The Tender Soldier: A True Story of War and Sacrifice
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Since they’d met in Kansas: Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010, and Gusinov, interview by author, June 18, 2011. Cooper told me that he and several others, including Loyd, had been so offended by Gusinov’s crass comments during training that they had unsuccessfully petitioned program administrators to fire him.
Gusinov thought it was no place for a woman: Having reported in Maiwand, Kandahar, and other parts of the south since 2003, I disagree with Gusinov. Loyd’s Afghan experience had also been primarily in the south, in and around Kandahar after the invasion and later in Zabul before she went to work in Kabul. Don Ayala, who worked with her often, recalled only two occasions out of about twenty interviews they conducted together when he felt moved to step in and stand at her side: one involved an irate village elder; another time, he felt that “some of the males were uncomfortable speaking to her” and “she didn’t feel comfortable.” But “most of the time, she had people going, people willing to talk to her.” Ayala, interview by author, August 19, 2009. Nevertheless, many American troops and even some of Gusinov’s fellow Human Terrain teammates shared his view that “Paula was the wrong person in the wrong time and space. Kandahar and Maiwand District is not a place for a lady to go around and ask questions. I understand everything about diversity and equal opportunity,” Gusinov told me, “but there are some things that you never ever do in Afghanistan. She would be perfect somewhere up north with Tajiks, Uzbeks, in Bagram, in Mazar-i-Sharif. In those places she would be absolutely fine.” Gusinov, interview by author, June 18, 2011.
His attention was drawn to the edges: That Gusinov paid special attention to insurgent areas and advised the commander to do so as well, Ayala, interview by author, August 19, 2009, and Gusinov, interview by author, June 18, 2011. For the weapons, supplies, and other paraphernalia found in the Garmabak and Band-i-Timur, Captain Michael Soyka, interview by author, April 5, 2009, and Voelkel, interview by author, February 12, 2013.
When the Maiwand district governor quoted: Ayala, Cooper, Gusinov, and Warren, “HTT Patrol Report: Maiwand District Governor Meeting,” October 25, 2008.
Loyd, Ayala, and Cooper accompanied soldiers: Ayala, Loyd, and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Kashk E Nokhowd,” October 24, 2008, and Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report: USPI Compound,” October 26, 2008. USPI is a private security company that was working for the Americans at the time. This report also includes interviews from residential compounds.
Loyd, Ayala, and Cooper lived together: The description of their working lives in Maiwand in this section is drawn from Ayala, interviews by author, August 19, 2009, and April 17, 2010, and Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.
Understanding the connections: “Everyone in the villages [was] very standoffish. . . . It would have taken time. You had to build relationships. . . . then start asking personal questions: ‘How are you related to this person? Do you know anybody in this village over here? Do you have any family over there?’ Once you got to know them, you would have realized if they were telling the truth or not.” Ayala, interview by author, August 19, 2009.
They moved between Comanche and Darkhorse: Ayala, interviews by author, May 4 and August 19, 2009.
Sometimes Loyd asked Cooper: Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.
A woman gave Loyd her baby to hold: “HTT Patrol Report: Kashk E Nokhowd,” October 24, 2008, includes a photo of Loyd sitting with a group of Afghan women and children and holding a baby. Her popularity among children was legendary among soldiers of the 2–2 and her teammates.
Sometimes the kids were useful: For Ayala, the incident with the fake name “proved that the adults couldn’t be trusted and the kids were very truthful.” Ayala, interview by author, August 19, 2009.
Afghan police stationed along the highway: Ayala, Cooper, Gusinov, and Warren, “HTT Patrol Report: Maiwand District Governor Meeting,” October 25, 2008, and Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010. Several of the team’s reports from this period include accounts of Afghan police corruption. At least one person also complained of Taliban taxes on the roads. See Ayala, Loyd, and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Khaki Chopan,” October 27, 2008.
One day in October: Ayala and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: ‘Hotel’ Police Station,” October 26, 2008.
When Loyd’s interpreter overheard: Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report: USPI Compound,” October 29, 2008.
