Now We’re In Hot Water - 6 October 2009 - 2115

This very well may be the last blog I post from FOB Leatherneck. I’m not saying it’s the last one I write, or even the last I write from Leatherneck, but due to an issue that blindsided us today, I may be in radio silence from here on out. We found out today that the Marines that run the power generators out at the FASP are cutting us off tomorrow morning because “The Marines don’t support the Army.” their words, not mine. This is ironic, to say the least, since my and 4 other Soldiers job since May 16 has almost exclusively been to support the Marines at the FASP with 24 hour MHE (Material Handling Equipment; i.e. Forklift) operation. Now we have been helping MALS 40 and CLC 151 and these generator guys are a different unit within the Marines, but don’t thing that we still don’t feel a little slighted. We have yet to decide if we will try and track down a generator (which are near impossible to find) to continue our work at the FASP assisting the Marines, or essentially “taking our ball and going home.” The Navy Seabees are currently constructing the 2 buildings in which the Marines will power both, but until that point, they refuse to power our truck or tent. Construction won’t be completed until long after we leave this place. The main problem is now that when our replacement unit gets here it should be about the same time that our ammo cells are FINALLY completed, but without power they will have no place to track the stocks or generate any of the necessary paperwork. The only other task we do out there right now is escorting the various Army units into the FASP to since no one but FASP personnel can be on the access roster. Once a unit is issued ammo they just can’t take the pallets back and keep them in their living tent. A: It would be a pain in the butt, B: It would be difficult to secure, and C: some of the explosives would not be allowed in the living area anyway. Thus, all the ammo is stored at the BLAHA (Basic Load Ammo Holding Area) between the time the unit draws it from us and the time they come and get it for either a range or when they go out on missions. They have to be escorted on to the FASP though so they don’t stop off at one of the many cells and grab some cool stuff that isn’t theirs. The only thing that could be done, if we stopped work out there, is to make the Marines escort them. Like I said, we still don’t know what’s going to happen.
In other news, last week SGT Trimble and I heard that there was a place down on LSA 2 that had the AFN network and showed NFL games on Sunday nights. We wondered down there at around 2115 and peaked in a couple tents until we found the one we were looking for. LSA 2 is predominantly Marines. We found the TV in the Marine Chaplain’s tent. It was a nice big, probably 46ish’’, LCD. There were only 3 guys in there watching too. They had cots set up to sit on as well as bean bags. They also had all sorts of snacks to include popcorn. Last week we only stayed for the first half of the Patriots/Falcons game since it was so late, but it was glorious. Being able to do something normal like that is always a boost to morale. This week when we went there were a couple more guys in there. We bounce back and forth between the Colts/Seahawks game and the Patriots/Ravens game. This time when halftime rolled around, we decided to finish out the games. We really wanted to stay for the Jets/Saints game, but by that time it was already 0100 and we figured we should probably sleep at some point. Plus, the room filled up with Cowboys fans and we knew we would be hard pressed to get them to change it from the Cowboys/Broncos game. So when we got back to the tent I decided it was already really late so I might as well shower and shave to save some time in the morning, when I knew I would be draggin’. For a couple months after I got back from R&R I was going to bed between about 2030 and 2100. I’ve lately been pushing that farther and farther but I’ve been pretty tired in the mornings. Anyway, so I went to shower only to discover that the water was a balmy 33 degrees. That’s estimation of course. I wanted to guess lower but beyond that it would have been solid ice. It was the coldest shower I can ever remember taking. To make matters worse it’s been getting cooler here, probably down to the upper 50’s at night, and the AC in the shower tent was on full bore. The shower facility was one thing this whole deployment that they just never got figured out. The water was always cold and the bladder was usually empty in the morning before they would come refill it; that is until about a week ago. A few days back they removed the single water bladder that supplied water to the shower tent and replaced it with 3, X gallon vats. Additionally, the very next morning after my ice shower, they installed a HUGE water heater. I showered tonight and almost had my skin melt off. I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror at my chest and back which were scaldy red, and thought “How wonderful!” This place, from a base standpoint, is really coming around. The only things we are missing down here that a base like Kandahar has are fast food joints (minus the Pizza Hut on Bastian 1), an MWR or USO recreation tent, paved roads and modular housing. There are probably more amenities that I’m not thinking of, but those are the ones that stand out to me. We are still crammed in pretty tight here on Leatherneck, but I’m fairly certain that it’s a theatre wide problem with the massive troop surge that we were on the front edge of.
