Leatherneck - 4 April 2009 - 1630

I arrived in Camp Leatherneck Afghanistan on Thursday evening the 2nd of April. To the best of my knowledge this will be the final stop on our tour. I said that when I got down here I wanted to wait a bit before I wrote to get a feel for the place before I jumped in and started bashing it. I arrived at around 2100 so it was dark by the time we landed. The flight from KAF was only about 30 minutes long. I traveled here with one of the guys who escorted our problem child to KAF while the other one escorted him a little closer to home. When we got here two of our guys were at the airfield waiting to pick us up and drive us back to our new “home”. At night it was hard to get a grasp on the route or where things were, but they were trying to show me the lay of the land as we drove. I knew which way was north from the moment we landed. Whenever we get somewhere new it always seems to be dark and clear. One of the first things I do when I step off the plane is to catch my bearings. It only takes about 5 seconds to locate the North Star, especially out here in the desert on a clear night and I’m good to go. As we drove they pointed out the different Camps; Bastian 1, Bastian 2 and finally Leatherneck. We didn’t drive by all of them but there are two more camps associated with the collective of camps. When we reached Leatherneck we unpacked the little baggage that we had and I was shown where all the tents in our control were including mine and my squads. The majority of my squad is staying in a tent with most of 4th squad and I am staying in what is basically the senior NCO tent. The females have their own tent as do 3rd and 1st squad. That gives us 5 total. My tent has 7 occupants right now, 8 when the escort returns. It’s not overly crowded although if the 2 that remain in KAF come down they are slated to stay in our tent. That would pack us in a little tighter. The tent is the same tent we had on Southpark as is the shower tent and the latrine tent. Plus side now is that they are both right next to our tent along with a laundry tent that I have heard most of the machines are broken in. I came in and found my cot where all my bags were waiting for me since I had sent everything down ahead of me. After I put down the baggage that I had I went and found SSG Moorhead who I had spoken to prior and had told me he was holding my care packages for me. I had 3 packages waiting for me. Two of them were from my wife and her family. They had mostly things I had asked for; jerky, face cleanser and sever other misc items that they had included. The other package was something that I had scored while I was in KAF. I wrote the Tillamook jerky company and asked if there was a way I could get a bulk order shipped to an APO since I had heard that there wasn’t much down here. One of the managers wrote me back and told me that if I sent him my address that he would “take care” of it. When I got here there was a 22 pound box filled with Tillamook jerky. I was thinking about hoarding it and keeping it a secret but the manager wanted some pictures of us with it so I’m going to have to spread the wealth, a bit. But before I ever even opened my packages my first order of business was to take off my socks. When I packed everything on the pallet I only left 2 extra pairs of socks so the ones I had got a little ripe. I wanted to go through everything I had and organize it but I was tired and decided to hit it in the morning. I made my cot up and turned in for the night. The next morning I woke up after not so great of a night’s sleep. I think sleeping on this cot is going to take some getting used to again. As I got up Chief told me to get ready and that he was going to take me on a tour of the base. I got ready and went out into the light of Leatherneck for the first time. It is a desert just as KAF or Kuwait. Way off to the North there are mountains, but unlike KAF, there are none in any of the other directions. Here, the sand is so fine that everyone refers to it as moon dust. In some spots on the road the moon dust can be over a foot deep. You drive through it and it just billows everywhere. I got a tour of Bastian 1 and 2 first. Bastian is where all of the British troops live along with small cells of other countries including some US forces. I got to see where their PX and British version NAAFI were located along with a very aesthetically nice coffee shop and a Pizza Hut. I had breakfast at the coffee shop and it was no Tim Horton’s but it wasn’t bad. We then drove back out to the flight line and then to the ASP where we will be working when it is complete. After that we doubled back around and drove back to Leatherneck. I still never really saw the other two camps but I’ve heard one is a little ways outside the wire and I’m not sure about the other. Once we were back on Leatherneck I got a little tour of our area. In main living portion it is about the size of Southpark, but they are heavily expanding and building. The chow hall, tiny PX, and computer lab are all about a 3 minute walk away and there is another chow hall about 3 minutes past that one that which recently opened. The computer lab was put in just before I got here too I guess and I went in today and it is actually pretty comparable to the one on KAF. There are no fast food joints on Leatherneck though so I’ll be eating Army food a lot more now. The Pizza Hut that was on Bastian 1 is about a 10 minute drive so it’s not something I foresee me eating all that often. What I’ve had of the chow hall food though so far it’s not that horrible. It seems to be right on par with KAF which is pretty middle of the road. The guys who have been here for over a month now came into some lumber and built all kinds of things for their tents; lofts for shelving, computer desks, and tables. I think I am going to track down some tools and either build a computer table that me and SPC Kotinek can put between our beds and both use or a loft so I can have some shelf space without taking up floor space, which may come as a premium soon. The other amenity that comes with being in the Senior NCO tent is one of our two refrigerators. The other is in our office tent, TOC (said like the word talk which is the Troop Operations Command). So far since I have been here I haven’t done a whole lot. I am still trying to get a feel for what everyone is doing. I went for a drive today to take 2 of my guys to the flight line for their leave and I have the main routes down pat already. The bases all take up quite a bit of area, but there isn’t a lot of traffic and they are pretty spread out. I’ve been told that while we were getting rocket attacks about every other night in KAF that they haven’t had a single on here. The thing about the base as a whole is that they are just now connecting them with secure routes. So now you basically have burms with razor wire on either side of a connection road between bases as all the protection we have between us and Hodgyland. Today the mail came in for the first time in about a week I guess and I had another package from my Aunt and Uncle Mike and Katie. It was filled with a bunch more junk food and some other misc things like a Husker’s Illustrated magazine. I think that I might end up getting fat over here with all the snacks I’m eating, especially since I’m not walking 6+ miles a day just to go eat. I’m gunna have to step up my workout regimen. So I now have 2 nights down and the second on the cot was no better than the first. I’m hoping they get us some beds or at least some pads of some kind. Anyway, that’s about all I know for now. Thanks to everyone for the care packages that I finally just caught up to. It’s nice to be able to sit here and eat junk from back home instead of god knows what in the chow hall sometimes. My leave dates aren’t set up yet but when I find out I’ll let people know although I probably won’t see very many of you. Sarah and I are trying to plan a little getaway, kind of a pre-honeymoon honeymoon. Oh, I have a new address now too. Evidentially that changed right before I got here as well. If you sent something to the old one don’t worry though. I have been told it will still make it here for a while. Here it is and thanks again to everyone for all the support. I’ll write again soon.
CODY CHRIST
295TH OD CO
FPO-AE 09372

pictures coming soon