ANA Progress on Saturday!!!

The Afghan Nat'l Army (ANA) Colonel, I've heard but not experienced yet, is reluctant to issue equipment to units that have ordered it.  He usually has some reason or another...not the right signatures or something like that, to not issue the gear.  Today we had a US Army Captain come in and ask about getting hundreds of mattresses and bunk beds and weapon mounts for vehicles and he said "I'll get you everything you need." Today is a great day! We're not sure why he was so ready to issue the items, but we weren't going to ask.

I talked to the ANA Colonel about doing a sharp troop of the month program and he said he liked the idea, so we are preparing that as well.  I'm hoping it'll give others a reason to take pride in their uniform.  They love to receive pictures of themselves, so we'll take a picture and post it on the wall in the building and he can take it home when the next person is selected.  We'll also take them to eat with us and the ANA Colonel at our dining facility...I guess it's a big treat for them.  That's too easy, if it works.

I made contact with the US Air Force mentor to the Afghan Nat'l Army Air Corps (ANAAC) for helicopter support.  He told me we should be able to take the quarterly award winners up in the helicopter and he'd let me know for sure on Wednesday. The ANAAC has had trouble getting gear/equip issued from the ANA Colonel, so this is the perfect opportunity to work on the relationship between the two.  Also a little leverage of: if you issue their gear, they'll support your guys with a ride in the helicopter...we'll see how it works out.

My biggest challenge is to set this program up, so it remains a part of the unit and doesn't disappear when I leave.  I'm trying to remove all US affiliation with the program, so they'll own it; that's a lot more difficult than you'd think. Not sure how to handle the dining facility piece, since there is no equal substitute on the Afghan side.

Tomorrow morning I meet the ANA Major at 05:30am to go running.  The ANA Col got me the ANA jogging suit I asked for, so I could wear it and show them I liked it as much or better than my own Air Force issued PT gear; hoping this will inspire them to run with us and wear their PT gear.  Again, not sure how this will work out.  Time will tell.

Unfortunately the literacy class for the ANA soldiers was cancelled today, because they received a 12 ton shipment of salt.  I really need to work on their priorities.  They could have unloaded the salt after the two hour class or done the class after unloading the salt, but they just cancelled it.  They said the soldiers will now have 4 hours of literacy training on Tuesday instead of 2.  I was hoping to talk to the teacher today to find out who the star students were, so we could implement a recognition program for them to promote literacy.

Here are a couple of pics for today...didn't take many, since we were so busy.

This is the village dog.  Cute little thing sleeping through the heat. She's a sweetie.

Here's a pic of two of our interpreters trying on a uniform for sizing. They're wearing the traditional Afghanistan clothing underneath. Of course they'll wear the uniform pants too, when they wear them.  Faces blurred for their safety.