Priorities - 29 March 2009 - 1100

As I lay in bed last night, with my mind wandering from one topic to the next, I took a minute to really listen to my surroundings. I could hear the backup alarm from a truck doing construction on Southpark. I could hear generators buzzing from the light sets outside and the AC/Heating unit providing a little climate control. I could hear the nonstop roar of jets taking off and landing as the Flightline is only about a mile away and missions seem to pick up at night. They are all sounds that persist all day and night, but fade into the background, much like the traffic in NY City must to residents. Also as I lay in bed, there is a certain degree of fear that at any moment a rocket could come through our tent and I’ll never make it back home. It’s a thought that I have almost every night and it’s unsettling to say the least. But as I lay there last night some things occurred to me. The other day while I was watching our Private at the hospital on suicide watch, I asked him if he knew what they were going to do with him. He said “They are going to put me with the next unit going home and then discharge me from the Army.” I asked him “Is that what you wanted?” He reply “Yes, the Army just isn’t for me.” I told him “You wanna know secret? It’s not for me either. He is an interesting kid. He just joined the unit right before we got deployed. While we were in Hastings he committed a minor crime and now has a warrant out for his arrest. More than likely when he gets home, he’s going to jail. He is one of those guys that you just know, one day, is going to go postal. Chief told him in Fort Sill “When you go off the reservation I’m hiding behind SSG Christ.” I get along with everyone in the unit pretty much and I made it a special point while we were in Fort McCoy to get on his good side in case he did go banana’s which I guess he did. I’m just not the same kid I was 8 years ago when I signed up for the military. Since then, and since my last contract signing even, I have had a major shift in priorities. I’m no longer willing to come over here and risk my life when I have someone depending on me at home. When you’re fresh out of high school you really don’t have a long list of concerns. You’re more than likely looking for money to keep yourself alive and maybe go to school, but other than that, your only concern, is you. That all changes when you get married. When you promise your someone that you will be by her side for the rest of your life, suddenly a year in the desert isn’t quite as fun and adventurous. There is also a shift from only being concerned with yourself, to having someone else become more important thing in the world. If I had to go to war and protect her against an enemy directly threatening our countries safety or way of life, I would not hesitate. I would trade my life for hers without a second thought in my mind, but this war does not meet that criteria. I am over here in Afghanistan taking rockets and mortars almost nightly to help the Afghan people become free of the anarchy of the Taliban. Will my wife stay safe at night in Nebraska if the people of Afghanistan are at war with the Taliban? Of course she will. Do I agree that we should be over here and this is a righteous cause? Absolutely. I just don’t feel like it’s my war to fight. 3 years ago it would have been another story. I was single, not going to school and not even working. My only source of income was our monthly drill check and occasionally going in to assist at the reserve center for a couple days at a time. Let those who have no spouse or children come fight this war. I did somewhat volunteer for this, but I’ve had a bit of an awakening of late. I wanted to go to war for my own selfish reasons. I didn’t have my wife’s best interest in mind when I agreed to deploy. Now am I going to go on suicide watch? Absolutely not. I know that I may be second guessing my decision to come over here but I do fully intend on accomplishing the mission because right now that’s the only logical way to get back home to my wife. Will I be reenlisting in Feb of 2013 when my contract is up? Probably not. And it’s not just because of how terribly this deployment has been managed. It’s because I’ve put in my time and served my time. I want to put that part of my life behind me and move on to the next stage. When I leave the Army I will have served 12 years. I’ll be over the hump for my 20 year retirement, but there are a lot better ways for an intelligent guy to earn pension than going over and fighting other countries wars. And a year is just too long. The Army is the only branch of service performing 12 month rotations. The other branches and nations are all pulling 6-9 month stents. That’s not saying there isn’t the occasional marine unit that pulls a 15+ month or other similar scenarios, but those are units that are extended, not put on orders from the word go for 400 days. I’m still in KAF. You’d be maybe surprised from this post I just wrote, but I am in fairly good spirits. I’m counting down the days until I’m home again, where I’m supposed to be.

Psych - 27 March 2009 - 1330

Oh, if only you knew how clever that title was. So on my last night at KAF I decide to go get Timmy’s one last time and video chat with my wife over Skype for what could be the last time I see her for quite a while. I just get done talking to her when 2 of our guys come up and sit with me with their dinner in hand and inform me that the other 2 who were supposed to be leaving for Bastian were still leaving, but I wasn’t. After calling them liars for a while and probably other names that I shouldn’t mention, I realized they were telling the truth. Let me back up a bit. Yesterday morning I came back from breakfast to find 3 sets of armor in our tent from guys who had left for Bastian in the first group to leave. After inquiring why they were here I was informed that one of them had a meltdown in Bastian and threatened to commit suicide. He was thereby escorted up to KAF for a psych eval and a meeting with the chaplain. They decided that he needed to be put on suicide watch and would have to be guarded 24h a day. While he was signing papers for who knows what, I guess he started eating the paper. They tried to take it from him but he pulled it away like he was an animal hording food. I was left back to assist in the watch detail. Between the 5 of us left we split the shifts into 3 hour increments. My first shift was from 2230 to 0130. All I did was sit in the hospital with a Marine Gunny Sergeant who had been injured and watched 24 episodes from a couple seasons back. Our nutty buddy just slept the whole time. My next shift was supposed to be at 1330 but as you can see, I started typing this at 1330. They guy that was supposed to go before me had a meeting at Battalion and so we switched shifts. I went down at 1030, after I got lost on the Gator, and talked with him for a while. The kid is a bit slow but I’ve never had a problem with him and he seems to like me. Anyway, we were talking with a nurse from Holland about America and whatnot for about 30 min when the rest of the guys came with the Dr and said he was getting released from the hospital. Now it sounds like they are sending him home with an escort or two on the next flight they can get him on back to the states. So once again, here I am after I told everyone I was leaving, but I’d be lying if I said I was surprised. I am, however surprised at the reason that I was required to stay this time. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to the guys who came back on escort from Bastian about the FOB. They say it’s not too bad and one of them even prefers it to KAF. It’s short on amenities, i.e. beds and restaurants, but they said there is hardly anyone out there which is kinda nice. They are gunna start working tomorrow on getting me another flight down to Bastian. I’ve asked where they have my bunk reserved at, since my bags are all already down there, since it was already palletized 2 days ago and shipped, and I guess I’m in a tent with almost the same people that I stayed with in Ali Al Salem which was a pretty good crew. I’ll hopefully know for sure in a couple days when I finally get down there. BTW, I haven’t been mentioning it cause it’s been nothing too exciting, more annoying than anything, but we’ve been taking rocket and/or mortar fire about every other night. That siren is getting quite the workout. Nothing has been close from what I can tell as KAF is big and the alarm can go off and the rounds might not be falling very close to base at all, but usually you can hear the mortars dropping in off in the distance. It’s rained here I think every day for the last 7 or 8 days. Nothing too heavy other than the storm I wrote about, just sprinkles and wind. I really kinda need to get down to Bastian soon now since 99% of all my gear is there. I did pack smarter this time, however. I kept a couple extra shirts and pairs of socks on me as well as all my hygiene stuff, towel, pillow and blanket. Other than that all I have is my armor, weapon, laptop and a few snacks. Oh, and the cell phone I bought. I can get free incoming calls from the states, but either way, whoever is dialing is paying over a dollar a minute. It’s been nice though having my wife call me a couple times though. It helps in the whole “me trying to stay disillusioned that I’m actually here…..” thing. Like I said in the last blog, we are a little more than 30% done if our projected date stands. It’s kinda funny to think that I have been basically moving towards Bastian since 2 September and here it is 27 March and I’m still not even there. Talk about a waste of money. Anyway, hopefully in my next post I can finally say that I’m there and get a change of scenery.

