Brandon presenting Mrs. Blakely with a flag and certificate at Southside Elementary
Major Shane Robbins and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Admiral Michael Mullen tour the 3-19th ADT Compound
and experience things that many people only read about. TODAY was another one of those days. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I had the opportunity to give the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a tour of our compound. Navy Admiral Michael Mullen is the highest ranking military officer in the nation. Although his visit was brief, it was exciting to be able to talk with the Admiral and discuss the importance of Education as a way ahead for the people of Afghanistan. He showed a sincere interest in our programs and asked some very pointed questions about where we were at the start and if we felt like we were making progress. It was a wonderful experience that I can’t wait to tell my boys about in person.
Working with our Afghan Partners has been both a challenge and inspiration.
Province Afghan Partners. In attendace were the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor from Shaikh Zayed University, The Khost Director of Extension, Director of Forestry, and Agriculture Extension Agents representing 12 of the 13 districts in Khost Province. The Shura was a success. I believe important relationships were started with future Indiana ADT and current relationships expanded with the present ADT Leadership. The work is challenging and sometimes discouraging, but the goal that is common among all of the parties involved makes it inspiring. We all want to assist the people of Khost in creating a solid economic future. It is going to be a slow process and one that will require perserverance from all parties involved.
Jeremy and I displaying the Commanders Coin presented to us by the 101st 3rd BCT Commander COL Luong for our work in education
foreign country. As much as you prepare it is much like a new job, there is what you have learned in your coursework and then there is the cold hard truth realized in the on the job training. Unfortunately, you really need to be at the top of your game because the OJT in this environment comes with much higher stakes. The Agriculture Education project continues to make great progress. Jeremy (MAJ Gulley) has orchestrated a fine tuned plan and the Afghans appear to be executing quite nicely. For me, outside of my daily grind as the Chief of Operations for the team I have managed to move my Computer Lab project to a stage where it should be nominated for funding real soon. You have to take pride in the small accomplishments if you want to maintain your positive outlook in this environment. Jeremy and I have come to understand what we might consider to be a sacrifice in quality, really is not. There is completed good and completed Afghan good.
In this blog update I have a picture of Jeremy and I with the coins presented to us by the 3rd Brigade Combat Team Commander COL Luong for our educational initiatives. It is very humbling and in no way would have been possible without the support of our teammates. None the less it is nice to have your performance recognized by a superior officer. I think we are doing our schools and Blackford County proud. Not bad for a couple of small town boys from Montpelier, Indiana.
version) My partner in crime Jeremy Gulley and I went to Shaikh Zayed University. We have been given the green light to go full force ahead with education as our team’s focus with the many agriculture projects as support mechanisms. We were able to accomplish what is sometimes difficult and that was orchestrate a meeting between the Director of Education, The Director of Agriculture, and the University administration, including the Dean of Agriculture. MAJ Gulley (Jeremy) has worked hard on putting together a comprehensive project that will allow the University the opportunity to teach and train local high school agriculture teachers and agriculture extension agents. There are several checks and balances in place and for it to work all three Directors must be in agreement and support the concept. Back home we would not see this as to difficult, however, in Afghanistan their governmental systems are not set up and structured in a way that this would be common. MAJ Gulley articulated the plan quite well and in the end all three line directors signed the Memorandum of Agreement and were excited to move forward. They identified three schools and three districts in which we will pilot the program. It was such an incredible event seeing the collaboration in action. Before the visit ended we made our way over to the College of Agriculture. I am focused on the higher education portion and as I have posted in the past looking for avenues of professional development. I am currently working on a project that would provide the University with a computer lab and a generator to power that lab. It could and should be utilized to support the training for Jeremy’s project. Today was a big day for our team! Of particular interest, the students at the University have been somewhat distant. I understand as we are fully armed in combat gear. However, our relationships have improved and they have become very curious. I think largely in part they realize our team is made up of several members that are college students themselves. They have become much more welcoming and I feel no longer feel we are intruding on their campus. It is becoming clear that we are there to support their educational efforts by assisting in the improvements to the University. Today was a rewarding day!
Veterans Day skype with Center Grove Middle School
November 12, 2010- What another fine example of how the world has indeed changed. Yesterday was Veterans Day. For my friends at Blackford High School and Madison-Grant, you know what that means for me. I always enjoyed putting on a program that would honor those who have served our country. It was a lot of work, but the gratitude from those men and women that participated made it incredibly worthwhile. For obvious reasons, I did not think I would be participating in a program this year. WRONG! 1LT Bart Lomont
MAJ Robbins, in a Combat Zone, Talks with the Center Grove Middle School Students
coordinated with Center Grove Middle School and the Indiana National Guard Public Affairs Office to participate in a live skype at the Center Grove Middle School Veterans Day Program. I had my skype set up and I answered questions posed by the students via skype. To make it that much more exciting, I was interviewed by WRTV’s Rafael Sanchez. It was quite a shock, you see Rafael did not know who he was interviewing……..He and I go way back we were classmates together at Franklin College. The event was a great experience and I felt blessed to participate. Thanks to Center Grove Middle School for the invitation and Rafael for participating in the event and for the opportunity to share.