A widow told Loyd how much she hated ‘the motherfucking Taliban’: Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report: USPI Compound Interviews,” October 26, 2008.
She suggested mapping tribal affiliations: Information in this paragraph comes from Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report: USPI Compound Interviews,” October 26, 2008. Loyd wrote: “It would be useful to map tribal affiliations of individual compounds and villages in the AO. The unit would have a better understanding of relationships among the local populace and could utilize this information for COIN operations.”
That October, insurgents stopped a bus: Carlotta Gall and Taimoor Shah, “Taliban Behead 30 Men Pulled from Bus,” New York Times, October 19, 2008, and Hurlbut, interview by author, March 26, 2009.
An Afghan told the Human Terrain Team: Ayala, Loyd, and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Khaki Chopan,” October 27, 2008. According to Ayala, the checkpoint was never built.
Insurgents taxed villagers and common bandits waited: On Taliban taxes, see ibid. For the known holdup point where bandits waited, see Ayala, Cooper, Gusinov, and Warren, “HTT Patrol Report: Maiwand District Governor Meeting,” October 25, 2008.
The Human Terrain Team met: Ayala and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Gach Karez Kalay,” October 26, 2008.
A man begged the soldiers not to shoot at his sons: “Another person the HTT members spoke with . . . was worried about being bombed by American airplanes. These two incidences could reflect a general fear of the power/technology of international forces and the potential for civilian casualties. In order to effectively win over the population, the [battalion] needs to reinforce the image of US Forces targeting/attacking [antigovernment forces] but supporting the [Afghan government] and protecting the local populace.” Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report: USPI Compound Interviews,” October 26, 2008.
told them that he didn’t use his kerosene lamp: Ayala, Loyd, and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Khaki Chopan,” October 27, 2008. The team members were apparently unsure of what they had heard: “The interpretation of this statement left much to be desired.”
People needed fuel for generators: Ayala, Loyd, and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Khaki Chopan,” October 27, 2008; Ayala and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: Gach Karez Kalay,” October 26, 2008.
They encouraged soldiers to build trust with locals: Ayala and Cooper, “HTT Patrol Report: ‘Hotel’ Police Station,” October 26, 2008.
Villagers in Maiwand were poor and would accept help from anybody: Ibid.
When a man who had lost his foot: Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report: USPI Compound,” October 29, 2008.
That October, Loyd was working on a document: I obtained three different drafts of this document; it is unclear whether any of them were finished, or if the report were ever distributed to the battalion or sent to the Human Terrain System headquarters in Kansas. I view these drafts as a palimpsest of Loyd’s thinking as she puzzled out how best to express her findings to the soldiers.
Part of her job was to make the Americans: Loyd wrote: “[U]ntil villagers begin to trust the US Forces operating in their area and feel less threatened . . . they are not likely to volunteer much information. It is probably going to take multiple visits, conducted over an extended period of time to gain the trust and confidence of the people. . . . These first engagements should focus on building relationships and trust.” Loyd, “Mulik, Malik and Mesheran,” draft, October 2008.
Over Loyd’s protests, her teammates organized a meeting: Ayala, interview by author, May 4, 2009; Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010; and Gusinov, interview by author, June 18, 2011.
Ahmed Wali was President Hamid Karzai’s half b
rother: On his alleged drug and CIA connections, see Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen, “Brother of Afghan Leader Said to be Paid by CIA,” New York Times, October 27, 2009; Simon Tisdall, “Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Corrupt and Lawless Face of Modern Afghanistan,” Guardian, July 12, 2011; and “Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Cable: Ahmed Wali Karzai and Governor Weesa on Governance in Kandahar,” October 3, 2009, via WikiLeaks and published in New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/28/world/20101128-cables-viewer.html?scp=1&sq=memo%20ahmed%20wali%20karzai&st=cse#report/cables-09KABUL3068, accessed August 4, 2012. Wali Karzai denied the CIA payments and links to the drug trade until his death in 2011.
