'We were able to build a city': Afghans temporarily resettle at Wisconsin's Fort McCoy
FORT MCCOY, Wisconsin – A base typically filled with the sounds of military life is now full of the sounds of children laughing and shouting as they run between rows of barracks.
In one open field, a number of Army members play a soccer match with a group of boys, closely watched by family members.
After months of upheaval, life at Fort McCoy is settling into a routine for the 12,600 Afghans now living there — a population larger than either nearby Tomah or Sparta. They rise for breakfast each morning in the dining halls, pray in their small neighborhoods of barracks and take long walks along the roads of the base, as the leaves on the trees change colors.
Over the last two months, Fort McCoy has essentially become a city in order to house the influx of Afghan evacuees.
In addition to the evacuees calling the base home, more than 1,600 military members are stationed to help with serving meals, security, policing, medical care and other roles, said Army Col. Jennifer McDonough, who is serving as the deputy commander of sustainment. There are also more than 200 staff from other agencies at the base, as well as more than 900 contractors.
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"Within a very short period of time, we were able to build a city," she said. "That has been an incredible feat to watch."
The evacuees are living in barracks typically used to house military members training at the base. The buildings were built during World War II but were recently renovated.
Eight neighborhoods throughout the base have about 30 buildings each that house between 50 and 60 people. Each building has two floors, with open space where the refugees are residing and separate private bathrooms and changing facilities.
The eight neighborhoods are grouped into two "communities," which each have a mayor in charge of overseeing them. Each neighborhood has a community center, a small classroom being used to teach English and plenty of grassy space for children to play.
The evacuees are served three hot meals a day, cooked by contractors hired by the government. The five dining facilities are open for four hours for each meal, and evacuees can either pick up their meals to eat elsewhere on the base, picnic-style, in their barrack or in the cafeteria.
Food has been moving smoothly and everything served is culturally appropriate, McDonough said.
On Thursday morning, the kitchen was busy preparing curry chicken, with rice and bread. The evacuees also have a choice of fruits and veggies with every meal, as well as hummus.
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In addition to the cafeterias, the base has 24-hour cafes, where guests can get tea, coffee and hot water for baby bottles.
Clothing is also being provided to all evacuees, thanks to donations from across the U.S. The Salvation Army and Team Rubicon, a disaster response organization, are helping to organize the donations and get them to the evacuees, along with winter gear for the upcoming cold months.
Nearly all the Afghans on the base had received about 10 pieces of new clothing as of Thursday afternoon, and the rotation will begin again once everyone has the first set. The idea, officials said, is for each refugee to leave the base for resettlement with a small wardrobe.
Each guest is being evaluated for health and treated for any issues they may have.
Army Col. Matthew Fandre, the medical commander and surgeon on the base, said more than 230 pregnant women have arrived at the base over the course of the last two months, and so far eight babies have been delivered at area hospitals, including a set of twins. A mother is due to give birth to triplets in the coming days, as well.
The babies born during the time at Fort McCoy are U.S. citizens, an official said.
More than half the guests at the base are children, who can be seen playing soccer with military members, doodling on the sidewalks with chalk or practicing English in classrooms. One of the best parts of the mission to serve at the base, said Lt. Col. Jeremy Prince, is getting to work with the children and ensure their stay is positive.
"The soldiers love this mission, they just feel such a sense of pride because of what they've seen develop, and the interaction that they have on a daily basis with these guests," he said.
All the guests on the base are linked to the U.S. through some type of service in Afghanistan or were humanitarian workers, journalists or were contractors to the U.S. military.
"These are people that have sacrificed with us. We've got a number of people here that were previously wounded in combat," said Brigadier Gen. Christopher Norrie. "It's a wonderful group. They all feel a sense of purpose, and a sense of community here."
While none yet have Special Immigrant Visas, they're working through the process of obtaining humanitarian parole before they're able to be resettled.
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'We are normal people'
Afghans at Fort McCoy want those outside the base to understand they don't want to be seen as an enemy, or as anything other than a person who had to flee bad circumstances.
Farzana Mohammadi, 24, was a member of the Afghan women's Paralympic basketball team and decided to leave Afghanistan because the new government wouldn't allow her to continue to play. She spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a part of the Paste BN Network, through an interpreter.
She said she's happy to be at Fort McCoy so far, and is looking forward to what comes after being resettled.
"I think I'll have a very bright future," she said. "There was only one country as a kid I would say I always wanted to visit and it was the U.S. I still can't believe I'm here."
Mohammadi said she plans to finish her education and get back into sports again.
"I'm so happy," she said.
But that happiness is also tinged with frustration at what she witnessed happen in her home country before she was forced to flee.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when the government collapsed," she said. "I was really sad and devastated, and I wish that America, the Americans, never left."
Mohammadi said she left behind her parents and sisters and worries for their safety.
"My sisters can't go to their college, and my mom can't go outside the home," she said. "And it's so hard for my mom and my sisters."
Khwaga Ghani, 30, was a producer for National Public Radio in Afghanistan. She's living at Fort McCoy with her family after fleeing Afghanistan because of her role as a journalist.
Ghani was documenting the fall of her country before she realized she, too, was in danger. The day the city fell, she remembers running to get home from work.
"I could not imagine myself running like that ever," she said.
After Kabul fell to the Taliban, Ghani was staying at a safe house for journalists, waiting to hear word on when she could get out of the country. When she finally got the call, it took her and her family hours to make it through Taliban checkpoints and into the airport. Eventually, they made their way in but had to wait a day and a night on the runway before they were able to get on a plane to take them out of Afghanistan.
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"I had my parents with me and it was so cold. And they had to sleep on the ground," she said. "That night, it was really bad. It was the one time I almost cried because I didn't know what was going on. I kept asking everyone and they were like, 'We don't know.'"
Finally, she and her family were able to board a plane and ended up in Qatar and then Germany. There, she and her family stayed in a hangar where everyone slept next to each other on the floor.
"We were in that hangar for five nights. The situation there was really bad," she said. "I can't forget those five nights. Everything was horrible."
Finally, she and her family were flown into Washington, D.C., and then to Texas, where they stayed at the Dallas Expo Center. Then she was given the choice to go to a military base in Texas or come to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, and she chose to move her family north to be closer to friends.
Fatema Ahmadi, 31, is another evacuee living on the base.
"It was so unexpected," she said of the government's collapse. "Because we had so many plans for the country and individually."
Ahmadi left because there simply wasn't going to be space in a country under Taliban for people with passions like hers.
"I'm not a normal kind of Afghan woman. So it's difficult for people like me because there is no place for us," she said. "One day before the collapse, I was driving and crying to see that everything had changed really quickly."
Ahmadi said she agreed to talk with members of the news media Thursday because she wants to convey that she and her fellow evacuees are not bad people.
"I really want you to understand that Afghans are not terrorists. We are normal people," she said. "You know, we were human beings just living in our country."
Follow Laura Schulte on Twitter: @SchulteLaura.