"Mother, how will you keep them down on the farm now that they've seen Paree?"
By Gary Skidmore 1st BrigadeWhat do you do with 55 Afghanistan army and policemen after they've completed their training exercise with the U.S. Army at Fort Riley? That's easy, you take them to Kansas City's Bass Pro Shop, Wal-Mart and the local Chipotle Mexican Grill. "We gave them a taste of American culture," said Maj. Dan Palmer, plans officer for the Directorate for Cultural Influence and Counter Insurgency.
[Heh. When I was at Fort Riley, we din't have no fancy-pantsed sounding directorates! I see they finally told Custer "No". Inside joke - if you were stationed at Riley long enough, you know the joke... -the Armorer]
By taking them to the Bass Pro Shop, they were experiencing a unique American store that you can only see in America, Palmer said "And you can't come to America and not at least visit a Wal-Mart." Palmer said he thought the group was impressed with their tour. "I think they were overwhelmed," Palmer said. "They saw Americana at its finest."
One Afghan National Army soldier said his experience with the trip was very rewarding and he loved what he saw. "We bought items to take home as gifts," said Aziz Ahmad Azizi, an E-6
in the Afghanistan National Army. "The quality of items we're buying is much better than we can buy in our country." Azizi, like everybody on the tour, received a free hat as he entered the
Bass Pro Shop. As they came through the door, they immediately stopped and gazed at the enormous facility."It is very large," said Shah Hosain Mandori. "I've never seen so many stuffed animals, so many boats and so many different things for camping anywhere before." Mandori bought a collapsible chair with red, white and blue material. "I will display this with pride when I go home," he said. "This is a great gift for me to remember my trip to America."
Gifts weren't the only thing the soldiers took back to Afghanistan. Flashes from their cameras were going off at every opportunity. One check out lady at the Bass Pro Shop had her picture taken individually with six soldiers and a mother and daughter strolling the store gladly posed with several Afghan National Police. "It's fun," said Angie Pruitt of Olathe, Kan. "You can tell they're having a great time here and we want their experience in America to be a good one."
When the visitors got to the Bonner Springs, Kan. Wal-Mart, they were full after having eaten at the Legends Mall Chipotle. At Wal-Mart, it was a shopping free-for-all. One shopper, Capt. Ahmadudin Ahmadi, with the Afghanistan National Police bought six bottles of shampoo in various fragrances. "At home we can't get this," Ahmadi said. "My wife will like this very
much." However, the trip to the United States was more than just a shopping trip, said Col. Ghulam Wahid Neekzai, from the Afghanistan National Army."We trained with the American military. We learned advanced military tactics that we will use when we go back to Afghanistan to fight the enemy," Neekzai said. "This is a good nation-building program. We come here to train and American Soldiers come to our country to help us fight for our country. We all benefit from this."
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