NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - It is 21:00 and U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Richard Messer and his four-soldier crew are heading out to perform a necessary if unglamorous mission.
"All the little things count," said Messer, construction engineering supervisor, 859th Engineer Company (Vertical), Mississippi Army National Guard. "It's like a janitor not showing up for work one day. Every little thing helps."
The soldiers are filling the potholes on Forward Operating Base Fenty.
"If potholes weren't filled ... trucks couldn't roll through," said Messer. "As minor as [filling potholes] might sound, somebody's got to do it."
On FOB Fenty filling the potholes is not a minor job.
"Every bit of traffic that comes into this facility, has to come down that road," said 1st Lt. David Senn, commander, 859th Engineer Company (Vertical), Mississippi Army National Guard.
The road was in such poor condition that it was damaging many vehicles.
"You were seeing trucks torn up every day," said Senn, a native of Jackson, Miss.
Some of the problems trucks have been facing range from blown tires to broken axles. The trucks in question are not only military combat vehicles. As the Afghan National Security Forces have assumed a larger responsibility for their country, coalition forces have either turned over bases to their Afghan allies or dismantled them. Either way, the equipment on those facilities is placed in large shipping containers and sent to FOB Fenty for inspection. Many of these trucks are civilian vehicles.
The vehicles are also damaging the road.
"As we [entered] the hot part of the season, you had a combination of increased traffic ... very, very, very heavy trucks, moving containers out, moving containers in," said Senn. "It was causing the road to fall apart."
All those vehicles have to travel on this main road: a road the 859th is charged with maintaining.
"That's the key," said Senn. "Don't let the roads get worse, prevent the deterioration."
To prevent the deterioration, Messer and his men have been working at night to fill in the holes.
"Concrete does not need to be out in 115-120 degree temperatures. It will just not set up properly," said Senn. "Plus that helps my guys ... you have a lot [less] traffic."
A simple plan was developed; tackle the biggest holes in the road first. While this plan seems obvious, there are a few variables to consider, starting with a limited amount of cement to make concrete. This meant that the largest holes were treated differently.
"We wanted to get the biggest bang for the buck so to speak," said Senn. "We take the concrete mixer, mix up the sand and different types of rock ... put water in it and then pour it in the hole: just like concrete and then press it down. Trucks run over it ... it sits in the 115-120 degree ambient temperature ... gets hard as a rock."
The soldiers are still filling in the small holes with cement that they mixed themselves. In order to do the job properly, the soldiers were using a pneumatic jackhammer to properly chip away enough of the debris so that the cement would fill the hole and allow the patch to bond properly. Unfortunately, the air compressor that ran the jackhammer failed and until the machine is able to get fixed, the Soldiers are using shovels.
The potholes themselves are also fighting back.
Part of the pothole repair process requires water to mix the sand, dirt, rocks and concrete together. The engineers were using a large water tank to carry the necessary liquid.
"It actually fell off the back of the [armored flatbed truck]," said Messer, a native of Flowood, Miss., "hit a pothole actually that we hadn't fixed yet ... fell off the back and broke the valve."
A new valve has been ordered, but until then the soldiers have to use bottled water.
"In the meantime we have to improvise and make it work, do what we need to do to get the job done," said Messer. "Potholes still got to get fixed."
Another issue that has opened up is manning. When Messer and his soldiers started this project, there were 20 troops dedicated to fixing the road. Other missions and projects have arisen and now the team averages five soldiers a night.
Help for the engineers did arrive, from a most unlikely source.
"First time they came out ... they just grabbed a shovel from one of my guys and started digging. Nothing was ever said," said Messer. "They just wanted to dig. They just wanted to help."
They are the Afghan National Security Force personnel whose compounds sit on the road the engineers are trying to repair.
"They are hard workers, always wanting to work," said Messer. "They are super nice guys."
One of the things that helps the engineers is the fact that they carry a camera with them so that they can take pictures in order to document their progress. Ask any service member who has worked around the Afghans, they all love to have their pictures taken.
Sometimes the language barrier, combined with the Afghan's love of having their picture being taken can make the job ... challenging.
"You can tell somebody to dig ... but if he doesn't know what the end result is ... how much he's digging, that's what happened the first time." said Messer. "I said just hold the jackhammer. The guy [ANA] held the jackhammer, pushed the handle and just started jack hammering down. My 4-inch deep hole turned into a 12-inch deep hole, cause he did not know what the end result will be."
Part of the engineer's mission is to train the ANSF how to maintain the roads. One advantage of all the challenges the engineers have been having is that, the Afghans now know the "low tech" way to fix a pothole.
Recently the engineers had to repair a large pothole in front of the compound for the Afghan National Army's Commando unit. Shortly after the armored flatbed truck carrying the dirt and rocks stopped in front of the compound, the main gate opened and approximately half a dozen commandos came out, grabbed some shovels and joined the engineers in shoveling the dirt off the truck and into the hole.
"Every Afghan must work to fix the country, to fix the problems in the country [and] to help the people," said Ibrahim, commando, 1st Commando Kandak, Afghan National Army. "Fixing the road is part of [his] service to Afghanistan, it's part of [his] mission."
For more than two hours the American and Afghan soldiers worked to fill the hole. With only a few shovels on hand, the men worked in shifts, stopping only long enough to drink some water. They mainly worked in silence. Neither group knew more than a few words of the others language.
Eventually all that was left to do was to pack the dirt down. This was accomplished by driving the armored flatbed truck over the hole several times. The engineers do have a heavy roller that they can use, unfortunately it moves so slowly that Messer estimates that it would take approximately three hours just to drive it from their office, down the road to the area that they are working on and back. With only five men on average per night, they cannot afford tying up one soldier operating the machine. Besides, Messer explained the armored flatbed truck weighs just as much and moves much faster.
As the Afghan commandoes headed back into their compound, it was still Ramadan. The American's climbed back into their vehicles to fill the armored flatbed truck with more dirt before heading to their next pothole.
"This is one of the many missions that's been assigned to me," said Messer, "If it's gotta get done, it's gotta get done."
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