One AE's Adventures in Afghanistan
By Paul Scanlon '74
 Our team at the Turkish Monument, Kabul International Airport (I’m the one with wings sprouting from my ears). |
Okay, you're 52 years old, and someone gives you the "opportunity" to volunteer for a project that would take you into a combat zone in a foreign country thousands of miles away. What do you do? Sign up for the adventure of a lifetime, of course! That's exactly what happened to me earlier this year. My company, Baker and Associates (a unit of Michael Baker Corporation), holds open-end contracts with many federal agencies, including the Transatlantic Corps of Engineers (TAC). TAC needed us to develop a design-build RFP for a large hospital complex in Afghanistan, which would require a six-member team to visit the site, assess the condition of the buildings, and write a D/B RFP to renovate the facilities.all in ten days onsite. Preparation for the trip included getting nine inoculations, taking a crash course in Afghani culture (always accept an offer of tea) and terrorism (identifying land mines, minefield markers, etc. - there are approximately 10 million land mines in Afghanistan). Our contract called for us to "fly military" - just like all our troops, we had to wait for a open "seat" on a cargo plane.it took seven days to get there, by way of Frankfurt, Germany, to Incirlik, Turkey, then to the high mountains of Kyrgyzstan, and finally into Kabul. Flying over the incredible Hindu Kush mountains and looking down to view Marco Polo's silk trade route to China was an amazing experience in itself. The biggest pain was carrying our bags - we each had two duffel bags (loaded with resource materials, flak jacket, helmet, sleeping bag, and clothes, etc.), plus our "electronic mobile office" (EMO), that had to be carted around everywhere we went (no service porters in the military!). Once there, the EMO served us well - six laptops networked together, with a color printer and proxima projector - that allowed us to work together effectively, give on-the-spot briefings of our progress, and actually produce our RFP specs and drawings before leaving. While power and Internet access is "shaky" at best in Afghanistan, we lucked out and were able to stay in touch with our families and office most of the time. One major benefit of an "international operation" was the 24-hour day: I could send an information request to the office at midnight, and the information would be waiting for me when I awoke the next morning! The hospital complex we were planning to renovate was a mixture of 1970s era Russian architecture and older, mud-brick support facilities. Although the main buildings were AIA award-winning material with beautifully crafted marble work, the insides were totally in need of new infrastructure. Imagine an occupied hospital that had little or no running water, and no working sewage system, for years! Apparently they had no money for heating fuel (causing pipe freezes and breaks), and their maintenance engineers had fled the Taliban years ago. Although we had been told there were no drawings of the facilities, our crash course in cultural training paid off - after spending the day with the colonel in charge of the huge central steam plant, we accepted his offer of tea and, while making small talk through our interpreter, I mentioned the fact that we would be providing new drawings of all their buildings as part of our effort. When they understood the word for drawings, one of the Colonel's assistants went over to a long curtained wall, drew back the curtain, and revealed every set of drawings and spec books they had - which they had "taken underground" during several wars! Apparently no one else had ever taken the time with the maintenance staff to discover this little treasure trove. With that material, we were able to create 3D architectural drawings of all the major buildings, plus gain a quick understanding of their M/E systems (even though the drawings were in Russian, using International units). All in all, it was a great experience - I got a very small taste of the huge sacrifices our military (and their families) make throughout their careers and thoroughly enjoyed everyone we worked with - from the US military and Corps of Engineers to the Afghani people we met, who were very hospitable (even though they have very little) and extremely resourceful. The hospital complex renovations are now underway, and should help provide much better quality health care when completed. Oh yeah - for you super seniors sweating out the senior thesis - the work ethic and time management skills you're learning will pay off.eventually!
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| Administrative Building | Main Patient Care building | Fruit vendor, outskirts of Kabul | Pumphouse |