The Afghan Wilderness: A Tiny Victory

By Andrew Cochran

1LT Aaron Flint is serving on an Afghan Police Mentor Team in Paktya Province, Afghanistan. He's a former staffer in the U.S. Senate, a member of the Montana Army National Guard, and most recently worked as a reporter for KTVQ, the CBS affiliate in Billings, Montana. He sent the following account of our work with the Afghan people with permission to post it here.
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As Doc Sleaford lightly cuts the old bandages off her badly burned skin, Sergeant Dylan McGee holds up her tiny legs, blood dripping into his right hand. In a room next door, soldiers e-mailing their family and friends from the tiny makeshift computer lab are interrupted by the heart wrenching cries of a 9 month old baby girl. To the soldiers she is baby Farida.

Illinois National Guard Sergeant Ben Sleaford first met Farida’s family more than 3 weeks earlier. A group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had gone to the remote, mountainous area to conduct a presence patrol and, if possible, search some caves oftentimes used as refuge by foreign fighters. Meanwhile, a group of Afghan National Police and I stopped by some homes in the area to talk with the locals. One villager offered us the customary chai. His house literally sat on top of hill, with views stretching hundreds of miles. As we drank chai on top of his home, in what literally felt like the roof of the world, a Chinook helicopter passed by closely over head. Meanwhile, “Doc” Sleaford was attracting a crowd back at the vehicles. That’s when Farida’s grandfather approached Doc Sleaford and informed him that his granddaughter had been very badly burned. Doc Sleaford told him to bring her to Combat Outpost (COP) Wilderness so he could work on her in a sterile environment as soon as possible.

Over three weeks later, Farida was finally brought back to see Doc Sleaford. Sleaford and Specialist Powell, the C Troop 1-61 CAV (101st Airborne Division) medic, began inspecting what appeared to be third degree burns covering over 30 percent of Farida’s body. As the medics tore off the old poorly treated bandages, Farida’s uncle shook a SpongeBob Squarepants doll to try and distract her from the pain. Army medics are trained to deal with tough situations, but you could tell by the look in Doc Sleaford’s eyes that this was different. While Doc continued his work, I took the pictures of Farida’s condition up to the tactical operations center to begin e-mailing and making phone calls to see if we could get Farida in to the World Health Organization hospital in Gardez. As Doc put it, it was a miracle she was still alive and didn’t die from infection. As I showed the pictures and the video of Farida’s cries to Charlie Troop’s First Sergeant Marlin Heater, all options appeared to be off dwindling. That’s when 1SG Heater (featured in the 19OCT08 60 Minutes piece on COP Wilderness) said, “I don’t care who I have to call; we need to get that girl help. Even if it means e-mailing them that video clip.” Immediately, 1SG Heater picked up a military laundry bag and began loading it full of supplies: snacks, baby wipes, whatever the family may need for a trip. Soldiers from all over the outpost began donating cash for the family. Within an hour, Farida, her uncle, and a laundry bag full of supplies were loaded onto a Blackhawk helicopter piloted by members of the Wyoming National Guard and flown to the FOB Salerno hospital.

Left picture: Baby Farida looks to SpongeBob for comfort as her uncle holds her following the initial operation. Right picture: Wahdi side chai with the police chief, the Afghan Army Kandak commander, the village malek (leader), and the village Imam (religious leader) during a humanitarian assistance mission.

Periodically we would get reports on Farida’s condition from one of the other Charlie Troop medics whose wife worked as a nurse at the FOB Salerno hospital in Khost; but back at COP Wilderness it was back to life as usual. Back to attending shuras, or meetings with village elders. Back to making trips to the District Centers to meet with our Afghan police or the Subgovernor for that area. And back to making more trips to remote mountain villages. That is, of course, unless we didn’t get snowed in on COP Wilderness. Then- it was an all out snowball fight. At times, the Afghan soldiers would team up with the 101st Airborne soldiers and lob in our direction. Other times, we would team up with the local national workers and ambush the soldiers driving the gator through the main road in our outpost.