Ayala, Gusinov, and Mike Warren: Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010: “Mike Warren and [the other men on the team were] all excited about, ‘We’re meeting Wali Karzai.’ ” Ayala told me: “Wali Karzai, he’s a power broker, a strong power broker in the area, and stronger than the government there. And we had some doors open, and we had meetings take place. We met elders, we were invited into villages after that. It didn’t matter what other people thought or what allegedly he’s done. If he’s a big drug lord, he’s never been arrested for it, he’s never been convicted of it. So everything’s a lot of rumors going around. But the thing is, he treated us with respect, we gave him respect. We brought the military to him, he brought other elders from other villages to meet with the military, and it worked out great. So those are things that we made happen out there.” Ayala, interview by author, August 17, 2009.
‘basically . . . a criminal’: Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.
“She was a little bit idealistic about that”: “She wouldn’t go there because he was corrupt. It was against her principles to deal with corrupt officials,” Gusinov told me. Gusinov, interview by author, June 18, 2011.
Loyd and Cooper learned about a shopkeepers’ organization: Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.
At least three times, Loyd, Ayala, and Cooper: For their visits to and impressions of the bazaar, the things they bought, the kids throwing rocks, and Ayala’s arm-wrestling match with the Afghan, Ayala, interview by author, August 19, 2009, and Cooper, interviews by author, April 20 and 22, 2010.
Shoppers complained: “Patrol Report: Today We Went to the Bazaar,” draft, November 1, 2008, and Cooper, interview by author, April 22, 2010.
“He said there were no other elders”: Paula Loyd, “HTT Patrol Report,” draft, October 31, 2008.
“very cautious”: Citations in this paragraph are from Loyd, “Lesbian Resistance in the Bars of San Antonio, Texas,” 11, 14–15.
One Human Terrain draft report that fall recorded a conversation: “HTT Patrol Report,” draft, October 30, 2008.
Chapter 5: The Anthropology of Us and Them
T. E. Lawrence’s success: See “Lawrence of Arabia,” http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/lawrence.html, accessed June 8, 2012; and Stephen E. Tabachnick, The T. E. Lawrence Puzzle (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2012), 11, 27, 145, 174, 193–95, 208–15.
“The beginning and ending of the secret”: T. E. Lawrence, “27 Articles,” Arab Bulletin, August 20, 1917.
Her mother had been the half-Mexican granddaughter: Unless otherwise noted, quotations and biographical details about McFate in this chapter come from McFate, interviews by author, December 17, 2009, and June 30–July 1, 2010.
At some point, Westerberg . . . got arrested for dealing marijuana: A letter from an acquaintance of Barney West’s notes that he was transferred from San Quentin to the Mendocino State Hospital, where he learned to carve wood: “[A] great doctor in charge. He got Barney interested in wood-carving . . . and his carvings sold very well up there. Today Barney is a very well-known Tiki carver. His place is in Sausalito called: Tiki Junction.” “Holly Letters,” correspondence of Eleanor Borden, October 23, 1971, with thanks to Victoria Bogdan for sharing these letters.
West told people that he had served: This is McFate’s account. See also Lyle W. Price, “Barney West Famous for Tricky Tikis,” Associated Press, December 13, 1965: “West says he was taught by carving masters when he was shipwrecked in the merchant marine for six months in 1943 in the Marquesas Islands, about 800 miles north of Tahiti.”
Poynter and West moved to Sausalito: “He totally capitalized on this crazy story [of his shipwreck in Polynesia] and became, like, the world’s most famous tiki carver,” McFate told me. McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009. See also Price, “Barney West Famous for Tricky Tikis,” and “Tiki Junction, Sausalito,” http://mohurley.blogspot.com/2007/03/tiki-junction-sausalito.html, accessed June 12, 2012. According to Price, West also made tikis for resorts, shopping centers, and a church.
He had found a way to turn mid-twentieth-century America’s: McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009, and Nina Burleigh, “McFate’s Mission,” More, September, 2007.
The barges had been used to tow ammunition: Phil Frank, Houseboats of Sausalito (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2008), 73–76, and Joe Tate, interview by Sara Breselor, July 20, 2012.