Things I’ve learned from KAF - 25 March 2009 - 1330

Seeing as this is possibly my last night on KAF for a while I thought I would post some things I have learned about it so that others coming here may read this and have a better idea of what they are walking into. I know when we first heard we were coming here the first thing most people did was hit the internet and find out what they could about it. The things Soldiers want to know about are the amenities; the little things that make a base more like home. I’ll start with the restaurants. Boardwalk consists of now Tim Horton’s Coffee, Green Bean Coffee, The Igloo, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway and a French Café and the new Kabob House. For coffee, donuts or a bagel I suggest Tim Horton’s unless you’re in a hurry. There is always a line at Timmy’s and rarely at Green Bean’s. Green Bean is good too, I think Tim puts crack in his though. The Igloo is a small ice cream stand that must be open seasonally. Pizza Hut runs out of stuff on occasion, like beef and larges. How you run out of something intangible like a size I have no idea but they get ‘er done. The subway usually is out of everything except for seafood. The Burger King is usually out of beef for their Whoppers which only leaves the Chicken Royale which is out sometimes too. I haven’t tried the French Café but I hear its good. I tried the Kabob House last night, it was alright. They just opened a couple nights ago and either ran out of everything instantly or just didn’t order very much. Out of there 14 menu items they had 3 to pick from last night. There is also a restaurant that I was unaware of right behind the Boardwalk named The Four Seasons. It’s a little spendy but decent quality from what I hear. The there are several Chow Halls here on KAF but they are all run by Supreme. They just can’t compete with KBR in my opinion. I’ve mentioned them before but they are the Far East (Asian), The Niagara (American/Canadian), and the Luxemburg (German). There is one more that is closed for renovations right now and I hear that KBR is opening one down here in Southpark. The Far East is terrible in my opinion and I never at the Luxemburg although I heard it was average at best. Most people agree that the best one is the Niagara. We walk an extra half mile, right past the Far East, 3 times a day to eat there. Not that its great food but if all three were serving shit, you’d still want to eat the best tasting shit. Every Wednesday is Taco day, it’s my fave. There is also a Green Bean in one of the MWR tents. For you gym rats, there is a pretty decent sized gym with all the equipment you need (I hear) ;). KAF takes rocket and mortar fire not too infrequently. There are shelters everywhere and it’s a pretty big post so the odds are in your favor. Every Saturday there is a Bazaar. A bunch of locals bring in goods and you can go bartar with them. I actually haven’t hit that either in an effort to thwart money spending. Southpark is the Tent City. I’ve also heard Southpark being called Harvest Falcon, so that maybe the “official” name. It was pretty baren about a month ago when we showed up. In fact we were almost the only unit out here then. Now, this place is filling up like crazy and they are setting up modular housing units, shower and latrine trailers and like I said, I know they are setting up a DFAC out here and we hear it will be KBR run. There are lots of ways to get on the internet on KAF. There is no Wi-Fi in Southpark but as fast as they are building out here I wouldn’t be surprised to see it make an appearance. The Boardwalk has free Wi-Fi, just ask someone there which network they are using, the people are generally very helpful. It’s “quick” most mornings and brutally slow at night most of the time. There is also internet jacked into the housing trailers that run between the Far East and Niagara. There is an MWR Computer and Phone lab. Usually not much of a line, depending on the time of day and they are pretty quick, again depending on time of day and I’ve noticed, maybe the weather too. There are several general stores all over post. Each of the major countries that has a presence on KAF has a PX or their version of it. There is also a duty free store right behind the Boardwalk and a ton of little shops all the way around the Boardwalk. If you want to find where one of the countries hides its PX, ask um. I get asked several times a week where they moved the US PX too. If you are given a vehicle or a gator, if you have the room and you see someone walking, pick them up. Nothing pisses a guy off more than to see one guy roll by in a 15 pac van and then see that van down at the PX or Boardwalk, or coming the other direction, end up back at Southpark. The Air Force wins the taxi award as I have been picked up about 6 times in my month here; 5 by the AF and one Civilian. If you read this and have any other questions give me a holler. There is a laundry drop off service with next day turnaround from what I hear, but I never got to use it. They have a bunch of laundry trailers, which are usually pretty empty since most people probably use the service. I’m kinda sad to be leaving (maybe) tomorrow. But on the brighter side, if we stay here for as long as our orders are cut for, today we are exactly 30% done. Hopefully I have a lot of good things to write the next time you hear from me, which may be a few days while I figure out my new home. I hear I have 3 care packages already waiting for me so thanks already for your support. It’s hard to be optimistic though that this flight will go off like it is supposed to since every other flight this deployment has had issues. Talk to everyone again soon.

The Weather is Here. I Wish You Were Beautiful! - 23 March 2009 - 1945

So last night walking back from the Boardwalk with my coffee I had the thought “I should write about the weather when I get back.” It was pretty dreary and it fit my mood. I got back to the tent and decided I need to write my wife a letter instead. Well this morning I woke up and went outside to find that maybe it was a good thing I waited a night to write about the weather. The last 2 nights it has rained a bit and today, well today was a cornucopia of magical weather. Early this morning I walked down to the computer lab to drop off my email and hit the coffee shop. At that point it was just kinda grey and overcast. The benefit to having an overcast day is obviously a break to the relentless sun and heat. A couple of us have been lying out on top of our rocket shelters during midday to take advantage of the rays. Anyway, by the time I got back to the tent around 1000, the wind had picked up and the sky had grown dark. Off to the west I could see a wide column of rain in the distance headed for us. By about noon the rain had come; and did it come. All and all it rained quite intensely until about 1700 with a decent amount of hail, but none bigger than pea I’d say. Most everyone here says that the rain is a good thing for more than just the shade it brings with it. Over here there is dust in the air almost all the time. When the wind picks up is stirs up even more of the silt. A particulate that fine and light stays airborne for a long time. When it rains people say the benefit is that it knocks down the dust, which is partially true. When it rains it’s not like the drops obliterate the dust particles; they collect them. When the drops finally start hitting the ground it’s like it’s raining mud. It coats everything; vehicles parked on the roadsides tents, and people caught out in it. I’m not sure how much rain we actually got but I would venture to guess a couple of inches. I’m not sure if Afghanistan is in a rainy season right now or if the last few days have just been a bit out of the norm. I have heard that one of my troops who is down in Bastian was inside a tent within the last day when the wind blew it over on top of him. I only have bits of the story but it sounds like when they got to him he had taken a pretty good blow to the head and was unconscious. I hear he is doing alright though. I’m not sure if it was from our little storm today or not but there were some pretty decent gusts that accompanied it too. Well like I had said, last night I was feeling a bit dreary. As I mentioned, in an attempt to reconnect with my wife, I have been writing her, A LOT. In the past few days I’ve typed about 35 pages worth to her. None of that counts the couple pages I’ve typed on here. It’s been really good to share so much and vent, but the ramification has been that it has made me pretty homesick. Once you start writing about all the things you love about someone, you realize just how much you really miss them. So all you wives who I tried to convince to go crazy, tread lightly. It’s still been great though. We are learning a lot about each other. I’m still in KAF BTW. Sounds like maybe Thursday now; I don’t know, I quit guessing. I heard that the guys down in Bastian had a pretty go BBQ the other night. I was jealous for all of… no seconds. I would trade 100 BBQ’s for each day I could stay here and not go down there. It’s not that I think it’s going to be horrible, it’s just that I’ve built up a level of comfort and seclusion that I’m going to miss when we step out into the wilderness and catch up with the rest of the 43 troops who will be there. It’s been nice to be a little group of 6 here kind of out of sight out of mind, free to do pretty much whatever we want as long as we didn’t have anything else going on, which isn’t often. But it will be good to get busy doing… something, although I’m not quite sure what that will be. I would be nice to lose track of time a bit instead of sitting around counting the minutes until I go home. (right now I have about 405,857minutes left… give or take)

