Security: The Kurds were on restricted access bases. The housing areas in which they lived were also secured so no one could enter or leave without a gate guard or a military police officer stopping them. The bases to which the Afghans are going are also restricted access. Once inside the base, though I’m not sure where they will stay and how they will be secured. I read in one article that they were moving into temporary quarters usually used by officers attending a school on base. These are similar to apartment buildings and are generally not fenced in. I’m interested to hear how the bases will keep unauthorized persons from entering the Afghan areas and how they will keep Afghans from wandering around the base or even leaving the base. Losing track of one of these evacuees is unacceptable. This is a good segue to the next item.

Accountability: I recall the growing pains in establishing accountability of the Kurds. Their names are not structured like ours. The task force had to figure out how to record their names and be able to recall them from a database. I assume the same challenges will come up now. The naming structure can get complex with compounded names, tribal affiliations, dialects, lack of standard spelling when transcribing to English, the inclusion of Arabic components, and even when the person was born. Some of the Kurdish evacuees were suspicious of the process or had something to hide, so at times they gave false names. These are all things that the task force overseeing the Afghan evacuation will have to figure out. They will also have to establish a daily accountability check. How will they do this without giving the impression of a prison environment?

Background checks: It’s pretty easy to run a background check on someone in the US. We found the process not as simple in the Kurdish evacuation. A quick check was done at the border in Iraq and Turkey but they had to be more thoroughly screened when they arrived at the ISB in Guam. Federal investigators handed all of this phase. I don’t know exactly how they did it and even if I did, I would not disclose it here. I will say that one of the factors that came into play with the Kurds was one evacuee “ratting out” another to settle an old family score or make life difficult for someone they didn’t like. It was common to hear about one Kurd telling an investigator a fabricated story about another evacuee. No doubt in my mind that the same process will be a challenge in the Afghan mission. Obviously, there is not much security vetting going on in Kabul based on the video footage I’ve seen. Somewhere along the way, there has to be a pause to ensure we are not bringing in any problems. Another good segue.

Red flags on evacuees: What happens when an investigator finds out that an Afghan evacuee got on a flight over here that never should have been permitted to leave Afghanistan in the first place? This happened at times on Pacific Haven. The range of issues that came up included evacuees with tuberculosis or other communicable diseases; criminal history; drug addiction; questionable actions during the war; and other foreign nationals that snuck into the evacuee movement. The federal agencies in the task force had to develop solutions for these incidences as they came up because not many of these were anticipated at the start. I assume similar issues will come up in the Afghan evacuee groups.

Cultural issues: We built a mosque in the two camps for the Kurds so they could worship during their time in Guam, which in some cases lasted several months. We also had signs pointing to the direction of Mecca. The Kurds were not accustomed to western-style homes so someone had to show them how the appliances worked, how NOT to use the toilets, that shower curtains were not to be taken down and spread on the floor for an eating surface, etc. As mentioned, we set up programs to help them assimilate. The personnel running the Afghan holding areas will have similar concerns.

Keeping them occupied with dignity: Since the Kurds spent at a minimum of 30 days in the ISBs and oftentimes several months we had to find ways for them to occupy their time. It was also important for them to feel dignity in their daily lives. Some of the Kurds had excellent language skills and were able to assist in teaching the English programs. Others with specialized skills were able to assist in some of the administrative or medical processing. I believe the best thing we did for them was to enable them to essentially run the camps on a day-to-day basis with our oversight. They determined how to best distribute food and supplies. They assisted in determining where families and single evacuees lived within the camp. They assisted in resolving internal minor problems. They even organized some sporting events such as soccer games. They provided critical advice to us as to what they wanted to do while waiting in the relocation process. Some requests, like touring local communities or stores in Guam, could not happen due to accountability and security challenges. We found ways around this though. In one particular case, I worked with our combat camera team to make a 15 min tutorial video complete with language dubbing on how to shop in an American grocery store and department store. We ran it on a continuous loop in their recreation center. This will be an important issue for the military and civilian personnel to work out with the Afghans.