There is an Afghan in those Free Range International photos who is the most brightly shining example of a man working to help that country. Despite the unmistakable dark skin, he wears a medium reg haircut and is pretty fit (there was speculation among some circles that he had served beside SF teams in the early years of OEF). At first I had a tad bit of difficulty pegging his nationality, and thought he might be from Latin America.
When I first met him, he was supporting Enhanced Mojave Viper exercises as a trainer, controller, and evaluator. I'm not sure whether he was a contractor from our CAOCL, or working some other support requirement, but I typically saw him in the box, headset on, making notes and observing the interactions between Marines and the role players. When the battalion leadership gathered for the final exercise review, he provided a synopsis of our performance across the cultural interaction skills.
He started out speaking in fluent Pashto, and then transitioned to fluent English, where he thanked us for performing well during the exercise, taking up the mission, etc., etc., etc. He also thanked us on the behalf of his people, and implored us to keep an open mind when we got on the ground.
Fast forward seven months to I think Sept 2010, and I ran across him at a Regional Security Shura in Garmsir, where he was serving as Col Furness's linguist. We had a nice chat during a break, and although I cannot recall the everything we talked about, I can definitely remember that his passion for trying to help his country move forward burned just as brightly.
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