Adaptation - 23 Feb 2009 - 2200

I’ve, on several occasions now, been amazed at our ability to adapt to our surroundings. It seems like in my writings, the first couple days of being in a new location are horrifying and depressing. Even though each of our locations has, in fact, been worse than the last, we still find ways to try to bring normalcy to our bleak existence. We are still on track, as far as we know, to be leaving within a week or so. Anxiety is high at the amount of uncertainty that awaits us in our next locale. I’m still not at liberty to say where we are going for Operational Security (OPSEC) reason. When you join the military you give up a portion of your 1st amendment, and for good reason. It’s important in the military, for obvious reasons, not to give out specific info regarding when and where operations will be taking place. Very few lines of communication are truly secure. Although I try to be diligent about keeping things vague, I’m sure there are some pieces of OPSEC that I am violating throughout my various posts. Regardless, many members of our Platoon have spoken with random troops and civilians around post about the living conditions at our FOB. There is a lot of mixed intel that we are getting as far as what our quarters will be (no, not pogs), availability of amenities such as phones and internet, and even where we are living. Our Command Cell is going out tomorrow (by the time I post this they will probably already be back, take that OPSEC) for a couple of hours with a mission of scoping things out and asking a laundry list of questions. Hopefully when they return we will have a warm fuzzy for what we are heading into. But here on Kandahar, people are reestablishing routines. My hang out seems to be primarily the Boardwalk. I like it down there as all the food joints are down there, Wi-Fi is free, and there isn’t a shortage of countries rubbing the fact that their militaries have a wealth of attractive females in our faces, especially Canada believe it or not. I have been reading all the comments you guys are leaving, both on my blog and on Facebook. I seem to have quite a few people checking daily to see what I write. I appreciate all the support being sent my way, and yes, when I get to where I’m going, I’ll let you know what you should send me. While most of you are reading it out of curiosity and to see how life is over here, some are reading it as entertainment. I don’t usually go into any of my posts with the intent to be funny, but I’m pretty sure my sarcasm bleeds through into my writing, a pleasant byproduct. I will try and keep this going as often as I can, but please keep in mind that we are unsure of what lies ahead. I’m sure that when we get there I’ll be all pissy again, but slowly we will find the little things about the base that keep us sane, even if that’s just the local coffee shop. During this whole MOB process we have been told we were going to be setting up camp in 4 different bases. Ironically, we have actually passed through 2 of them now and are going to set up in one of the others. Originally we were supposed to set up in Camp Buehring, Kuwait. That was the plan way before we even came on orders in September of ’08. Next we were told we would be going to Q-West, Iraq. That lasted all the way up to the Stand Down (trust me, I’ll cover that in PreMob Pt 3 [probably be a 4 part series btw]). While we were at Ft Sill we were told that we would be staying in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It wasn’t until shortly before we left Sill that we found out where we were actually going. After looking at the area where we would have worked here on Kandahar, many of us are disappointed that this one didn’t come true. Like I said, the first day we were here I likened this place to hell, now most of us would pay to stay here. The only thing I have been unable to adapt to is the smell of raw sewage. This post has a central sewage pond and depending on the wind direction, it can be a very bad day. My main concern about our FOB is the possible lack of internet. I’ve said, in half jest, I could be stationed in Hell as long as I had Wi-Fi. I’ll let you know in a couple days whether or not Hell is equipped with broadband. P.S. SPC Taylor snuked during a briefing today (rare combo of sneeze/puke) and we made him sit in it for 4 hours!