When a new unit rotates into Afghanistan much of the turnover of information can be placed neatly into a book for easy reading. However personal relationships cannot simply be signed over to an inbound unit. This is the challenge a new civil affairs unit faces.
With a squad sized unit of over 10 Marines the team from 4th Civil Affairs Group in support 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines’ can conduct assessments and provide their own security.
The team is just starting their deployment but has hit the ground running. On a recent patrol they were able to asses almost every civil affairs project, planned and underway, in the district of Now Zad.
One of the most important projects underway is the kareez repairs.
“The kareez is actually quite ingenious,” said Cpl Timothy McCabe who is a civil affairs Marine from Arlington, Va. “It picks up the water that falls from the mountain, because it (the water) can’t permeate the rock, and then the villagers dig these irrigation ditches off the kareez to water the fields here.”
A kareez is small water irrigation ditch. According to the Heritage Institute, "a kareez is a combination below and above ground channel system used to bring water to a settlement or fields from a natural source, say an aquifer, mountain spring or lake."
Employing Now Zad villagers to repair this kareez is just one way the team is picking up where 1st Battalion, 8th Marine’s team left off.
When asked what his goal for deployment was Gunnery Sgt Earl Beatty simply responded, “try and improve where the last CAG left off.”
Beatty is the staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge and is a 15-year veteran of the Maryland state troopers. He holds the civil affairs military occupational specialty but is also a 0369 infantry unit leader. During the patrol he seamlessly moved his security element around the assessment team to provide a shield of eyes and rifles to allow the assessment team to gather critical data.
On the patrol, they also assessed a section of town containing homes, compounds and bazaar shops, abandoned due to violent fighting years past. The area, not far from a bustling bazaar, was dimly quiet and noteworthy for its shattered walls that spilled onto the street like loose marbles and the twisted steel girders that evoked modern art.
“We will renovate a few of the shops and hope word travels to families who have left that there is a home to return to,” said Maj. Aniela Szymanski the 3/2 civil affairs team leader.
Like all districts in Helmand Province, fixing one shop or training one policemen is not a cure-all for transition. Instead it is a series of these small successes that will snowball the relative security of Now Zad into autonomous governance by the local Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan representatives.