Decorahnews.com reporter Paul Scott spent a week in December traveling to Afghanistan to meet with soldiers from the Decorah-based 322nd Engineering Company as they wrapped up their year-long deployment to Afghanistan.

At 7:00 p.m. Thursday, February 9th, he will give a presentation in the Decorah Public Library Mezzanine about what he saw on his trip to Forward Operating Base Walton.  The program is free and open to the public.

“The soldiers were proud of the work they had done on various construction projects,” said Scott.  “But they were also looking forward to the end of their deployment.”

FOB Walton is located ten miles from Kandahar, in the southern part of Afghanistan.  “The country is one of the poorest in the world, and it looked that way,” said Scott.  “There wasn’t much more than rocks and sand and dirt in the part of the country I visited.”

Scott did not get a chance to meet with many Afghanistan residents, however, so he says he does not have an opinion on whether the United States ought to have its military forces in the country.  “However, I was surprised to see the number of civilians working on the war effort in Afghanistan and I realized just how much money we are spending on the war effort.”  That included money spent on having helicopters fly around Kandahar 24 hours a day and having drones and other advanced aircraft based in Kandahar.

As part of the program at the Decorah Public Library, Scott will show some of the pictures he took in Kandahar and will answer questions at the end of his presentation. Call 563-382-3717 for more information.