November 1, 2010- Today’s mission was one of extreme excitement for me. Jeremy Gulley and I were able to visit Shaikh Zayed University and meet with the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, and members of the faculty. Jeremy was conducting a walkthrough with the contractor of a recent project we funded. During his walkthrough I had the opportunity to speak with the Chancellor, members of his staff, and even a few students. It was great to engage in academic dialogue and discuss the importance of education. It was evident that the students and staff agreed education was a way to a better life and a better Afghanistan. Our meeting transitioned to the Chancellor’s office and we continued our discussion. We discussed the possibilities of creating an internet connection to Ball State University and Purdue University as a means to increase teacher capacity. The faculty at SZU were excited to research the possibility of coming to the United States to engage in professional development opportunities. We left the University with ideas for follow-on projects that may assist the faculty at SZU in the delivery of instruction as a means to continue to improve as a school.
October 27, 2010- Today’s mission was designed for my team to attend the Provincial Governor’s Provincial Development Council Meeting (PDC). This is a meeting that is attended by the District Governor’s of the Khost Province as well as the many committee directors. During the meeting the Governor discussed some policy, but dedicated a majority of his time discussing the several project requests brought before the committee. The projects my team wants to perform as well as other NATO groups, must be approved by this committee. The meeting itself was not much different from what we would see in the United States as the government is truly attempting to function as a democracy. Following the meeting I had the pleasure of having lunch with the Governor in his compound. What an experience. It was indeed a great day.
October 25, 2010- The weather is starting to cool off here, but nothing compared to Indiana. I met with the Khost Province Director of Education. We discussed a way to implement or increase the amount of agricultural education curriculum in the schools of this province. Over 80% of the people who live in this province earn a living through agriculture. The problem is only about 15% of the land is suitable for farming. Much of it has to do with the mountainous landscape. However, they also only get about 19 inches of rain fall a year. In talking with the Director,in Khost City alone there are six schools that contain anywhere from 3000-5000 high school age students. The girls go to a separate school. Unfortunately, this culture is still working towards the concept of educating girls. I left the meeting with a sense of purpose. Jeremy Gulley and I are teaming up to work on a project that would create an FFA program in Khost…..to start with! Instead of Future Farmers of America, it would be called Future Farmers of Afghanistan. What I originally thought was a pipe dream may indeed have a 
possibility of becoming reality. Jeremy and I both agree that we would like to partner up with our schools back home as an avenue to assist the Afghan teachers, expose our students to an unfamiliar culture, and try to assist this country in improving its economic situation as my good friend Dr. Long would say “One student at a time”
October 21, 2010- Up at 4:45 a.m. cleaned up dressed, prepping our tactical vehicles at 6 a.m. and ready to roll by 7 a.m. Todays mission was to visit one of our joint compounds. This compound contains a demonstration farm such as the one on my Forward Operating Base. It is early in its development and it is managed by local Afghan Nationals. The goal is to get it ready to serve as a training site for the agriculutral extension agents. Once trained in a specific area then they train area farmers. The trip to the compound took a little over an hour. My team completed observations of the farm which contained a new tree orchard, corn crop, grape trellises, as well as a fruit and vegetable solar dehydrator. When they were finished I met with the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) garrison commander. With my interpreter I spoke to him about the vision he had for the demonstration farm and the things we may be able to do to assist their efforts. He spoke very little english, but was extremely hospitable. We talked for over an hour. During the course of the meeting he shared with me his desire to have some sort of agricultural training available for students. He stated that over 80% of the populace in that region worked in agriculture. It is difficult to comprehend that with all of the modern technology you would think this is an easy fix. However, our solutions must be affordable and sustainable. This country is impovershied and they do not possess the infrastructure to support our modern technology. We are therefore attempting to improve their subsistence farming into surplus farming by improving techniques that are not solely based on improved equipment.
October 14, 2010- Many thanks to the Huntington North High School teaching staff for the card and well wishes. I hope everyone is well and having a great school year. Miss you all very much!