Just in case this is my last post while I’m on this little slice of heaven, I kind of wanted to sum up the base as a whole, similarly to the way I did with KAF when I left there. This will be stuff that the unit replacing us would possibly be curious about, as well as any other inbound units.
Moondust: I’m not sure how the rest of Afghanistan is but when the ‘120 days of wind’ or whatever it was rolls around, this place is the suck. It rained quite a bit in the early months. The last day I believe it rained was April 14th. With the exception of a 15 min sprinkle on June 14th, we never saw rain again. The moondust on Leatherneck has been reduced quite a bit with the rocking of the roads, but out at the FASP it’s still out of control. Be prepared for a dusty stay. Stock up on WetOnes, air duster and screen wipes.
Chow: The food has gotten progressively better. The new chow hall is 100 times what our old one was. It draws in a large crowd even from the other surrounding FOBs. As for the other FOBs, the Cookhouse on Bastian 2 is pretty big and nice too. Only problem is it’s a ways off Leatherneck and the Brits only let you have one portion of one meat. In the American chow hall on LSA 2 they will give you as much food as you want. The chow hall on Bastian 1 isn’t really worth hitting up. Food is average, the tents are crappy and again, only 1 meat. The good things about Bastian 1 are the Pizza Hut, the NAFI (British PX) and Bizarre that shows up ever Tuesday. If you work at the FASP, the Marines have been sending a truck to one of the chow halls and bringing back large containers of food for everyone who works out there; MALS 40, CLC 151 and 295th alike. There is also a new chow hall opening up by the flight line soon, but if you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know how that goes.
Internet: Nothing was more frustrating, amenity wise, while we were here than the internet situation. First we had nothing. Then a computer lab opened up on LSA 1. Then it closed down. Then it reopened a month or so later on LSA 2. There are also internet labs on Bastian 1 and 2, both by their respective chow halls. Towards the end of the tour people found out that you could use the sim cards for our phones in a modem and get wireless internet that way. It is VERY slow and VERY inconsistent, but it’s absolutely better than nothing. At the TOC we have NIPR lines so you can access a few sights from the commands laptops if they aren’t using them. Out at the FASP we have the VSAT. You can access even less with that (only https websites) but its 10x faster than the NIPR. The most important https website that you can access is Gmail. It has a chat function which I used to talk to my wife almost daily. If you want to know about the super secret way to get internet, send me an email.
Phones: Buy a phone in KAF!!! Or wait, buy one from us when you get here. We will actually be having a garage sale to get rid of all the things we have accumulated, which will include probably many phones. Buy phone cards in KAF. Use AWCC and not Roshan. Cell phones are not allowed on Leatherneck. Let me rephrase that. For those of you who haven’t read my earlier posts, this is a Marine FOB. (hence Leatherneck) The Marines are not allowed to have cell phones. They tried to take them away from us when they banned them, but in a compromise we were allowed to keep them as long as we only used them either in our tents, or out of site of the Marines. The only other means of calling are the DSN lines in the TOC area. There are only a couple though, so you may have to wait in line for those.
Missions: Almost no one that is here is doing what they are supposed to be doing. I’m going to get into this more in my last post, but just be aware of that.
Command: The 100th BSB is leaving shortly after we leave so I’m not sure who will be replacing them. Let me just say this; count your blessings.