Staying in Touch - 19 March 2009 - 2030

Our date to leave KAF keeps getting pushed farther out little by little. It was going to be Saturday, then I heard Sunday. Now it sounds more like Monday. I don’t think there is as much of a hurry to get us there as there was a week or so ago. It sounds like they got some support from some of the Marines who are there. I heard from Chief Bohaty today that SPC Harris, one of our mechanics who is in Bastian, fabricated some workout equipment from scrap around post. Sometime during the night last night someone stole some of the stuff he built. Needless to say, people aren’t very happy about that. I would think it would be hard to hide something like that though so if they sent out a search party I’m sure they would show up. It’s just a shame that you can’t trust your fellow brothers in arms enough to not have to keep things bolted to the ground. Today was fairly productive for me. Got up early and walked my laundry down to the laundry trailers. I then walked to the computer lab to send my wife an email and check some other things. I then walked to the Boardwalk to drop off my hat to get my rank sewn on it. While I waited I went and had some coffee and donuts from Timmy’s. I went and change my laundry over to the dryer and went and picked my hat back up. I then walked down to the barber and got a haircut. After that I check my laundry, added more time and went back to the computer lab. This time I caught my wife online on Skype. I talked to her for about a half hour, got my laundry and headed back to the tent. Not a bad little morning. Tonight I went back to the computer lab to email my wife, ate some dinner, got another Timmy’s coffee and watched some hockey. I really regret the fact that I won’t be able to stay here for the fact that I would love to get on a hockey team. Oh well. The guys who are at Bastian would have a hard time recognizing Southpark now. They put in those trailers, put up concrete barricade rows in between every other tent and put up a bunch of new bomb shelters. This morning when I got back I found that they had stacked wall lockers in front of all the tents. It’s obvious by the amount of work that is being done out here that Southpark has high visibility by the base command. Tomorrow I need to go back down and drop off my other hat to get rank sewn on. I would have taken it in today but it was filthy and I had it in the wash. I also need to make a run to the PX, hopefully with the Gator that SFC Wolf has acquired, to pick up some things like a cell phone for me and a TV and PS2 for SSG Moorhead who is already in Bastian. It seems like the hobby that has started chewing up most of my time now is writing. It seems like I spend the majority of my days now either writing blogs or writing to my wife. In my last post I mentioned that I wrote my wife a huge blog-like email, well she wrote one back. We have collectively decided now that rather than waste this whole first year of our marriage we are going to write each other and just write and write and write. Each of our emails so far are around 4 pages long (3000ish words). I’ve sent 4 and receive 2 so far. We both agreed that it’s a great idea and we are actually learning quite a bit about each other. I do those just like my blogs; I write them here in bed and paste them in an email when I get to the internet. Saves a lot of time at the computer lab especially since there is a 30min time limit there and I would feel rushed to try and write something and inevitably leave something out. Wives out there reading this, and I know there are many of you, I really suggest it, but don’t tell your guys I told you that. I’d probably get beaten down. I have heard little rumors that a few guys have actually decided to start writing a journal after reading my blogs. I don’t think, however, that they will be posting them online. It’s getting warmer and warmer over here. It rained the other night for only the second time since I have been here, and it wasn’t anything substantial. They have more dust storms here than rain storms; it is a desert after all. Please, if you’re curious about something that I don’t cover about being over here, or if I skim over something, taking for granted that civilians may not fully understand some jargon, please let me know and I’ll address them. For instance, am I tired of seeing Chief Bohaty’s bare ass yet? Yes, yes I am. And that’s just one example!

Incoming - 17 March 2009 - 1945

So do I start with the exciting/scary part or go in order of events for the last couple days. Let’s leave it for the exciting climax to my story. So the equipment that we have been waiting for in KAF finally showed up. We spent all morning over at our Battalion area learning how to set it up and operate it. Now that we have it we need just a little to get a little bit more info on it and we will be good to go. Sounds like, with the exception of 2 of us, the rest of us will be heading to Bastian on Sunday…ish. Figure in the cancelled flight that I’m sure we will have and maybe Tuesday/Wednesday, we’ll see. After our lesson this morning I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon working on my Microsoft Paint photo. I’ve been working on one picture for 3 days now and I think it will take a couple more to finish. I tried it a different way this time. I’ll post it when I’m done with it. My wife is in Florida with her mother right now for spring break. Since she has been gone I haven’t really been able to speak with her much. Even though I put most everything that is going on over here in my blog, there are things that I can only share with her so I decided to write a gigantic blog-like email to her. I find that writing is a really good way to keep me mellow, and since I can’t sit down and talk with her face to face, the email will have to do. So this evening Chief, SGT Martin and I walked down to the computer lab before chow. While there we ran into SPC Taylor. We waited for everyone to get done and then walked to the Niagara chow hall for dinner. There are currently 3 chow halls open on post; The Niagara (the American/Canadian style food), the Far East (the oriental food) and the Luxemburg (I think that one is Australian… haha German). The best one is the, I think, is the Niagara, go figure. It’s about a mile from our tent but it’s a degree better than the Far East, which is horrible, but only about a half mile from the tent. So we all ate our wonderful food and went our separate ways. My nightly ritual is to go to the Boardwalk for coffee and a donut and watch some hockey. So that’s what I did while the other 3 went to the PX for some “must haves.” Watching the game I was small talking with a guy from what I would assume would be eastern Europe. I’d seen him down there a couple times before. I recognize him because he looks like a bigger George Costanza. I’ll try and get a picture of him all covert like. Anyway, I’d only been there a short while when I heard a noise. I looked around and no one else seemed to hear it. I didn’t think much of it and asked Ole’ Georgie Boy, “What the hell was that?” kind of half jokingly. It sounded like a laser beam off of a movie or whirring sound like incoming in a war movie. A couple seconds later the bases missile alert siren started to blare. Everyone dropped to the ground where they were. People dove under tables and along side walls or anywhere they could find shelter. The guys in the hockey rink all just laid down where they were. The protocol is to find shelter and wait for the “All Clear” siren to sound. About a minute after the alarm, we were yet to hear an explosion, so people started to beat feet out of there, I followed suit. I got about a quarter of the way back when a second income alarm sounded. I was by the gym which is surrounded by concrete barricades so I jumped in behind them. Off in the distance I could hear several small explosions which sounded like mortars. I waited a while there until I saw several other people running off and I continued on my way back to home base. Most of the way back there are concrete barriers on both sides of the road, so I stayed up next to them. When I finally got back to the tent I found no one inside. I figured that the other guys would have been back by then so I check in the surrounding shelters around the tent. No one was around. I hung out in one of them for about 5 min when the “All Clear” alarm sounded. I went back inside and waited for the rest of the guys to show up. When they did they said they had still been in the PX and that they had kicked them out when the siren went off and herded them all into the blast shelters. After the all clear they hoofed it back. So what started out as a good night, turned into a waste. Whatever the first one that I heard was it must have been a dud. The Taliban use a bunch of old junk munitions left over from past wars with Russia. One good thing that I forgot to mention was that Tim Horton’s ran out of game cups, so now instead of having to wait in excess of 30 minutes for coffee, the waits are no more than 10 minutes at any given time and usually more like less than 5, it’s glorious. So I have heard though the grapevine that there is concern over my mental/emotional state over here. Here is what I have going on in a nutshell (this is not an attack BTW). I’m in a desert, 10,000 miles away from my wife and family for a year, getting bombed on occasion, having to deal with potentially doing a job that is outside of what I joined the Army to do. Food sucks but the coffee shop is great, health is decent with better than average living conditions for the region (and getting better). I have constructive hobbies, albeit odd hobbies, and a way to vent. You guys just so happen to be on the end of my venting so you get all the crap of it. I promise everyone that despite my sometimes bleak outlook on BlogSpot, I am actually in pretty good spirits. I consider myself lucky that I am one of the few who got left back in KAF and am grateful for the break I caught. So hopefully that squashes any concern that may be out there. Besides, I’ve had so many Suicide Prevention briefings that they almost make me want to kill myself. KIDDING! Great, now someone is going to read that and I’ll have to go talk to the Chaplain. Oh well. I hear that I’m getting packages showing up in Bastian already for me. Thanks to everyone who is sending care packages. Consider this my Thank You note because, as I’m sure my mother knows from high school graduation, and my wife knows from our wedding, I have what I like to refer to as an inability to write an actual Thank You. It’s a disease, look it up. I can’t help it. I’m sick. Sorry! But seriously thank you and hope everyone back home is doing great.

