10-4 Good Buddy, It's a PA Convoy
Last Wednesday I held a conference with all the public affairs officers in Afghanistan under my control. Twenty-one of us traveled from around the country to meet in Bagram, which is about an hour and a half from Kabul. Those of us coming from the headquarters here as well as the subordinate command, the Office of Military Cooperation (OMC), drove to Bagram in a four-vehicle convoy. It's not often that PAOs travel in numbers, so this was pretty awesome to lead a convoy of PAOs!
Once again we traveled through the countryside passing people building mud walls to enclose their humble homes. Much to our surprise we also passed road workers patching potholes. The road between Kabul and Bagram is heavily traveled and very bumpy. Each time we passed a group of workers they would stand and wave to us.
We arrived around 10 a.m. The PAO at Bagram had a nice spread of breakfast goodies for the attendees and after introductions and a few hugs among those who have known one another for some time, we got down to business. We spent about four hours reviewing policies and procedures, discussing upcoming priorities such as the national election, and getting briefed on the theater newspaper as well as a new satellite broadcast service. For lunch we had the choice of Burger King or Pizza -- a real treat after a month of nothing but institutional meals three times a day.
At the end of the day we took a little time to shop at the base exchange. Each exchange in country has a different selection of items and it's always a treat to browse through them. My biggest beef with the exchanges is that they don't seem to stock sweatshirts and sweatpants in anything below large!
By the time we returned, we were pretty tired and thanks to one of my lead-footed officers, I was beat up going 100 KPH over the bumpy road. I been suffering from a stiff neck ever since. But all in all, it was a great day to be in charge of public affairs in Afghanistan. We've got good people working in the field.
It was also a banner week in that we seem to have the Taliban spokesman on the defensive. Twice he was quoted in news reports disputing our facts. And apparently for the first time in weeks, our Coalition spokesman was quoted more often than the spokesman for the bad guys.
But lest we attempt to rest on our laurels, there's always another rocket attack or other problems to keep us on our toes. The latest was the rocket fired at President Karzai's helicopter as it was attempting to land in one of the provinces where he was going to tour a new school and meet with the village elders. The rocket landed near the school. The chopper turned around and flew back to Kabul. We spent several hours gathering the facts as they came in from the field. Our spokesman handled several frantic media calls as they scrambled to report on the incident. Unfortunately a couple of the media outlets confused the information they were getting from various sources and severely misquoted our spokesman. We ended up putting out a release that night in an attempt to correct the record. Of course it was too late -- the misquotes and misinformation ran on several news websites.
Right when we think we've got a system in place to handle these types of things, something happens to cause us to readjust. As everyone here continues to say, we're dealing with a fluid situation.
Never a dull moment. But we cannot give up.
On the personal side it was a real treat to get two boxes in the mail today. The first was from my neighbors who sent me a Chia Pet. That was good for a lot of laughs and comments from my office mates. We should be moving to a new office across the hall next week and the Chia Pet will occupy a place of honor.
Second was a box of goodies from my mother that included candy, holiday decorations, hand lotion and soap, etc. She also took time to make a skirt to cover the makeshift table I have in my room. It will certainly brighten things up and hide the cardboard boxes that hold up the table. I can't believe the time and creativity she put into it. Mom's are the best. She's been sending me boxes of goodies since I went to ROTC camp. I still remember the time she made huge sugar cookies, wrapped two per baggy and then packed them all in popcorn, which was also edible. There's nothing like care packages when you're away from home.
Take care and remember, I miss everyone...
Once again we traveled through the countryside passing people building mud walls to enclose their humble homes. Much to our surprise we also passed road workers patching potholes. The road between Kabul and Bagram is heavily traveled and very bumpy. Each time we passed a group of workers they would stand and wave to us.
We arrived around 10 a.m. The PAO at Bagram had a nice spread of breakfast goodies for the attendees and after introductions and a few hugs among those who have known one another for some time, we got down to business. We spent about four hours reviewing policies and procedures, discussing upcoming priorities such as the national election, and getting briefed on the theater newspaper as well as a new satellite broadcast service. For lunch we had the choice of Burger King or Pizza -- a real treat after a month of nothing but institutional meals three times a day.
At the end of the day we took a little time to shop at the base exchange. Each exchange in country has a different selection of items and it's always a treat to browse through them. My biggest beef with the exchanges is that they don't seem to stock sweatshirts and sweatpants in anything below large!
By the time we returned, we were pretty tired and thanks to one of my lead-footed officers, I was beat up going 100 KPH over the bumpy road. I been suffering from a stiff neck ever since. But all in all, it was a great day to be in charge of public affairs in Afghanistan. We've got good people working in the field.
It was also a banner week in that we seem to have the Taliban spokesman on the defensive. Twice he was quoted in news reports disputing our facts. And apparently for the first time in weeks, our Coalition spokesman was quoted more often than the spokesman for the bad guys.
But lest we attempt to rest on our laurels, there's always another rocket attack or other problems to keep us on our toes. The latest was the rocket fired at President Karzai's helicopter as it was attempting to land in one of the provinces where he was going to tour a new school and meet with the village elders. The rocket landed near the school. The chopper turned around and flew back to Kabul. We spent several hours gathering the facts as they came in from the field. Our spokesman handled several frantic media calls as they scrambled to report on the incident. Unfortunately a couple of the media outlets confused the information they were getting from various sources and severely misquoted our spokesman. We ended up putting out a release that night in an attempt to correct the record. Of course it was too late -- the misquotes and misinformation ran on several news websites.
Right when we think we've got a system in place to handle these types of things, something happens to cause us to readjust. As everyone here continues to say, we're dealing with a fluid situation.
Never a dull moment. But we cannot give up.
On the personal side it was a real treat to get two boxes in the mail today. The first was from my neighbors who sent me a Chia Pet. That was good for a lot of laughs and comments from my office mates. We should be moving to a new office across the hall next week and the Chia Pet will occupy a place of honor.
Second was a box of goodies from my mother that included candy, holiday decorations, hand lotion and soap, etc. She also took time to make a skirt to cover the makeshift table I have in my room. It will certainly brighten things up and hide the cardboard boxes that hold up the table. I can't believe the time and creativity she put into it. Mom's are the best. She's been sending me boxes of goodies since I went to ROTC camp. I still remember the time she made huge sugar cookies, wrapped two per baggy and then packed them all in popcorn, which was also edible. There's nothing like care packages when you're away from home.
Take care and remember, I miss everyone...
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home