FASP: The Marines we have been working with hand in hand for the last several months have been primarily cool to work with. It’s been a very interesting experience working around them and seeing how they interact amongst their ranks and do the day to day things slightly different then us. We get along great with MALS 40 and work with them almost daily. CLC 151 has been alright too. We get along alright, but they seem to keep to themselves. We get along with MALS 40 better than either of us get along with CLC 151. Like I mentioned before, when our replacement unit gets here (and we know who they are but I just can’t say) the cells should finally be done. We have 1 expando and 1 tent set up but we aren’t allowed to power either anymore. The buildings aren’t supposed to be done for quite a while. Not exactly sure how that’s going to work out for you, but good luck. Also, the terrain on the FASP is treacherous for our 6 and 10k’s, so be careful or you too could roll one. The FASP is great though. It has been like our own little world away from Leatherneck. The gym is small but pretty nice. I’ve been running a lap around the inside of the burm for a couple weeks now and I’m pretty sure it’s about 2 miles. It’s a bit hilly and moon dusty but I prefer running out there because I don’t partake in the 1000 rules that go along with PT on Leatherneck. Try these on: Must wear PT pants and shirt (no brown t-shirts), must have tennis shoes (no Chuck Taylors or the like), no sunglasses, must wear a reflective belt, run against traffic, no headphones. It’s out of control. At the FASP the Marines don’t care what we do so it’s just me, SPC McLean and CW2 Bohaty and we just do PT however we feel like. It’s a closed in compound and if anyone wants on we have to escort them anyway, so no one can sneak in on us to include the Sergeant Major and Lieutenant Colonel. I’m telling you, if I could have just lived at the FASP, I would have. I never wore my blouse, or hat, or carried my weapon around out there. Here are some of the other wonderful rules to follow on Leatherneck that I wouldn’t have had to deal with if I just lived out at the FASP. If you’re leaving the living area you must have your rifle on you or within arm’s reach at all times. If you’re going to the bathroom you can go in ACUs without your weapon. You must wear a hat but don’t have to wear a blouse to the crapper. If you are working anywhere outside the living area you must have on your hat and blouse at all times. If you are wearing your IOTV you must wear your ACH even when not in a vehicle. Reflective belts have to be worn in Forklifts. No hardhats allowed. No sunglasses in your pen holder or on top of your head; you may wear them around your neck. Your name tape must be on your patrol cap but CAN NOT be on your boony cap. If you go to the shower you can wear flip flops in your ACUs or PTs and get away with not wearing a hat or blouse. No flip flops in the smoking areas. For God’s sake, tuck in your shirt! White socks in PTs must be above your ankle bone. You must ground guide everything in the motor pool, never walk backwards but watch the vehicle you are guiding as you walk…? Welcome to FOB Leatherneck, Afgarristan.
Well, I’ve been typing for quite a while now and hopefully I get the opportunity to post this tomorrow. The next time I post I will more than likely be sipping a double double and eating a cruller. If anyone from our replacement unit, or anyone else for that matter, has any questions about the FOB feel free to email me. I haven’t been super good about responding back to people that have emailed me about this blog, but I’ll try and get a response to you as quickly as I can.

Ok So I Lied… - 2 October 2009 - 1530

Ok, I know that I said I would try and get posts up when I could and I hoped to get them up at least maybe weekly. Well, looks like I didn’t keep up with that now did I. There has actually been a ton of things going on over the last 2 months now since I wrote last. I’m not even really sure where to begin. I’ll start with the base itself. The new chow hall opened up on Leatherneck. It’s huge and stocked with way more food than was offered before. They now have a short order line (fast food basically; corndogs, hamburgers, fries) , a sandwich station where some cooks will make you a samich, a dessert line, a new fruit line (one of my favorite additions), and an ice cream station. It seats probably at least twice as many people, if not more like 4 times, but now feeds LSA’s 1, 2 and 3. I believe that LSA 4 still has a chow hall. They also actually do steak and seafood every Sunday night, the seafood usually being lobster tail or crab legs. Our motor pool/TOC area for the Army has tripled in size. There used to be a Marine compound to the East which we absorbed and a vacant lot to the west which we also absorbed. The laundry service went from up to 4 day turn around to next day. Work on our FASP is still not completed yet though. They just put in a huge new camera tower which I’m told can see for miles. They are approaching completion of the Army’s portion of the FASP, but I don’t think it will be completed while we are still here. They are also starting to work on the permanent buildings, 1 for the Army and 1 for the Marines, which will replace our office truck and the Marines office tents and trailers. Construction on base is an ever ongoing machine that keeps attempting to streamline and expand operations.
