March/April 2011 Contractor awards Corps of Engineers recognizes top construction firms. Lisner’s mission N.D. Air Force man serves Army leadership role in Afghanistan. Commander's blog Magness touts role of civilian engineers to bloggers. Intern graduation U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trains and mentors Afghan soldiers. Playing cards Corps of Engineers, Embassy team up to explain the deal with Afghan artifacts. Kabul University books Corps of Engineers provides war-torn university with engineering books. C h Tajikistan in Uz a bekis tan District Commander Col. Thomas Magness AED-North District Command Sergeant Major hshan dak Chief Master Sgt. Forest Lisner Ba Chief of Public Affairs ar J. D. Hardesty uz kh Kund Ta K Layout & Design ash Joseph A. Marek m jan Balkh wz ir Staff Writer Ja Paul Giblin lan Staff Writer gh LaDonna Davis n Ba n ta angan r ta is am e ris n S jsh u e Pan N ar m ul un The Freedom Builder is the field magazine of the Far P K k yab ri n Kapisa n Afghanistan Engineer District, U.S. Army Corps of r a wa L a S ar aghm Engineers; and is an unofficial publication authorized u Bamyan P Kabul by AR 360-1. It is produced monthly for electronic ul ories - r distribution by the Public Affairs Office, U.S. Army T ab St rha K ga Corps of Engineers, Afghanistan Engineer District. It is an produced in the Afghanistan theater of operations. N Views and opinions expressed in The Freedom ardak r Builder are not necessarily those of the Department of n W a dghis g the Army or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ba a o Articles or photographic submissions are welcome t L a s y alerno and should arrive in PAO by the 15th of each month t 2 - S or i k Page 2 preceding publication. They can be mailed to the below h Pa st address or they can be e-mailed. If electronically G n Kho submitted, all stories should be in Word document a kun ni format and all photographs should be high resolution Day di az and include photo caption information. at h h er G All photographs appearing herein are by the H g Afghanistan Engineer District Public Affairs Office f Volume 9, Issue 4 March/April 2011 www.aed.usace.army.mil unless otherwise accredited. The mission of The Freedom Builder is to support Paktika the Commander’s Internal Communication Program A for the Afghanistan Engineer District. It also serves n FEATURES from the NORTH Uruzga as the Commander’s primary communication tool for ul accurately transmitting policies, operations, technical Zab developments, and command philosophy to the 4- Kabul University books Afghanistan Engineer District. The Corps of Engineers provides war-torn Kabul Submissions can be e-mailed to: University with engineering books. [email protected] har 7- Playing cards Submissions can be mailed to: da Farah an The Corps of Engineers and the Embassy team up to Public Affairs Office K USACE-AED explain the deal with Afghan artifacts. ATTN: Qalaa House APO AE 09356 10- Lisner’s mission COM: 540-678-2984, DSN: 312-265-2984 North Dakota Air Force man serves in an Army imroz leadership role in Afghanistan. The Freedom Builder Magazine is available online at N elman www.aed.usace.army.mil H 13- Contractor awards Cover Image: n Corps of Engineers recognizes top construction firms. a 18- U.S. Army Corps of Ir All that’s fit to blog Col. Thomas H Magness touts role of civilian Engineer employees engineers to bloggers. help load more than 400 boxes of engineering 20- dia books bought by the Intern graduation In USACE District- North. kistan Corps of Engineers trains and mentors Afghan soldiers. Lots and lots of books! Pa 22- Parting shot (Full story on pg. 4) Photo by | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers things to provide a good education, like books and an adequate laboratory. What we found was horrifying,” he said. He blamed the downfall of Afghanistan’s engineering education on what he calls “brain drain.” “The country has gone through a sad transformation in the last 30 years where education just wasn’t a priority. It has been suffering from brain drain for so long,” he said. Assistant professor Farid Momand agreed. Like Kanishka, he had seen the educational opportunities in both Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Engineer District-North’s Capacity United States. Development chief, Maj. Erica Iverson unloads Momand received his undergraduate boxes of new engineering books with the help of Afghan students at Kabul University. degree in civil engineering from Kabul University in 2004, and then earned a had one goal in mind – restore the master’s degree from Ohio University. department’s educational foundation, one In 2010, Momand came back to Kabul to book at a time. “Books are the very first teach at his