Andreas Meyer - YOU COULD DIE ANY DAY

What tasty treat is it you have there? " And with these words he came closer and put his finger right into the dough. I was just saying: "So what do you think?" He just laughed and said that it is a shame that he won´t be there to try it tomorrow morning because he loves apple pie so much. I almost .... in my pants. I had never met such a high-ranking officer before and this guy was a Colonel. This Colonel, this episode of camaraderie made a very strong impression on me although I had no clue who he was. Years later we met again. Not in Germany but in Afghanistan. That time I of course knew who he was. Brigade General and Commander of the 8th German mission contingent to ISAF, General A.

During the time of my first enlistment to the army I came to know another very impressive man, Colonel B. Back then he was a Major and became my company commander in NAGOLD in 1987. Later, after 41 years of service, he served as the commander of the airborne and air transportation school in ALTENSTADT. These 2 men had a very strong influence on me and my military career through all the years which I am very grateful for.

T

he preparations for my very first deployment began with the standard medical checks and countless vaccinations. Tetanus, Hepatitis A and B, rabies and so on...I got it all. All was documented meticulously via a timeline checklist according to an individually specified vaccination scheme for the deployment region. There is a scheme for every different region.

Once I got the approval by the medics I was sent on the mission specified basics training (ESGA) in STETTEN AM KALTEN MARKT followed by the centralized combat troops training (ZENTRA) in HAMMELBURG at the Training Centre of Infantry. The training was very accurate. From mine and improvised explosives device (IED) detection to a very realistic scenario of being captured and held hostage, we trained every possible situation we could get into during the mission. Another important part of the training was the cultural education with insights into afghan population, habits and social structure as well as a basics language training of the most important phrases. We got a bunch of handbooks and vocabularies German - Paschtu and German - Dari, the two main languages that are officially used in Afghanistan.

There is a picture in one of the handbooks showing an Afghan building an IED made of fertilizer. That one remained in my mind till today. He was using a yellow canister. The officer who conducted the lesson told us to always pay attention to these canisters if we see them. A nice advise that some time later unfortunately showed to be absolutely useless, but we will return to this topic.

After the described preparation training followed the preparation for the individual tasks in the battalion (BN) in the ALBKASERNE in STETTEN. Lots of meetings and briefings with the Chief of logistics (J4 officer) and the BN commander were to be hold. Everything related to personnel and material was planned to the smallest detail. That time I also had to join all kind of individual mission task related trainings like Peace Support Operations PSO or workshops for logistics personnel and specialists of the Mission Contingent of the ISAF mission.

In advance of the actual deployment I additionally had to join a reconnaissance mission to AFG to the place of our responsibility at the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) at KUNDUZ. Our team consisted of 4 officers and 2 sergeants including me, who were given the task to evaluate the situation on ground in and around the operational base and to verify the information we had received till then. Although we were provided with quite a lot of data we wanted to be sure that they were still up to date and reliable. Next time I would arrive here as the BNs TVB responsible for the supply and provision of our soldiers, not only in the camp and nearby areas, but also for the ones on missions and at the forward operation bases (FOB) deep in enemy territory. This is completely different from doing this job back home. In mission country you cannot just drive over to the next garage to get spare parts for your combat vehicle. No, in combat areas the lines of supply are much more complicated and way longer.

sunset in the Camp

Structure wise, I was assigned to the Staff and Supply Company. Due to that I also was responsible for the support with personnel and material of the Staff with its 7 sections as well as the Base Security / Defense Company and the military police. One who has never been in the Bundeswehr may imagine the SSCOY as a huge company with its different departments. In our case for example , there was a canteen with its responsibilities, the “Nachschubzug”, which is a supply platoon taking care of pickup and transportation of the supplies arriving at the airport, the “Materialgruppe”, a supply group distributing all material and ordering or sending spare parts and damaged parts from and to Germany, the “Instandsetzungsgruppe”, mechanics responsible to keep all vehicles operational and the “Luftumschlagszug”, an air logistics platoon offloading air transportation and taking care of distributing the mail and material to the areas of operation. As you see there was a lot of personnel and effort needed to keep this machine PRT KUNDUZ running.

O

n the 15th of March we started at 12:30 from the military section of the airport of Cologne/Bonn in an Airbus of the Luftwaffe (German Airforce) to our layover in Termez, Uzbekistan (/اوزبيكيستان ترمز).

At 21:30 we landed on its airport. Whoever thought he could finally get off the plane was immediately disappointed. The door opened and an Usbek official came in. Accompanied by one of the German Airforce ground crew guys he collected all our military IDs, saying this was a regular procedure to check if the incoming personnel matches with the reported list and that we would get our IDs back when we proceed to our flight on the following morning. One of the guys being deployed for the second time turned over to me, smiled and said that they going to copy them now and forward the data to the Russians. I laughed and said:

"You´re joking, right?"

He laughed back and said:

"No!"

Actually, that was a well-known fact.

Once they had all our IDs, we were allowed to leave the plane and walk over to the so called transit camp which was located only 200 meters away from the runway. It was dark and humid. We were led to the tent area where we could buy a Coke and a more or less warm sausage for dinner. Then we went to our declared tents. Thank god they had air-conditioning, so that we were able to get some rest for at least a few hours. According to local time it was 0100 when we laid down. So it was a short night, because at 0430 we had already boarded again, this time a C-160 Transall on a direct flight to KUNDUZ (کندوز). We had to start that early because later in the morning the temperatures would rise to an unbearable degree. Too hot for the Airforce to fly.

It is 0500 local afghan time at KUNDUZ airport or what those people call to be an airport. The main building was a ruin and the tower looked everything but stable. The first thing drawing my attention were the rays of sun right above the tower and the remains of two destroyed combat helicopters left by the Russians when they withdrew 1989.

We were picked up with some jeeps and Mungos (an ugly tiny military transportation vehicle which was actually concepted as a street cleaning vehicle) and brought to the main base. My first impressions of the country were overwhelming. I sat next to the driver of the Mungo and watched how the life in and around KUNDUZ began the day.