{"id":33540,"date":"2014-02-28T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=33540"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:26:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:26:53","slug":"danny-blanton-ole-miss-called-me-home-from-kabul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/danny-blanton-ole-miss-called-me-home-from-kabul\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Blanton: Ole Miss Called Me Home From Kabul"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"University<\/a>

University of Mississippi Director of Public Relations Danny Blanton, left, with Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, chief of army staff of the Military of Afghanistan.<\/p><\/div>\n

In August 1982, a wide-eyed boy from the Mississippi Delta enrolled in the University of Mississippi. Thirty years later, with a little more wisdom and several grey strands, that same boy returned as the university\u2019s Director of Public Relations.<\/p>\n

I returned to my alma mater in August 2012 from a job I was very committed to in an austere area vastly misunderstood \u2013 Kabul, Afghanistan. As I was being reintroduced to an Ole Miss campus that barely resembled the one I walked across as a student, people would often ask me where I came from and invariably respond, \u201cYou came from hell to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I agree that this is about as close to heaven as it gets, I did not see Kabul as the opposite. People\u2019s perception of areas they haven\u2019t experienced is derived from what they see and read, which is often misleading. Sure, there are dangerous areas of Kabul, but there are areas of large American cities that are just as dangerous and require an equal amount of caution.<\/p>\n

My job was civilian advisor to the Afghan Minister of Defense so I spent the majority of my days in the Ministry of Defense. \u00a0I worked with fascinating men like Minister of Defense Rahim Wardak and Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, Chief of Army Staff of the Military of Afghanistan. They were intelligent, well educated men with unparalleled courage and patriotism. When these men were my age, they were running the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. I can\u2019t run my neighbor\u2019s cat out of my yard. They also spoke English as well as, if not better, than I.<\/p>\n

Over the years I was there, we worked together through many crisis situations like the Quran burning at the Parwan Detention Facility when they ushered us into an underground room due to rioting in the streets. We also worked together to respond to the murder of 17 Afghans (including women and children) killed by an American soldier. My job was to help them avoid losing the support of their populous. Working through issues like these only strengthens the bond among men, and I rewarded their trust in me with my loyalty.<\/p>\n

Through it all I never felt that I was directly threatened. I typically made the 30-minute walk from my safe house to my office each morning alone.\u00a0 My interpreter accompanied me on the walk from my office to the MOD and back.\u00a0 I would leave the office at approximately 8 p.m. and return to my safe house and do it all over again the next day. I made these walks by choice, mostly because I needed the exercise. I didn\u2019t wear body armor or a helmet. I wore a suit each day much like I do now. Granted, I had a loaded 9mm pistol in a shoulder holster under my jacket, but I was still wearing a suit.<\/p>\n

I said all that to say this \u2013 I did not come to Ole Miss to leave Afghanistan. I left Afghanistan because I had an opportunity to return to my alma mater, a place that played such a huge role in making me who I am. \u00a0If any other company came calling, I would not have entertained the thought of leaving Afghanistan because I was committed to the work being done there. But I couldn\u2019t resist the opportunity to return to Ole Miss and be a part of a university that for 30 years has been such a big part of me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to articulate what it really means to be an alumnus of Ole Miss to those who haven\u2019t had the experience of being molded by this university during their formative years. The words Frank E. Everett, Jr. wrote are true, \u201cThe university gives a diploma and regretfully terminates tenure, but one never graduates from Ole Miss.\u201d I have carried Ole Miss in my heart throughout my adult life and never actually left, so how could I resist the opportunity to protect the status of something I love so much? This is not my job. This is my university. I honestly approach every day with that attitude.<\/p>\n

I still miss Afghanistan and the men I worked with and came to know. I miss the opportunity to help a fledgling government establish a democracy, an effort with long-lasting international impact. So if that was hell I was willing to endure it.\u00a0As for heaven, if it\u2019s anything like Ole Miss then it\u2019s worth the effort to get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In August 1982, a wide-eyed boy from the Mississippi Delta enrolled in the University of Mississippi. Thirty years later, with a little more wisdom and several grey strands, that same boy returned as the university\u2019s Director of Public Relations. I returned to my alma mater in August 2012 from a job I was very committedRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[899],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDanny Blanton: Ole Miss Called Me Home From Kabul - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/danny-blanton-ole-miss-called-me-home-from-kabul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Danny Blanton: Ole Miss Called Me Home From Kabul - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In August 1982, a wide-eyed boy from the Mississippi Delta enrolled in the University of Mississippi. 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