Toward the end of October, I was lucky enough to accompany Task Force Brawler's remarkable Ground Combat Platoon out on their last mission to Sorkh Ab Valley. Lieutenant Evan Mace, Brawler's young Civil Affairs Officers (S-9) is a friendly, keenly intelligent guy who I got to know during a series of interviews I conducted with him in his office back at Shank. Lieutenant Colonel Ault spoke very highly of Evan and underscored his importance to Brawler's COIN effort. I learned that the local village elders all had Evan's phone number and would frequently call him when they needed help. Watching him interact during the key leader engagements I witnessed confirmed that Lt. Mace is an outstanding diplomat.
On this last mission, Lt. Mace brought along some pens for the local children. As soon as he produced them, the kids just piled on him, hands outstretched as if he were handing out XBox360's at an American middle school. Pens that we think nothing of have intrinsic value here beyond the scope of my experience. Evan Mace became a rock star to those kids. It was a beautiful moment, and as I sit here in my Stateside library on Thanksgiving's eve, it strikes me how the images I took that day underscore the stark realities faced by the people of Afghanistan.
Tomorrow, we'll gather with our families and mow through bounty unknown to those in the Sorkh Ab Valley. We'll sit and cheer wildly for our football teams on couches that would be luxuries in Afghanistan. Our kids will play underfoot with toys the kids Evan attracted that day will never know. We will enjoy all the trappings of this incredible country we've created.
As I sit down to eat tomorrow, these images will linger. Eager, almost desperate hands reaching out, wanting only to clutch a fifty cent Bic pen so the owners of those little fingers could steal away and express themselves with art or (in a few cases) with a few words on whatever scraps of paper they could find. It will be a reminder of the fortune and blessings we have here. And Evan, this gentle lieutenant from America's heartland, represents for me the generous soul this nation has shared across the globe since our inception two hundred and some change years ago. We are a tremendous, giving people, but sometimes we forget how good we have it. Tomorrow, long before the first bite of my wife's delicious turkey, I will make sure to count our many blessings.
I'll also be missing everyone I came to know and respect in Afghanistan--my friends in 1-168, the people I met while out on the GCP missions, and Brawler's tremendous group of dedicated men and women.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Lair.
John B.
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