A soldier from the Military Unit in Bolesławiec told us about his six-month mission in Afghanistan. Deploying on a mission is a decision made independently. A mission in a country at war is a test of the soldier himself—as a professional, a friend and a human being. Sometimes a cold and inhospitable country remains with a man forever. It becomes a place he speaks of with respect: the country of the enemy, military operations, barefoot children running through the snow, and markets where the local people sell ornaments they have made themselves.
Deployment on a mission is preceded by training designed to teach soldiers how to operate the equipment used in the destination country and to integrate the deploying group. Technical skills and learning about the weapons one will operate are the easiest stage. Human character is something that must be deciphered. What a partner is like and what he is capable of determines whether, under stress, he will reload his weapon and take the right position or remain hidden, paralyzed by stress. During training, it is important to observe how a colleague approaches the simplest tasks. Does he think himself too important to dig a hole or pull cables? His pride may endanger the lives of others.
According to the soldiers’ assessment, the training ground prepares them for deployment by about 60 percent. What cannot be prepared for are the weather conditions, the unfamiliarity of the country and what emerges in people during the mission—character traits that could not be discovered at the training ground in Trzebień. One of them is greed for money: counting the paid tasks a colleague has completed and complaining that one earns less.
After several months of training, the group is transported to a base in Afghanistan. It can take as long as several days, with transfers and overnight stays at transit bases. The best approach, our interviewee believes, is to think that one is as well prepared as possible and that whatever happens on site will be assessed as it unfolds.
Upon arrival at the Afghan destination base, the perfect American organization of life there is striking: transport and canteen service, as well as the culture and respect the soldiers show one another. When returning to the base after a patrol, everything is provided—rest, supplies and internet contact with loved ones.
One of the Bolesławiec soldier’s first tasks was guard duty on a tower: four hours of observation and monitoring who was approaching the camp. During the day it was bearable, with good visibility. But the nights were bad—so dark that even with night-vision equipment, little could be seen. The group from Bolesławiec divided itself. The soldiers identified their personal sympathies, but worked together so well that, while carrying out a task, they acted as one. Nowhere, as in Afghanistan, had they been so aware that alone they meant nothing.
Explaining what it means to feel constantly threatened to someone who has never experienced it is the hardest thing. A war without a regular battle is difficult to describe. An enemy without a uniform defies simple assessment. It may be an Afghan farmer watched while working at the base: kind and friendly, seeking contact and greeting people in English with a brief “Hello, how are you?” An enemy who may plant an explosive device or sell information about the base. An enemy who suddenly becomes a victim. Like the two Afghan tractor drivers who, like other locals, came to earn a living for their families at the base. They worked for one day. The next day, their heads were thrown beneath the camp gates—to show that the enemy army must not be helped. The civilian population is connected to the Taliban or terrorism, or by family or tribal ties. So how should one think about poor families who, in the harshest winter, burn fuel in a stone cottage for a while in the morning and evening? Enemy or civilian population? What about their children, dressed in rags and barefoot, herding goats that, like locusts, devour the meager grass around the base? What about the small craftspeople who sell ornaments and other handmade goods at the market to earn money for a daily meal? What about people who, despite the development of civilization, have remained at such a deep level of backwardness and poverty that the poorest person in Poland would be well-off in an Afghan village? The soldier thinks about the locals surrounding the base. A rifle, bulletproof vest and knife are always kept ready beside the bed—everything necessary during an attack, when one must defend oneself or evacuate.
When one returns to Bolesławiec after a mission in Afghanistan, one feels grateful—for prosperity, a meal, family, meetings with friends, a walk in the forest and greenery. A mission can give a soldier the certainty that he proved himself in his profession and rose to the challenge. It can also call him back to the place where two-meter walls are built to protect against snow and sandstorms, and barbed-wire fences protect the base. Where there are no roads, and those that vehicles do drive on disappear after a few months. Where the climate and the land are hostile to both soldiers and Afghans. Just like the war.