Engineers get a unique deployment

Published Nov. 11, 2006
By Capt. Kevin Tuttle
Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team

QALAT, Afghanistan -- The reconstruction engineer team in Qalat city have a tremendous responsibility when it comes to development, but site surveys and digging wells while dodging improvised explosive devices is just part of the job.

Being an engineer in a combat zone is not a regular experience when it comes to progress in an area where hearing the zing of bullets whiz while at a construction site can seem surreal.

1st Lt. Ferdinand Maldonado, an engineer at the Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team, was given the task to help reconstruct a city in need of not only more roads and schools, but a safer environment.

Traveling more than 5,000 miles around Zabul province in a Humvee has made Maldonado aware of the dangerous roads traveled by Afghans on a regular basis. Experiencing a firefight, however, or driving over an IED on the way to work is not your typical environment.

Once, on his way to a construction site, Lieutenant Maldonado faced one of his worst firefights in his military career.

"We started seeing movement up on the hills and got small arms and mortar [fire] about the same time," he said. "We could see the rounds hitting the ground and hear them zip by us. We pulled back after the mortars started falling - one hitting about 15 meters from one of our trucks. We had to call air support."

He remembers not being frightened because he was mostly concerned about controlling the unexpected attack. His team had just been ambushed on their way to work, but no casualties or major injuries occurred.

"I'm much more scared to hit an IED," said Lieutenant Maldonado. "We've determined that either way we've been really lucky."

Although risk is out there, getting the job done is of utmost importance to the future of Afghanistan and their people.

Capt. Rockie Wilson, an engineer from Langley Air Force Base, Va., is not concerned about the task at hand.

"I think it's definitely a valuable experience for me and it's something the Afghans desperately need," said Wilson. "The Afghan people are hard workers and it's important that we're here not only to provide them with a better quality of life, but also to teach them to build and maintain their own facilities and infrastructure."

To the engineers in Qalat, maintaining life support through new wells, irrigation systems and health clinics creates better means for commerce but not a safe environment.

Routine troops in contact firefights and IEDs on the road have made the job tough enough for Captain Wilson.

"The biggest challenge is that Afghans don't know that there is a better life out there to be had. They don't know the opportunities that both Coalition forces and NATO are offering them," said Captain Wilson about the treatment the locals receive by insurgents who terrorize the population. "It's our job to open their eyes and make them want something better."

Tech. Sgt. Steve Flores, an engineer from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., has been deployed six times, to include Iraq and now Afghanistan, but believes this mission to be unique.

"It's been a dangerous deployment compared to other ones. We go outside the wire more often and it opens our eyes to combat and mission readiness," said Sergeant Flores. "Every time you go outside the wire to see a project, you don't know what's waiting out there for you. You have to be alert and aware of what's out there."

These engineers can agree that safety and security is key to improvement. The steady development, so far achieved by this team, can ensure a brighter future for Afghanistan.

The PRT engineer team currently has 42 projects pending in 11 of the 12 districts in the province, with a total of $20 million in funds to support these projects by U.S. forces alone.