Fuel Theft, Bad Meat, Contractor issues, but still Smiling

Rocket Status: None today.

This morning started pretty normal...went to the office to catch up on email, taskers, and paperwork before going to the logistics depot to sit with the Colonel.

Once I arrived at the FSD, one of my guys told me they weren't offloading because it's too hot and it's Ramadan.  That wasn't the full story though, as they were issuing equipment to another unit, so they couldn't do issue and receive goods at the same time.  I asked the ANA Colonel about when they were going to offload the truck and they told us this evening, since the workers could drink and it'd be cooler.  Sounds like a good plan to me.  Then I had one of my guys pop into the office an ask if I'd seen all the body armor that was now clogging up the aisles.  I hadn't seen it, so we went to take a look.  Apparently, thousands of pieces of body armor came from Kabul without anyone asking for it.  The unit that it was marked for said they didn't need or want it.  We are stuck, because as you can see it really jams up the warehouse and this is only half of it....it's the stuff you see all the way back to the wall.  I think we may have a unit that desperately needs body armor, so maybe this will work out.

After all the discussions it was about 12:30pm, so the day was almost over for the Afghans.  I decided to take my interpreter to the gate, so he could head home.  Little did we know what awaited us.  As I drove to the gate, I just happened to see some ANA soldier stealing fuel.  I started driving over there and was taking pictures through my windshield on maximum zoom.  As soon as he saw me, he threw the hose in a panicky motion...you could tell he was caught doing something he shouldn't be doing.  

You'd think they'd get smarter on the places to hide fuel, but I guess there aren't many options.

I confiscated these and put them in the back of my SUV. The guy said they didn't belong to him, so I wasn't leaving them.  I told him he could pour them into his fuel tank or I could take them...he chose for me to take them.  I also confiscated the siphon hose and then punctured all the containers to make them useless.  He had 9 full containers of fuel, not including the ones in the picture below.

Here's the ANA soldier pouring all the fuel back into the fuel tank.  He actually thought he'd pour one in and stop and told me he'd pour the rest in later...I told him I'll be here until he empties all of them into the tank...like I'll trust him to do the right thing.  He told me, he won't do it again if we don't like him taking fuel out of the tanks...I asked him...why would I ever like you to take fuel out of the tanks?

The gentleman in the t-shirt is the convoy commander.  The truck he's standing in front of had several containers of fuel.  In fact, he had a mobile fuel truck that he was using to fill containers with fuel as well as the vehicle tanks.  He was trying to make some ridiculous excuses.  He was upset that we took the 5 fuel containers.  I told him he could call Kabul and ask them to call me and if they told me to give them back, I'd give them back...I knew that'd never happen...still have 5 dirty, smelly, diesel cans in the back of my SUV.

Here's what was in the truck behind the convoy commander.

This guy had just filled a container of fuel from the mobile fuel truck in front of the convoy commander.

I wrote my report tonight and sent it to leadership in Kabul for action.  The last guys I caught were punished, so hopefully they will do the same thing again.

After all the fuel theft, I had the dining facility contractor at the gate that needed an escort in to the dining facility.  My interpreter and I, smelling of fuel, went and met them.  I asked the interpreter what they were bringing in today...he said meat, yogurt and bread.  I jumped out of the vehicle to see how the meat was packed and it was in black sacks in over 100F temps and had been out at the gate for 1.5 hours and another .5 to 1 hour for transport from Kandahar City brings it to 2 to 2.5 hours in 100F+ temps...not acceptable.  

The sacks of meat.

If you look close, you can see the blood coming out of the bags onto the freezer.  They just put the leaking bags right into the freezer.

This is supposed to be their hired cook.  I can't believe he's barefoot with his feet almost touching the bread...no concept of cleanliness.

I've tried to get them off the floor when preparing food, but they aren't listening.

I'm still smiling.  I couldn't pass up this picture opportunity...he just looked cool.