BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (August 7, 2008) – The Deputy Secretary of Defense, Gordon R. England, visited Camp Wright, Afghanistan, Aug. 7.

England spent time with the Soldiers and Sailors based at Camp Wright. Travelling with the deputy secretary were: Robert Earl, assistant to the Dep. SeCDEF, Hesham Islam, special assistant to the Dep. SeCDEF for international affairs, and Kevin Wensing, special assistant to the Dep. SeCDEF for public affairs.

England held a brief with Gov. Sayeed Wahid, Konar province’s governor, Brig. Gen. James McConoville, Combined Joint Task Force-101’s deputy commanding general-support, Col. John Spiszer, TF Duke’s commander, Cmdr. Daniel Dwyer, Konar PRT’s commander, and other members of the PRT staff.

During a two-day trip to Afghanistan, England chose Konar province to see, first hand, why operations were successful in the province. 

Dwyer briefed England on how a strong Coalition partnership with the provincial government and a focus on large-scale infra-structure projects are key to the counterinsurgency efforts.

“We find ourselves in an economic insurgency, where males of Konar would rather work and rebuild their country than fight for pay,” Dwyer said.

The PRT’s Department of State representative, Alison Blosser, demonstrated how the PRT road re-construction strategy had increased the economic conditions in the Konar province.

“It used to take eight hours to drive from Jalalabad to Asadabad,” said Blosser. “Now, the trip only takes two hours and because of that we’ve seen the Asadabad bazaar grow from 200 store fronts to over 650 store fronts.” 

Wahidi thanked England for visiting Konar and identified energy, water and agriculture development his priorities.

Likewise, England thanked the governor for his leadership in the province and noted that security conditions must exist in order to attract donor agencies to the area.