Packing Six Times, and Then Back Home! – Reporting from Afghanistan

To be able to spend the next three nights inside the tents reserved for transit passengers at the German-led Camp Marmal, they had to (un)load each PX case, duffle bag and Bundeswehr rucksack six times as well by the different aircraft of different nations. It all started with the helicopters of a civilian air transport company. To the team’s surprise, the two aircraft “swallowed up" the soldiers with all their equipment – a quick mental arithmetic shows that the cargo capacity characterizing the US helicopter type – which has a classic ancestry (UH-1 family) and a skid landing gear – approximates that of the Mi-8s. After a 30-minute flight during which fortunately no incidents occurred, the Italian–Spanish “nest" of Herat aerodrome received the Hungarian team, where they unloaded the aircraft, and then continued with a short siesta and the discovery of the Italian camp (where the coffee shop sells excellent tiramisu.)

The target of the third packing was already the transport aircraft of the Italian Air Force departing for Kabul. When the ramp of the helicopter was closed, an exciting “roller coaster ride" began. The Italian aircrew took good advantage of the capabilities of the latest member of the Hercules family with the most powerful engines, as immediately after take-off the helicopter maneuvered away from the mountains with a hard turning, and then landed in Kabul.

Having moved into a designated tent of the famous Tent City, the AAT visited the seventh rotation of the HDF Air Mentor Team working in Kabul. Finally, at 20:00 the flight information display of the airport showed that they can depart for Mazar-e Sharif the next day.

It was a transport aircraft of the German Air Force that took them there after the fifth loading. Following a short, one-hour flight the team was accommodated for three nights in a German tent next to the aerodrome. Nobody complained about the roar of the engines, since the team that has spent four months in the theatre of war will leave Afghanistan flying by the same sound, and the travelers are getting closer and closer to their peaceful and quiet home. Those three days will pass slowly, but the soldiers – who are used to Shindand, which is at a much higher elevation – can truly relax inside the excellently equipped gym. The Hungarian team took good advantage of the opportunities offered by the treadmills and weights – there were two Hungarians among the first ten place-winners of the five-kilometer memorial run which was organized in Shindand on September 14, 2012 to commemorate the terror attack. So it was no surprise that on the first day of the first stay in Mazar-e Sharif after breakfast, a number of soldiers put on their sportswear and headed for the “gym" next to the chapel.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi