Starting in summer 2007, Lieutenant Colonel Custer pioneered the US strategy in eastern Afghanistan of moving troops off the FOBs to live in groups of 20-40 in small bases in what amount to Afghan county seats. Commander Adams’ team lived on another FOB nearby, and it is his regret that his deployment ended before he was able to push them out to a location in the provincial capital, Khost City.

“The other element is to keep those projects coming. The US spent $6.6 million in the five years before I arrived. We announced a project nearly every day. My team spent $52 million of CERP funds (Commanders Emergency Response Projects) in nine months from August 07 to March 08. Commanders' Emergency Response Funds (CERP funds in military parlance) are allocated by Congress so that maneuver commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan can bypass the often lengthy USAID approval process and execute development projects quickly"

CERP funds have been the key to American counter-insurgency successes. US commanders in the field down to the rank of captain have extraordinary discretion about how to spend them. Commanders at Adams’ and Custers’s level can spend up to $25,000 without consulting their superior, who in turn can spend up to $250,000 before referring the project for approval to the commanding general in theater.

“We built 66 kilometers of roads in Khost for $7 million. We built 45 irrigation dams, doubled the access to fresh drinking water, opened 37 schools and began construction on 15 more. Our team built Khost’s first mosque for women, a women’s park, we started a hospital, and just before we left we designed, contracted and began work on a power grid for Khost City.”