PreMob Pt 4 - 16 March 2009 - 2100

Time for another rousing addition of your favorite and mine, PreMob! If I remember correctly, and I do cause I checked, I left off with us flying from Grand Island, NE to Fort Sill, OK on a chartered Air Force flight. Our first stop at Sill was at our HQ building to scan our ID cards in so we were on their system. We no more than step off the bus than one of our troops, SPC Lethlean, passed out and had to be rushed to the Hospital and helicoptered up to Oklahoma City. It turned out that he had a benign brain tumor. It was removed but he was unable to deploy with us for obvious reasons. He was our first, but not our last casualty. Sill was composed of a lot more training. Now the training was being geared for Afghanistan rather than Iraq. We did some cold weather classes and some language courses. For the language courses, as well as the Afghanistan Cultural Awareness courses, they brought in some native Afghans to teach the courses. I thought that it was very helpful to have them there to ask questions after each class, but to have 2 Afghan guys try and read PowerPoint slides in English didn’t really help. Most of our time in Sill, however was spent out at the ASP (Ammo Storage Point). We worked alongside the civilians that worked there to get more practice at the job we would be actually doing overseas. Typically the only time that you get to “job train” is at Annual Training for 2 weeks each year. Drills are spent bogged down in paperwork and other B.S.. While on Sill we stayed in the mobilization barracks and ate at the Mob Café. I think they throw in the word Café whenever they want to make something shitty seem better. The barracks were not too horrible. We were split up into rooms of anywhere from 2 to 8 people. I was in a room with 6 composed of members of my squad. The best thing about the barracks is they had a Wi-Fi service that you had to pay for, but it was really pretty quick. Sill was the first place that they start really cracking down on only wearing Army uniforms outside the building. Any time you went somewhere you had to be in either your ACU’s (our camo) or our PT (physical training) uniform. For the duration of our time there we were constantly being given different info about where we were going and what we would be doing. We were given 2, 4 day breaks to go home. 7 of us guys rented a van and drove back to NE both times. The first one was over Christmas and the second was over New Years. So even though we had been mostly gone and training since the start of September, I had still been able to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with my wife. We were only supposed to be in Sill until just after the 1st of Jan 09, but we didn’t end up getting out of there until 8 Feb. Since Sill had only anticipated us being there until early Jan, it was up to us to find stuff for us to do. One thing we did was hooked up with an aviation unit that was staying in our building and got to go on a Blackhawk ride out to a mock Afghan village to practice some urban assault. We flew in, jumped off, the birds flew away, we assaulted the village and the birds came back in to get us. It was pretty fun. I have a lot of pictures of it on my Facebook. Once we found out we were gunna be around a while, we lined up a class in Redstone, AL for the SAAS crew. We flew down for two weeks at the end of Jan. It was a nice little break as it was just five of us. Since the base was out of housing, we stayed at the Embassy hotel in Huntsville. The other perk about Redstone was that my wife flew down for 3 days. It was really nice to be able to see her one last time before we left. That was the last time I saw my wife, besides on Skype. It’s now been about month and a half since I have seen her. I feel guilty that during the first year of our marriage we will get to spend such a small amount of time together. When we got back to Sill we were told that we would be leaving on the 7th. Everyone packed up their things and began to prep to leave. The morning of the 7th, we loaded up all of our baggage except our carryons and waited for our bus to come. About midday the squad leaders were called down to the office and told that our flight was cancelled due to a busted plane and that we were being kicked out of our building as a new unit was set to move in. We grabbed the little baggage we had and move down one building. Since most everyone had packed the majority of their personal hygiene gear and other essentials, we were forced to make a run to the PX for things like towels, shower shoes, toothbrushes and toothpaste. That night you could tell that people were getting a bit anxious to get on the road. Like I said in a previous blog, it’s hard to keep a bored soldier out of mischief.If you’ll notice in that last picture on the bottom bunk there is the second casualty we had. That is SPC McLean, older brother to the Soldier in the top bunk, PFC McLean. He was diagnosed with depression while we were in Sill and was sent home. After SPC Lethlean went home, we picked up one of the extras that we had with us in McCoy, PFC Norman. He and PFC Bergman went with us to McCoy just in case someone fell out. Since SPC McLean fell out so close to us leaving, it was decided that we would deploy with 46 instead of 47. By the time we left we obviously knew we were going to Bastian. It was a long and frustrating 2 months though not ever knowing really what your future was going to hold. Over that period of time we were told we were going to several different locations, none of which did anyone in my family ever know about. It wasn’t until our New Years break that I even felt sure enough to tell my wife that we had been switched from Iraq to Afghanistan. It’s a learning experience in the Army. Every time we were given an tidbit of info, the kids would all jump on the phone and tell their families. Two days later they were usually back on the phones telling them it had changed. I don’t like withholding info from my wife, but I know that it is in both of our best interests. I’m sure it will be a learning experience for her too and next time, God forbid, she will know what to expect, and if she wants to know everything, she has only to ask me. Get this, I am about to hit a milestone. I am looking at my word counter on Microsoft Word document and THIS is my 20,000th word in my blog. I appreciate everyone following and reading. I’m up to 21 followers now also. You keep reading and I’ll keep writing. Well that’s basically it for all of my Pre Mobilization posts. Like I’ve said many times, I took nearly 450 pictures during the PreMob and most of them are on my Facebook. If you have any other questions about the process or if you think I left something out let me know via blog comment, email or any other method you want. I will write again soon as we do have some things going on now.

