St. Peters Resident Helps Rebuild Afghanistan

Pat Shaw wasn't sure when she'd be able to go home. 

The St. Peters resident was on a military base in Afghanistan late April of this year waiting to head back to the States. Shaw was in the last week of her second six-month stay in the war-torn country. A Supervisory Program Analyst with the Army Corps of Engineers, Shaw was a civilian working to help rebuild the country.

Shaw enjoyed her time in Afghanistan with the Corps, but was eager to return home and see her mother, Dorothy Easton of Florissant. There was just one problem—her base was on lock-down. 

Soldiers and civilians alike were forced to remain on the base. Shaw and others were unsure of the reason behind the sudden change of protocol. Soon enough, Shaw and everyone else found out the reason—Osama bin Laden had been tracked down and called by United States soldiers. 

Bid Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, had been on the run for 10 years. His actions were the reason troops—and civilians like Shaw—were even in Afghanistan. Fear of what could happen in the aftermath of bin Laden's death made official lock down Shaw's base.

Shaw wondered when she would be able to come home.

"We were lock-down for a few days and they wouldn't tell us why," Shaw said. "It started on a Friday and there was no movement. ... Nobody was allowed to go home, nobody was allowed to come into the country and they weren't telling us why."

With no retribution following bin Laden's death, Shaw was able to return home to St. Peters just a few days later than planned.

"We were worried about what the retaliation would be, but actually talking to the Afghans over there, they were pretty happy about it," she said. "He terrorized them, too."

Shaw ended up in Afghanistan because she simply wanted to help. A few years before leaving for her first tour of the country, Shaw went to work in New Orleans. While there, Shaw helped clean up after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina was really rewarding," Shaw said. 

When her job at the Corps of Engineers offered her the chance to go over to Afghanistan and help the rebuild, Shaw jumped at the chance.

Before she could leave, however, Shaw needed to convince her mother that she'd be OK.

"When I first went over to tell her, her first thing was, 'Do you have financial problems you're not telling me about?'" Shaw said. "I told her no, it was something that I wanted to do. I think what was reassuring to her was that I could call her every day." 

Once in the country, Shaw found herself surrounded my military personnel. As a civilian worker, she was constantly protected by soldiers. Despite the protection, there were still moments of fear early on during her time in the country. 

"When I was in Kandahar, there were a lot of rocket attacks," she said. "That was kind of scary, but you got used to it."

Shaw helped on building projects while working mostly behind the scenes. She was tasked with monitoring budgets and marking sure everything went according to plan.

"Here, when we work on projects, they take us out on site visits, so we (the analyst) know they're not just throwing money around," Shaw said. "We know what they're building. ... We were making sure things ran smoothly."

Shaw said she worked with building water plants to help create clean drinking water, hospitals and schools. 

Contrary to what she heard on the news, Shaw found Afghanistan to be a nice place. She said the locals near the base and on the jobs sites were nice and friendly. Plus, she said the work the soliders and her co-workers were doing was bringing some much-needed help to the country. While reports back home were mostly negative, Shaw said she witnessed the opposite.

"It wasn't as dangerous as people were saying, and we were doing good things over there," she said. "I don't think that word gets out. You don't hear that the Army Corps of Engineers built this building ... you don't hear about that back here. All you hear about is someone being shot in Kabul." 

After her first six-month trip, Shaw was asked to back again for another six-month stay. Having enjoyed round No. 1, Shaw quickly said yes and was back to Afghanistan. 

"It was just the reward of seeing what we were doing over that that made me want to go back," she said. 

Back in the country, and St. Peters, Shaw continues her work with the Army Corps of Engineers. Although her bosses have said a third trip back in unlikely, Shaw would jump at the chance.

"I'd go back now, but my boss said I need to stay home for a while," she said. "I'd like to go back over there."