Medical Logistics - Army Logistics University - U.S. Army

Making the most of interpreters. The most important
asset we had in training the Afghans for success
was our interpreters. Interpreters should be treated
well because they hold the knowledge required to build
better partnerships with the mentees. We were blessed
to develop habitual relationships with very competent
and hardworking interpreters. Mission continuity, better
situational awareness, and technical understanding
resulted from continuously using the same interpreters.
When it was feasible before a meeting or daily mission,
an interpreter and I would go over the subjects I
planned to discuss with the ANA. This helped to build
upon previous coordination and minimize the possibility
of miscommunication.
An embedded training team picks up equipment
and supplies at the off-site overflow warehouse at
Camp Dogan.
Challenges
Working in a joint environment was something new
for each of the U.S. Soldiers. Since half of the medical
logistics ETT personnel and half of our surgeon’s cell
leaders were Air Force, I learned a lot about working
with our sister service. Their expertise was exceptional,
but Airmen generally tend to complete projects
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differently than Soldiers. Our Air Force teammates
previously had operated in environments where they
managed projects as individuals; the Army tends to
operate in teams. Although this was not a huge sticking
point for us, we did pause to discuss the differences
and how we would proceed with our tasks.
From an Army perspective, it concerned us when we
realized that the echelons-above-corps and corps-andbelow
ETTs were filled with non-Army mentors. Navy
and Air Force personnel have begun to occupy Armycentric
slots in Afghanistan as “in lieu of ” fillers. Yes,
healthcare is healthcare in a garrison setting, but land
warfare doctrine training for a land component force
(which the ANA happens to be) is very different from
air and sea doctrine. This observation can be applied to
all mentoring missions currently operating in Afghanistan—not
just medical mentoring missions.
Another challenge was balancing our time between
the requirements of staff work inherent in a joint environment
and the actual hands-on mentoring of our Afghan
colleagues. Without a doubt, facilitating ANA hospital
and clinic openings, conducting logistics staff work, and
providing staff assistance visits to the regional medical
ETTs were critical. Our challenge was prioritizing our
mentoring and infrastructure-building responsibilities
and our staff work. We wrestled with it daily. Eventually,
we sorted out the differing roles in our staff lanes.
However, we observed that equipment and materiel
fielding may be better accomplished by a separate team
dedicated to equipment fielding and deployment.
Taking time for ourselves and putting everything in
perspective was essential to avoiding burnout. Constantly
being asked to solve problems or provide materiel
every time we stepped outside the wire became very
draining. Everywhere we went, Afghan civilians and
military personnel would crowd around and seek something.
They reminded me of crowds closely following
some celebrity healer and wishing to merely touch his
cloak so that they may be healed. We commonly heard,
“You are Americans and will solve our problems.”
Sure, maybe we could fix everything immediately, but
that was not our mission. After pleas for help, we had
to take a step back, encourage self-help, and provide
tools to accomplish the task. It was the slow way but
also the right way. To combat the potential for burnout,
we tried to incorporate some down time. The Afghans
celebrate the Sabbath on Fridays, which were also our
lowest battle rhythm days. The ANA was off on Fridays,
so we had no one to mentor. Using this time for
individual recuperation and protecting it for the team
became critical.
Lack of continuity and different funding streams
often created situations where we had lots of money for
supplies, but no money for a building to store them. The
American tendency to put the cart before the horse was
NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2008