WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Ft. Campbell soldiers train for 'nation building' with local leaders

Ft. Campbell soldiers train for 'nation building' with local leaders

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In a typical suburban hotel meeting room just outside of Nashville, more than 50 elite Ft. Campbell soldiers trained Tuesday night for their latest mission in Afghanistan.

They don't wear the camouflage uniform that the world has become accustomed to seeing.

These majors, captains and platoon leaders are in civilian clothes, listening to those who know about a thing or two about policing, governance and infrastructure, like sewage systems.

The members of the 101st Airborne's First Battalion 327th Regiment First Brigade sought out much older men with titles like mayor, police chief and city manager.

"As infantrymen, we are asked to a lot more than just go out and find and kill the bad guys," said Maj. Tim Lindsay, an executive officer of the First Battalion.  "Now we are asked to do a lot of nation building type things."

It's the mission the 20-year vet and his Ft. Campbell battalion will carry out when they deploy to Afghanistan in the spring.

It's what they have been ordered to do as President Obama sends more troops to a country that has harbored terrorists and remains embroiled in a decades-old civil war.

These soldiers who have been trained to seek and destroy quietly sat on hotel chairs listening to those who build things and lead the local governments for the cities of Franklin and Brentwood.

"We are trying to educate ourselves a little bit more along the particular areas we will have to apply in Afghanistan," said Lt. Col. Joe Ryan, who helped organize the gathering.

"Water, sewage, policing [and] governance are not things for which an infantry battalion is readily trained for," continued the West Pointer who has led missions before in Afghanistan.  "It does not matter what we learned at West Point, the fact of the matter is we got to do it overseas, so we are going to do it."

When asked why the soldiers chose Brentwood and Franklin city leaders, the colonel said, "Sometimes it's a matter of hearing it from a different source to make it really sink in."

"They have been listening to me for about 10 months, when they hear from Jackie Moore or Ricky Watson, its make a little more sense sometimes," he added, referring to the much older police chiefs from Franklin and Brentwood.

"For them to have to do what we do in a foreign country, I know its going to be difficult for them to do, but we are willing to assist to better their jobs if we can," said Chief Watson.

The relationship between the two cities and the soldiers goes beyond Tuesday night's gathering.

The two cities "adopted" soldiers and their families from the battalion several years ago, offering support wherever they could.

Col. Ryan called the relationship between the two cities and his battalion, "unprecedented in the Army."

The local police chiefs and civic leaders say when the soldiers do deploy and have a question or need advice they're only an email away.

"If they run into a situation where it's policing, governance or road building issue, they can get on their computer, email back here and we'll give them an answer," said former Franklin Mayor Tom Miller, who helped organize the soldiers' training with other local officials.

Major Lindsay, who said he has had "significant" time in Afghanistan, summed up the day with the suburban leaders by saying, "Afghanistan is a very poor country, the people there have very little hope and that is what we try to bring to them."

The cities of Franklin and Brentwood said they proud to play a role in the soldiers' hope.