In case you haven't noticed from previous pictures, the Afghan terrain can be very challenging. With only a handful of paved roads, most of our missions take us off road in severely rutted dirt/mud roads. Even MRAPs and Cougars have seen their days. On this mission, one of our mine rollers in the convoy broke a hydraulic line and could no longer be pushed. As this mission makes it clear, we often have to utilize our "McGyver" skills to adapt and overcome hurdles in our missions. In order to recover the mine roller here, we had to improvise with the use of a tow bar, some chains, and ratchet straps to rig a system that would allow us to drag the mine roller back to the FOB. It wasn't pretty and took a while, but we eventually made it safely back. Here I am with my truck gunner after completing the makeshift rig for the mine roller.
2 comments:
That does not look like an easy job- I'm glad you figured it out and got back safely! Looks like lots of grazing animals in the background. Are they goats?
Love you- Aud
Those animals are sheep. Some kid was watching us work on the mine roller while tending his flock. Ghazni sheep are famous not just for their fatty meat, but their cashmere as well. Unfortunately, farmers don't know how to effectively harvest the cashmere off of the sheep and end up exporting wool to Pakistan. The Pakistanis then sell the cashmere back to Afghanistan for an inflated price. Our Agricultural Development Team (ADT) is working with local farmers in training them to harvest the cashmere.
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