Killing Time (And Ankles) - 14 March 2009 - 1050

Well, it sounds like the piece that we are waiting on to come in before we can leave for Leatherneck is scheduled to come in on Monday. We will probably leave shortly after that. It’s pretty disappointing as we are becoming pretty content with our area. The construction here on KAF is out of control. They are building new structures and renewing old ones everywhere around the clock. The main drag that runs through post is closed right now and it looks like they are preparing it to be paved. They are putting up tons of mobile home type housing units down near Southpark. They put in 8, that I have seen, trailers here on Southpark. We aren’t sure yet but we are pretty sure they are latrine and shower trailers. It would be nice if they put in a laundry trailer. If we had a vehicle, even if that was a Gator, a quad or even a bike, this place would be downright livable. One thing that I’m not sure if I have mentioned is that almost every road in KAF is hard dirt mixed with big rocks. In our “Day 2 Briefs” we were told by the medical rep that one of the most common problems they see in their office is twisted ankles. Until you wear combat boots and walk, at minimum, 5 miles a day on rock, you have no idea how many times you almost eat gravel. Another thing that I should stress is how hard it is to look cool when you are tripping all the time and God forbid, falling down. I’ve heard several stories of our guys seeing people falling down but I have only seen one guy. This guy didn’t even fall on rocks. He was walking down the stairs at the boardwalk with Tim Horton’s coffee in hand and came tumbling down. On the bright side he miraculously saved the coffee. On the not so bright side, probably 100 people watched this guy during one of his finer moments, I’m sure. In my last post, I didn’t mean to imply that no one was reading, nor was I fishing for comments. I do appreciate everyone reassuring me, however, on my blog or Facebook that you are, in fact, reading it. I’m trying to find new ways to keep myself entertained around here, which isn’t a good thing since we have a lot of time left. I’ve found a couple of ways that seem to be constructive. The first is I am starting to put together a slideshow with the pictures I have taken so far. When it gets closer to the end of our tour I’m going to go around and gather other people’s pictures as well and see if I can’t put something decent together. Secondly, if for those of you who know too much about me, you may know that I am a Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Excel junky. I’m taking some of the pictures that I have taken and redrawing them in paint. I’m having some problems with the formatting right now, but I’ll get it figured out. Here is one that I have done just to brag up my work. I have one that I thing is way better, but I figured, at least this one is a Corvette and not an Anime character. That has to make it less nerdy, right? I know you may be saying “You have too much time on your hands.” Your right! As for Excel, I make spreadsheets for everything; Tracking Fantasy Football stats, tracking Physical Fitness Test data and about anything else that is unnecessary. I make them as complicated as I can filled with formulas and conditional formats and whatnot. You may be saying to yourself “Get a life.” I say “I know right!” I, of course still play way too many video games and have started to get into a movie kick. In case I have haven’t explained the location of KAF well enough, we are in a valley on the foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains. Today is March 14th and it is supposed to get up to 90 degrees… IN MARCH… IN THE MOUNTAINS. If I haven’t explained Leatherneck, from what I have heard and seen pictures off, it is in the middle of the desert. It will be like Kuwait again. That place is going to be out of control HOT in June/July. I can’t event wait. I’d also like to address the fact that I AM getting your emails. I’m not responding to them however because there just isn’t enough time to write everyone. The internet at the Boardwalk is hit and miss and the Internet /Phone center is usually busy and has a 30min max time limit. I just wanted to reassure you that I am getting them except I think my dad said he was writing and I haven’t seen anything from him except the feedback on my blog page. It’s just far easier to write these blog posts in my tent and copy them to a flash drive or take my laptop to the Boardwalk and copy/paste them to BlogSpot. Each blog takes me anywhere from 30 min to an hour to write and the copy/paste takes like 1 min and that allows me to address everyone at one time. Health update: rash on hand – subsiding, wrist – achy again, whatever made me sleep for 36 hours a couple weeks ago – hasn’t returned, permanent “Soldier tan” on hands and face – out of control. I have the tannest (most tanerer?) hands for a pasty white boy on the planet. I have a pretty sweet ring band under my wedding ring too. One last note, when I finally get to Bastian/Leatherneck, I have promised myself that I won’t be so bitchy about the post on here the first few days like I have been at every other location. I’ll give it a few days to soak it all in before I start bashing it. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to bitch about our mission because it still sounds ridiculous. Also, if you don’t read the comments on here, Sarah Cates, SGT Fasse’s girlfriend, said she spoke with him about the internet down there. There is internet on Bastian right now, which is kinda far away from what I understand, but they are hoping to have internet on Leatherneck within the next 2 months. I’m sure it won’t be Roadrunner, but if I can get on here for a few seconds every now and again to post, I’d be happy with that.

Countdown to Bastian/Leatherneck - 12 March 2009 - 1500

And then we were 6. The rest of the guys finally made it out last night. There was word that they were scheduled incorrectly again but our Movement guy went down and straightened it out. When I got back to the tent last night at around 2000 I was told that the Commander had called and wanted one of the other guys who stayed back and me to get on the flight last night and come down since they are evidently hurting for numbers. I was gunna be a little on the pissed off side if I was only going to get an hour to pack and leave. I wouldn’t care if I had to go down to Leatherneck at any point now, I would just like some heads up as my plan is to be here for a little while and I’m not really ready. A few of us were down at the Boardwalk the other night and we saw that a couple of the guys who were down in Leatherneck had updated their Facebook statuses. That was a good sign that they had obviously found a source of internet down there. I won a hat last night from Tim Horton’s. It’s kinda cool. That brings my total to like 2 donuts, 5 or 6 coffees, and a hat won. We are still hearing horror stories from out in Leatherneck about what our mission is going to be. Again I can’t get into details but it’s getting people pretty fired up. Our tent here, now, is spacious and empty. We have six people in a tent that can hold 40. We are loving it, but I hear that it’s not going to last long for two of us. They couldn’t get us on that flight last night, but they are trying to get us on the next one which is rumored to be Saturday at the earliest, plus you have to figure in a couple extra days after our flight gets cancelled. SPC Taylor and I had to get up early yesterday morning and take a drug urinalysis. I was telling everyone that I was relatively concerned with the results as I am fairly certain Tim Horton’s secret ingredient is Crack. Being here so far has been pretty sucky, but the perk has got to be the untaxed pay and minimal spending. I talked to my wife the other night and had her call the bank that financed my car to find out the buyout cost. She found out for me and I had her send in a check for the amount. In a month or so I’m going to do the same thing with my student loans and I will be square with the world. One of the perks that you lose out on when you take a Federal position while in the Army is Student Loan Repayment. The Army will repay up to $20,000 in student loans but when you take a job like I have you lose it. It will be pretty nice, however, to return home with no debt except that of paying back the $15,000 for my bonus that they are recouping. They take out a small amount out of all my paychecks so I’m not real worried about that one. While in KAF, I’ve been able to chat with my wife almost when ever I’ve wanted. It has made the separation more bearable for both of us. Our coms will probably get a lot more infrequent once I leave here, so I’ll probably have to get used to that for a while. The time really does seem to be going pretty quickly. I have a hard time believing its already mid-March. I’ve noticed no new people are following my blog and the comments have slowed, but I’m going to assume that everyone is still reading. I think writing this and knowing that people back home have a better idea of what’s going on has been helping as well. If you see a large void in my writing, don’t fear. I’m going to write whenever I can and then dump them all on the page at once whenever I get to the internet. I’ve heard that the internet is a bit of a walk down in Leatherneck, but I’ve been walking to the Boardwalk, usually twice a day, two miles round trip, the whole time I have been here. I can’t see it being farther than that. If it is, I will probably only get down there once a day or every other. It really just depends on what we have going on down there, which from what I hear, is quite a bit of crap. I just keep thinking, with all the crap that I’m hearing with our makeshift mission and our Battalion cell, that this is a great way for the Army to lose 46 Soldiers after this deployment.

