Afghan Teamwork Day :)

Today I planned to have the Afghans setup concertina wire along a boundary.  I told them we had some personnel that would show them how to install it, so they could install the majority of it on their own.  I'm sure some of them know how to do it, but they agreed.  We met this morning and it was a larger turn out than expected, which was good.  We had four officers and approx six enlisted...even the Colonel was out there moving equipment around.  I had high hopes things would go smoothly and that we'd accomplish something together.  First, the Afghans didn't have any pick axes to dig with, but did have a shovel and some type of axe.  My personnel brought one small pick axe, since we were expecting the Afghans to provide the equipment we agreed upon yesterday.  Anyway, we had one person digging the hole with the pick axe...the ground is harder than any ground I've seen before.  It took nearly two hours to dig two 10 inch holes.  While the digging was going on, two other Afghans jumped to action by getting two forklifts to help move equipment and trash out of the way.  I was impressed that everything was going well, then the big forklift broke down and that slowed the momentum of progress.  One by one, personnel started disappearing.  I spoke with the Lt Col and he told me they would bring pick axes from home and we'd start again tomorrow at 8:30am.  I'm hoping the momentum will continue.  We'll see when I show up tomorrow.

Here's what I'm observing so far:  in general, the Afghan National Army does not have any cohesion or camaraderie and they are not filled with pride to wear the uniform. The officers don't trust their lower officers or their enlisted.  It's just a job, plain and simple.  There is no reward for working hard or doing a job well that I can see.  There is no national unity amongst the National Army.

My Plan through the Afghan Colonel (don't laugh): 1) institute a PT program, where they can become a team and the Americans can workout with them, 2) setup contests to see who can drive the forklift through a maze of cones the best...winner gets a day off and a certificate presented in front of everyone, 3) develop a test on their supply system and the personnel that score above a certain score (don't know yet) would get a day off and maybe 2 or 3 days depending on how they do (literacy could be a factor here), 4) create an NCO (enlisted) of the quarter, Senior NCO (enlisted) of the quarter, company grade officer of the quarter to promote achievement with days off for a reward, a certificate, and their name on a big board showing their photo as quarterly winner, 5) challenge other units on base to some type of sporting event, probably cricket, since that's what they like; hoping this will build teamwork and trust.

I don't see them doing well in their job unless they are proud to be doing what they do and are confident in their ability.  I'm hoping this will help build esprit de corps...it's badly needed.

Here's one of the holes being dug.  You can see the pick axe is not really the right type, so hopefully tomorrow will go better.  They were using a fork lift to remove the trash in the background...not really the right tool for the job, but Afghans are not usually too worried about the right tool...they like to just do it with what they have readily available.

These are the mechanics trying to fix the forklift after it broke.  They did get it running well after about 30 minutes.

Here's a guard watching as these guys work.  I'm thinking he should be looking out towards the enemy...silly me...digging a hole is much more exciting.