U.S. Army’s Fourth Highest Civilian Award to NRCS RC&D Coordinator

Jeff Sanders, NRCS RC&D coordinator for the Hull-York Lakeland, Tennessee RC&D Council recently received the Commander's Award for Civilian Service – the U.S. Army’s fourth highest civilian award

Jeff Sanders, NRCS Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) coordinator for the Hull-York Lakeland, Tennessee RC&D Council recently received the Commander's Award for Civilian Service – the U.S. Army’s fourth highest civilian award – for his work as an ag advisor during a six-month detail to Afghanistan last year.  Colonel Kevin Owens, Commander of U.S. Army 173d Airborne Brigade recognized Jeff for the technical assistance he provided to the Army’s provisional reconstruction team (PRT) working in three provinces in southern Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan had just suffered through a ten-year drought. The place looked a lot like those pictures of Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl days,” Jeff said. “Occupation by the former Soviet Union, followed by drought which, combined with the Mujahidin regime, left little or no agricultural infrastructure resulting in lack of basic services like meat inspection and grading.”

Jeff worked on a number of projects during his detail made more difficult by frequent rocket, mortar, and small arms attacks and 102-degree temperatures. He helped with the transition from diesel to wind-powered water pumps, improving yields by working with local contractors to bring in better quality wheat seed with a 95 percent germination rate, and improving nutrition by helping introduce soybeans into the Afghan diet and building a soybean mill.
Your contact is Jeff Sanders, NRCS RC&D coordinator, at 931-528-6472, ext. 110.