Wakeup Call - 21 Feb 2009 - 1200

Last night and this morning I debated on whether or not to post this. I know everyone wants us to be safe and it would be nice for us to imagine we are in Ft Carson, CO surrounded by mountains, but we aren’t. Afghanistan is a warzone and we are right in the middle of it. I didn’t want to write this as to leave the women we love back home in the dark and not have to have additional worries about our safety, but I think that it is an important piece of my story. I don’t want my family to be disillusioned into thinking that this is a tour in Kuwait. Around 1700 a few of us decided to go to the “Catwalk”, which is the area of camp with all the shops, the PX and the food court, to eat. When we got there we got there we found a Burger King, a Subway and a Pizza Hut. Posted on the front of the Burger King was a sign that read “Due to Logistical issues we are out of chicken and beef.” So we went to Subway where we found a sign that read “Only Meatball Subs”. We then walked to Pizza Hut where their supplies were also limited and the wait was an hour. A few of the guys decided to stick out the Pizza wait, but SGT Fasse and I decided to walk back to the shitty chow hall. Dinner there was no better than breakfast and no one knew how the line worked for all the different food stations. It was both frustrating and not worth the effort. We found an open table and sat down next to 2 British Royale Marines. As we ate we made small talk with the Brits about where we were from and where we would be going and for how long. The chow hall was packed with about 500 troops from all countries. It was pretty noisy, but not noisy enough to hide the explosion. The blast was large enough and close enough to feel the percussion through the walls of the building and through the 15 ft cement barricades that surround the building. Several female in the tent let out a shocked scream and the room fell silent. Everyone looked around to see what everyone else was doing, or going to do. Slowly the crowd began to talk again and the meal resumed. It appeared as if whatever had just happened was not all that infrequent. Knowing that the 2 Brits had been here for a while, we asked if that was a common occurrence. They said that it used to be 3 or 4 times a night but had slowed recently to once every few nights. I asked if it was a mortar. They guessed that it was probably a 2.75in Rocket. It was not uncommon, one said, “But that one was awful close.” SGT Fasse had gone with the 295th in ’04 to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait for a 9 month tour. Seeing him obviously shocked, I asked if they experienced anything like that then. He said “Nothing even close to resembling that.” After we finished our meal we walked outside and heard emergency vehicle sirens in the distance. They evacuated all the MWR and like tents and had everyone go outside. We knew that in the DFAC the explosion had come from the south, which was where our tents were. We joked that hopefully when we go back it want a smoldering pile. After our walk back we found our Platoon Sergeant standing outside the tent. He said that they had heard it but that it was to the east of where the tent is. Inside the tents no one seemed that distracted by it as they watched movies on their laptops and settled in for bed. I decided to shower up and head to bed. At some point yesterday afternoon, CW2 Bohaty found out how to turn hot water on in the shower tent. I went to bed with the plan to wake up early and go get some coffee and donuts. When I woke up I was a little perturbed that people were making so much noise and the lights had been turned on. Someone walked by my bunk on their way to the door, and upon opening it I saw that the sun was already up. I had expected it to be 0400 or so and it was in fact 0730. I got ready, brushed my teeth, waited for Chief Bohaty and SSG Moorhead to get ready, and we rolled out in search of donuts and coffee. Our first meeting of the day wasn’t until 1000. We found a Green Bean Coffee shop inside a big MWR tent. They didn’t have any donuts but they had muffins and cinnamon rolls. We bought our goods and walked into the main room of the MWR tent. Here there were couches, chairs and TVs everywhere. For some reason we happened to be the only ones in there. We sat down, watch the end of “Mr. And Mrs. Smith” and enjoyed our breakfast. After that we walked to our tents to gather everyone, then walked to the Battalion area for our briefs. We filled out a little paperwork, got our photos taken and received 30 bullets, which we are to have on us at all times. While there someone confirmed that the explosion the night before was, in fact, a rocket attack. It had landed a little way behind a different DFAC on post that was currently closed for renovations. A lot of news is flooding down to us from people on post about our mission as far as lifestyle at our FOB and specific mission details. It’s hard to filter out what’s a rumor and what to take seriously. One thing we did hear, however, is that we should only be staying here about 10 days. As you could have probably guessed, I’m not holding my breath. It will be nice to finally stop living out of my bags though and possibly get into some hardside barracks. We hear that our FOB is actually safer than Kandahar, even though Kandahar is relatively safe as well. This is because it is out in the middle of the desert. From a guard tower you can see until the end of the Earth. It makes sneaking up on a base rather difficult. Despite last night’s “excitement”, I really don’t find myself overly concerned with my safety here, but it was a bit of a wakeup call. As fast as we heard that explosion, the chow hall could have been in rubble. It was a quick reminder, on the first night, of what’s at stake over here.