Matt, thank you very much for shedding some of your incredible first-hand account into the behind-the-scenes action of this conflict. I appreciate the honesty of your perspective.
When my sister and brother-in-law visited India prior to the pandemic, most of their photos of day-to-day life in various cities featured trucks like that, so that’s typical of the culture over there – much like how the truckers here favor
chrome exhaust stacks and LED lighting galore...
By the time you read this, it will be 9/11 and in the lead up to this day, as well as the years that have passed, I find it harder and harder to watch the images and footage. As Anthony brought up some time ago, I do appreciate all that
we have here in the Western world and that I take nothing for granted now. We are all truly fortunate.
Peter
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I'm a civilian government employee, and back in that timeframe we were given opportunities to sit right with and directly support our military in various places in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was at KAIA (the airport where all the evacuations
just took place). I got to go to Kandahar once, and to get there we took a military C-130 from Kabul to KAF (Kandahar Airfield), then a Chinook to a small FOB in the outskirts of Kandahar City, and then an MRAP into the city -- that's where I took those pictures.
I was going to a conference on infrastructure development at the home of the Governor of Kandahar, and every province's Governor was there, but they were all pissed because the Ministries of the then national government were supposed to be there as well but
they simply sent lower level aides instead. It was surreal listening (with headphones to a marginally good interpreter) to the provincial governors wanting to voice their needs/requirements to the federal government, but the federal government basically didn't
show up. Anyway, there were so many high level AF and NATO/US folks there, I read the day later in message traffic that the conference had been a known Taliban target, but happily they apparently changed their mind and did not attack. That was the last time
I went outside the wire in any capacity besides driving between the airport and ISAF-HQ. Those rides within Kabul were in just plain old SUVs but they were uparmored and had jammers on them (I would watch the Afghan folks walking while talking on their phones
on the sidewalk, then look at their phones, then look and see our vehicles and sigh and put their phone away until we passed).
Bringing it back to cars, here are two cool pics of a truck on our base (note the detail and apparent pride the owner had in order to make it so intricate!). Also, just a random shot from the SUV on the road in Kabul to see the landscape
and some of the non-descript cars on the road there.
I sure like the country I live in and am glad I don't live in Afghanistan.
Obviously you were travelling with a security detail when you were out-and-about over there.
The ubiquitous three-wheeler taxis... I see large Mitsubishi decals on the side of two of those. They couldn’t have possibly made those, did they?
Peter
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In 2011, NATO-ISAF supported an elected Afghan government. I'm sure there were some Taliban elements that were filtered within the government but it wasn't explicit, and in fact
the Taliban continually targeted that government. The Taliban tried to make themselves out as the legitimate source of essential services and to de-legitimize the elected government. NATO-ISAF continued to support the real government. I was involved (from
US Dept of Defense) in infrastructure development and worked together with Dept of State/USAID, US Army Corps of Engineers, and military from many different countries (to include most significantly Australia and Canada). Everything that was done, the emphasis
was on making it "Afghan-led." Good thing we did that or else when we came home the people might think the Taliban could do a better job.....*sigh*
Here is a picture of some cool cars I saw on my one trip through Kandahar City....
Weren’t they still the Government, even back then?
That must have been a real adventure being there, which was effectively, an active war zone.
Coincidentally, just around that same time, our company had previously built for the Canadian military portable, self-contained refueling stations. They were 10,000L tanker vessels
built within a ISO Intermodal 20 FT container framework and the tankers were coated with “Battlejacket”. A self-healing bullet-proof material that coats any container hauling petroleum products (made in Oregon if I remember correctly). When punctured with
a live round, the heat created by the impact, plus the chemical reaction of the fuel itself, causes the material to swell and gel, sealing the hole.
Our company built a small run of these and our branch got the contract to do the running repairs, structural modifications and re-certify them under Transport Canada’s hazardous
goods regulations. This was the first big project that I was tasked to do from start to finish, including all of the repairs, TC inspections and be the liaison between our shop and the equipment manager for Department of National Defence. This was one of my
favourite jobs and lasted over several months. These were despatched to Afghanistan and did see action over there. I did repair the Battlejacket on one example, but was disappointed because I never recovered the bullets inside the vessel. I did however find
this crumpled waybill stuffed in a storage cabinet and is a souvenir from that project which I keep tucked away in my toolbox at work...
Peter
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Peter,
Not sure why your email sparked a memory, but in 2011 I spent a few months in Kabul (I lived and worked on the base at the same airport we all just watched about on the news). I
frequently would be out and about on the route between the airport and ISAF-HQ and the US Embassy, so I got to see the kinds of cars driven around Kabul. With very few exceptions, they were all dirty, dusty, beat up old Toyota sedans and the like, nothing
eventful at all. I once saw a Mercedes SLK in silver that was really dusty but it was running on the road. But the reason your email sparked the memory is because once as we went around Massoud Circle, I saw a shiny black Cadillac Escalade with chromed spinners.
Probably just some Taliban gangsters at the time, but now they're the government....
The gangsters around here drive Escalades, jacked-up pick-ups and Chrysler 300Cs. I totally wouldn’t fit in...
😉
Peter
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Cool shots of the Mondial at night – very atmospheric – a bit gangster!
Cheers,
Grahame
This past week, I filled in for the nightshift foreman who was on (much needed) holidays and of course, I was driving the Mondi.
It brought back a lot of memories, because when I finished trade school, my first job was at a manufacturing plant in an older industrial area just south of Vancouver. They ran
two shifts and the nightshift was from 4:30PM to 2:30AM. After some time, I had volunteered to go on straight nights as we worked in teams and one of the guys needed to do that schedule. Great for me as I was (and to an extent, still am today) a night owl.
The one thing that I’ll always remember from that wasn’t the work, but the ride home. Along that main route was a large machine shop that ran three shifts (days, nights and graveyard).
Everyday when I’d head home, I’d pass by this place and right front and center in the parking lot, clearly visible from the road was a red 308 GTS. I don’t know if it was a manager, a foreman, or maybe one of the machinists, but this person was daily driving
a 308 and working a graveyard shift no less. This goes back 20+ years, so back then, it was a just a used car, but I was always impressed that it was driven every day (rain or shine). And no, it wasn’t a Fiero replica, I actually stopped one night to check
it out and it was the real deal.
And all of these years later, I was doing the same thing. I’ll be heading back to days next week, but it was fun while this lasted. I can’t explain it, but there’s something special
about driving a Ferrari at night and having the roads to myself...
Peter
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