Introductions

Disclaimer:

I am writing this blog from Kabul, Afghanistan. I am on a 12 month tour assigned to the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan. Or the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan. Or the Office of Security Cooperation - Afghanistan. The names keep changing to protect the innocent.

What I do, though, is pretty clear: I work in the Joint Task Force 1228. The team is responsible for (by law) Registering all small arms provided to the Afghan National Security Forces; Tracking the Origin, Shipping and Distribution of Defense Articles provided; and End Use Monitoring. If you really want a detailed brief about this, email me and I will send you a power point brief, notes, and copies of the laws. It's horrible reading, but a fantastic job.

I am US Army Major, Foreign Area Officer or FAO, with a Southeast Asia background. While that doesn't seem to tie in to Afghanistan that well, the job I do is a classic "FAO" job. We do similar things in most countries we work with.

So, the blog is going to NOT be a detailed report of daily activities. It is NOT going to be a political soapbox. It is NOT going to be official in any way.

It WILL be, I hope, a small window into one soldier's view of Afghanistan and his work here; a little about Afghan people, a lot about Military Culture, and at least as irreverant at times as Catch 22 and MASH without the anti-war political messages. I hope.

Final Disclaimer:

I really don't know what I'm talking about.