A Hot Springs financial adviser who spent a year in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army Reserves says one of the most humbling experiences in his life happened among children.
Chris Franklin, who served the United States in Afghanistan from May 2005 to May 2006, spoke about his experiences serving overseas last week to Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
He recalled one night raid where they were searching for a person involved with the Taliban, and the soldiers came upon a stack of tennis shoes. Puzzled as to why 20 or so village children were barefoot in June 2005 instead of wearing the new shoes, Franklin had an interpreter question one of the villagers.
"The man said if we let them wear them now, they won't have them for the winter," Franklin said.
Franklin started his career in the Army Reserves in 1992 as a second lieutenant and has held positions as company executive officer, company commander, battalion S4 logistics officer, battalion operations officer, and battalion executive officer, and was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.
For his service in Afghanistan, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Combat Action Badge. For one year, he was mobilized in Sharana, a city roughly two hours away from the Pakistan border, as a captain working with the Afghanistan Army Infantry Unit. Four American soldiers, including Franklin, were stationed with around 120 Afghan soldiers.
Franklin documented his time in Afghanistan with a point-and-shoot camera he carried in his hand grenade pouch on his vest. He displayed the images and recounted his time overseas during last week's meeting.
"Burkas are still very popular, especially in outlying areas. Women are covered from head to toe and if they show their wrists or ankles around the Taliban they would be stoned to death," Franklin said.
In larger cities, some women have converted to wearing hijabs, or headscarves. Men who shaved their beards, or possessed English or Christian literature, were also victims to stoning by the Taliban. Ghazi Stadium, a soccer stadium in Afghanistan's capitol city Kabul, was used for several executions.
"A Taliban leader said they used the field to execute people because it was the only place that they could do it at." The man told them, "If you build us (the Taliban) a field to do the executions at, then people will start playing soccer there (at the stadium) again," Franklin said.
Another time, while driving through a bazaar in Kabul, the soldiers observed a beggar on the street without any legs. Though some mine fields are marked, people still get injured by mines left over by the Russians. The spreading of mines from helicopters was a tactic used to move citizens into cities to manage them.
"Some of them are small plastic things that look like helicopter toys kids play with. Those were designed to hurt children," Franklin said. "There was a little boy right outside of our base that got killed. He had crossed a fence and stepped on a land mine."
Caravans of soldiers would go through villages and children would flock to them. Children would receive small items such as pens, pencils and candy. Franklin said if the children did not run to them, they knew something was not right.
While visiting one village and waiting on the village elder, a soldier observed rocket propelled grenades, or RPGs, in a residence where the ceiling had fallen in.
"They started searching and alcoves in the house were covered with pictures of people. Inside the alcoves were triggers and fuses used for roadside bombs," Franklin said. "We kept searching and found more RPG rounds and mortars."
The weaponry was sent to the Afghan supply chain for inspection to see if they were still serviceable. If passed by the explosives disposal team, the Afghanistan Army would use them. Otherwise, they would be detonated.
His favorite story about children, though, is one involving the candy he gave to a small girl. The infantry made a humanitarian drop one day to a village giving each child a jacket, sweater and other items. The following day, the soldiers visited the village to see how much of the items were still in the village.
"We go through this village and this little girl was terrified of us. I asked her why she was so scared and she said the day before her parents told her not to trust the Americans because they would eat her. I gave her some candy," Franklin said.
Franklin works at Bobby Brown Private Wealth Advisors. He has been married to his wife, Mary Franklin, for 26 years, and they have one daughter.
Local on 05/30/2016