Hello family and friends,

Khware me shay,
(A common Afghan greeting meaning "may you not be terrible.")

Here's an excerpt from my journal for one morning a few weeks ago. This is the first day of the incoming civil affairs team being in Lashkar Gah. These guys are my new best friends. They are here to swap out with me! Again keep in mind, that this is their first day on the job.

Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan

5:30 am	I awake to the sound of call to prayer from the mosque across the street. I'm not the only one up, Ralph the mouse runs across the room. After scraping a razor across my face, I choke down some eggs and bacon.
6:30 am	Check email and review the intelligence summary for the previous day.
7:30 am	Conduct a team meeting and review the missions and timelines for the day.
8:15 am	Another meeting. We review current and planned reconstruction projects and strategy to support the Afghan elections.
9:40 am	One of our soldiers approaches me with a sense of urgency that signals something is wrong. A local office manager for a construction company that does quite a bit of work for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) came is at our gate. One of his employees was involved in an attack earlier that morning. The injured man was taken to the hospital in Lashkar Gah (the same hospital in which I'm renovating the OB/GYN wing). We quickly mount up (got into our vehicles) and drive to the hospital.
10:05 am	As we enter the hospital compound, the scene is sheer pandamonium. A large crowd of people had formed outside the building and the mob continued down the hallways of the hospital. Many were armed with AK47s, but are slung on their shoulders. I immediately recoginze several of the armed men. Some are local police while others are police from a nearby district. Most of the onlookers gawk at a truck parked at the entrance to the hospital. Our small convoy of trucks pulls up to the entrance and US soldiers take up defensive positions. I grab one of the local policemen to clear the area. He doesn't have much trouble, since many of the men moved out of the way when they saw us arrive. I stopped to look at the truck everyone was so curious about and immediately saw why. Numerous bullets holes penetrated the front and one side of the vehicle. The windshield was intact, but you could barely see out of it. The passenger seat told a very grim story. It's occupant lost alot of blood. Bloody, unidentifiable material filled the rest of the cab. A few of us, including one of our medics, enter the hospital. The chaos inside was worse than it was outside. Faces quickly turned to us as we entered the building and the sea of people part before us. On the other end, I meet my friend Dr. Aniatullah, the Provincial Minister of Health and chief administrator for the hospital. We warmly, but briefly greet each other and he leads me down the hallway to a room. Inside, medical personnel surround a man on a table and our medic joins them.
10:20 am	I leave the room to speak with the local authorities to find out more information. I recognize more familiar faces...the deputy provincial intelligence chief, the local Afghan National Army investigator and other security personnel. The greetings with these men are sincere, but seemingly out of place for the environment in which we were in. I was thankful for the relationships I had worked on establishing in preparation for difficult times like this. Previous efforts were paying off.
10:35 am	I soon learn that the man our medic was working on was actually the shooter involved in the attack. The man we came to see was in another room. The first man was in bad shape. He was classified as "urgent surgical" and the hosptial did not have the facilities to handle it. The injury met the requirements for a medical evacuation by US personnel to a US hospital (life, limb or eyesight) and we got on the radio and called it in. After completing an assessment of the first man, our medic was directed to the second man, the man we originally came for. A few moments later, our medic reported in that the second man met the same criteria for medical evacuation. I coordinate with the local police to have all unnecessary personnel removed from the hallways and the front of the hospital as well as the streets surrounding a nearby soccer stadium be blocked off. The local police respond quickly. While waiting for the chopper, I investigate the incident further. It turns out that there were three men in the truck that was parked in front of the hospital. The attack was a successful assasination of a local Afghan Militia Commander who was working with us. We had worked together a few months ago to destroy illegal heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. The Commander's son was the one who worked for the construction company and the second man we are evacuating. His nephew was the driver of the vehicle. He was visibly shaken, but unhurt. His clothes matched the passenger seat to the truck parked out front. We collect the personal effects of the shooter and quickly learn that he truly was a bad dude. He was hard core Al-Qaida. He was ours. Our team's first capture! My primary job here is not to bag terrorists, it's reconstruction, but it was a nice feeling to take a terrorist off the street.
11:55 am	We recieve confirmation that the helicopter is minutes away, I ask the Afghan hospital personnel to load up the patients into waiting ambulances and we escort them to the soccer stadium.
12:20 pm	Another team of US soldiers have secured the inner part of the stadium. The sound of rotors blades hitting the air could be heard in the distance. A soldier pulls the pin on a smoke grenade to mark the landing zone. A large crowd forms outside the stadium, but the local police holds them back at a safe distance. An Apache gunship orbits overhead scanning the surroundings for threats while the Blackhawk medical chopper touches down.
12:35 pm	After collecting the patients, the Blackhawk leaps into the air and speeds to Khandahar to provide treatment at the US hospital there. Another mission complete.

The rest of the day is uneventful compared to the morning. The rest of the day's missions included visits to some school projects, a well that we are drilling and more meetings with local officials and contractors.

This will be my last newsletter from Afghanistan. I am on my way back to the US. I expect to be on active duty once I return for another month or so and revert to my reserve status again, but I won't know that until it actually happens. I am looking forward to getting back home in time to be with family for the Holidays. I am looking forward to some "downtime" to unwind from this tour. A few us were commenting on how nice it will be to jump in the car and not have to put on a kelvar vest and tote a rifle and pistol around!

Here's a couple of pics.

	The one titled "me and the boys" is with Sergeant King and our intepreters. Sergeant King was instrumental in getting the mission done. He embodies the term "quiet professional."
The second pic was taken at a nearby Special Forces forward operating base (FOB) just before taking off for my last helicopter ride to Khandahar.

I want thank everyone for their words of support and encouragement. They were very helpful in getting through this last year. I especially want to thank my wife Shannon for being a hero and holding down the home front.

Pe makhe dersha,
Jagran Mitch

(Pe makhe dersha is an Afghan farewell, literally meaning "face the good."
To the locals I am "Jagran Mitch" which is Major Mitch in English.)
Major, Civil Affairs Officer
Lashkar Gah Provincial Recontruction Team
Operation Enduring Freedom- Afghanistan