The Replacements

This week has been a busy week for everyone but me. I've done much observing and was hoping to be at another base teaching Afghan soldiers by now but the new crew ruined that. There are a lot of new faces running around and its not because the troop surge is already happening. It's because the Brigade I work for is being replaced by another coming from North Carolina.

I think its a bad thing when one Army unit says how gung-ho another Army unit is and they are glad they don't work for the replacing unit. These are the same people that I thought were a bit too serious and now they are saying the new crew even scares them. Not good news. Perhaps I should be glad I'm going to Kandahar but time will tell.

Not only is a new Army unit coming in but we received seven new Navy IAs and only one looks excited to be here. He's already asking if he can go on convoys. The rest have that same glassy look I had when I got here. The look that says "I'm so out of my element. Why did I do this?" I tried to talk to the one female First Class in the group, because she really looked stressed out, about not taking the Army too seriously because its just in their nature to be all in your face and give chip on the shoulder type attitude. She didn't look convinced that she'd learn to deal with it.

I think my killing the Army with kindness thing is working because they are much more friendly towards me. Even the ones that initially either gave me the cold shoulder or challenged me in some way. I do have a gift for winning people over in the long run but it takes a lot of energy. I'm not sure why but almost everyone who gets to know me well often tells me that they didn't think too highly of me or they had a different impression of me in the beginning. I guess I don't make very good first impressions but I've learned that first impressions are rarely if ever who someone really is anyway.

So I wonder how this replacement Brigade will change things. They've already started muscling in on the way the current Brigade does things but I'm just here supporting the cause so I'm not going to be too concerned about it. The only thing that does concern me is their lack of a plan for continuing the Afghan Army training. To me that is the most important job here in order for us to leave this country at some point in the near future. We're not the only unit doing it but it would take away from the overall end state if the new unit decided not to continue with it.

The Afghan people are generally very laid back and not in a hurry and the soldiers are no different. That kind of mentality doesn't work well when your fighting the Taliban so we have to teach them to do things differently and be more aggressive.

I'm pretty sure they'll get the picture soon enough on how important it is to continue the training but for now my trip is cancelled so I won't get to interact with the Afghan soldiers any time soon. Kind of bummed about it. At least I don't have to worry about convoys and IEDs for a little while longer.