The Double D

 Camp Deh Dadi II is a relatively small camp in northern Afghanistan. The biggest threats in the area for the most part are the mischevious children that live in the village near by and throw rocks at our convoys and rob them blind. The unit before us explained that they reinforced the latches on the exterior lock boxes to high grade steel locks and the kids just came with larger crowbars to pop them. They jump on our vehicles and cut the rocket netting then steal whatever they can grab. Culturally, stealing is considered justifiable in Afghanistan if your family is in need and because we are focused on winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, there isn't much we can do when they steal except yell at them and tell them to stop. We can't point our weapons at them or even laser pointers. This is obviously enfuriating for the guys regularly on the road. The Afghan Army doesn't hesitate, however. I once saw an Afghan Soldier beat the day lights out of a kid for hopping on one of our vehicles during a partnered US/Afghan mission. I also saw an Afghan police officer hit a kid with his car, get out and proceed to beat the child for scratching his car. Of course it is difficult to watch these things, it is always sad to see a child being beaten. If it were too cruel we would step in but that always has to be weighed against the risk of dismounting, being lured into a trap, hurting the legitimacy of the Afghan police (whom we need to be legitimate in the eyes of the civilians if we are to successfully exville), etc. I think people don't take this war seriously sometimes because it isn't like the Korean War or WWII and the death toll is lower, that is true, but here there ARE no enemy lines, no uniforms, and lots and lots of rules. Every decision you make can have international implications if things go wrong. There is something to be said for the discipline it takes to embrace the people and train their Army while always knowing any one of them could shoot you in the back. In WWII, if you saw a German soldier, you shot them unless they were clearly surrending and that was that. Here, anyone is allowed to carry a gun and lots of things seem suspicious because the cuture is complex and different from Western culture. The same 15-year-old kid you bought bread from that morning could be recruited to be a suicide bomber later that afternoon. The guy who works on your camp selling you bootleg DVDs could be carefully observing your habits and passing information along to the Taliban. There is never a time for letting your guard down.

Anyway, that being said, back to DDII. It has been here since 2001 and I think it has been attack once, if that. It is literally the safest place I could be in Afghanistan I think. The facilities aren't the nicest in Afghanistan but they are definitely nice enough. We have well established tents to live in with actual beds. Most of the mattresses are terrible but at least we have mattresses. The the stones that cover the grounds are real ankle breakers. Why they decided to put those small boulders down instead of nice gravel like other places I can only imagine had to do with money.

The tent areas are seperated by concrete t-walls which help establish roads and the feelings of blocks. I also image they contain blasts in the event of being mortored but that is just my assessment, who knows. Each block has a concrete bunker to run to in case of an attack. Other bases have these covered with sandbags so I guess the fact that no one bothered to do that on our base says something about the threat level.

 The latrines are portable conex facilies that have generally normal looking showers and sinks and restrooms inside. The showers are hot and have good pressure which makes all the difference after a long day. Now that it is getting warm we are restricted to combat showers (turn water on to get wet, turn off, soap down, turn on to rinse, do not repeat) to avoid water shortages that tend to happen in the summer I'm told. The water in the latrines is non-potable which means it is clean enough to use for showers but not to standard for drinking.

The insides of the tents are nice enough: they have concrete foundations covered with a mat and lining to help with insulation. They have an airconditioning unit with a cloth duct that helps distrubte the air as evenly as possible. Some bases are allowed to completely build them out on the inside so that there are private compartments be we aren't allowed to here. There was a wall of sorts already in ours so we just left it. We have 3 female tents here: one for Headquarters company, one for the Forwards Support comany and one for female non-commissioned officers and officers.

 Luckily the tent that I moved into already had a partial wall built and some shelves which was nice since we didn't have wall lockers for whatever reason.

I was able to make my area feel somewhat private by hanging a curtain I bought at the Bazaar on our Camp. The Bazaar is an area where select Afghan civilians are able to come and sell their goods daily. They have a lot of nice items and hand made goods that are beautiful and unique.

 The Bazaar also has a restaurant where you can sit down and eat Afghan food. I was a little unsure about trying it at first but I am so glad I did! It is delicious! Kind of similar to cuban food in some ways but with a unique taste. It is also a nice get away form the Dining Facility to sit down and have someone bring you food. It feels like a little taste of going out.