Gonzaga instructor on duty in Afghanistan

Most Januaries, Alan Westfield would be catching a few Zags basketball games, hitting the ski slopes and putting ROTC cadets through their paces at Gonzaga and Whitworth universities. This January, he’s helping the Afghan government respond to emergencies and disasters.

Last spring, the retired Army officer answered a call from a West Point classmate and longtime friend, and exchanged Spokane-area classrooms for a six-month stint in a complicated and dangerous country.

Gen. John Campbell had just been named by President Barack Obama to commander of Operation Resolute Support, the international military and civilian mission to help the Afghan government. It replaced Operation Enduring Freedom, the military operation that ended on Jan. 1, 2015.

“Let me know if you need any help,” Westfield said after offering congratulations.

Campbell did. Not long after, he and another West Point classmate, Mark Rocke, asked Westfield to be part of Rocke’s Executive Advisory Group, a team of civilians working in the Afghan government’s equivalent of the White House Situation Room.

“Afghanistan is striving for peace,” Westfield said. “But this is a dangerous place. It’s a volatile part of the world.”

Despite stepping away from the leading combat role, the United States and its allies still suffer casualties, including the death of a Washington National Guardsman, Staff Sgt. Matthew McClintock, earlier this month. Separately, a bombing a mile and a half from the compound where Westfield lives killed 60 and wounded 300.

But it’s a place he suspects has fallen off the radar for many Americans: “I feel there is not the attention that there was in the past,” he said in a recent telephone interview.

The Taliban has had a resurgence in some outlying provinces. Al-Qaida is working to restore operations it had before the U.S.-led coalition pushed it out after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Islamic State group is trying to establish a foothold.

The country also has had a series of natural disasters, including three earthquakes, the largest being a 7.5-magnitude quake in the Hindu Kush in late October.

The 42-nation coalition led by the United States is training, advising and assisting the Afghans, but not leading combat operations. “We are not out front. The Afghans have taken ownership” of military operations, Westfield said.

A former Army infantry officer, Westfield graduated from West Point in 1979, served overseas assignments from Germany to Bosnia to Iraq, and in 1996 came to Eastern Washington University as a professor of military science. After retiring from active duty, he became an assistant professor at Gonzaga, operating the ROTC program for GU and Whitworth students, and has commissioned more than 300 cadets as second lieutenants.

He was in the middle of a training exercise with cadets last April at Riverside State Park when he got emails from Campbell and Rocke asking him to join the advisory group in Kabul. He had done a similar stint in Iraq with Rocke in 2010.

There are some similarities between advising the Afghans and teaching cadets, Westfield said. Both get training in leadership and problem-solving, learning the theories and applying them to situations.

Other than the fact that the Afghans are older than his cadets, who usually range between 18 and 24 years of age, there is one big difference: “Cadets are learning many of the same things, and preparing to do this. The Afghans are doing it for real,” he said.

Like many of the Americans now in Afghanistan, Westfield is a civilian. That means he wears a coat and tie to the situation room, known as the Tawhid Center. When out in the field, he wears body armor and cargo pants. He lives in a compound in the capital with military and civilian experts from some 42 countries, so conversation can be an international experience.

Afghanistan is a diverse country with many different geographic regions. When Westfield accompanied Campbell to the Helmand Province on Christmas to visit with troops, it was 55 degrees and humid. When they returned to Kabul, there was snow in the mountains.

What most Americans know about Afghans are stories of al-Qaida and the Taliban and their radical version of Islam. Those aren’t the Afghans Westfield has experienced in his time in the country.

“Most Afghans are decent people,” he said. “They want education for their children, clean air and clean water.”

They’re a tough people without a single national identity, but have a long-term goal of becoming self-reliant, he added. One thing he has noticed about Afghans is they listen carefully while sizing up strangers.

“They’ve had their hearts broken many times. Their history is rife with invasions.”

There is corruption in the country, a result of significant narcotics trafficking, he said, but the new government is trying hard to deal with that along with the many other problems.

“Their long-term goal is they want to be self-reliant,” Westfield said.

That brings up the question many Americans are asking: When will the United States and its allies be able to leave?

Westfield doesn’t have an answer.

“We cannot be here forever; we’re not the world’s policeman,” he said. But the United States still has troops in Germany, 70 years after the end of World War II, and troops in South Korea, more than 60 years after the Korean War.

Westfield is scheduled to return to Spokane in February. He’ll be coming back with the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Medal for his service.