Work at the FASP has slowed drastically. We were told initially that we would be taking all equipment back with us that we brought over which included trucks, tools and other various equipment. So we washed everything and packed it up, only to find out that we, in fact, weren’t going to take anything with us. We even set up a tent at the FASP for us to work out of when our office truck as supposed to be taken down. We found that little nugget of intel the day before we tore down our truck. Now that all of our forklifts are washed and ready to be handed over to our replacement unit, they will stay over on Leatherneck and not be available for us to assist the Marines on the FASP. Once they saw we had no more forklifts, they somehow finally wrangled up one for themselves; funny how that works. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anyone that was licensed on that particular model and so it sat and collected dust for a couple weeks. In the mean time our command found us an extra forklift to use until our replacements show up. Unfortunately, when we got it, we discovered that it has a huge spike in the tire and has to be refilled constantly and can’t lift large loads. So, like I said, work has really slowed down around here. Even back on Leatherneck there isn’t much going on now that the end of our deployment is in sight. The woodshop pretty much shut down, we aren’t on tower guard anymore but we do still provide 3 guys a day to escort the Jingle trucks from the main ECP to the class 1 yard. Right now it’s as if our primary mission is to watch as many movies a day as possible. I, personally, am running low on things I haven’t seen. I’ve watch several TV series and I don’t even know how to start estimating how many movies I’ve seen. I started off watching everything that I hadn’t seen but had always wanted to. After that ran out it moved to anything I hadn’t seen and let me tell you, there were some doozies. One thing that I did organize was a Fantasy Football League. We had our draft on the 30th of August. We have all been having fun with that so far. I think out of the 10 of us participating, only maybe 4 of us have played before and out of the other 6 I’d be surprised if 1/3 of them could pick a football out of a lineup. But it’s been fun. It’s something that I really enjoy as it mixes two things that I enjoy; Football and spreadsheets. I tend to get carried away with tracking statistics, but it helps the time pass. I also started a Pick’em tournament with 7 Army guys and 1 Marine Major. Every week we pick every NFL game and Big XII game against the spread. I don’t really want to get into what place I am in in that however. About a week ago we had, what we like to refer to in the Army as, Mandatory Fun Night. That’s when the someone puts on a fun event and the leadership deems it mandatory for everyone to attend. Let me tell you, mandatory fun is a paradox. Someone ordering you to go somewhere you don’t want to be and have fun never works. Basically the Battalion threw a luau where they roasted a pig with a bunch of other food, had tiki torches set up, karaoke and the main event was several Soldiers doing traditional Hawaiian dances in traditional garb. On the surface, it sounds like something like that wouldn’t be all horrible, but like I said, if you get a bunch of people that don’t want to be there and make them be in uniform and carry their weapons, the majority are going to do their best to not have fun out of spite, even if it is. People tried to leave after the first hour of this 3 hour event and they said we couldn’t leave as an intruder was suspected to be on base. What perfectly coincidental timing for the only time that has happened since we have been here, and they just so happened to have 2 more hours of planned activities. I would rather have the ranking officer just come out and say “You’re not going anywhere. Get comfy.” than feed us that b.s..
