Not Sure Who’s Who?

We always had at least two vehicles when we patrolled and that was it. We were in the Iltis back then, the G wagons was the next vehicle and they were just coming into the operation at that time. But we always travelled in two just in case something happened to the first vehicle there was always a secure vehicle there to react or help out if need be. Sometimes there would
be bigger patrols but two was the smallest that we ever did. Sometimes we did it by foot, we weren’t even on vehicles we’d just walk from the gate and go for a 13, 14 km patrol within the city and then come back to the gate.

Interviewer: And the presence of you there on patrol, were the Afghan people always respectful of the purpose of you being there?

There were some. There were some that would look at us with a little bit of, I don’t know untrust, especially those older males that have been through some of the wars. They didn’t know exactly why we were there. They didn’t understand or they didn’t trust us so. The kids always, they were always coming up and giving high fives and what have you. But some of the older males they would look at you a little different but some of them would be very friendly and very open to, and you never know who’s who. That’s kind of the challenge in a theatre of war like Afghanistan is that you can’t identify the enemy easy so you don’t know who is who right, when you are driving down the road.