Hello from LT Miller April 19 2007

Hello all from Afghanistan. I hope all is well. We are wrapping up things and not taking on any new projects right now. I have completed some of my last missions and am focusing on Afghan Army training and evaluation for the next few weeks. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our reliefs appear to be in transit and we may have 2 sets on the way. Some Spanish have arrived and they claim they are the advance team for our replacements and a Navy team is on the way so we should be O.K. but knock on wood just in case. If all goes well we should be out of here in about a month and headed back to the U.S. I should be off of active duty sometime at the end of June or early July at the latest once our turnover and demobilization process is complete. Good news, the dam is complete and it is filling with water as you can see by the attached pictures (due to our local internet limitations I am sending the dam pictures separately). Total cost $25,500 including the flagpole! The local media has really been playing it up and the US Army is using it as a model for big bang for a little buck. Another reason why most of us could care less if Congress and the President ever sign the supplemental spending bill that seems to benefit spinach and peanut farmers more than the military. I am not sure what it will take to convince our leaders that it is not about more money; it is about effectively using the money we have. The dam was good training for the Afghan Army engineers that they can now use to go out to other areas on their own and do construction projects without U.S. supervision. The new Army team that has arrived is already planning another dam at Bazergon which I talked about and had pictures of the site a couple of messages ago. It will be at least twice the size and provide some jobs and a future water source for one of the poorest villages in this area. The smaller local projects really seem to have the most impact. Huge public works projects are great and needed to build up the infastructure but at this time the samller projects really are what the average Afghan needs. The average person really looks at basic needs and surveys indicate that a clean source of water is the number one need. You may also notice how much greener it is in the background in this set of pictures compared to ones I have sent earlier in my tour. It was an extremely wet winter and the crops and grasses are off to an early start. Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of a 15-year drought.

I have also visited my favorite village Bazergon for the last time. We passed out the remaining items we have received from many of you back home. Thank you all very much. This village is very appreciative of all we do to help them and they are also very generous with what little they have. The children are so much fun and will break your heart at the same time. It is a very isolated village and very poor but the most pleasant people I have ever met as a group. It is also the only time I have seen an adult show genuine affection for children here. There is one grandfather that picked up a little girl because she was crying and gave her a kiss and hug and she stopped. To an American this may seem normal but I can tell you that any display of affection toward a female no matter how small is very rare in Afghanistan. Public display of affection under the Taliban was punishable by a severe beating for males and death for women, The village had a picnic for us and it was really nice. We brought the rice and beans and they provided the goat. After we were done eating the children were allowed to eat the leftovers and at that point I think we all felt guilty of our good life. Not only did they eat all of the leftovers but they were licking our plates clean. I guess since I have never been so hungry that I would lick someone else's plate it really made me feel for the fight for survival these children have. It is sad to note that 1 out of 5 children born in Afghanistan do not make it past the age of 5. We ended up leaving them with a months worth of food and hope and pray that the crops will be good this year and get them by. On a little livelier note we brought root beer for the picnic and as we suspected the villagers had no idea what to do with the can. A young boy finally got a can open and the pop and fizz was the funniest thing to the children. Not half as funny as when he tried to drink out of the can with the hole on top and it went all over his face. You cannot imagine the laughter from the children and all of us. After about 5 minutes of pure laughing I showed him how to drink out of a can and you would have thought he was drinking pure enjoyment. It is the little things in life that really make you appreciate all you have.

Speaking of appreciation thanks for all of the wonderful birthday cards. I received lots of cards from schools, church, work, family and friends; it was very nice and made my birthday very special.
Take care and keep in touch.

LT John Miller USNARMY