Rep James Smith, Richland Dist. 72, (l) and Director Alan Roberson of the Military Museum Representative James Smith served his state in the legislature while serving his country in Afghanistan. His computer and digital camera kept him in touch and transmitted his votes on the issues while he was on active duty with the 218th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the South Carolina National Guard.

Last Monday, October 27, this citizen- soldier of Richland District 72 donated one of the uniforms he used during the tour to the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. Secured under the breast- pocket flap is pinned the badge identifying him as a member of the South Carolina legislature.

"It stayed with me night and day throughout the term," he says. "I never told anyone I was a state legislator, but once in a while a soldier would find out. One of them said I was a Congressman who could get potholes fixed."

Along with the uniform, the Museum also holds a sheaf of letters and color photographs which came in from Rep. Smith during the two years he was overseas.

The Museum calls its project "Write From The Front."

"These items will be here for future generations to view. We are maintaining the letters and pictures also on our Website (crr.sc.gov)," said Director Allen Roberson of the Museum.

"Soldiers of the past wrote letters home, which were treasured and stored in shoeboxes and attics. With the email of today, they are read and then gone, unless someone makes it a point to keep them collected. Our computers and printouts are the shoeboxes of today."

James Smith wrote detailed reports about day- to- day life as a soldier in a foreign land. He was captain of a nine- man team that spent two years in Kandahar and Zabul, Afghanistan, embedded with Afghan Security Forces.

"Our mission was called Taskforce Phoenix," he says. "We were there to train Afghans as police and security personnel. We found some of the units had energy and diligence but always short on discipline and organization.

"They were amazed to find out how much more could be accomplished with some military organization and precision.

"In Zabul, we were placed in a remote area where there had not really been any local government presence before. The so- called government was a shadow group full of corruption and con men, who took control with threats and violence.

"We taught and mentored men to work in organized patrols, to spend time among the local citizenry and move among them. That's how people could learn to know and trust them."

Laughingly, he said, "I had learned what I needed to know from Sheriff Leon Lott in Richland County. This was the ultimate in Community Based Policing."

Smith said that in this remote province, they found villages where little has changed in 3,000 years. "Sometimes they did not know that the Russian occupiers had left."

Smith sounds a hopeful note about the future of this land. He praises the performance of the American military, being engaged in the world and learning to transcend cultural and religious differences.

"This was never a James Smith project," he emphasizes. "My family, my law partners, and my colleagues in the legislature pitched in to help me get things done. I was blown up by a road bomb once, but our entire unit was lucky enough to escape without serious harm. We came back safely, and I now have a broader perspective and appreciation of public service."

The Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum of South Carolina is located on the main floor of the State Museum in Columbia, 301 Ger vais Street. It houses memorabilia of the Confederacy, and also of other wars in American history. Its current main exhibit is focused on South Carolina's participation in World War I.