An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Road trip with the PRT

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • 455th AEW
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  Taking a road trip with the Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team is a test of endurance.

It's a test I passed - be it a little smellier, a lot tired and very enlightened.

The reason they roam the countryside is to battle Taliban extremists by helping build bridges, roads and schools. To do that, they must hit the road for days on end. Recently, I went with them.

Getting equipped
The key to a successful road trip with a PRT is all in the preparation, for yourself and the team. Think like a Boy Scout going on an expedition, except you'll be camping in a war zone, then prepare accordingly.

Wearing body armor and a Kevlar helmet, I dragged a big canvas bag filled with a sleeping bag and clothes, a backpack full of camera gear, an M-16 and a 9 mm pistol to the designated meeting spot to load up the vehicles. I was one of the first to arrive.
When I got there, the SUV I was to ride in bulged with medical supplies.

One of the missions of a PRT is to give meds to remote village clinics. After some rearranging, I somehow crammed all my stuff in the vehicle, then I felt bad when I noticed everybody else showed up with the bare minimum. Unlike me, most of them didn't have a spare uniform, a pillow, workout gear with running shoes, sweats, a spare Air Force ball cap, three packets of pens and enough moist wipes to clean a herd of mud-loving elephants.

I blamed my use of the big bag on the large, green sleeping bag it contained. Everybody else had the lightweight, super-small sleeping bags that a person can almost tuck away in a cargo pocket.

For the team, preparation means getting the vehicles in tip-top shape. You don't want a vehicle to sputter out or get a flat in the middle of a war zone. They also create a detailed campaign with maps, estimated times of arrivals and lengths of stays.

The PRT plans for its immediate endeavors the way they are helping the Parwan Province prepare for progression. They look toward the future. Building roads and bridges closes the gap to provide better security, economic stability and good governance, according to Capt. Don Johnson, the PRT's team leader for the Parwan Province. He said he takes pride in his mission with rebuilding a nation, which starts with building a good foundation.

Suitcase in your mind
It's fine and dandy to have your sleeping bag packed and an extra pair of drawers, the more difficult preparation occurs in your mind.

It helped me to visualize my mind's-eye suitcase. First, I got rid off all the useless baggage. That left me with 99.99 percent of useable space in my mind. When I did get a thought, it would echo around my head like a scream off canyon walls. The only gray matter left remaining controlled my motor skills, like blinking and salivating.

For some reason, fear of the unknown is always the most difficult for me to discard. It gnaws at the brain like a cancer. And, like cancer, if you diagnose it early, it can be manageable. In a war zone, it's wise to be a little afraid, to be cautious, but you can't function properly if you're paralyzed with fear.

Every member of the PRT goes through rigorous Army training that improves their combat skills. They learn the intricacies of each weapon they use. They carry their weapons like women carry purses. Weapons become a part of them. They also learn to work as a team in a combat zone. Each member plays a part.

As an outsider looking in, I felt the confidence they exuded. This, in turn, allayed any fears I had about traveling outside the wire. I felt protected and safe with them.

Despite not having received the same intense training as other members of the PRT, they still accepted me into their fold -- well, not exactly accepted -- more like tolerated and coddled. In their eyes, I was probably just a guy who could apparently only blink and slobber and take pictures of them as they slept (which I did).

As a benchwarmer on the team, I was allowed to make mistakes, like giving pens to children the minute we stopped, which created a mosquito-like swarm of children around us. I tried not to breathe them in. For some unknown reason, the children of Afghanistan ask for pens, which I feel is educationally encouraging and the reason why I crammed three packages of pens in my bag. I just had to learn when to give them out.

Afghanistan is like Montana
Driving across Afghanistan reminded me of traveling through my home state of Montana -- if Montana were at war.

The rugged terrain, the streams, the valleys, the beauty - it's all here in Afghanistan.
What it could really use, though, are good roads and bridges, which are primary PRT initiatives.

The dirt roads in the remote regions of Afghanistan are really just wide goat trails carved in the sides of mountain cliffs, winding their way through canyons.

Like goats, vehicles and colorful jingle trucks butt heads as they try to pass each other on the single-lane roadways.

During one such moment, while the convoy waited for a truck to pass, I took pictures of an Afghan farmer leading his loaded-down mule past my window. For a couple seconds, while we looked at one another, he pointed to his mouth with his index finger. I had just finished eating a candy bar, so I thought I had smeared chocolate on the side of my mouth, so I wiped that side of my mouth. I appreciated how thoughtful the farmer was to point that out.

I had apparently wiped the wrong side of my mouth, because a second later he pointed again to his mouth. So I wiped the other side of my mouth just as we pulled away.

A little later down the road, a young boy gave us the thumps-up sign and brought his thumb to his mouth. The PRT members said it was the Afghan roadside signal for asking for water. They said when an Afghan points to his mouth that means he wants food.

That's when I realized I had never smeared chocolate on my face. The farmer alongside the road was simply hungry.

As we caravanned deeper into Afghanistan, the narrow dirt roads grew bumpier and the potholes deeper. I think PRT members wear Kevlar helmets for two reason: protection in battle and to keep from getting knocked unconscious by hitting their heads on SUV roofs.
Getting jostled about in a bullet-proof jacket and helmet all day also wears a person out. In the near future, it is the PRT's goal to improve Afghanistan's roads, bridges and infrastructure, like electricity and water.

In the future, Afghans won't need four-wheel drives to get to the next town, or the store, or wear hard hats to keep from getting knocked-out.

Travel like gypsies
The PRT team travels like a band of gypsies, going from town to town, staying where they can. One night, we stayed in a district center, on another night we slept under the stars on a building still under construction.

There are no bathrooms or showers. There are Afghan "toshknobs," or restrooms, and moist wipes for cleaning. Both take time getting used to.

During the four-day convoy, the team stopped at villages with military precision. The team's doctor, Air Force Capt. Dave Burns, evaluated a town's clinic while team members unloaded medical supplies. At the same time, security forces team member Staff Sgt. Michael Myers met with the chief of police while the team chief, Army Capt. Don Johnson, talked with the local mayor. During that same time, two Republic of Korea engineers, Capts. Byung-wook Moon and Jai-ho Han, inspected a construction site.

As per PRT standards, a province's governor is the lead agent for all re-construction projects. The team helps fund projects and checks the quality of a contractor's work during the actual building phase of construction. The contractor hires local villagers to do much of the construction, which adds a sense of pride and ownership of the facility.
During the one-year tour PRT members are deployed in Afghanistan, they'll visit a particular village on average about eight times. On the road about five times a week, they return to remote villages about every six weeks.

One village at a time
In this part of the country, the PRT is always welcomed with open arms and smiles. It's a feeling of friendship and cooperation they'd like to extend throughout the country. Team members, both American and South Korean, Army and Air Force, know that one small project in one remote village isn't going to change a nation overnight.
However, it's like the anecdote about the young child, walking along the beach among thousands of starfish that had washed ashore with the tide. The child stopped every several yards to throw a starfish back into the ocean.
Another child, a bit older than the first, stopped and asked, "Why bother? You can't save them all. Do you think it'll really matter?"
And the younger child, tossing another starfish back into the waves replied, "It will matter to THIS one."