One shopkeeper uses a single solar panel, mounted to the top of his shop, to power his printer. He runs a small-scale photography studio in the bazaar. Prior to the large-scale solar energy project, electricity was scarce in Nawa. Shop owners had to provide their own generator or solar panel to have electricity. Photo by Cpl. Meredith Brown

A single solar panel is mounted above a shop, a wire runs from the panel into the shop and attaches to a car battery, providing the only source of power for the shopkeeper. The storeowner operates a small photography studio, where he takes photos in his shop and prints them out for his customers.

Situations like this are common for the shopkeepers in Nawa district who do not have a central power source.

Many residents throughout the northern half of Helmand receive their energy from the hydroelectric power plant located at the Kajaki dam. However, the power supply does not reach Nawa, which is located in the southern portion of Helmand province.

Now, with the help of a solar energy project in the district, there is a new opportunity for the shopkeepers in the Nawa bazaar. Nearly 150 shops in the bazaar will be able to receive steady power from the project.

Capt. Brandon Newell, Expeditionary Energy Liaison Officer for Regional Command Southwest and a native of St. Amant, La., says this is the first type of large-scale solar hybrid project in Helmand to date.

“We’re not just trying to introduce something that’s sustainable into their community,” explained Newell who also holds an electrical engineering degree from Louisiana State University. “We’re taking something that they understand at a smaller level and trying to provide them an opportunity at a much larger, more centralized capability, which will be much more reliable.“

Two long rows of solar panels were put together, mounted and welded to the roof of the Nawa district governor’s compound and wires were ran to a large storage container where the power is converted into consumable energy. The energy runs to different meters throughout the bazaar.

Solar panels used to collect energy emitted by the sun are mounted to the roof of the Nawa district governor's compound, Dec. 29. Shop owners in the Nawa bazaar will be able to buy electricity on a pre-paid card for individual consumption in their shops. Photo by Cpl. Meredith Brown

At this point, shop owners can wire the electricity to their individual shops, where they will install a separate meter. The district governor will issue the shopkeepers pre-paid cards that they insert into their specific meter. The amount of wattage that the storeowners buy dictates the amount of electricity that they can use. However, once a certain amount of electricity is bought, there is not a time limit on when they must use the power.

Two local Afghans serve as maintenance operators who are responsible for keeping the system up and running once everything is installed. The money raised from selling the power, pays the operators’ salaries and the left-over money accumulates for later maintenance or expansion.

“We’re not trying to dictate what the end product is for them,” said Newell. “We’re trying to facilitate an opportunity for them to take ownership and run the system, to use it for the benefit of individual shops and the benefit the entire community,”

After walking through the bazaar and talking with the local Afghans, Newell said sewing, lighting and running fans in the summer were common uses for the power.

Once the batteries arrive in Afghanistan, the shop owners will also have the opportunity to stay open later. Because batteries cannot be transported through the Pakistan border, power will only be available during daylight. Once the batteries arrive, they will serve as a storage system for extra power collected during the day that can be used throughout the night.

Sarwar Akbari, a renewable energy engineer who has been working on the project over the past few months, said the project is important because it gives the locals a chance to reasonably use electricity.

“Before they were using generators and single panels,” said Akbari. “The shopkeepers in the bazaar are very poor people. They can’t prepare fuel for the generators and purchase individual panels. They are very happy with us that we are finishing our project and are about to install the meters.”

The project is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

Story by Cpl. Meredith Brown
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Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Gray, a rifleman with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, peers through his rifle combat optic, which now has a hole through it caused by an insurgent's bullet. Gray's head was only six inches away from the impact when it struck his rifle during a firefight, May 15. Gray suffered a minor shrapnel wound to his face and continued to fight during the engagement. Gray, 20, is from Warner Robins, Ga. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

All Marines endure some risk of serious injury or even death while deployed to combat, but for Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Gray, a few inches and a punctured rifle is all that separated him from a very bad day on the battlefield.

Gray, a 20-year-old rifleman with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and his Marines are no strangers to direct conflicts with insurgents in Nawa’s northern area. On May 15, during the final patrol of his deployment, Gray and his seasoned squad were in a firefight near Patrol Base Poole.

