Two Months Down...

So I haven't written in a while and all of a sudden I realized I have been here over two months!  Wow, the individual days seem to be long, but the weeks are going by relatively quickly, which is good.

We are now about a week and a half into the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.  It is an interesting time.  Devout followers, which the Taliban claim to be, are required to fast from sunrise to sunset.  They have adjusted the meal schedules in a couple of the DFACs to accommodate those TCNs that wish to practice their faith.  I find it interesting however that the Taliban fighters are not required to fast.  Apparently, their religious leaders issue some kind of fatwah or whatever that excuses them from fasting because they are fighting in the jihad.  It is always amazing how men will interpret religious texts to suit their own purposes.

So I have again rotated shifts and I am currently in the office from 1400-2200 each day.  These times are fine, in fact time is really irrelevant when we are on shift since we are inside looking at computer screens.  It is sort of like being in a casino and not being able to tell what it looks like outside, except they don't pump fresh oxygen into the ventilation system to keep you awake.  This shift is a little frustrating in that it does not easily match up to a time at home that is easy to call the family.  Before shift they are sleeping, and after it is the middle of the day and they are all out and about.

So I continue to pass the time.  It is amazing what Marines will come up with to pass the time.  Over at the Wing compound the Marines who man the ECP, or Entry Control Point, have probably the most boring job out here.  They sit for twelve hours at a time in a very small room and check everyones ID that comes into the compound.  To make the time go by, they have come up with a creative activity.  Each day they take a poll.  They put two choices up on the white board and everyone who passes through gets to vote.  It's usually simple things like "Coke or Pepsi" or "Beach or Mountains", but sometimes they get interesting like "would you rather have super strength, or super intelligence".  It is kind of fun to go through every day and see what they have come up with and I actually look forward to seeing what these young kids have thought of each day.

We also have been watching the Olympics of course.  We have several members of the British Armed Forces who work in the TACC with us and they have set up a TV with the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) feed of the games.  We are getting to see coverage of just about all of the various events.  Of course it is slanted towards coverage of the British athletes but that is fine.  It is actually quite fun to poke fun at each other when our teams are competing.  We can also get US coverage on our computers through a stream of the Armed Forces Network, or AFN, feeds.  All in all we are getting to see quite a bit of the games.

Well, "Go Team America"!  And I'll see you next time.  Promise it won't be a whole month before I write again this time....

A Day in the Life

So I thought I would tell you all what a typical day is like for me out here....

Right now I am on the night shift.  This means I am officially "on shift" from 2030 (that's 8:30pm) to 0430 (you guessed it, 4:30am the next day).  At first this sounds bad, but it is not all that horrible.  For starters, this means I am working during the coolest part of the day.  While the average high right now is about 104deg F, it rarely gets above 85deg at night.  Besides, I work in a nicely air conditioned space so I really don't have to worry about the heat anyway.

I typically get up around 1900 (7:00pm) and head into work.  I procured an old beat up bicycle from the guy who had this job previous to me, and I ride that to work; it's about a mile.  I drop off my gear and head over to the chow hall for dinner.  Usually I get my dinner to go and bring it back to the office to eat.  This allows me to gradually build my situational awareness about what is going on at work while I eat.  At about 2015 we do a formal turnover brief and I officially take over the watch for the next eight hours.

There is a lot of classified stuff that I deal with so I can't go into too much detail about the work I do.  But it is safe to say that I am kind of the air battle director for the Marine forces here.  I have the authority to launch aircraft on their various missions, divert them as necessary to accomplish something of higher priority, as well as launch alert aircraft that we have standing by for contingencies (such as a MEDEVAC, or when ground troops get into a firefight).  It is a lot of responsibility and there is a whole crew of Marines at various stations in the TACC (Tactical Air Control Center) to assist me.

So I manage the air campaign for the time I am on the floor and then at 0430 we do another turnover brief and I pass it on to the guy after me.  We have three officers who stand this watch, so with each of us taking an eight hour shift we are on 24/7.  After I turn over, most days I grab a quick workout.  The gym is right there in the Wing compound so I literally only have to change clothes and walk 50 yds to get there.  After my workout I head back to the cans and take a shower.  Then I settle in and maybe call my family, watch a movie or TV show, read a book, or write some emails.  I try to go to sleep around 0900-1000 at the latest so that I can get a good eight or so hours of sleep.

