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Sheriff’s sergeant works to train Afghan leaders

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Lt. Col. Troy Anhalt currently is serving in the Army Reserve in Afghanistan. Anhalt, a sergeant with the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department, is accepting school supplies to donate to Afghan children.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Lt. Col. Troy J. Anhalt is training the next generation of Afghan leaders to bring the country out from under the rubble of war.

“Imagine starting a four-year university completely from scratch,” Anhalt wrote in an e-mail to The Janesville Gazette. “Everything we have here we had to either build or completely refurbish …”

Anhalt of Elkhorn is leading a team of four Army Reserve soldiers from the 84th Training Command based at Fort McCoy. The team is mentoring members of the Afghan National Army to develop the National Military Academy of Afghanistan.

Anhalt was deployed in early January and will serve in Afghanistan until February 2009. It is his first overseas deployment. He was mobilized for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm but served stateside.

Anhalt’s expertise is military science and training—skills he’s mastered through 21 years in the Army Reserve and 17 with the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department.

In Afghanistan, he is a mentor to 22 assistant professors of military science and the academy’s 1,000 cadets.

“Working so closely with the Afghans has given us some unique insight into the daily life here,” Anhalt wrote.

The Afghan people are “hardened” by decades of war. The country lacks basic infrastructure, and many of its institutions have been destroyed, he wrote.

“For most (people), obtaining the necessities of life is a daily struggle,” he wrote. “They are tired of war, and many don’t care who runs things. They just want to be able to live in peace.”

Anhalt wrote that in some ways, the Afghan people don’t differentiate between the current government and the former Taliban government, which was ousted in 2001.

“Corruption is a simple fact that permeates nearly every aspect of life,” he wrote. “They don’t like it but feel powerless to do anything about it.”

The Afghan people rely heavily on their families. Anhalt wrote that he met a cadet whose seven brothers—some of whom are married—and three sisters share a single dwelling with their father, three mothers and grandparents.

“Between them and all his nieces and nephews, there are 53 people living together,” he wrote.

Anhalt said the Afghan people he’s met have been curious, especially the schoolchildren.

“Many of the children fortunate enough to attend school are unable to afford basic school supplies … and the schools themselves lack teachers, classrooms and basic infrastructure,” he wrote.

Anhalt and his teammates in October distributed backpacks full of school supplies to the local schoolchildren and gave the local school boxes of books.

“It was quite the eye-opening experience,” he wrote.

The school was small, and the “classrooms” were open tents crowded with small wooden desks and chairs, where thousands of students attend school in shifts throughout the day.

It was then that Anhalt and his team realized the extent of the problem.

“What had looked like a lot of supplies … was really just a small drop in the bucket,” he wrote.

They asked friends, family and service organizations in the United States for help and distributed 171 backpacks to another school June 1.

Anhalt and his team want to do more for the children, who, he wrote were “hopeful and happy” despite the downtrodden condition of their country.

The school supply collection, he wrote, is a way for him to stay connected to his family back home—his wife, Charlene, and two sons.

TO DONATE

To donate school supplies for Lt. Col. Troy J. Anhalt and his team of Army Reserve soldiers to distribute to Afghan schoolchildren, go to www.beyondorders.com and click “Browse Requests.” Supplies also can be shipped to: LTC Troy Anhalt, NMAA – KAIA (B&SS), APO AE 09354.

Anhalt has requested 1,000 or more backpacks filled with paper, pencils, erasers, pens, colored pencils, scissors, rulers, pencil sharpeners, books and small toys.