A Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team truck dangles off the edge of a cliff while PRT members and local residents work to recover the vehicle in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, Dec. 10. The truck was being used to deliver material assistance to a remote village in the Dara district of the Panjshir valley when it slid backward out of control and off of the mountain road. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jeff Kelly, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team Intelligence Operations)

The adventure began on the cold, wintery morning, Dec. 10, deep in the Hindu Kush Mountains of the Panjshir valley in Afghanistan. The Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team conducted a routine mission to deliver material assistance, such as clothing, food and other supplies to a high-altitude village in the Dara district of the valley.

It snowed all morning, but temperatures were a bit too warm for it to stick to the road. The convoy departed with three trucks filled with supplies bound for the district center in Dara, assessing the situation and deciding whether to leave the supplies with the district governor for distribution or to continue on our own into more remote regions.

When we arrived, it was still snowing but not heavily. The road was clear up until that point, and, as far as we could see, it was still passable. The forecast said the snows would subside, so the mission commander decided to continue.

I was in the third truck as we travelled upwards along the road that wrapped along the mountainside. The road was barely wide enough for one vehicle, with the mountain on the left and a significant drop to the river on the right.

In an instant, the situation turned ugly, as the second truck could not maintain enough speed to make it up the now ice-covered road and slid backward. My truck also began sliding back down the hill. My driver, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jeff Kelly, deliberately slammed our truck into the mountain side to stop our decent. It worked, but the second truck smashed into us.

Both the trucks were now stopped on the mountain road. We checked for any injuries, and, fortunately, there were none. I radioed the first truck, which we had lost sight of, to inform them of the situation.

“Sir, we are in a predicament,” said Senior Airman Bryan Ulloa, PRT Civil Affairs. “We couldn’t stop and our truck is now dangling off a cliff.”

I arrived to a frightful scene. The truck’s right side was completely off the road with at least a 15-foot drop to the boulders below. Everyone had made it out safely, and some had leapt from the vehicle as it had slid toward the cliff.

With the help of a crowd of local residents who had gathered to lend assistance, we began recovery attempts on the disabled vehicle as we relayed information regarding the situation back to our forward operating base. Help was dispatched, but the weather impeded arrival. As darkness set in, temperatures dropped, and the snow continued to fall, we were forced to abandon the recovery mission.

“The decision was made to download all sensitive items, such as radio equipment and weapons, and return to base with the hopes that the truck would remain in its current position until we could resume recovery efforts the next morning,” Kelly said.

That’s when the Panjshir Afghan National Police and the local residents displayed their heroism. Together, they took turns braving the frigid temperatures, cutting winds, and mounting snow-fall to guard the truck all night long, making sure it didn’t fall and no one was injured. When morning came they worked, stone by stone, to build a new rock wall reaching up from the riverbed to stabilize the truck. Then they used wooden logs to push the vehicle back onto the road. The ANP drove to the PRT’s FOB to let us know that our truck was safe and ready for us to retrieve it.

“This is proof that the government and citizens of Panjshir are capable of accomplishing great things,” said U.S. Army Maj. Ian Murray, PRT Operations Officer. “Not only did they watch over our truck, but they took it upon themselves to make sure we got it back. They put themselves at risk to help us. If it weren’t for their efforts, the PRT would have lost a valuable asset. We are proud to live and work in partnership with all of them.”

When asked why they did it, a local man named Pahlawan who had helped lead the recovery efforts stated simply, “You would do it for us.”

CJTF-101
Written by U.S. Air Force Captain John T. Stamm

American troops and Afghans work with agricultural advisors at demonstration farm

Task Force Warrior’s Agri-Business Development Team made progress on an experimental farm and a demonstration farm designed to increase agricultural production in the Panjshir Valley, June 13 and 15.

“It’s important to develop this piece of land into something that can be used and improved upon in the coming years,” said Army Master Sgt. John Herron, an ADT agronomist and hydrologist.

Herron went on to explain how the land has the potential to feed more than a dozen villages in the area.
Members of the ADT visited the experimental farm on June 13, and worked with and trained 10 Afghans on improved soil hydration matters at the demonstration farm on June 15.

“We really want to come out here and get some soil samples, start making adjustments, and teach the local population how to get a better yield of crops,” said Army Staff Sgt. William J. Jones, an ADT agronomist.

The demonstration farm covers more than seven acres, and the farm will likely grow different crops that include corn.

“The soil is lacking in organic matter, and it’s very difficult for us to get it to retain water and moisture,” Herron said. He is working with the team to introduce straw into the soil to improve hydration.

Local Afghans have also been working to clear rocks from the field and finish an irrigation system that will pump water from the Panjshir River.