Pretty soon we will be switching shifts and I will rotate to the 0430-1230 shift.  I will have to deal with the heat, but it will be closer to a normal schedule with the daylight.

Take Care everyone, and I will see you soon.

Mongolian and Ice Cream

This week I thought I would talk with you all about the food here.  I am not sure if this has been on anyone's mind, but if you talk to the average Marine about a deployment to one place or another, the quality of the food is always a top priority.

The food here in Afghanistan is actually quite good.  It is run on a government contract by a company called Dyn-Corp (I think they are a subsidiary of Kellogg-Brown-and-Root, but I could be wrong).  There is a good bit of variety as well which is nice.  There are several Dining Facilities, or DFAC's, on Camp Leatherneck and each one is about the same.  The food is of course served cafeteria style and the main selection changes each day.  Once you have been here for a while though, you can start to see some repetition.

There is the ever-present Salisbury steak night with mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas.  There is also baked or fried chicken night, meatloaf, etc.  Now, those staples are served about once per week.  However, there are also some "special" nights.  Every Friday is Mongolian barbecue night.  You can pick your meat (pork, chicken, or beef) as well as all the vegetables, sauces and seasonings.  Take the pile over to the grill and they cook it up for you while you wait!  It is pretty good.  Even more popular with the TCN's (Third Country Nationals, mostly from India) is "curry night".  Every Monday they serve several different varieties of curry; I like the beef the best but they have chicken and lamb too.  The curry comes with some pretty good flatbread as well, sort of like the naan you might find in a middle-eastern restaurant.

To drink, they have several kinds of juices, milk, gatorade, and of course sodas.  However all of these, except the sodas, come in small boxes.  Like a juicebox you might find in your kids' lunch box.  They also have a "fry line" with hamburgers in case you don't care for what they are serving that day.  Additionally, there is a salad bar, a fruit bar, and a dessert bar.  They also have real ice cream every night!  It takes a lot of self discipline to stay on track with a healthy diet out here, believe me.  So far I am doing okay on that front, but it helps that my work schedule only allows me to get in there for two meals per day.  More on that next time.  For now, "Bon Appetitte" and I will see you later!

The View From Above

Yesterday I had a real treat.  I got to ride in the back of a British Army Air Corps Lynx helicopter for a tour of the area.  The British have about 10,000 total troops here in Afghanistan, most of them based right here at Camp Bastion.  Of these there is a contingent that is comprised of various helicopter aviation units.  They fill several roles including MEDEVAC, general support (moving supplies and people) Close Air Support or CAS (shooting weapons at the enemy in support of friendly troops), and scout / reconnaissance. The Lynx is a small utility helo with a crew of three and room for up to three passengers.  I got to ride along as they conducted a general  reconnaissance  mission.

My first impression was that the area is much more fertile than I at first thought.  Camp Leatherneck is very dry and dusty, but most of our operations are conducted in the Helmand River valley and this area was vibrant green.  It was dotted with small fields that have been cultivated to grow crops for feeding the people or livestock that live there.  Of course the problem these days is that a lot of these fields are being used to grow poppy and support the opium trade, and thus the Taliban.

I also noticed that the entire operating area is relatively small.  It only took us a hour to tour the entire area from one end to the other.  The airspace is thus very crowded with helicopters flitting around supporting all the myriad patrol bases that the ground troops use.  The nice thing was that it was nice and cool up in the air since the Lynx flies with the doors open like a Huey.

When we got back I had the privilege of touring the British Medevac aircraft.  The Brits have a CH-47 Chinook that they use for what we call Incident Response.  They can equip it for any number of contingencies, and here in Afghanistan they have outfitted it with a very robust medical suite.  They carry a medical team of four and a security element of four.  Their capability is remarkable; they have an anesthetist on board and they can fully sedate, intubate, and push blood plasma to a severely wounded patient all on board the aircraft.  Essentially, this eliminates the need to prep the patient for surgery upon arrival from the battlefield since they can do it en route.  This savings in time has often meant the difference between life and death for victims of IED attacks and traumatic brain injuries.  It was a very interesting tour and the crews that man these planes are incredible professionals.

So what else do you folks want to know about?  Use the comments button and fire away with any questions you might have.  Thanks and we'll see you next time!

A Vigil for the Fallen

Last evening I was able to attend a unique ceremony.  There is a very large contingent of British military forces here in Afghanistan as part of ISAF.  Each Wednesday (as needed) they hold a vigil for their fallen service members.  I have been to several of these for fallen Americans, but never for a combat loss, and never for a UK soldier.

