Written on March 7, 2010 at 2:25 pm by

30 Days Through Afghanistan: A Little Happiness, PRT Herat – Day 27

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By U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Nathan Gallahan, ISAF Joint Command Public Affairs

We’re back! We had some problems with internet, which prevented us from uploading on time. I’m really hoping Day 26 doesn’t get lost in the stack, because I’m hoping it spurs some interesting conversation. I can’t stop thinking about the “Lion of Herat” everywhere I go.

So today, Ken and I jumped in an Italian provincial reconstruction team convoy and watched as they distributed food and medical supplies to a local Kuchi tribe. The Kuchi tribe is a nomadic tribe so we anticipated a great drive out to the middle of nowhere where we would see vast fields of tents and Sheppard’s.

We were wrong and we learned something new. The nomadic Kuchi tribe also has some permanent homes about 15 minutes from here. They live there for a little while before migrating onto other areas. The only problem with today was the complete lack of an interpreter. It’s a pretty strange experience to be embedded with Italians, where only a handful speaks English, while visiting Afghans who don’t speak any English. We walked around with a desire to talk to any of them, but we were unsuccessful. It was still better than Kabul!

View Day 27 vlog, here.

So basically my day included sitting in a truck marveling at the outskirts of Herat city and then watching as Afghans received assistance. I’m lucky because even if I don’t have an interpreter, I can always communicate with the Afghans with my camera. It’s a simple language really. I point at my camera, mumble some gibberish which hopefully translates to “may I take your picture”. The Afghans then look at me like I’m crazy. I take their picture and show it to them on my digital display. They howl with laughter. This generally causes a large mass of Afghan to rush over to see what’s happening. Then I’m busy taking picture upon picture surrounded by laughing and astonished Afghans. This is my little bitty contribution to counter insurgency and I love it.

The important part here isn’t my Afghan portraits, it’s the Italian PRT. These guys are going out and visiting with Afghans every day. I always hear of schools or wells being built, but the medical side is extremely important also. There’s one picture I uploaded of four children standing there with a little baby, he looks really sick. I know the father took him into the doctor’s office but what I don’t know is what was wrong with him. I really hope everything’s ok. It just tears me up to see these innocent children living life in such poverty.

While I was standing there, I noticed all of these holes in the ground and some of them were covered by tarps. Then, a little girl walks up and lifts the tarp up, dips a bowl in the collected water and hands it off to her brother to drink. It’s been very rainy here and these holes have filled with water. I couldn’t imagine living like that.

I saw no electricity, no running water, the children and people were dirty. It was just a sad state of affairs. I’m glad we had a chance to bring a little happiness into their lives.

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    The only African-American ace of World War II, and a former Tuskegee Airman, went on to have a career in the Air Force, as well as success in the business world.

    Lee A. Archer joined the Army in 1941 with high hopes of becoming a pilot, but was initially denied because of his race. When the Army’s policy changed about a year later, Archer was accepted to the training program for black aviators at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama.

    Archer is best known for a day in late 1944 when he was involved in a series of dogfights over German-occupied Hungary. Flying a P-51 Mustang fighter, Archer shot down three German fighters. He would go on to add two more German fighters to his credit to become the first and only African-American ace of the war.

    As a civilian, Archer enjoyed even greater success, serving as vice president for urban affairs with General Foods, as CEO of North Street Capital Corp. and chairman of Hudson Commercial Corp. He also served on the board of directors of Beatrice International Foods and the Institute for American Business.

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