Strike 4 - 10 March 2009 - 0015

I really do hate writing about the same thing over and over again but I feel like I just have to document the absurdity. So, about half the guys that remained on KAF were scheduled to fly down to Bastian tonight. They packed up and left for the Flight Line. One of the remaining 6 went with them to assist while the other 5 stayed back in the tent and took the opportunity to spread out. We now had 6 guys in a 40 man tent. The Army had finally gotten something right. I joked, as we moved our stuff to different parts of the tent and set up forts with pieces of the remaining beds, that we had better hurry because the guys should be back soon. We set up and started settling down for the night. I decided to throw in a movie. With about 15 min left, who should come through the door but the guys who were supposed to have left. They were told…. mechanical malfunctions. It just never gets old. They will be here now at least for a couple more days. Good part for them is that they are bringing their pallet back down to the tents so they can have their clothes and stuff while they wait. I believe that takes the running total to 4 flights between Fort Sill, OK and Bastian that have been canceled. I’m still not sure how long I will be here in KAF. I hope I’ll be here a few days after they leave to enjoy some space for a while. Still nothing but bad reports coming out of Leatherneck about the living and the group sent down to baby sit us. Meanwhile back on KAF they are building away down on Southpark. A new DFAC is scheduled to open down here soon. They are also putting in several trailers. I’m not sure yet if they are showers, latrines or maybe laundry facilities. Also, I just found out today that there are porta-potties down here too. I went in one today and it looked like it just came off the assembly line, it was surreal. That’s really about all I have for today. My new bed set up is the bomb. Everyone just moved in around me. I volunteered my space back but they said it was ok. I think I’m going to let a Local National type my next blog. At least it would be entertaining and different.

Heads or Tails - 08 March 2009 - 2200

You know, I’m always caught off guard by how much time has passed between each of my blog entries. I was really surprised to see that there was a 3 day gap between this and my last post. I thought it was 1. The days all mesh together here. One day is just like the last. There is nothing special that happens on the weekends, as of right now, that helps to distinguish them from weekdays. I guess off of the 400 day(ish) order sending us over here, we have completed something like 102 already. One thing I like doing over here, which isn’t necessarily a good habit, is listening to other people’s conversations. I don’t mean to drop eves, we are just in such tight quarters, you really can’t help it. Today I heard an exchange in the shower trailer between two guys who I believe were in the Air Force. They had obviously noticed that they shared a common schedule at some point as they asked each other for their first names. One of the guys asked the other how his Sunday morning was going, to which the other replied something to the effect of “Just another day in paradise”. That sort of response is pretty common in the Army. One of them mentioned that on a Sunday morning back home he would be sitting on the back porch reading the paper watching the sun rise. The other guy responded that only 40 Sundays to go and they would be home, to which the other replied “I never looked at it that way. That doesn’t sound too bad. You just made my day.” It’s little things like that that can keep a guy going over here, simply looking at how much time you have left in a different way so it seems like less. Another thing I can’t help but overhear are peoples calls back home. I think it’s interesting hearing some of our big tuff guys talking to their kids. It’s a side Soldiers don’t let out often. Well, we aren’t getting any good reports from the guys down in Leatherneck. Since we are so far “Away from the Flagpole” they sent down a group of people from Kandahar from our Battalion and from the Brigade to watch us. Being away from the flagpole just means away from your headquarters basically, out from under the watchful eye. Well I guess they weren’t going to allow that. The sent down a few people to watch us but didn’t think of any of the logistics for keeping them there. So out of the 5, supposed to be 10 man tents or less, 1 goes to the 4 girls (lame), 1 goes to the cell they sent to watch us, which leaves 42 people for 3 tents. While here in Kandahar we were told to make out lists of things that we wanted for amenities and such while in Leatherneck. They basically said money is not a big deal. We put on all sorts of stuff from LCD TVs to refrigerators to beds. The only thing that I’ve heard that they actually said “Dream on” to was our beds. We will be once again sleeping on cots. So instead of being 8 deep on beds in a 10 man tent, we will be at least 14 deep on cots. I haven’t personally spoke with anyone down there as I didn’t buy a cell phone over here like a lot of people did and no one has been on the internet since they left (a bad sign), but I’m hearing now that the latrines and showers are just like here on Southpark, only CoEd, not sure how they are doing that. The British version of a PX, Naafi I believe, isn’t stocked very well either I hear. Food I heard is good and within walking distance, although living here I’ve learned walking distance is a relative term. You can walk just about anywhere with enough time. So back to the cell they sent to watch us. From what we are hearing it sounds like they are going to be a pain in the ass. One report today we heard that they were making our guys build them desks. I can’t go into detail, OPSEC, as to what they are having us do, but I will say that for the first couple weeks it won’t be running an ASP. I will also say that its bullshit and exactly the reason, why when we were told that we didn’t have a mission while in Ft Sill, that many of us said we shouldn’t beg to go and to be careful to just volunteer us for “a mission” when a specific ammo mission wasn’t available. But what do I know. Also the cell, from what I hear, is making us come up with a training schedule for each day while we are there to make sure that we are busy. Our training is that we will be running a damn ASP. We trained for the last 6 months. I know I’ve never been to war before, but I’m pretty sure you don’t do training schedules. You do your job and you go back to the tent. I told SPC Hartwell, who periodically reads my blogs, that I went back and read my old posts and decided I needed to write some good stuff like “On the Brighter Side” but that it was quite a bit shorter than the bad stuff. I said “I write too much of the bad stuff” to which he replied “Really? I think you leave too much of it out”. It’s hard not to be negative with so much crap going around. Hopefully I’ll be able to explain more about what we are going to be doing later. About half of us who remain in KAF (Kandahar Air Field), are leaving for Leatherneck tomorrow, if the plane isn’t broke. That will leave just a handful of us back here in KAF, including me. My group is basically waiting on one item to show up before we leave. I know I say this as I’m leaving each post, but I’ll kind of miss KAF. Minus the walking and the bathroom facilities, which won’t improve, this place isn’t half bad. I’d take a rocket attack every once in a while over being out in BFE (won’t go into that acronym for you who don’t know it) with no amenities like internet or a decent PX. I’m sure I’ll adapt though. The flip of a coin decided us in Leatherneck instead of Kandahar over the 826th Ordnance Company. They stay in 4 man rooms, in hardside buildings which are piped with the internet, right next to the DFAC and Boardwalk. They also get a really nice ASP, where we are going to get a freaking GP Medium tent as an office and be overstuffed in a tent on cots. Damn the luck. BTW, today marks the 1 month period for us being overseas. Just another trivial mark that makes me feel a bit better.