We had actually not intended to go, but we were on the British side of the base (known as Camp Bastion) to go to the Afghan bazaar and we literally stumbled on it so we decided to participate.  It was a short, but moving ceremony.  The entire British contingent forms up in a square shaped parade formation with one side open.  Specific units form as units and march on, but alot of folks kind of fill in the ranks in the back and that is where we were.  On the open side of the square is a dais with a podium and microphone; behind that are the flagpoles with the Union Jack and the flags of the units involved, in this case it was the 1st Royal Welsh Regiment and the 3rd Yorkshire Regiment.

Once the ceremony begins, the parade is called to attention.  The companies that the soldiers served in march on and take the place of honor at the center of the square.  The Chaplain says a prayer and then two or three of the fallen soldier's friends speak briefly.  Then the Chaplain reads the Collects for the Regiments (each Regiment in the British Army has its own Collect), followed by a reading from the Gospel and a cannon salute.  The parade is then dismissed with a quote: "When you go home, tell them of us; and tell them that for their tomorrow, we gave our today".  Later on in the late evening, the companies will hold a "ramp ceremony" where they put the bodies on a plane to send them home; however, those are private ceremonies for those units.

The entire thing was less than 20 minutes but I noticed some interesting things.  The service was almost entirely out of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.  I was reminded that England does not separate Church and State the way the US does.  The Queen is the head of the Church and the head of the State, so the army only uses these services.  In the US, there are Chaplains from any and all denominations, to include Roman Catholic, protestant, Jewish, and even Muslim.

All in all it was a moving tribute and a stirring reminder of the tragedies of this war.  I was glad I attended.

Home Sweet "Can"....

I am finally settled in to my home for the next nine or so months.  The living spaces here at Camp Leatherneck (which we abbreviate LNK) are affectionately known as "the cans".  Officially, they are called Living Support Areas, or LSA's.   They are essentially modular construction type boxes set up as living quarters.  Think mobile home and you have the idea.  Each can is about eight feet wide and twenty feet long with a door at one end.  The floor is gray linoleum and the walls are grey metal.  The lighting is of course fluorescent and there is a bed and a window.  There is also an air conditioning unit, which is essential;  the weather here is already creeping just over 100 degrees and it is only June (ughh!)  There is of course a bed, but that is about it.  There is not any other furniture.  The cans are set up in two story rows of like ten cans each with maybe twenty or so rows in each LSA.  At the end of the rows they are cans that are set up as showers and bathrooms and those are fine.  Nothing fancy to be sure, but all I really do here is sleep and read so what more do you need right?

The good news is that just across the street is the exchange where I can buy rugs for the floor, a blanket or extra pillow, perhaps a small set of plastic drawers, plus various snacks and toiletries if I need to.  Along with the exchange there is a Green Beans Coffee shop (I guess Starbuck's placed too high a bid on that contract), an alterations shop if you need uniforms fixed, as well as a "morale center".  This is essentially a recreation area.  They show movies (with popcorn even), have several video gaming stations set up, pool tables, ping pong, etc. There is also a room where I can participate in the United Through Reading program where they video tape me reading to the kids and then send the DVD home for free.

Down the street from that is the chow hall.  There are actually something like six Dining Facilities, or DFAC's, aboard LNK.  One of them is right near the cans, and another is right next door to where I work so they are very convenient.  The food is extremely good too.  I am going to have to come up with a good exercise program to prevent gaining 10 pounds while I am out here!

So now you know all about the LSA's and DFAC's aboard LNK.  Don't you just love the acronyms!  Take Care everybody and I'll write more soon.

Staying Connected

Some of you may be wondering how I stay connected with my family while I am away.  There are actually a couple ways we do it.  There is of course the postal service, affectionately known as "snail mail," which we use primarily for care packages and things like that.  We primarily use email though.  When I was in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, Janelle and I would email each other 2-3 times per day.  They also have phone centers where you can use a pre-paid phone card and talk with your loved ones; or we would use the military phone system and get patched through to the states for free.  We would do this every couple days or so.  It is much more frustrating for Janelle and the kids since they cannot call me.  This means that they have to go about their normal lives and hope they don't miss a call from me.  Occasionally we would set up a time over email so I could talk with the kids too.

