2LT Fallin in Afghanistan

I just ate dinner with my buddy Jonathan Fallin. He's on leave right now and will be headed back to Afghanistan in a couple of days. It was good to see him. He made the local paper in Thomasville, GA. By Brewer Turley brewer.turley@gaflnews.com THOMASVILLE — A road that once led nowhere in the heart of Taliban country now serves as a lifeline to the people of Afghanistan, thanks to American soldiers. Khandahar Road was completed Sept. 1, at a cost of $55 million and at least two American lives. Thomasville soldier Lt. Jonathan Fallin, along with nearly 800 other U.S. troops, helped construct the 75 miles of highway that now connect the provincial capitols of Tarin Kowt and Khandahar. “If you can think of the worst county-maintained road you’ve ever driven on and multiply that by 10, that’s what this thing was before we started,” Fallin said. Fallin, a member of the 864th Combat Engineer Battalion, was part of the military task force that completed the highway some four months ahead of schedule. He is the son of Joe and Mary Fallin of Thomasville. The road-building effort — which followed the path of an existing, though dilapidated route — was a challenge from the start, he said. “When we first got here, the road was totally unmaintained. It was basically the width of a vehicle, with huge pot holes, traveling through mountainous terrain,” Fallin said. “It was tough to travel on. People were getting stuck all the time. Now, people can move freely between the two provincial capitals.” The new highway stretches across a desolate region of the country known as the birthplace of the Taliban, an Islamic extremist group which operates in Afghanistan. To halt construction of the highway, Taliban members attacked construction convoys, intimidated the villagers of the region, and planted explosive devices and mines along the route. Attacks on U.S. building forces were common, Fallin said. “We lost two soldiers a month ago, so you had to deal with attacks, and the possibility of attacks,” he said. “We pulled our own security, and a lot of times we’d have support from other units.” Military personnel were often great distances from the security of their home bases while working on the road. “Sometimes it would take an hour and a half to get out to the job site from were our bases were,” Fallin said. “I think the biggest hindrance was logistics. When you have a piece of equipment that breaks, shipping it from the U.S. could sometimes take six to eight weeks.” The climate in Afghanistan also took its toll on the soldiers. “A couple of times, it got up to 130 degrees, and this would be at 8 a.m. Everyone had to take a case of water with them, because you can’t drink any of the local water supply here,” Fallin said. “We also had to wear body armor, which adds another 30 pounds. Then there are the uniforms,” he said. “Think about how hot it is in Thomasville, then imagine having to go out there in pants and long sleeves, then another 30 pounds of gear. No breeze, no shade.” Fallin was platoon leader for the military group on the south end of the road, building north. Another unit started at the north end and built south, until the two groups finally met in the middle, finishing the road four months ahead of schedule. The completion of Khandahar Road represents a shift in the operations of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Fallin said. “I think that we’ve definitely moved on from the offensive operations to a country-rebuilding effort. This road was a major project,” he said. So major, in fact, that the commanding general for the entire Afghan military showed up for the road’s official opening. Government and military officials predict the new highway will open up a whole new world of opportunity and commerce for the people of the region. “You can’t understand the level of poverty over here, coming from America. We deal with the locals every day. They have no possessions. They are isolated in these rural areas, and they have no contact with anyone,” Fallin said. “There aren’t phones or television. These guys are farming like Americans did back in the early 1900s. They’ve got mules and camels, and they grow what they can on these little pieces of land,” he said. With the new road, Fallin says new supply lines will be available to the native people, hopefully changing their lives for the better. “When you get roads, you increase travel and you increase information. The only way they used to get information is through word of mouth,” he said. Fallin said interaction between the Afghanistan people and the U.S. military has been a positive experience. “We’ll be in the same area for a couple of weeks, and the kids are usually the first ones to come out and see us. We give them water and candy and stuff, and then the adults will come out,” he said. “After a couple of days, they’ll actually come out and sit on the Humvees and talk to us. You might not understand what they’re saying, but they are all smiles,” Fallin said. “We’re learning from them and they’re learning from us. That’s how we’re building relations with these guys.” Fallin graduated from Thomas County Central High School in 1997 and received a degree from the University of Georgia in 2001. He was general manager of the family restaurant, Fallin’s Barbecue, for three years before answering the call to go into the military in 2004. After participating in one of the most massive military projects ever undertaken in that part of the world, Fallin said he’s opptimistic about the ties being built between the U.S. and Afghanistan. “I believe the good deeds we’re doing, along with the Afghanistan government supporting us, we’re paving the way for democracy over here,” he said.