Thursday, November 17, 2011

It’s just past noon in Kandahar Province. The November sky is extremely blue unlike the summer haze we’ve grown accustomed. I thought it would never get cooler. I’m tucked away on a small outpost in the Horn of Panjwa’i; in an area of operation that belonged to the Canadians before they left this past summer.

We’ve lost four soldiers in our area of Kandahar in the last few days. The Taliban haven’t slowed down with the winter coming on and it seems every time we move one step forward securing this

district the Taliban get really pissed. They know as long as we are here, we are winning which means they are losing. It’s just back and forth and you don’t stop thinking about the four soldiers lost this week and all the others from the past few months in our AO.

Some things you don’t want to get used to.

This is my second combat tour; my first was a gazillion years ago. I joined the Army at 19-years old and after Iraq invaded Kuwait I was deployed in Operation Desert Storm with the US 3rd Armored Division.

Since I arrived in Afghanistan this past March I’ve done a lot of different things at a lot of different operational levels from the ground up. I’ve been on an ‘oh-dark-thirty’ Air Assault mission on Chinooks into remote villages in Kandahar’s Baghtu valley, took part in governance meetings at the Provincial level of Kandahar, did foot patrols in Kandahar City and mounted operational missions in Panjwa’i, worked with our FET (Female Engagement Teams), attended Shuras with former Taliban who were ‘reintegrating’ and switching sides, to where I am now – working with the State

Department, USAID and a small military governance team advising and working with a District Governor who fought against the Soviets as a member of the Mujahedeen in the 1980’s when he was a young man.

Constant war is the backdrop of everything in Afghanistan. For the children and

the young people it is all they have known for their entire lives.   That’s pretty rough. I only hope I am making a dent in making things better along with some of the bravest and finest young American men and women I have ever met.

It’s been a quiet day so far and to look at the Afghans this morning you’d think it was the dead of winter in New York or some other really cold northern state. They are all bundled up in their traditional clothes and a winter coat or blanket and here and there, a knit hat. For us Americans it’s a welcome change from the relentless heat of the summer. It makes wearing all our ‘battle rattle’ gear and body armor a little less uncomfortable.

There’s a lot to do here.

My best to all back home in the USA, Katherine.

The Kitchen Cabinet honors Captain Jenerette for her service to America.

Katherine Jenerette is Captain in the US Army Reserve and a paratrooper from North Myrtle Beach, SC. She is serving with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division ‘Task Force Arctic Wolves’ in the Horn of Panjwa’i in

one of the most volatile districts in Kandahar Province (and Afghanistan). She is a former U.S. Congressional Field Representative for South Carolina’s First District and a North Myrtle Beach Planning Commissioner and was a Candidate for US Congress in 2010. Katherine was recently name as one of THE 45 MOST ADMIRED REPUBLICAN WOMEN UNDER 45 by The Republican Security Council based in Washington, D.C.

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Filed under: Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Nov 17, 2011