The squad was engaged by approximately eight insurgents from two locations with machine guns and AK-47 rifles. The patrol found cover in a nearby irrigation canal during the battle and Gray, who had his M-16A4 up in his shoulder looking through his rifle combat optics at a nearby building, heard the crack of a bullet and felt a sharp pain in his face.

Gray said he heard and felt shock of the bullet’s impact, causing him to drop his rifle to his side. When he noticed blood on his face, he notified his patrol leader, but continued to fight.

An insurgent's bullet punched a hole through the base of the rifle combat optic of Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Gray, a rifleman with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

It was not until the firefight was over and Marines began to return to the patrol base did Gray notice that the bullet had punched a hole right through the base of his RCO’s aluminum housing, sending the metal shard into his cheek.

Only six inches separated his right temple from the bullet’s impact on his weapon.

Gray said looking back on the events after they happened made him realize just how close he had come to being seriously injured or killed.

“That was my last patrol before going home,” said Gray, a native of Warner Robins, Ga., while shaking his head.

Gray’s squad has already endured one of their Marines killed in action in January. That Marine is now the namesake of their patrol base. In total, Bravo Company has suffered three of the battalion’s five fatalities during the deployment.

“When I first saw what happened to Gray, I thought it was a little too close for comfort,” said 1st Lt. Paul C. Trower, 2nd Platoon commander, Bravo Company, 1/3 “When Gray arrived, he was fine, but a little shaken up and had some adrenaline pumping. He was very calm, considering what had happened.”

Trower, 25, from Fort Hood, Texas, said as a platoon commander, hearing about engagements and close calls like that makes him hold his breath, but was relieved that all of his Marines came back alright.

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Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

Seaman Timothy Wienke, hospital corpsman, Police Mentoring Team, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and Cpls. Carlos Martinez and Carlos J. Orellana, military policemen, PMT, 1/3, chop vegetables, season meat and cook sides at the Patrol Base Jaker custom field kitchen, Dec. 5. Marines built the kitchen area at Jaker by hand and they say it provides them the luxury to cook and eat something other than field rations while living Nawa District's bazaar. Wienke, 21, is from Chicago, Martinez, 22, is from Roma, Texas, and Orellana, 22, is from Houston. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

When Marines hear they must live at a small patrol base for a long period of time, many think of primitive facilities, dirty conditions and bland, prepackaged meals coming from brown bags.

For Marines with the Police Mentoring Team assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, living on Patrol Base Jaker near the Nawa District’s bazaar means good eats. Dozens of Marines of Alpha Company, 1/3, and Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, skipped the regular meal lines, Dec. 5, and followed their stomachs to the improvised wood stove kitchen on camp, where Sgt. Juan A. Flores and his team were frying chicken, cooking rice and topping it all with fresh pico de gallo over Afghan flat bread. Their fresh ingredients were purchased from the bazaar earlier that day.

The 1/3 Lava Dogs living at Jaker inherited the kitchen from the Marines of 1/5, from whom they recently took over the area. The hand-built, dual-burner stove is made from engineer stakes, barrier steel wire grates, British military ammunition cans and parachute cord.

“Before we made it in October, everyone had their own little cooking areas when we first got here, so we consolidated them into one big one,” said Cpl. Michael H. Gobel, a humvee driver for Charlie Company, 1/5, who helped construct the kitchen.

“We looked through the junk pile and scavenged parts to build with,” said Gobel, 21, from El Cajon, Calif. “I used it to cook on every night I was here. It was way better than the usual chow and I’m glad we’re able to pass it on the 1/3 Marines so they can enjoy it.”

“Out here, real chow halls are not easily accessible, so you rely on your Marine ingenuity to make things better,” said Flores, PMT platoon sergeant and a 28-year-old from Los Angeles. “We want to live as comfortably as possible, and dinner is a big deal to all of us. Preparing a meal together, cooking together and eating together – it’s just like family.”

