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Letter to JHK from William Shortino serving with the US military in Afghanistan:

Friends,
I am into my 6th month and halfway through my deployment with the US Army in the country of Afghanistan. It is getting hotter but we are in the rainy season here. It is raining as I write this too, it is a real gully, oops I mean wadi washer. There is thunder, lightning and hail. It rained last week and cooled off. It cooled off enough so that it snowed in the mountains to the North of me in Pakistan that are over 10,000 feet. It is greening up around the hills surrounding FOB Salerno. Tomorrow will be Monday May 10th my birthday I will turn 54.
I remember saying that I would not have any stories about combat to tell you. I was wrong. On April 3rd, 2010 at about 0900 I was walking back to my tent from breakfast, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a 107-mm incoming rocket. It was about ten feet overhead, I saw it fly over my head and land about 70 paces in front of me and hit a concrete barrier, and I was close enough that some of the concrete flecks landed on my head. It hit right in front of Sergeant Dario Diaz’s tent. I was running towards his tent thinking the worse when I saw him exit the tent running towards the closest bunker. I checked to see if he was okay and he was. We then were checking to see if everyone else was okay. EOD and some other armed soldiers showed up to see, if everyone was alright. It was the closest call that I have had in Theater. Oh just so you know, you cannot outrun these rockets, they are travelling at Mach 7.
I wanted to find the people that did this. I wanted to make them into Purina Hog Chow (no that is not a typo). I wanted to hunt them down with a flame thrower (the Army doesn’t even have these anymore). It took me a couple of days to get over it and realize that it was not personal but just what being in a war is all about. This incident also has helped me realize that this is not about winning.
NATO announced it has an idea for a medal for “courageous restraint.” Hey I am just telling you what I read. I know it sounds ridiculous. We want to cut down on the number of innocent bystanders (women and children) being killed and wounded. I have said this before, but America needs to find the courage to get out of this country. It is a loser. I mean we spent all that money helping the Afghani’s defeat the Soviets. We really should have been helping the Soviet Union defeat this country. They were much more efficient with their war against this country. As usual we were backing the wrong side. It does make you wonder had the Soviets been more successful how different things would have been for us. It has made me think of whom and what we are fighting; it is really not Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Libya. All of these countries have one thing in common – ISLAM.
In the quite of evening and early in the morning I can hear the muezzins calling the faithful to prayer, it is calming to hear them. It symbolizes the stability and timelessness of the Muslim world. The Muslim faith is doing well but the Muslim people are not doing as well. For centuries these people have been kept apart from civilization by distance and some very serious geographical obstacles. However modern technologies and civilization from other parts of the world are eroding these barriers. The world is interacting with these peoples on a regular basis, will they still continue the urge to kill outsiders and slaughter each other. I am not hopeful at all about the prospects for this religion and its adherents.
There is an Arab website that has a paper which describes all the contributions made by Arab civilization. It is a long and impressive list, which unfortunately 1406 marks the last year that a significant contribution was made. That is 600 years of a prolonged stagnation of intellect and culture. Complete collapse of this culture has been starved off only by the sea of oil that has provided the cash to keep it going just like it is. This civilization is going nowhere and is headed towards failure. It is this failure that is bringing the United States into all of these military missions that are expensive and really provide little in the way of progress for these people. I suppose that we expose ourselves and our culture to these people. But only to the men of these cultures, women do not have a voice outside the home in this world. I actually have talked to some Afghani women, they are all American citizen but are here working as linguists. They tell me they are American citizens and will not ever return here to live, EVER. Kenny one of the Afghani interpreters said the only way we could improve Afghanistan is get rid of ALL the Afghani’s. A statement like that shows how dire it is for these people.
There are 60 million illiterate adults in the Arab (Muslim) world the majority are women. The educational system is failing to prepare the youth for the challenges of a globalized economy. I suppose I could say the same about American schools too. But most of the people here, the only book they have ever read is the Koran. I have said this before these people may be illiterate, but they are not stupid. They have figured out every system we have to defeat their IED’s. Last year they hacked into our pilotless UAV drones with a $29.00 Russian computer program. Command says there is no fix for that either. But imagine if we could turn talent like that into doing something useful, instead of killing I would begin to have hope for change for a better future. But I am not hopeful.
In March I went to some training to help me unload the wounded from the helicopters that perform the Dust-off Missions in evacuating the wounded. I have been on several during this past month. I remember one where 3 wounded came in 2 American soldiers and an Afghani interpreter. They were hit with a dismounted IED. The first one off was hurt pretty bad, he had 3 tourniquets; he was sent out of Theater. The other two were walking wounded. I saw one of the guys a couple of days later by Green Beans- the Salerno coffee shop. He had a big bandage around the back of his neck. We got to talking a bit, he said that he has been in country for 3 months and that he was awarded his 2nd Purple Heart (a medal the military gives you for receiving wounds in combat) in as many months. He seemed to have difficulties focusing. I am really moved by some of the stories these kids tell me over here.
The mission is going full bore now, especially since SGT Diaz has been on R&R since April 17th. I have been doing it alone. It has been going well. I look for him back any time now. I am never amazed at any of the container requests that I get (no matter how ridiculous.
The surge should be happening soon. In many ways we are not ready for it. Since I am a logistics and transportation guy, my questions about the surge are as follows: What are they going to eat? Where are they going to sleep? What are they going to drink? Where are they going to go the bathroom? More importantly, what are they going to do? That is in my opinion the most important question. Since I have been to both Iraq and Afghanistan, I have the following thoughts. In Iraq the military finally figured out all the groups who were killing us. We found out who they were and then paid them not to kill us. In Afghanistan it is not as simple; there is no center of gravity to this insurgency(s). There are so many groups and players that we might as well send everyone money not to kill us. We could drop the money from helicopters. I told you this place is a no winner.
I remember saying it takes courage and bravery to face every day, well some days it takes a little more. Since today is Mother’s Day, I think about a quote my own mother would say to me often as a boy, from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar – “A coward dies many times before his death, but the valiant doth taste of death but once”. I guess she was preparing me.
I will write again next month – Inshallah –God-willing. Salerno out . . .

Sergeant First Class Bill Shortino
831st DDST / US Army
Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan

email: Bill Shortino

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