At times, I feel as though I spend a majority of my day talking to Afghans rather than Americans. Over a game of Karambull (not sure on the spelling) with the interpreters, the Afghan born American interpreter Tammim tells me of how he used to play the game when he was a kid in Afghanistan. That was before the Soviets invaded of course. Tammim, an American, but also an Afghan, offers a rare insight into the day to day discussions and events taking place in our area of operations. While he spins the disc of the shuffleboard style Karambull game, he tells me how the Soviets needed a hundred tanks if they wanted to cross the nearby Khost-Gardez (KG) Pass road without getting demolished. All along the road lies evidence of the Soviet tactics of simply bombing Afghan homes and villages. Nowhere is it clearer than the KG Pass road, how different the American approach has been compared to the Soviet approach. Those same roads now feature District Centers and clinics built by the US Agency for International Development, schools and bridges built by the American Provincial Reconstruction Team. The economic progress will slowly but surely advance into the most rural, remote portions of Afghanistan. But even with some limited progress evident on the main route, Tammim worries for the future of the Afghan people. “These people want to know that the Americans are going to stay and fulfill their commitment,” Tammim said. “That we’re (the Americans) not just going to pack our bags and leave like we did after the Soviets left. Until then, we will not have the security.”

Fundamental to that security is the training of the Afghan National Police (ANP). Most of it for us is on the job training featuring combat patrols, traffic control points, base defense, presence patrols, and any other joint missions. For some of it, we bring the police to us. One day in early February, as the snow fell on COP Wilderness, two other Joes and I donned our “manjam’s”, or traditional Afghan clothes, that we purchased at an Afghan bazaar. Myself, Sergeant McGee, and Specialist Dominic Winslow (whose mom makes an excellent batch of chocolate “Bourbon Balls”) dressed up like Afghans and served as the OPFOR for urban operations training with the ANP. The Afghans really appreciated the fact that we were wearing Afghan style clothes. McGee and Winslow wore the Pakol, while I put on the turban given to me by one of my interpreters who purchased it in Jalalabad. A couple ANA soldiers stopped in to watch. One of the ANA lieutenants had taught me a Muslim prayer. With my turban on- they laugh, give me the thumbs up, and call me “Mullah Haroon.”

Soon enough, it was back on the road to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Salerno for a supply run. Salerno is a large FOB in the city of Khost. The drive takes us down a steep, narrow roadway crowded with supply trucks headed over the KG Pass. Along the way, we are shocked to see how much progress is being made on the road, as the American Lyndon Berger Group (LBG) works to pave the entire stretch from Khost to Gardez. When we finally make it to Khost, we find a low-lying, decent sized city bordering Pakistan that serves as a fruit basket for much of eastern Afghanistan.

As we make it into FOB Salerno, the soldiers enjoy the massive gym, the volleyball courts, coffee shop and bazaar. But for Doc Sleaford and Sergeant McGee, it was a chance to check in on baby Farida. When they found out we were from Wilderness, we were instantly greeted like family by the hospital staff and even the full bird Colonel. The Air Force surgeon who conducted the skin grafts and debribement operation informed us that Farida remarkably won’t lose her legs or even her toes. She said it was obvious that Farida received good care before making her way to Salerno. The hospital ward’s NCO-IC informed us that the whole FOB had adopted Farida and her family while she underwent surgery. The FOB Salerno chapel took a donation, collecting $400 for the family. Word of the good news spread among the local Afghans working on the FOB who stopped by and asked if they could see her. While conducting a follow-on humanitarian assistance mission in Farida’s home village area, I showed pictures of her to all the tribal leaders. They told me, In the Name of the Holy and Merciful Creator, the news of our good work is spreading throughout all the villages.

After holding Farida for the first time since she was flown to Salerno, Doc Sleaford said if this is the only thing he does while deployed here, he can feel like he accomplished something. For those of us fighting in a war where victory is never certain; where the bureaucratic red tape can be mind numbing. At least in baby Farida our team can find one tiny victory. A victory seen through the big brown eyes of a now healthy baby girl.