In Afghanistan, part soldier, part insurance adjuster
Published: December 15, 2010
STRONG POINT DOG, Afghanistan — Like a good neighbor, the Army is there.
In the age of counterinsurgency, soldiers try to do as little damage as possible to the neighborhoods they’re storming through looking for Taliban, and when wreckage does happen they apologize and pay for the damages.
For the locals, it’s as if they have home insurance through the U.S. government. Soldiers trample your fields? Knock down your pomegranate trees? Blow a hole in your house? File a claim. The Army will take care of you.
“It’s almost like working for Geico or something,” Capt. Timothy Price joked.
The commander of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, said the men show up at the concertina wire outside the strong point crying foul, and the soldiers have to sort out whether he owns the land, whether they actually did the damage and how much it’s worth. Locals in his company’s area of operation have filed 74 claims since clearing operations have slowed in the Zhari district of Kandahar.
The company’s translator and an Afghan soldier take a camera and go check out the claim. They snap a photo of the guy standing on what he says he owns and the military destroyed. If the military determines the claim is legit, the property owner gets a nice wad of cash for his troubles.