Jeremy Gulley and Shane Robbins outside of the ADT Compound. Thanks for the letters of support HNHS
October 12, 2010- I went on my first mission today. It was a comprehensive tour of Khost City and some of the surrounding areas in which we will be operating. I had the opportunity to visit Sheik Zayed University. It is a small university that contains a student farm. I observed the project that is
Me with the Khost Director of Agriculture
near completion and will be returning for a visit to go through a punch-list so that we can turn the area over to the students. The highlight of my tour was a visit with the Khost Province D.A.I.L, which stands for Director of Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock. This position is similar to our state Secretary of Agriculture. We met in his office and discussed ways in which our team can work with and assist the people of Khost Province. It was unique, while I have had several meetings as the Monroe Central Superintendent, never have I had escorts in full combat gear and rifles standing outside the door of my meeting patrolling the area. We conducted business and did not let the conditions affect the reason why we were there. As the Director became comfortable with us, he summoned a gentleman who served us tea (Chi- which is tea in Pashtu). Not being much of a tea drinker I did not want to offend my host and accepted the tea. It was actually quite good and I may come home a tea drinker. I must say the meeting was encouraging and the D.A.I.L has plans for the construction of an agriculture school in Khost. I left feeling encouraged and can honestly say it was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.
October 10, 2010- FINALLY, I have some connectivity here at my home base. Although it was only five days, it seemed like an eternity. I went nearly two weeks without talking to my boys. Fortunately I was able to talk to Heather a couple of times, but it was very little. I am pretty sure that is the longest I have gone without talking to my boys since their birth! I am extremely proud of how they are managing, Heather and I are definitely blessed with a couple of troopers indeed. So we are nearly finished with our RIPTOA, which stands for Relief in Place and Transfer of Authority from the unit we are replacing to our unit. I have been overwhelmed with learnig all of the jobs I will be performing over the course of the next ten months and I compare it to trying to take a drink of water out of a fire hydrant! A lot goes in by force and comes rushing right back out! I am finally getting comfortable with a completely dark environment at night and the stillness of the air here. Our higher headquarters is the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne. I was lucky to sit in on an intel brief for the leadership of arriving units. The 101st commander is an incredibly intelligent, driven, and high speed individual. This man does not miss a beat. As the Ag Operations Officer and Education Officer I will be spending a great deal of my time with governmental representatives from the USDA and USAID. There is definitely a civilian face on our battlefield as we utilize counter insurgency techniques to defeat the insurgents that continue to disrupt peace in this country. I have already met several new friends and was able to speak at a “Shura” as I introduced our team to the several Agriculture Extension Agents we will be working with. We have approximately nine Afghanistan interpreters and I am taking time to get to know them. They appear to be great young men striving to assist the United States in improving the conditions of their counry for the people! I have been working long days and the six hours in a tent on a cot are starting to catch up with me, I am not as young as I use to be. No complaints, I am being fed well and motivated to make a difference.
October 5, 2010- Our first couple of days in Afghanistan are completed, we have gone through additional rollover training, IED identification lanes, and weapons qualification. I am staying in what they call a clam shell, it is an extremely large tent that sleeps over 500 troops and we are nearly at capacity. The transient quarters contain folks from the United States and other NATO nations serving in Afghanistan as well as DA civilians and foreign nationals working as contractors waiting to get to their assigned bases. The landscape in this country is amazing and it is sad to think of what the decades of war have done to its potential. I look at the mountains and can’t help but think people all over the world would pay big money to come visit and tour this place if it weren’t for the millions of land mines the Russians left behind. I truly hope we are beingdifference makers (Americas) in this country. Everyone in this world should have the right to pursuit happiness.
October 2, 2010- Such is the life in the military. Just when we thought we were about to depart Krygyzstan we were informed out flight had been deplayed. The complexity of the air operation makes this no surprise. Some quick observations since arriving to Krygyzstan; I think there are many 
Americans and especially our students that need to see places such as this. The water supply is a treasured resource, I have yet to take a hot shower. With that said I am fortunate that I get to shower at all! The water is not potable (drinkable) so there are pallets laying around the bse for soldiers to access. I have uploaded a picture of one as I am sitting here blogging at 5:00 a.m. Krygyzstan time! No complaints though, just a more thorough understanding of how blessed I am as an American and how blessed my family is as well. I am lookingforward to linking up with my fellow team-mates so that the transition of the 2-19th to the 3-19th can begin. On a side note I was able to communicate with Dennis Patty, former board member for MCSC. He is working as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan. I hope to link up with him while he is still in country. It is amazing the number of civilian contractors working in country….. Take care and hopefully my next blog post will be from Afghanistan!
October 1, 2010- Wow, what a couple of days it has been. I am currently at Manas Air Force Base in Krygyzstan. We are sleeping in an open tent that houses about 300 troops. This morning at about 3:30 a.m. over 100 soldiers from Poland arrived it was chaos as they were trying to find spare bunks. You couldn’t help but understand their excitement, they are returning home from Goznia after a year away from home. I spoke with one of the Polish officers and he said he is ready to return to civilian life. One thing is definite about soldiers from all over the world, we share many of the same dreams and desires and that is when we are away we dream of being home!