Today we had our “End of Tour” award ceremony. As the Colonel was giving his little speech about how much we have accomplish over the last year and how our time is nearly up, that it finally set in that we are, in fact almost gonzo. Yesterday we started having our “Go Home” briefings. We still don’t know when the main body is leaving, but it should hopefully be by the end of the month. As for me, I was somehow volunteered for our advanced party back to Fort Sill. This means I’ll leave, with one other guy, a little before everyone else to make sure things are ready for them when they show up so we can get in, do what needs to be done, and finally go home. I can’t say what day I’m leaving, for security reason, but I can say that I do know when it is and that it is within the next 20 days. The time sort of snuck up on me and now I’m well within my last month of being here. I will probably post some things as I’m getting ready to leave and while I am traveling so watch for those in the days to come. It’s pretty exciting though to know that the end is so near. I was also tasked with doing our end of deployment slide show. I gathered up pictures from everyone and have been working on that. Some of the pictures seem like they were taken 5 years ago. We started this deployment September 2 of 08 and now here it is Oct 2 of 09. A lot has changed in that year, but I’ll get more into all that when I finally wrap this blog up in a month or so. I’ve been receiving a few care packages lately also. They have been much appreciated but I’m to the point now, where I’m happy to say, that you can all stop sending them. I’ll throw out some shout outs also for those who have sent me goodies when I wrap this up as well.

Back to the Grind - 5 August 2009 - 1200

I’ve been back in Leatherneck a few days now. The remainder of my stay in Ali Al Salem and Kandahar were remarkably uneventful. KAF sucked as it is insanely hot over here now and there was virtually no where to go with air conditioning that had the ability to keep up with the size of building it was cooling, or if there was somewhere it was packed to the brim with others trying to beat the heat. When I got back to Leatherneck I found my things moved into a new tent, as I knew prior that they would be. While I was gone they consolidated from 12 per tent to 20. I only had to move one tent down, which was no big deal but now there were two people living in the same area previously occupied by one. The benefit of carrying the rank that I do however allowed me to get locked into a bottom bunk even though I wasn’t there to claim it on moving day. Over the past few days one thing I have come to learn about being here is that you should expect a gradual increase at an ever compounding rate of ridiculousness. Every time someone says “Get this…” or “You will never believe…” I’m almost never surprised no matter how outlandish the news. They could be telling outlandish blatant lies and I would probably be inclined to believe them. Even though in my last entry I said the the Army Physical Fitness test was “outlawed” over here, I arrived to find out that not only was one scheduled now, but that I had to take it in 2 days. Needless to say, with no prior warning and me just coming off of a one month hiatus of sitting on my couch eating Amigos, I didn’t fare so well. I passed my push-ups and sit-ups without a problem, but failed my two mile run by 9 seconds, which wasn’t horrible considering I’ve been a bum the last month. Not to mention that in one week I finally bump up to my next age bracket, giving me an extra 24 seconds. It was no big deal though as it was just a practice test. The real test will be in two months, which I will pass with no issue because as previously stated, I’ll be working out quite a bit hopefully in the next 3 months. There really isn’t much else to report right now. I stopped in the new PX that opened up on Leatherneck and it is drastically better than the one we had prior. They are having problems keeping it completely stocked right now but it still blows our old one away by leaps and bounds. Where KAF was extremely busy when I passed through, Leatherneck seems to have taken a step back, or perhaps just spread out more. Lines to the chow hall and laundry and significantly shorter. I started working back out at the FASP again, which hasn’t changed much since I left. We hear rumors of more ridiculous taskings coming down in the near future which sounds like it will tax our work force pretty hard, to possibly include my crew. I suppose we will just deal with that as it happens. Not sure if I mentioned it in a previous entry or not, probably not, but I’m going to try and run a fantasy football league while I’m over here. We will have our draft on Sept 1st and SPC Hartwell and myself have volunteered to track stats and convert them to points manually since we will probably not be able to get everyone on the internet every week. Should be a lot of work but I really enjoy it and it should help to kill what little time we will have left.
Ok, upon going to post this I have discovered that I no longer have the ability to get this on my government laptop to upload it onto this page. I therefore was forced to retype the entire thing as my laptop with not read flash drives or even disks anymore. I force this being a problem in the future….