Parting Ways - 05 March 2009 - 2200

So we were thrown a little bit of a curveball last night after I submitted my post. Turns out they were able to get the group that was going down to the FOB on a flight at 0530 this morning. So they got up and went down to the Flight Line, only this time, for some reason, the bus was allowed to pick them up in front of the tents. Who knew. I didn’t find out until later as SPC Taylor and I left for the ASP at about 0700 but they did make their flight and are currently in their new home. With most of them already down there, I’m sure the word is out back home so I think it would probably be alright for me to say where we are going. West of here, around an hour’s flight away, is a small group of FOBs. The central FOB is known as Camp Bastian, It is a British post. Surrounding it are 3 smaller FOBs: Leatherneck; where the US Marines are held up, Shoreback; where the U.S. Special Forces are, and Tombstone; not really sure who is there. We are one of only a couple Army Units in the area, which will have its perks and drawbacks. One of the perks would be that we are off kind of doing our own thing away from the watchful eye of 1000 officers. That can also be a drawback though. Out of sight out of mind can’t get you forgotten about sometimes. The early reports from down at Leatherneck, which is where we will be, is that the chowhall is close and is 5 times better than the best day here. Also, our tent area is brand new and right by shower, laundry and latrine trailers. I hope they are like the ones we had at LSA. I’m tired of having people watch me make brown. Our living arrangements will not be in hardside buildings like we had hoped, but in a tent just like the one we are in now. The difference is that the one we are in now is actually two set back to back. I hear we will have 6 tents with about 8 guys per, which isn’t horrible. Worst part is that we are back to sleeping on cots. The girls, all 4 of them, get their own tent which is a sham deal. When we were mobilized to Ft Riley in 02-03 (the one where we never really went anywhere), we slept in an airplane hangar for 2 months, about 400 people deep, on cots with male and female all intermingled. I get tired of all the equality crap and them getting all the freaking special treatments. Barriers can be, and will be, put up in the rooms to cordon off everyone’s area anyway. That’s more than we got in the hangar. Anyway, so now there are only 13 of us here in Kandahar. SPC Taylor and I went out to the ASP today to work with their SAAS Control Section. Again, SAAS is the Army’s ammo tracking system. We were again reminded all day of what we missed out on by getting bumped off the Kandahar job and moved to Bastian. The group that is running the ASP out here was actually in Ft McCoy doing the same training we were at the same time. They are the 826th Ordnance Company out of Illinois. We were grouped up with them a lot in McCoy since we were doing the same things at the same time. Every job has a number and letter designator called an MOS. An Ammo Specialist is 89B. About 90% of the guys with us on this deployment are 89Bs. (Bravos) We also brought some 63Bs which is a mechanic. The guys in the ammo field that run the SAAS system are 89A’s. (we call them Alphas) It is a brand new MOS. They used to just have the B’s do everything but they found that the SAAS operators needed more specific training so they created the A’s. We were supposed to have 4 A’s with us but since it is so new, we didn’t have anyone who was qualified to do it, so they picked a few guys who were computer savvy and sent them to a 2 week course to figure out as much as they could. I am the leader of that group. I’ll talk about that class in the next PreMob post. So since don’t have an extensive background in the system, our Chief sent us out to work with the 826 89As at the ASP today. (Amazingly enough, something like that rolls right off our tongue and everyone knows exactly what you are talking about) I’ll save you all the details but I’ll just say it was a slow day. Everyone in the 826 was cool and ready to show us what they knew, and SPC Johansen and PFC Kimberly, their 2 A’s, were especially helpful. SPC Taylor is kind of our “In-house I.T. guy”. He will be working with their I.T. guy over the next day or two on some stuff they have going on out there, but I don’t think I’ll be going back out, only because there just isn’t much going on, to no one’s fault. We still are unsure of when the rest of us will be heading down to join the group, but it should be within a week or so hopefully. It will be nice to finally get to work. It should help the days go by quicker. For all of you who were asking for my address, I’ll put it at the end. My mail will actually be going to Bastian even though I’ll be here in Kandahar a while longer. I figure even if someone mailed something to me today, I should still beat it down there. I hear that it takes about a week for something to get to Kandahar and a few days past that to get down to Bastian. Thanks again for all the words of encouragement and support from back home.
SSG Cody Christ
295th Ordnance Company
FOB Bastian/Leatherneck
APO AE 09355

Twilight Zone - 05 March 2009 - 1530

So ¾ of our Platoon was scheduled to leave today. Bags were repalletized and shipped down to the Flight Line. When it was time for everyone to load up, they had to walk back out to the road since buses still can’t come into Southpark for some reason. They loaded up the bus and rode off to their flight. Out of my squad of 9, only 3 were flying down today. There was one plane which was going to make two flights down and back since it is only about an hour flight. Around 30 min after they left for the Flight Line, several of the guys staying back started receiving phone calls from the leaving group saying they were on their way back to the tent because the plane was, in fact, “broke”. Are you kidding me with all these damn broken planes? This is at least the 3rd flight that has been “broken” since we started this mess. The Air Force must have the worst kempt planes in the world. Luckily we weren’t turning in the 2 other tents until the morning so everyone was able to keep their same bed. Once they leave, which now sounds like Saturday at the earliest, the girls will all be out of their tent, and the guys from the other tent will consolidate with us. Oh btw, they girls had to move out to Southpark about a week ago. They needed the housing for units coming in which were staying on Kandahar. Sweet justice! At the Tim Horton’s coffee shop they are having a promotional game solely for Kandahar. On every large coffee cup you have a chance to roll up the paper cup lip and win a prize. They are giving away 6000 coffees and donuts, 1000 Tim Horton’s baseball caps, 60 laptops and 5 $1000 cash prizes. It started about a week ago. I have so far won a couple coffees and a donut. PV2 Mead, a private in our Platoon, won a laptop the other night. Since he already had one he sold it to SSG Baker, another Soldier in our Platoon for $500. I keep trying to win though as I’m fairly certain they put crack in their coffee and donuts. The line in front of the shop is always at least 20 people deep. There is a Green Bean coffee shop about 2 shops down and no one is ever in there, even though Green Bean is pretty decent too. No one on post has won a $1000 prize yet but about 15 laptops have been given out, mostly to Canadians. They have a big prize board out in front of the shop for the lap tops and cash. A last word on Tim Horton’s (unless I win big later), I’m not sure what they are offering their employees to leave Canada and come work at a coffee shop in Kandahar Afghanistan, but they have a full staff of attractive college age girls. Money must be darn good. Tomorrow, SPC Taylor and myself are going to start working out at the ASP here on Kandahar a bit. Our specific specialty, the computer system that tracks the ammo, is a very perishable skill. We will more than likely just watch them do a few transactions and play ping pong and watch movies. Not sure for how long I will be doing that but it will be good to actually have something to do. We were given our basic load of ammo last night. The ammo that every Soldier is issued is called their Basic Load. A Basic Load for an M16A2 Rifleman is usually 210 rounds with intermittent tracer rounds. It comes out to 7 30 round magazines for each Soldier. Now would not be a good time for someone to go “Postal.” I have been doing a pretty crummy job of putting pictures in lately. A: I haven’t been taking many, and B: I can only upload what the internet allows. Service on the Boardwalk is slow but decently reliable with not many disconnections. Check back on some of the more recent posts though as I will try and add some pics to them. Oh, also, I now have a small rash on the back of one of my hands. This country is the greatest. It’s like I’m falling apart at the seams. Wrist is way better though. Didn’t end up taking any meds for it, just laid off the heavy lifting where I could.