alma mater. Coming home instruments of teaching and learning,” he only highlighted the harsh realities and said. differences in the quality of education As part of the Corps of Engineers’ capacity students receive in the United States and building program, U.S. personnel help Kabul University. develop Afghan workers’ knowledge and Book ’em skills in engineering and construction. The “In the States, the universities are The Corps of Engineers provides war-torn Kabul University with engineering books very well equipped and high tech,” he intent to ensure that Afghan professionals Story by | LaDonna Davis Photos by | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. “Students have access to unlimited can continue to develop their own country Zalmai Zaheb, the dean of the engineering department at Kabul University displays one of more than 75 resources, labs and books for their programs; long after Corps of Engineers personnel engineering book titles that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan District North purchased for the in Afghanistan resources are very limited. have left. engineering college that has suffered because of lack of funds, years of war and Taliban rule. We don’t have good laboratories or access to “If you are going to learn, you have to ABUL – U.S. Army Corps of “Practically anyone under the age of 45 can quality materials.” have the adequate resources, and textbooks KEngineers employee Mustafa be called a child of war,” said Kanishka, a The downfall of Kabul University’s are the first step,” said Zalmai Zaheb, the Kanishka attended Kabul University at a naturalized U.S. citizen. “And the education engineering college can be traced to the 1970s dean of the engineering department at the time when peace reigned in Afghanistan, opportunities in this country have suffered when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The university. when the university’s school of engineering because of it.” Soviet government changed the language In order to provide books, the Corps of was ranked one of the highest in the region, Kanishka works as a project manager for of the college from English, the widely Engineers had to develop a list of adequate and when going to school the Corps of Engineers. He’s accepted language of engineering, to Dari books, manuals and teacher guides that the to get a higher education assigned to the capacity and Pashtu, the official languages of the school faculty members could agree upon. was an expectation, not a development department Afghan people. The second step was securing funding. privilege. Books are the very first within Afghanistan The college’s problems continued through Because the engineering department had That was in the early instruments of teaching Engineer District-North, the 1980s when the school was closed and been using outdated materials for so long, 1970s. which is based in Kabul. all the professors were dispersed to other when it came time for the faculty members Currently, university and learning. He occasionally speaks as colleges within Kabul University. to prepare a list of books, all they could officials struggle to a guest lecturer at Kabul In the 1990s, the engineering college opened come up with was dated material. maintain the campus’ war- University, and during one its doors again with limited resources, but “Our students were using photo copies of torn buildings and instructors teach outdated of his lectures, he realized that something was overtaken by Taliban insurgents who dated books, because there weren’t enough material from outdated books. What was needed to be done to help the faculty and banned women from studying, looted the books to go around,” said Zaheb. once a renowned school for engineering, students of the school. college, and destroyed and burned all of the Corps of Engineers personnel requested fails to provide the fundamentals of a good Kanishka enlisted the Corps of Engineers school’s books. lists of current engineering books from education – something Kanishka wanted to to do an evaluation of the school’s conditions Upon seeing the degradation of Kabul U.S. universities. Once the faculty at Kabul change. and curriculum. “They didn’t have basic University’s engineering college, Kanishka University agreed upon the list, it was time 4 5 to determine a vendor to supply the books. was not sure this would happen, but now I Initially, Corps of Engineers personal see. Right now, these books are like water couldn’t find a supplier who could provide for a man in the desert. It is not enough to books at an acceptable cost or arrange for say thank you very much. It is very difficult shipping. The team finally found BookPal, to share my feelings.” A big deal a vendor that could do the job.