualties. To John....see you back at Camp Swampy soon.
From Holland, Michigan; Proud to be a Notre Dame Grad (1989)--GO IRISH!; Naval Post Graduate School Monterey CA; Naval Officer(Medical Service Corps Officer) who until recently spent most of my time sailing around the D.C. Beltway until I broke away big and got stationed at Camp Lejeune NC. I adore my wife Beth who is a wonderful life companion and she does a fantastic job of listening to me, advising me and keeping me grounded!
www.stopstealingdreams.com is ready to read and share
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