“The local Afghans are all very fast learners, and I think if they continue improving hydration in the soil and follow the other techniques we teach them, it could be the model for how crops can be grown in larger quantities,” Jones said.

CJTF-101
Written by Army Sgt. Sean C. Finch
Task Force Warrior Public Affairs Office

Update: Sad to report the following

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died May 26 near Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.

Killed were:

Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II, 39, of Houston. He was assigned to the Joint Staff, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Senior Airman Ashton L. M. Goodman, 21, of Indianapolis. She was assigned to the 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron, Pope Air Force Base, N.C.

God bless them and their families.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Stratton, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team commander, talks to villagers, March 4, about a Micro hydro pump provided by the Panjshir in Afghanistan. The micro hydro uses water to create power for the village. Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

For more than eight years, the government of Afghanistan has been building from the ground up, using millions of dollars in aid from foreign governments and private organizations. These funds impact both the central government in Kabul and the country’s 34 provinces.

Due to the unique relationships the men and women of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team have with the people of the Panjshir province and the region’s local government, progress is not measured merely in dollar signs and projects completed – they are using these capabilities to teach the Panjshir people the ability to take care of themselves.

The PRT’s commander breaks his organization’s mission into three different areas to accomplish this, each reliant upon the other: development of roads allowing access to some of the more isolated villages in the province, ensuring the work within the Panjshir Valley is a ‘home-grown effort’ and creating conditions that make investment in the area sustainable.

“The people here want and need development,” said Lt. Col. Mark Stratton. “We really work with the local provincial government to help build these opportunities that will lead to private re-investment. One way we’re doing this is by paving the road to Badakshan and planning for the ‘rib roads,’ which will connect the people to the rich natural resource supply [that exists in the province].”

U.S. Army Sgt. Ramon Guzman, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team Civil Affairs, walks past villagers during a site visit in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley March 5, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

In addition to developing plans to connect some of the more isolated areas within Panjshir with the ‘rib roads,’ the team also is working to increase production and efficiency in what the Panjshir people know and do best – agriculture.

As the majority of the province is dependent on agriculture, with some 95 percent of economy dedicated, the PRT works significantly within that area with the Panjshir government as well as in-house representatives from U.S. AID, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Luckily for the group, the Panjshir is recognized as a ‘model’ province, “with effective and legitimate governance capable of providing essential services to the people,” Stratton said.

As a result of the area’s significant security, the government and the PRT are free to work unhindered from threats that impact reconstruction work within other provinces.

“We work within the local government to teach self-sufficiency, as we are not going to be here forever,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Lancaster, chief of the Panjshir PRT’s Civil Affairs section.

One part of that effort is the team’s work with a local non-profit organization, the Massoud foundation, to donate $25,000 in micro-loans to the people of the Panjshir valley at $500 per family with zero interest.

“This will allow a person to buy a cow, start a business, whatever they want to do to take care of their families,” said Lancaster.

The program is managed with the Panjshir Valley’s Massoud group, which has an office in every province in Afghanistan and is named after one of the nation’s most celebrated heroes, who coincidentally is from the Panjshir region.

A Mujahadeen guard walks with U.S. military members of the Afghanistan Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team during a site visit March 5, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

“This is all about putting money in the hands of the people,” said Sadiqi, the Panjshir Valley Massoud foundation director. “It’s really a small investment that people can use to start their own businesses – there is no set payment plan, but after six months, they should be able to bring back the $500, we don’t charge them interest and we’ll loan the money back out to the next applicant.”

Other projects to enhance the region’s economic future include the development of chicken-raising programs, which allows women to receive 12 chickens to produce eggs that they will then be able to sell to their neighbors. Lancaster is also working with local officials and his U.S. Department of Agriculture counterpart to develop a series of crop projects that use dynamic growing techniques such as row cropping and drip irrigation to improve the survivability and validity of various fruit trees and wheat fields that can then be transplanted around the province to provide more crops, and thus, more income.

“The governor [Haji Bahlol]‘s main focus for this year was agriculture,” Lancaster said. “We are hoping that we will be able to teach them to grow enough crops to not only sell to neighboring countries for money, but also be able to keep some of what they grow for their own uses.”

For U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Kelly, who serves on Lancaster’s Civil Affairs team and is deployed from Riverside, Calif., the opportunity to take part in these unique projects has been a great experience.

“It is very fulfilling to me to help people in their time of need and during emergencies,” said Sgt. Kelly, who also serves as a humanitarian aid requisition, distribution and storage NCO. “Agriculture is a priority of what we do here and it’s been an extremely unique experience working here when you look at some of the other things I have done in the Army.”

“Saving lives is a part of what we do.”

DVIDS
Story by Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson