INTRODUCTION
ETTS: The Tip of the Counterinsurgency Spear
Forget what you know about the American Army. Strip from your mind the familiar images of U.S. soldiers fighting their way through Germany, Korea, or Vietnam. The essays you are about to read reveal another side of the American soldier's experience at war: individual soldiers removed from the comfort and familiarity of their Army units and placed into the ramshackle, newly formed Afghan National Army.
These American soldiers are the ETTs, the Embedded Training Teams. An average ETT team consists of sixteen American soldiers, embedded into an Afghan battalion of about five hundred soldiers. These ETTs are separated into teams of two, each team assigned to its own individual Afghan National Army company of about one hundred Afghan soldiers. They are embedded into these foreign ranks with little knowledge of Afghanistan's language, history, or culture, and they are forced, often in the heat of battle, to abandon the American doctrine of warfare and embrace creativity, patience, and primitive war-fighting techniques.
These essays are my personal stories as a member of this force in Afghanistan. ETTs are Marines, Army, and most often Army National Guard officers and NCOs assigned to the fledgling Afghan National Army (ANA), where they are tasked with the daunting mission of training the ANA in garrison, leading it in combat, and mentoring it to a final victory against a thriving and brutal Taliban insurgency.
These essays provide an introduction to the Afghan war as seen through the partnership of the ANA and the ETTs, forming the literal "tip of the spear" in the counterinsurgency fight. They chronicle the personal experiences of two ETTs: myself, Captain Benjamin Tupper (Infantry), and my partner, Corporal Radoslaw Polanski, also an infantryman. The stories vary in their scope, from personal war stories of our successes and failures in combat, to observations of day-to-day life inside the Afghan Army; the humorous moments, the culture clashes, the voice-raising arguments, and the differing roles that religion, women, and politics play in the lives of Afghans and the American soldiers assigned to train them.
This collection of essays also explores the injuries inflicted during war, from the slow but steady degradation of healthy minds by combat stress, to treating the physical wounds of combat, to the deaths of our comrades and enemies.
To understand Afghanistan's culture, its potential for modernization and democracy, and its remaining military challenges, one must walk in the shoes of the Afghan people and its Army. From May 2006 to May 2007, I walked in those shoes. These essays are the footprints of my journey.
The Flip-Flop Army
The Afghan National Army is a work in progress. It has lots of potential, but it also has great deficits that it must overcome in order to establish itself as a credible national security force. As I see it, the ANA has two primary missions: defeating domestic enemies and protecting against international adversaries. Both goals are currently unreachable and unrealistic without continued U.S. and Coalition support. The ETT mission was created to help speed the ANA's development along, but I'm finding that despite our best efforts, old habits and deficiencies die hard.
First, I'll start with the good news. The average ANA grunt is as brave as, if not braver than, your average American soldier, or any nation's soldiers, for that matter. The aggressive pursuit of the enemy, even at great personal danger, is a trait found among many in the ANA. At the first shots fired, the ANA are like hunting dogs anxious for the chase. Sometimes they break and lose their combat effectiveness, but on the whole they are more likely to aggressively react to enemy contact than not.
The second positive aspect of the ANA is that, despite low pay, poor living conditions, and chronic lack of supplies, the morale of the ANA is high. ANA soldiers regularly go out on missions without enough food, ammo, or water, yet do so without hesitation and still succeed. When it's fighting time, all the shortages and problems cease to be an issue.
Another positive aspect is that the problems in Iraq with enemy infiltration and manipulation of the armed forces are not as serious here. It would be naive to say there are no enemy infiltrators in the ANA's ranks, but their number and influence is barely measurable. Perhaps the best proof of this is the fact that I have never, in the dozens of missions out with the ANA, hesitated to turn my back on any ANA soldier. I trust them with my life daily, and to date, it's been kept in good hands.
Last, I have never ceased to be amazed at how well the ANA soldiers understand their role as low-level representatives of the Government of Afghanistan. They go out of their way to talk to civilians about building a new country, free from the violence and corruption and the warlordism of the past. These soldiers form an army that is a melting pot of tribes, languages, and sects, and they perform as a team time and time again. Their example to the civilians they interact with must leave an impression that gives hope for the future.
But it's not all peaches and cream. The Afghan Army, despite these positive attributes, has serious problems. The chronic shortages previously mentioned are in part due to corruption at higher levels. Senior officers, NCOs, and common soldiers have stolen, pilfered, and sold Army property, and do so at times with impunity. Even at the lowest levels, underpaid soldiers frequently take newly issued items to the bazaar to sell. When you ask them the next day where these items are, they will insist they were never issued to them. While wrong, theft at this level is more understandable because the soldiers barely make enough to feed a family.
One story comes to mind to highlight this specific problem. While out on a mission, and in hot pursuit of the enemy, my Humvee hit a series of irrigation canals that caused the spare tire and a fuel can to go flying off the vehicle's rear cargo cage. Given the urgency of the moment, they were left abandoned for later pickup (or so I thought). Upon arrival at our destination, we were informed by the ANA that they had picked up our items for us and were safely storing them in the back of one of their pickup trucks.
Upon completion of the mission we returned to the Forward Operating Base (FOB), but it was dark and we were all tired, so I made the (incorrect) decision to collect the items in the morning. The next day, I scoured the ANA FOB for my tire and fuel can, but found neither. No one knew where they were, but everyone I talked to was happy to send me on a wild-goose chase following up false leads. Finally, and quite by accident, I came across a well-concealed but slightly visible Humvee tire, which I returned to the vehicle. However, the fuel can and its contents joined the permanent ranks of the "missing in action."
As for the ANA being a "flip-flop Army," it is not for the reason you may assume. The ANA does not flip-flop its loyalties. From top to bottom, it's firmly committed to fighting and destroying al-Qaeda and the Taliban. No, the flip-flop refers to footwear. Yes, that's right: the cheap plastic sandals that are a beachgoing standard in the States.
The flip-flop is the preferred choice of the ANA for daily soldier life. Sure, they have boots, but flip-flops are so much more comfortable in formation, or even when meeting with your commander. And if flip-flops are out of season, basketball sneakers will do just fine. Comfort apparently trumps uniformity (something the U.S. military should consider!).
Personal modification of the standard uniform does not stop at ground level. Head wear is equally versatile. Hunter green berets, the officially issued uniform headgear, are usually replaced with do-rags, Arab-style head scarves, and baseball caps. And to finish off the customizing of the uniform, throw on a pair of tinted swimming Speedo goggles (as one of our soldiers does), and you've got a ready-to-rock-and-roll ANA soldier. Some of these guys look like they just came off the set of The Road Warrior. I keep waiting for Mad Max to roll up and tell us where the fuel truck is located.
Perhaps the most intriguing and puzzling habit of many ANA soldiers is their use of henna. I commonly walk through Third Company's barracks in the morning to find a large number of soldiers with hands painted orange with flowers and other assorted designs. Some have orange hair. Others are busy painting their fingernails with henna, reminding me of thirteen-year-old girls at a slumber party. I just shake my head, pass around greetings, and move on. When they start putting on the lipstick, then I'll get worried.
Copyright 2010. Excerpted from Greetings from Afghanistan: Send More Ammo by Benjamin Tupper. Excerpted by permission of New American Library Caliber, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. All rights reserved.
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