Andreas Meyer - YOU COULD DIE ANY DAY

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all those who had to experience painfully what war in a foreign land means and those at home who did not know what the soldiers had to face in the field.

In particular, I dedicate the book to my son Marco, who had to make do without a lot as a little boy because of my absence. In his mind he was with me all the time.

In memory of all comrades who have fallen in action, in particular:

Sergeant Christian S., Panzer Grenadier Battalion 332, fallen in an attack at Rustak on 25. June 2005 and

Lieutenant Colonel Armin-Harry F., Reservist, who fell in a suicide attack in Kabul on 14.

November 2005.

Andreas Meyer

YOU COULD DIE

ANY DAY

BEING DEPLOYED TO AFGHANISTAN

AS A SOLDIER OF THE GERMAN ARMY.

All rights reserved @ 2020 Andreas Meyer

Cover, Illustrations: Miriam Hadji

Editing: Andreas Meyer

Translation: Maren Krüger, Kerry Staudt and Alexander Langer

Publisher: tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44

22359 Hamburg Germany

ISBN

Paperback ISBN: 978-3-347-09331-7

Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-347-09332-4

eBook ISBN: 978-3-347-09333-1

This publication including its parts and content are copyrighted. Every use without the permission of the author, especially electronic copying, translation, every way of distribution and public presentation, is illegal.

Bibliographic information of the German National Library:

The German National Library records this publication in the German National Bibliographic; detailed bibliographic information is provided via the following link: http://dnb.ddb.de

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all those who had to experience painfully what war in a foreign country means and those at home who did not know what the soldiers had to face in the field.

In particular, I dedicate the book to my son Marco, who had to make do without a lot as a little boy because of my absence. In his mind he was with me all the time.

In memory of all comrades who have fallen in action, in particular:

Sergeant Christian S., Panzer Grenadier Battalion 332, fallen in an attack at Rustak on 25. June 2005 and

Lieutenant Colonel Armin-Harry F., Reservist, who fell in a suicide attack in Kabul on 14. November 2005.

Contents list

Prologue Prologue S eptember 11 2001 I sat at a desk of a logistics company I was employed at as fire warden and coordinator for medical assistance since I left the Bundeswehr from active duty. I was responsible for the preventive fire security and all related aspects within the company. I liked my job. Being the one responsible for the security of my colleagues and having the possibility to be proactive always gave me a good feeling. Since I am a challenge loving person I was really satisfied with my tasks. This morning though, my whole well settled life was about change in a dramatic way. A change that effected many more people around the globe. A colleague of mine shouted over to me, I should open the website of CNN. Something about a plane had hit a sky scraper. Moments later I was following the live broadcast from the accident site staring at the horrific inferno of what once used to be the World Trade Center. I could not beliving my own eyes when the second jet flew into the other tower of the WTC. In the first moment everything looked so staged. Like it was just not real. Like a really really bad movie. But it was real. And the consequences of this new reality were about to affect not only the world in general but also my very own personal life. I was about to face the terror from eye to eye. Not in the states but in Afghanistan. I rejoined the Bundeswehr and became a soldier once again. Map of Afghanistan

1 January 2005

2. Preparations

3. March 2005

4. June 2005, Mission

5. Every day camp life

6. Support from Austria

7. A baker and his flatbread

8. At the medic`s

9. Earthquake in Pakistan

10. My time in between the missions

11. Second deployment

12. The next flight to Afganistan

13. Preparation for handover

14. Challenges at the IEB-Cell

15. Visit tot he police chief at the airport

16. First tasks fort he new unit

17. Charity for a orphanage

18. Meeting again after 13 years

19. The Blue Moque of Mazar-E-Sharif

20. Visit by the commander

21. Driving tot he Teacher Training Center

22. Religious dignitaries at Camp Marmal

23. The newbies are coming

24. Getting acquainted with medical personal during flight

25. A day in the camp with five students

26. Afghanistan-Projekt „no más fonteras“

27. US-American artist arrives

28. The great day oft he experiment has come

29. Trip tot he border and port city Hairatan

30. First visit tot he OCCR headqzarters

31. Viait oft he Gouvernor of Samangan

32. The first watch on the watch tower

33. Support in driving service for OCCR

34. Mr. Scholl-Latour visits Camp Marmal

35. My third mission

36. And back again in Mazar-e Sharif

37. After 16 days camp stay

38. The first days in office as troop supply officer

39. Support fort he engineer squad

40. Evening remembrance service for four fallen comrades

41. The blue heart of Feyzabad

42. Lunch with „Schoko“

43. A reunion with Nabil, Sultan, Soraya

44. Attack on German armed forces in Takhar province

45. Father`s Day run at Camp Feyzabad

46. Departure

47. Back home

48. Eqilogue

49. Attachment 1 Rank groups from army

50. Attachment 2 Mongolian ranks

51. Attachment 3 Breakdown of a guide

52. Attachment 4 Classification of NATO classes

53. Attachment 4 Translation from German to Dari

54. Attachment 5 in alphabetic order

55. Attachment 6 List of figures

Thanks to:

F

or the patient support in the implementation of this book, I thank my friend Jana Wochnik-Sachtleben, who has lectured the text, and recorded my audio book, as well as Ms. Miriam Hadji for the design of the impressive book cover, and the translators Maren Krüger, Kerry S and Alexander Langer.

I warmly thank my comrade and friend Nabil Azizi for the translation into Dari language.

I also especially thank my partner, "Thessi", for her constant support the whole time.

I would also like to thank the following former senior officers and civilians as well as all my former comrades who dealt with me directly and indirectly in the missions:

Brigadier A., Airborne Brigade 25,

Colonel B., former company commander paratrooper battalion 253, Nagold,

Brigadier General R., former commander of the Center for Operational Information in Mayen,

Peter Scholl-Latour, German-French journalist and publicist from Bad Honnef,

Batuz, an American artist, philosopher and cultural activist,

and my closest comrades in the time of the missions (2005, 2010, 2011), Rainer M., Thomas K., Tino M., Marcel G., Soraya A., Sultan A., Nabil A., Alexander B., Marc -Andre S., Tobias M., Stephan M., Christian W.

Pretext:

These words are mine, a report from a staff sergeant of the reserve, who retired from active service in the German Army in 1990, but after a six-year break decided to live a life in uniform again and volunteered as a reservist for three missions in Afghanistan.

Previously, I had been soldier for eight years, but what I had learned those days was nothing to put into practice at that time, because back then there was no mandate for foreign missions for the Bundeswehr.