I am looking forward to getting to my destination but can add Bulgaria and Krygyzstan to my list of places I have never been. I was able to skype with Heather, it has been our first real contact in the last several days. It was nice. I have attached a copy of pictures to this post, it includes our stop in Bulgaria, there was not much to see. I hear the city of Sofia is actually quite modern nd nice.
Sofia Bulgaria
September 27, 2010- Tonite should be exciting, as I spend my last bit of time in the United States, I have the opportunity to listen to author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson speak. Mr. Mortenson has spent a considerable amount of time in Afghanistan and has experienced what most Americans have not. He is the author of “Three Cups of Tea” and “From Stones to Schools.” Mr. Mortenson has been responsible for the construction of over a hundred schools in Afghanistan that has affected countless lives. I am excited to hear what he has to say about living amongst the Afghan people. We are in good communication with our Advon Party and looking forward to linking up with them shortly. Everything is racked, packed, stacked, and ready to go…………… It won’t be long now.
September 20, 2010- It has been a great couple of days at home and they are going by much to quickly. I did have the opportunity to watch one of Brandon’s football games. First play of the game he came up and made a tackle that put a smile to my face! We spent the weekend just enjoying some 
family time and hanging out together. After church we walked down to Kevin and Tonia Mahan’s house for an evening cookout with Reece and Stacey Mann. It was a relaxing evening. Tonite I have the opportunity to go to one of Bryce’s football games. I even took him to the Orthodontist this morning where I had the chance to visit with Dr. Mark Rosenthall (he and I both went to Franklin College). It was nice to see an old friend. I have been working on my video camera and look forward to uploading videos in the near future. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and pledges of support!
September 14, 2010- Our post-mobilization training is finally complete and I get to see the family for a little R&R, I can’t wait to hug the air out of them. I have attached a couple of pictures to this post. I can’t believe the people in the great state of Indiana my team was able to work with. Probably 
my most memorable meeting was with Mr. Jim Moseley, the former Deputy Sercretary of Agriculture for the United States. He spent quite a bit of time in Afghanistan. We topped things off last night with a trip to the Military Department of Indiana’s “Caison” team farm. The Percheron horses were large and beautiful. Another training event that was conducted at Franklin Community High School was fun as well. First, the principal at FCHS is Blackford High School alumnus Craig McCaffrey. I had the opportunity the address the faculty and my former College Football Coach, Mike McClure was in the audinece. September 9, 2010- One of the true assets I bring to our team is my educational background. When I first began thinking about how I would function as an education officer many things ran through my mind. Ultimately, I need to be prepared to help our agricultue specialists prepare to train our Afghan counterparts. While still in the United States I could think of no better way than to take them to some of our Indiana Schools and let them interact with teachers and students. I really enjoyed visiting Franklin High School with our team. 
The principal, Craig McCaffrey is a Blackford High School alumnus. He and his staff were incredibly hospitable. Our team members were able to ask several questions. Now granted the facilities and technology capabilities far exceed what we are going to see in Afghanistan, however it was a productive day none the less. Our team left feeling a bolstered sense of pride from the support they received from the Franklin staff.
I wish we were closer to home. I would have loved to bring our team to Monroe Central.
September 5, 2010- Up early this morning, nothing unusual, and out the door for more agricultural training. Today we visited “Poe’s Sheep Farm” in Franklin, Indiana. Hometown of my alma mater. The Poe’s run a large family sheep operation and we gained some valuable insight into some of the challenges that will be faced when working with Livestock in a third world country. Stanley Poe started the business many years ago. He described it as a 4H project on steroids. At 72 years old Mr. Poe has built quite a business. He discussed with us some of the issues he experienced working in places like Peru, South America. The insight this gentleman possessed on what we are about to experience was simply amazing. He echoed the comments of Jim Moseley by stating the key to our work would be surrounded by our ability to foster relationships and have patience with the Afghan people. It does appear that we are training the right way, but will need to constantly remind ourselves that we must be slow and steadfast in our approach. Check out the updated agency support link. We have been very fortunate to be supported by a tremendous amount of people from Indiana’s agriculture community!
September 3, 2010- Today was the most incredible day of training I have experienced to this point. We were fortunate to have a sit down meeting with Mr. Jim Moseley. Mr. Moseley is the former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and spent a great deal of time in Afghanistan. We sat at a large table and listened to Mr. Moseley share with us his experiences. This gentleman worked directly with the administration in Afghanistan, including President Kharzai. After he laid the foundation he opened up the floor as we flooded him with what seemed to be a thousand questions. He responded the best he could to the questions we asked. I think the thing we were searching