THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, May 6, 2010
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which I thought was good, as we’d soon be traveling that road. It turned out a vehicle and trailer were damaged but there were no casualties. The Ma- rines quickly returned to their previous routines. Another day in the life
of 2/2.
Education
When Nina D’Amato left
her position as a school administrator in the US to pin on the gold oak leaf rank insignia of a reserve USMC major, she knew challenges lay ahead. Her mission in Afghanistan would be to advance edu- cation initiatives for young- sters in the Marine Corps area of operations. Despite
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Acevido’s squad near the Helmand River and indi- cated that he had a preg- nant camel in distress, un- able to give birth. Acevido got a latex glove from a corpsman and reached in and pulled out a baby camel. The mother camel made a few funny sounds, the camel herder did a little dance, and Acevido got the desired kudos from his mates. General Nicholson liked
to point to the Acevido story as but one of many examples of the gestures that were winning us the trust and confidence of lo- cal Afghans.
A mishap with an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle during the Convoy.
sion show “The Rat Patrol,” we enjoyed an exhilarating high- speed ride through the sands. Then we turned back into the Helmand River Valley and made our way to another 2/2 posi- tion, this one belonging to Fox Company.
Soon after arriving, I ac- companied the command- er, Captain Scott Cuomo and his terp (interpreter) to a clandestine meeting with a couple local elders.
Cuomo’s five months in
LtCol. Michael Moffett with Afghan kids during a convoy stop.
all the attention being paid to kinetic military opera- tions and civilian engage- ment, the key to ultimately succeeding in Afghanistan lies in creating viable edu- cational opportunities for a population that is largely illiterate. That’s a lot of pressure
to put on a reserve Marine major! It occurred to me that
Plymouth State University was ahead of the curve in this area, with its part- nership and engagement with educators from Paki- stan. I wish more people understood that it’s edu- cational institutions that will make the difference in the long run if we are to prevail against the malign Taliban influence. Ameri- can schools and colleges have enormous resources
in terms of people and resources. Consider the billion dollar endowments that some universities have. Its teachers, not soldiers, who will win the war in the end. D’Amato said that while
material support was great, she needed more bodies – more teachers. (Note to prospective visit-
ing educators. The young- sters here are well-be- haved and eager to learn. We just need a little more time to get some of their fathers to stop trying to kill the teachers!)
Winning Trust
We convoyed out of Patrol
Base Gorgak, passed the site of the IED ambush, and went back into the desert. We turned north and sped up. As in that 60’s televi-
that area was paying off as the locals clearly had great affection for him. They gave the native New Yorker the names of some local Taliban fighters and the locations of some newly emplaced IEDs. Cuomo said his job was
not hard to understand. He just needed to kill, capture, or convert the Taliban in that area, and he’d made great progress in all three areas. No less than the top military commander in Afghanistan, General Stan- ley McChrystal, had visited Fox Company to see a suc- cessful counterinsurgency model evolving. “Captain Cuomo is a
counterinsurgency genius,” Fox Company First Ser- geant Christopher Adams later told me.
Photos, Drones, And Camels
When at Camp Leath-
erneck, I sometimes used the G3 Conference Room to do interviews. Out- side that room was a wall with photos of 80 Marines
who’d been killed in the area over the last year. My eyes would often go to the plaque for PFC Eric Cur- rier of Londonderry, who’d been killed in the Battle for Marjah in February – a sad connection to my Granite State roots. But there were lighter moments. There was the report
of recovering a downed drone, an unmanned aeri- al vehicle. The aircraft had been found tied to a tree, presumably by the Tali- ban, so it couldn’t fly off and bother them further. Somehow that struck me as very funny. Then there was the story
of Lance Corporal Acevido, of East Los Angeles. A camel herder approached
Road To Success?
As a field historian in uni-
form, I had no problem get- ting Marines to talk about their experiences. I was of- ten inspired by the stories these plucky young Ameri- cans shared with me. Our Marines had suc-
cessfully set up operations in a land-locked country in remote central Asia – the poorest nation in the world. They had to vanquish a ruthless foe, contesting his home area, who adhered to no rules or laws of war- fare. The Marines also had to win over a skeptical indigenous population that was hardened by war and terrorized by the Taliban. All this in one of the harsh- est desert climates in the world. Previous visitors to this land, from Genghis Khan’s
See MOFFETT on 14
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