Flores said he was very happy to see a kitchen already in place on the camp, saving his Marines the effort of building one. Before his team deployed from Military Police Company at Camp Pendleton, Calif., he had already dreamed of making his own meals while deployed.

“When I was deployed to Iraq last year, my staff [non-commissioned officer in charge] wanted to make life better and decided we were not going to eat [Meals, Ready-to-Eat] every day if we can avoid it. We were living in a house with the Iraqi police as we trained them, so we bought and rented pots and pans, a stove – everything we would need to make a good dinner every night.

“Pretty soon, we had infantry Marines from down the street fighting to come over to our house for dinner,” said Flores.

Meals usually start early in the afternoon with PMT Marines chopping vegetables, gathering wood scraps, preparing and seasoning meat, cleaning pots and pans, and buying last-minute ingredients. Their seasonings and spices are mostly collected and donated from care packages. “Out here we can grill it, boil it, bake it or fry it,” said Flores.

Flores admits his team’s cuisine has a Mexican bias, since his main chef and more than half of his Marines are Mexican-American or married to Hispanic women. Judging by the crowd and smiles on faces of Marines gathered around the kitchen, nobody seems to mind.

For other Marines like Cpl. Carlos J. Orellana, PMT, 1/3, who are not as experienced with cooking, they take it as a great opportunity to learn.

“It’s exciting for me to be able to do this here,” said Orellana, a 22-year-old from Houston. “I cooked a little back home, but this is cooking in the raw. It’s a whole new experience and I’m going to learn a lot, too.

“What’s great about this is that it all comes down to taking care of people,” said Orellana. “If someone says, ‘Wow! This is really good!’ then that made everything worth it for us.”

As the PMT Marines begin training local Afghan national police forces, they won’t always be at Jaker to cook, but when they are, “you’ll see us cooking,” said Orellana.

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Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

A view of the two main buildings at Patrol Base Sullivan, Nawa District, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Sept. 11. 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is deployed with Regimental Combat Team 3, whose mission is to conduct counter insurgency operations in partnership with the Afghan national security forces in southern Afghanistan. Photo by Lance Cpl. John McCall

Marines possess an uncanny ability to call any place “home,” whether it’s a mixture of sand and gravel, or in this instance, a Taliban compound.

Marines with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, have been operating out of what Marines refer to as “the mansion” here, since Aug. 1.

According to what local Afghans have told Marines, the compound belonged to a drug lord who was having it built to house his entire family. However, the construction was never completed because he was arrested and taken to prison.

Marines were sent to the compound to clear it out, believing it was a Taliban stronghold. They expected resistance when taking over the compound, but were met with an empty home in need of some landscaping.

“It was a real mess when we first got here,” said Cpl. Jacob Mikesell, 22, a mortarman from Papillion, Neb. “There was grass growing up to our chests, the buildings had mounds of dust covering everything and trash was thrown all over the place.”

A view of the front gate at Patrol Base Sullivan, Nawa District, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Sept. 11. 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is deployed with Regimental Combat Team 3, whose mission is to conduct counter insurgency operations in partnership with the Afghan national security forces in southern Afghanistan. Photo by Lance Cpl. John McCall

The compound consists of two, three-story buildings, which Marines and Afghan national army soldiers inhabit.

The two main buildings are made out of mostly marble and concrete, wooden window frames and doors with designs carved into them. Colored tiles cover the outside. The compound is surrounded by gigantic walls, giving it the look of a castle from outside. Marines can’t help but call their home a mansion.

“After we moved in, locals told us that most of the Taliban in the area had run away,” said Sgt. Nicholas Hine, a squad leader with Weapons Co., 1/5. “But we know there are still some here who are trying to coerce the population to go against us.”

Marines conduct foot patrols and vehicle mounted patrols daily to keep the surrounding area safe.

Other Weapons Company forward operating positions rely on being supplied with food and water from the mansion. During local village visits, Marines promise to provide security and help them the best that they can with their issues and concerns.

“We collect a lot of census information and atmospherics too. We try to get to know people by talking to them, learning where they live and understand what problems they have,” said Hine, a 24-year-old from Mohnton, Pa.

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Story by Lance Cpl. John McCall