Technology keeps improving though, and in Afghanistan the military has set up Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the living spaces.  This means that I can email Janelle from the privacy of my living quarters, a definite improvement.  Even more than that, with Skype I can video call the family and actually see them while we talk.  This is a remarkable upgrade from just a couple years ago and so far has worked well.   Although, I still haven't quite made it all the way to my final destination yet.  They have everything set up here in Manas and my computer and iPhone both have Skype installed so everything works.

So get a Skype account if you want one, it's free, and then we can talk sometime!

A Safe, But Somewhat Rocky Start

Well, the hard part of the journey is over.  I have safely arrived at the Manas Transit Center co-located with the international airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  The weather is absolutely gorgeous with fine views of the snow capped mountains in the distance and it is actually quite hospitable.

My travel did not start off this nicely however.  I was not able to make my originally scheduled flight out of San Diego and had to bump to a later departure.  This was nice since I got to sit with Janelle and have another cup of coffee in the airport, but it created some problems.  You see, I was supposed to fly on commercial airlines to Baltimore and then catch a military chartered aircraft the rest of the way here.  Now that I was bumped I had to re-arrange everything and travel via commercial air the whole way.  This is not too big a deal except that I had to mentally adjust; that and it cost the taxpayers a few thousand bucks for some last minute plane tickets.

So, I eventually left San Diego at 1115 for Chicago, then on to Munich, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; and finally Bishkek.  The whole process was scheduled to get me here faster than originally planned.  However, here is where the "fun" started....

First, I got to deal with TSA.  I went 0 for 2 attempts through their screening.  My first attempt triggered something and I got the "random" pat down in the private room.  I didn't quite need a cigarette afterwards, but it wasn't pleasant.  Then, my bag got pulled aside and they completely unpacked that and looked through everything.  Turns out I had a tube of toothpaste in there that I forgot about so I guess that one is on me.

Once I finally get on the plane, it had some mechanical problem with the navigation system.  I guess we sort of need that so we had to wait; we finally took off an hour and twenty minutes late.  This was of course very sporty for making my connection in Chicago as I had to do my best O.J. Simpson impression to make it to the gate.  Once there I find that that flight is delayed also, sweet!  So now I am doing the bag drag across the terminal in Munich too.  This time I am on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.  This flight was delayed as well, but I am not sure why.  Turkish Air says they were voted the best airline in Europe, but I am pretty sure that rating was base on how attractive the flight attendants are and how good the food is and definitely NOT punctuality.  They were late boarding the plane and I gather they had a very different understanding of "sense of urgency" than Americans do.  I didn't mind at this point thought since I knew I had like a four hour layover in Istanbul.

So anyway, four airplanes, two sprints across the terminals, and roughly 30 hours later and here I am.  To top it all off, only one of my checked bags made it all the way with me.  Of course it was the one with all my uniforms in it so I am wearing a green t-shirt with khakis and dress shoes for a day or so until they find my other bag.  They tell me this happens all the time and it will probably show up on the next flight from Istanbul.  Sure hope so.

For now, I will hang out at the base here in Manas.  It is great!  They have a morale center where I can call my family and write this blog.  There is a gym, fitness center, movie theater, even a bar!  But you are only allowed to drink two beers a day, and only if you are on your way home so no beers for this guy.

Take care everyone and I will drop a line once I get settled in Camp Leatherneck!

Hello everyone!  This new blog will be an outlet for me to let all of you know how I am doing and what is happening in my life as I complete my deployment to Afghanistan.

As I write this first post I am putting my last minute things together as I get ready for bed.  Tomorrow morning I have a 06:56 departure on United Airlines for Baltimore.  From there I will be catching a military transport plane bound (eventually) for Manas, Kyrgistan.  That is the primary Air Point Of Entry or APOE (you know how the military loves their acronyms) for the Afghanistan theater.  From Manas I will be waiting for a flight into Camp Leatherneck, the main Marine Corps Base in the country.  I am not sure about how that leg of the trip will go so I will have to let you know.

Now, a couple notes about this blog.  For security reasons I probably will not be able to post any pictures.  I also will not be able to tell you a whole lot about the various operations we will be conducting over there.  Nor will I be able to tell you how the base is arrayed.  What I will be able to share is things like living conditions, food conditions, general day to day routine, whether or not my work is engaging, and such like that.  More to follow.  If you have questions, please feel free to ask me and I will do my best to answer what I can within the limits of security.