First Impressions of Kandahar

No clouds, dusty, smells like sewage. Those are my first impressions as I step off the plane at 530am. Oh yeah, and what is up with the ½ hour time difference from the rest of the world? There has to be some trivia behind that. Actually the Afghan decision not to adhere to the Western standard of one-hour time zone changes may well be symbolic of the country's independence and staunch 2000+ year resistance to foreign influence.

In any case, the Kandahar Air Field is actually about 20 miles north of the city of Kandahar. As far as my research takes me, the modern paved Air Field was first constructed in the 1960s by American contractors when Americans first showed some interest in the region. The most significant use and build-up of the Airfield was by the Soviets in the late 70s as part of their support of the local communist government and then of course during their invasion/occupation in the early 1980s. It seems odd to me to think that the Soviets were probably kicking around the same dirt and wondering why they were here.

Back to my arrival. The 'terminal' is a one story building (as are 99% of buildings here). The unique feature of the terminal is that it is actually made of masonry/cement rather than ply wood or a metal of some sort. The building is known as TLS, short for Taliban Last Stand. The building's facade interior remain pockmarked by bullets from Northern Alliance firefights that finally ousted the Taliban from the base in 2001. I was greeted by members of the Embarkation Department of my new regiment. Realize that I have not yet met anyone from my actual regiment since they were already in Afghanistan when I first reported to headquarters in Port Hueneme, California. The Embarkation Department is responsible for moving Seabees and their gear. After all, that is a big part of what Seabees do when they are called up for a mission. You can't rely on finding construction materials or construction equipment everywhere we go. I had to attend a 'welcome brief' in the terminal before driving to my lodging. The welcome brief basically warned of the dangers of walking on base at night without a reflective belt and more ominously, what to do if you hear the rocket attack siren.

On my drive to my lodging it was obvious that the base was crowded. I later learned that this base is in fact 100% over-manned. 20,000 people on a base designed for 10,000. Not good. The pervasive sewage smell comes from the fact that sewage basically collects in a pond that now, due to over-crowding, is no longer isolated in an uninhabited corner of the base. There is talk of constructing an actual sewage treatment plant but that is many years in the future. I guess one good thing about growing up in Manila is that I now have less sensitivity to the sewage smell. There are only a handful of actual paved roads on this base. The majority are packed dirt. Just picture the dust billowing up after passing vehicles. In the week before I got here a soldier was killed when he was struck by a car at night due to poor visibility (there are no street lights here). The majority of vehicles on the streets are non-tactical vehicles (NTVs) i.e. civilian cars. The most predominant kind of vehicle is the Toyota "Hi-Lux." That pick up truck vehicle was favored by the Taliban. In addition to beat up SUVs and pick up trucks you will see gators and even golf cart type vehicles. Some folks have gotten hold of bikes to ride around on. A strange sight when you see them having to sling their rifles on their backs while riding. An assortment of military vehicles is also seen on the roads ranging from Humvees to Mine Resistant Ambush Proof vehicles (MRAPs). The odd thing is that the majority of cars have right side steering while driving is on the right side. (More on the difficulties of merging European and American forces later). After a quick check in at my new command headquarters it was off to sleep after that all night travel ordeal.