Poynter docked her barge in Richardson Bay: For more on the barge purchase and McFate’s early years at Gate 5, Matthew B. Stannard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission: Can One Anthropologist Possibly Steer the Course in Iraq?” San Francisco Chronicle, April 29, 2007, and Tate, interview by Sara Breselor, July 20, 2012.
Poynter met McFate’s father, Martin Carlough: Details about Martin Carlough in this section are from McFate, interviews by author, December 17, 2009, and July 1, 2010; Tate, interview by Sara Breselor, July 20, 2012; and Stannard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission.”
Although McFate’s parents were married briefly: Stannard quotes McFate on her mother: “Her advice to me when I was a kid was never write anything down, don’t leave any records, never trust the government, don’t join any organizations. She was a real anarchist.” Poynter ultimately relented and let McFate join the Girl Scouts.
Poynter was one of the few houseboat dwellers: Tate notes that Poynter had a “special deal” with Arques, and that she was more concerned with the respectability of Gate 5 than most residents. See also Frank, Houseboats of Sausalito, 74–75.
Poynter, by most conventional definitions a radical: By McFate’s account, Poynter told her neighbors: ‘Fuck all of you people. I’ve been here since 1957. I’d had this boat condemned how many times? I’m all in favor of putting sewage lines in and legal electricity because I want to live in peace and not be subjected to this pressure and insecurity.’ McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009.
The developers declared: McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009, and “Gate 5 Survivors,” www.gate5survivors.com, accessed July 24, 2012, which includes original news footage of the conflict with the sheriff and the sinking of the Red Barge.
A man known as Teepee Tom: McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009, and Tate, interview by Sara Breselor, July 20, 2012.
Meanwhile, a private drama played out on the barge: For McFate’s experience during the houseboat wars and her chaotic homelife, including studying at the bus stop, McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009; Burleigh, “McFate’s Mission”; and Stannard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission.”
She befriended a classmate who lived in Marin City: McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009, and “Welcome to Marin City, California,” www.marincitygov.org/2.1_history.html, accessed July 24, 2012.
The housing projects of Marin City: McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009. Stannard writes: “the white curtains in the bedroom of a Marin City friend seemed to McFate an unimaginable luxury.” Stannard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission.”
The writer Cintra Wilson: Unless otherwise noted, quotes from Cintra Wilson in this chapter are from Wilson, interview by author, August 9, 2010.
In her novel: Cintra Wilson, Colors Insulting to Nature (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 96.
McFate dressed almost entirely in black: Wilson, interview by author, August
9, 2010. See also Stannard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission”: ‘[W]e called her ‘Satan’s beekeeper,’ Wilson told Stannard. ‘She was goth before anybody was goth.’
But she was good at school: Wilson, interview by author, August 9, 2010, and McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009. “The only thing that provided order was school, and I was really good at school,” McFate told me. “It was a logical system, it was a rational system, like, if you do your homework and you show up to class and you interact and you participate, and you spend a little time working, you’re going to get a good grade.”
McFate started working when she was fifteen: Details about McFate’s teenaged years, including the deaths of her friends, are from McFate, interview by author, December 17, 2009. See also Stannard, “Montgomery McFate’s Mission,” and Burleigh, “McFate’s Mission.” By McFate’s account, Elizabeth’s death inspired the Jim Carroll song-poem “For Elizabeth”; she felt that his punk anthem “People Who Died” summed up her teenaged experience of loss. See “ ‘For Elizabeth’ by Jim Carroll,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpcIYh7sL5Q, accessed July 25, 2012.
She was the first in a series of friends: In all, three of McFate’s boyfriends killed themselves, including one who overdosed on heroin. McFate’s friend Sarah Spiegelman was shot on March 17, 1983, in Golden Gate Park by a psychotic man who was infuriated by the sight of Spiegelman, a white woman, out walking with a black man. The case got even stranger when Spiegelman’s father shot her murderer in a courtroom in 1986. See Dan Morain, “Court Shooting—Crime Victims Worried: Father’s Act Was Understandable but Let the Law Prevail, Some Say,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1986.