Farewell to Arms – Reporting from Afghanistan

Next to the memories of the past, one can see the future soaring high. Our trip, a kind of farewell visit (in fact, our last working visit on which we were accompanied by the fourth rotation of the HDF Logistic Mentor Team) led us to Camp Pol-e Chakri I, where the multinational mentor team of the German Armed Forces Technical Advisory Group (GAFTAG) trains the officers and NCOs of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

The Afghan commander’s office is located here: in his capacity as commandant of the Advanced Individual Logistic Training (AILT) School, he has six schools operating under him, and six months ago he served as the commandant of the CSS School. It was here that he met the Hungarian soldiers and the commander of the 10th group of the logistic mentor team for the first time.

Focus has been shifting from quantity to quality in the development of the Afghan National Army. The strength is gradually approximating the intended manning level, so according to the plans of the Afghan military leadership, they are going to be able to select the best ones from among the applicants and afford more energy, time and resources to the training of the personnel within the system.

In the Afghan colonel’s opinion, the motor transport (MT, which the Hungarian logisticians perhaps encounter most often) is now adequate, so from now on they can concentrate on using it professionally to the best of their abilities. The first favorable impressions were followed by the work of the fourth rotation, that fruitful cooperation which brought about his promotion to colonel and a new appointment as commandant.

During the joint work he and the Hungarian commander have become brothers, and he hopes that he would be able to develop the same good relationship with the incoming commander of the next rotation. Of course, he also hopes that Hungary will continue to remain a helping friend of Afghanistan and the logistic school after the completion of the transition in 2014 and the pullout of combat units.

The objectives are to set the ANA on its feet and enable it to operate independently of the foreign armed forces. Beyond the supply of equipment and weapons, the classrooms and the buildings being constructed from German funding – which arrives through GAFTAG – are a lot of support as well. The logistic school requires development too: in speaking about it, the Afghan colonel stressed the need for training the vehicle drivers.

After the conversation we went on a last “excursion" during which we discovered some so far unknown areas of the KMTC. The number of personnel continuously moving around the area was incredible to Hungarian eyes. The raw recruits receive the individual core skills here during the basic training, then they are transferred (among other institutions) to the specialized courses of the Combat Service Support (CSS) School.

The soldiers are going one after the other in the training area, and the drill instructors’ goal is to soldierize them so they can become combat ready infantrymen. The landscape shows its usual severe Afghan face. The running gear of our all-terrain vehicle – which has seen a lot despite being a recent make – gives a plaintive cough when we’re forced to make a small detour.

The reason is that we cannot go any further on the concrete road. A group of soldiers in front of us are making preparations to destroy IEDs, so they have closed down the road crossing the danger zone with a simple method, by blocking it with HMMWVs equipped with heavy GPMGs. War and danger are present in the training area too in every moment…