2-26-10
By BENJAMIN DEER : FLY CREEK
What do you get when you combine a strong-willed 43-year-old lawyer with the Army’s “Rule of Law” Mission in Afghanistan? Answer: Capt. Brad Carso.
Carso, a 1984 Richfield Springs High School graduate, has just returned from nine months in Afghanistan, where he worked with Afghan judges, prosecutors and police to develop Afghanistan’s legal system. In recent days he’s been visiting his father, Brian, on Goose Street here.
A graduate of the University of Rochester, then the University of Indiana law school, he worked for the General Assembly, then joined a New York City firm.
At 39, he joined the Army Reserves, explaining, “I have such an appreciation for what we have here, and I felt a need to do my part to protect it.”
Last March, he was deployed with the 10th Mountain Division to northeastern Afghanistan, just south of Kabul.
“It was pretty remote. I mean we were out there,” said Carson. The 10th Mountain Division is called the “‘Tip of the Sphere.’ It’s the first unit to go into a particular area to keep it secure.”
The Rule of Law Mission?
“Any productive society has an established legal system that the people have confidence in,” said Carso, “so lawyers are the best people to work with other lawyers to help establish a strong legal system.”
Language was a key issue. Very few of the Afghan lawyers spoke English, so interpreters were often used while training attorneys.
“The mission went very smoothly when they spoke English. But with the interpreter, it was much more of a challenge for us. There are certain legal ideas and unfamiliar terminology that were difficult to translate, but we made do, and I think we were successful.”
Living conditions were another challenge.
“We lived in tents, lived in huts. Our walls were rather makeshift – just burlap bags filled with sand. The shower and bathroom facilities were pretty primitive; the villages did not have electricity,” he said.
Another challenge was simply surviving, as both bases he was assigned to were targets of Taliban fire.
“I started to notice that the really heavy stuff would come on full moons. During the summer season in Afghanistan, there is virtually no rain and not a cloud in the sky. So the full moon would just light up the entire area. And night gave the insurgents some cover, and the full moon would allow them to see what exactly they were firing at.”
Carso saw no deaths, but many people were injured. And he had a close call.
“I was at a landing zone getting on a helicopter, and that was a typical time the insurgents would fire at us – to hit the helicopter. That was the closest call for me. I was actually being shot at and had rockets being fired at me. But fortunately for me, they weren’t very accurate.” Carso said, smiling.
He returned to the States on Dec. 23. He has come back with many memories, the most fond of which involves what he calls, “the people side of things.” Carso’s unit is headquartered in The Bronx and in five weeks, he will report for drill. He’s in the Reserves for another five years and, if he gets the chance, may volunteer again.
By then, “I’ll be 48 years old, and the Army is a young man’s game. Out there, there were times when I felt it in my bones, lugging around 40 pounds of body armor and an M4 and all the gear ... can get pretty tiring,” he said.
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