Afghan Uniformed Police, Marines build bonds through trial by fire

KAJAKI SOFLA, AFGHANISTAN

11.18.2011

Story by Cpl. James Clark 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

KAJAKI SOFLA, Afghanistan - For the last decade, many different roads and paths have been deemed the key to success in Afghanistan – described as courses taken to ensure a positive outcome in a country that has not known true and lasting peace for a generation. However, one course of action has been embraced more times than the rest.

In Kajaki Sofla, the men of 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and the Police Advisory Team attached to the unit, work toward the goal – the establishment of a credible and functional security force. On the front lines are the Afghan Uniformed Police.

“On Oct. 10, four days prior to Operation Eastern Storm, we conducted a night helicopter-borne insertion into [Kajaki Sofla],” said 1st Lt. David Hechler, PAT commander and 2009 graduate of Missouri Baptist. “The mission at the time was to occupy our position and draw the (insurgents), in order to help clear the way for 1/6.”

For the first three days, the advisory team and their Afghan counterparts took heavy enemy fire from indirect mortars and accurate rocket-propelled grenade, AK-47 and medium machine-gun fires.

“Through that, we built trust with these guys,” said Hechler, referring to the relationships between coalition and Afghan forces. “Trust in combat…where their lives and ours are just as at risk. Just as Marines build bonds through combat, we’ve forged the same. They're forced to grow up fast here. You see a lot of bad things that forces these young guys to mature at a rapid rate. These guys are a family… they're really tight knit.”

Prior to participating in the push into Kajaki, the advisory team and the Afghan Police had served at the Kajaki Dam, a critical hydro-electric source of power for Helmand province, where they fulfilled a role more akin to the Afghan army than one of law enforcement, said Hechler, adding “Eastern Storm changed everything for us.”

Since the outset of the operation, the AUP and PAT have established a police station at the Kajaki Sofla bazaar, the main source of commerce and a bubbling social hub for the small oasis.

“We pushed into the bazaar where we are now, marking the first time the AUP have been actively operating here in six years,” said Hechler. “When we first got down here, the local populace was very suspicious of Marines and AUP. In just a weeks’ time the atmosphere has changed dramatically.”

The change Hechler referred to has not gone unnoticed by other members of his team. Cpl. Chris Sanders, a police adviser, from Palm Bay, Fla., added, “from what I have seen, we have gotten lucky with our AUP. Now they have talked with the locals we're starting to see changes in the residents' attitude towards us and the police.”

The Marines, like Sanders and Hechler, are poised to take advantage of a critical opportunity - a driven and independent Afghan police force, and support from the local populace, who above all else, want to live without fear.

“This group genuinely seems like they want to do good for their country, coupled with the locals tired of being endangered and intimidated,” said Sanders, a 2007 graduate of Palm Bay High School.

Oftentimes, Marines and the police are looked upon with suspicion, due to a still vivid social memory of a corrupt police force, that, years past, had helped to herald the arrival of the Taliban.

“The Kajaki AUP feels like the exception to the common stigma,” Hechler said. “There are a lot of them that truly do care about this area. A lot of the AUP have lost family to the Taliban. I've seen them give food to families, out of their own stores.”

Since establishing themselves here, the AUP have set about fulfilling their primary role, enforcing law and order, in an effort to bring stability to an area long bereft of it.

“They’re conducting investigations and in a weeks’ time we've done two raids, and AUP has picked up insurgents through their own sources,” said Hechler. “They're coming to me, providing evidence and have made successful arrests. (They) have picked up three suspected (improvised explosive device) makers, and it's all been AUP driven. Our job is in assistance, they're the ones setting it in motion. It's not about our solution. We want them to come up with it.”

“They're the main effort, the police are the one's everyone has to put their hope in,” said Hechler “We're at the forefront of it with a great bunch of Marines, who have made a tremendous amount of progress.”

• Date Taken: 11.18.2011
• Date Posted: 11.18.2011 05:35
• Story ID: 80210
• Location: KAJAKI SOFLA, AF