On the Brighter Side - 03 March 2009 - 2230

After reading back through some of my posts, I have come to realize that many of them are negative. I seem to bitch more than anything. This deployment and my career aren’t all horrible. As I said at the end of my last post, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Army, and not just literally. The Army is a good stable source of income, I travel for free a lot (to places better than Kandahar), and a string of crummy Army related events lead me to my wife. In Aug of ’04 I was in the PreMob process in Hastings, NE. I was to deploy with them to Camp Arifjan Kuwait for 1 year. I was with another girl at the time who was in the 295th as well. We met in ’02 when we Mob’d to Ft Riley only to be sent home. One day while trying to save a child from a burning building I was injured and forced to miss the deployment. Na, the truth was I was messing around with a multi-tool and cut the tendon out of my right hand middle finger. During the time she was gone I went to work for the 295th working part time as I have also previously mentioned. With about 2 months left of the tour, I received a “Dear John” email. Missing the deployment though meant that I was able to attend my cousin Nathan’s wedding. It was here that I found my future wife. I grew up in Ainsworth, NE where my cousin and his wife’s family also lived. One Fourth of July her family came up to visit. I was good friends with her family from Ainsworth and had been invited to the lake with them. She caught my eye there, but the timing was not good for a few reasons. She disappeared for 4 years and reappeared at Nate and Jessica’s wedding. At this time we both were living in Lincoln, so when I got back I looked her up and we went on from there. I owe the makers of that multi-tool my wife and my job. Without staying home I would not have been in position to take over my civilian job. I’ve also made a lot of friends through the Army, a lot that are short term, but many that I will keep after I leave the service. The Army also brings me a great deal more respect than I’m sure sometimes that I deserve. I’ve learned valuable life skills that a person would be hard pressed to come across elsewhere. I’ve also been instilled with a set of values that apply not only to the Army, but to life. Punctuality is another trait learned in the Army. If I am 10 min early, I’m 5 min late. If my wife is 5 min late, we are right on time. One of the things I am really hoping for on this deployment is the opportunity to interact with Soldiers from other countries. Kandahar is quite the grab bag of nations and I have had a few interesting talks with some colorful Canadian characters. In our next location I know that there will be Danish and Brits as well as just a hand full of Americans. I am hoping to talk one or two of them into doing some kind of interview on their view on the war and such to post on here. I also would like to swap a uniform with one of them. Just kinda be cool to have a British uniform. I may also start doing a “Profile Segment” with various members of our Platoon too let everyone know the kind of guys I’m spending the year in uncomfortable close quarters with. Maybe we can all learn some interesting facts, such as: I am fairly certain that I am the only person in my Platoon who voted for President Obama. I’ll sit down one of these days and make up an interview sheet and maybe get that going, no promises.

Happy Anniversary 02 March 2009 2215

Well, we are still here in Kandahar. It sounds like in the next day or two about ¾ of the Platoon will be heading down to our final stop and the rest will remain here for, what we are being told now, approximately another week to round up extra equipment and complete various other tasks that need to be accomplished. I will be in the crew that stays behind. I haven’t blogged in a few days as one day is much like the next. Some come with a briefing, some come with random things to move. For most people each day consists of 3 meals (2 mile round trip walk each), a bit of PT (physical training), a coffee run to either Green Bean or Tim Horton’s, naps, and a fair amount of video gaming. The mood of the Platoon has shifted a bit from being angry about being jerked around to a bit of tension from within our ranks. There have been several disturbing trends that I have observed over the last few weeks. The first is that as we become accustom to our base, people are finding little secrets and tricks and not only are they not telling everyone about it, they deliberately withhold the intel. I’ve witnessed this on several occasions. Secondly people perpetually judge each other for what they decide to do with their free time. We have groups that work out to kill time, we have groups that play video games, we have groups that watch movies, some sleep, and some spend their time trying to stay in touch with those at home. Some just grow mustaches. It’s trivial and superficial right now, but I can see the groups steadily factioning off. Hopefully when we get to finally go to work in a couple weeks things will level off. Today we had a formation with several units here on Kandahar. 1 SGT got promoted to SSG, several Soldiers got various awards, and one unit got their Combat Patches. Whenever you are deployed during wartime operations overseas, you receive a patch for your right sleeve. It is the insignia of the Command you fall under while deployed. Some people have several that they can choose to wear as they have been deployed under several different Commands. Whenever it is mentioned to our Platoon that we will be getting ours soon, the consensus of all those who already have one is “Who cares”. The answer is I care. They take for granted the amount of shit dealt out in certain crowds to someone with a bare sleeve. Being able to show that I was actually a part of this war, did my job and served my role in the Army is something that I will be proud off. It was one of the contributing factors when deciding whether or not to come on this deployment in the first place. Being in my civilian position, I have a small amount of pull with the “Powers that be”. Being considered a valuable piece of the rear detachment, I was asked on several occasions whether or not I wanted to deploy. I had an out; I really just needed to say the word. I had people willing to go to bat for me if I wanted to go, or if I wanted to stay. One of the major factors was that combat patch. I attend a lot of conferences around the US with a lot of high ranking brass. Being the lowest ranking individual there is hard enough. Being one of the very few who has not been deployed, even once, makes it worse. I know I’m not alone in my desire to get one as I have spoke with at least one other Soldier privately who expressed his desire to receive one. We will be getting one soon. It will be the patch of the 101st Airborne. Seeing as how the 101st will be leaving the theatre soon, we will also fall under their replacement while we are here. That means I should have the option to wear 2 different patches, although I’m pretty sure I’ll wear the 101st. The 101st is a very well known and respected Division in the Army. Tonight we decided to go to the Boardwalk, as is the norm. Over the past few days they have been building up the hockey rink. They moved in more generators for lighting, built a large press box and repainted the whole rink. Tonight we found out why. Every year the team that wins the Kandahar Cup gets to play Team Canada. Team Canada is actually a bunch of retired NHL players who tour around and play in exhibition games for the troops. Right as the game was starting and the announcers were announcing player’s names, a dust storm blew through. It took visibility down to less than 10 feet at times and was hard on, not only laptops, but also ears, eyes and noses. They played through it for about 30 minutes before it finally cleared up for good. It was a pretty entertaining game from what I saw and Team Canada actually lost for the first time since they started touring 3 years ago. I find that most of my time is spent chatting with my wife on Skype or playing video games. When the internet is up I play a bit of Mob and Mafia Wars on Facebook (join my groups!). When I don’t have the net, i.e. whenever I am in the tent and don’t feel like walking a mile plus, I play Oblivion, Morrowind, Halo, and a few others. I haven’t been working out really but all the walking is adding up. I’m losing a bit of weight from all the walking and also from the fact that the DFAC is too far away and sometimes it’s not worth it to walk down and eat. I usually skip a meal a day, which is ok for now as we really aren’t working. We also had a meeting with a CSM (Command Sergeant Major) today. The E-4s and below spoke with him first, then we all came in and had briefs from a few people, and finally it was the E-5s and up turn with the CSM. His section was (for my group) about how to be a better leader. He was a very good speaker but after a while it seemed like he was rambling with some unconnected thoughts. The other briefers were from the Retention Cell. How I usually explain it to new troops, Recruiters get you in the Army, Retention keeps you in. They did their pitch about why we should reenlist and went on their way. The odds of them talking me into reenlisting right now are pretty slim to none. I have a pretty bad taste in my mouth from this deployment and from my first 2 contracts I signed with the Army. I have not only not received a bonus for either contract I have signed, but I have lost $4700. My first enlistment I got no bonus, where others in the same job field were getting several thousand dollars just for signing. On my second contract I received $15,000 for signing up for 6 more years. One stipulation to keeping that bonus was that I did not take a Civilian Mil-Tech job in the first 6 months of that contract. The retention personnel told me that it was 6 months from the date I signed it; it was actually 6 months from the “effective date” of the contract. I signed in August of 06 but it didn’t take effect until Feb of 07. I took my Civilian position in June. When the Army gives you a bonus, or any money it is taxed, so when you sign up for $15,000 you actually get more like $10,300. When you pay it back, they want back the whole $15,000. I was given a memo by my Retention personnel stating that they miss informed me and I submitted a packet to fight the recoupment, to no avail. So why Happy Anniversary? Today marks the 8th year to the day that I have been in the Army. My original contract was 8 years. If I hadn’t reenlisted I could have jumped ship today, if I wasn’t on a deployment. I don’t regret joining the Army, and I mean that. I would not be where I am today without it, and I don’t mean Afghanistan. I’m sure I’ll dive more into that in another post.