Mid December

A good, or in my case, passable (but barely) blog involves two major components.

1. A writer
2. A reader

I have not been a very good #1 lately, and my December totals are suffering. I really wish there was more to talk about though, its just been that sorta time around here. I do have to put a little bit of blame on you (#2 in this case) as well. You can annoy me incessantly until I starting writing again!

Last night we did something fun in the room. Bob got a whole bunch of boxes with candy, snacks, toiletries etc, so we put together little gift bags for the enlisted guys that we work with in the ANA. These guys get paid the least, get the least and do the most work. Anyway, we gave them some socks, gloves, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo etc. and then the usual collection of candy and gum. The ANA is issued a pack of toiletries every month, but they are really low quality and often they don't get them if they run out. We figured they would appreciate something like this, and no surprise, when we gave it to them, they really enjoyed the Christmas present concept! It was nice to help them out, because at least in my case, I mess with them a lot and they have to put up with me!

The people keep pouring in here, especially the Navy variety. Our small group of 7 has turned into close to 30 now I think. The good thing is that a large group of the American mentors for the ANA have gone east for the next 6 months. At least it thins out this place a bit, we were bursting at the seams. Another camp expansion is in the works, this time the walls come down again and we participate in another land grab. I won't recognize this place by the time I leave!

11 more days to Christmas!

Gary

Christmas is coming!

Bob got a Christmas tree. Not a plastic put it together tree, but a real honest to goodness blue spruce. His mom found some organization that donates them, but she had to mail it here. It really did pretty well for being in the mail for a week or so. We put it in our Navy B-hut and water it daily and its still looking really good! We got lights and ornaments the other day, so we have now added all that! I also put up some Cardinal lights Kara sent, to add to the ambiance. Its a great atmosphere in the B-hut now when we have the lights off. It makes it feel like a little more like the holiday season, and I am pretty sure we are among a handful of people in country with a real tree! Our Christmas tree has a first name, its S-P-A-R-K-Y, our Christmas tree has a second name its - never mind, no second name. We DO call him Sparky though, only because some of the worriers in the group thought it was unsafe to have a real tree with lights in a what basically amounts to a building made of kindling. What's Christmas without a little risk of fire?

Sad note: We had to get rid of our dogs. Rule #1 in country is no alcohol, sex, pornography, and evidently no pets. The new generals in the region decided to crack down on rules, which from what I understand have always existed. What is really crappy besides the fact that we really enjoyed having dogs around is that we were close to them and that they actually did work for us. They were great guard dogs and spent their evenings walking the outer walls of the camp barking at and drawing attention to movements. It was fun having them around, feeding them and occasionally inviting them in the B-hut. Thanks for the good times Scruffy, Ashley, Angel, Petey and Boomer. Can't possibly have any good deals over here, the morale suppression team is in full force.

It's stayed cold here, winter has arrived earlier than usual and colder than usual. I expect this to last until I leave in late spring. I guess as long as the wind stays in check, I can deal with the temps.


Pictures of the Christmas tree are here.

Tangi Kalay Visit

We went over today to visit Tangi Kalay, I think I mentioned that in my last blog that the plans were in the works. It was a much smaller controlled visit, I didn't bring the remaining items, I just brought the Build-a-Bears that the company sent me. It worked out really well as every kid got a bear, dog, rabbit etc, and I even had a couple spares left over that I left for Debra to give out to some kids she knew would really enjoy them. Again, its such a blast to give stuff out to these kids, and I will upload the pictures tomorrow and you can see some of them with their bears.

With this trip, I have been out of the camp twice this week....it's good for me though because I was going stir crazy.

Our new Marines are pretty much wackjobs, they are trying to change all sorts of stuff about the camp with no real thought as to its long term effects. I am happy that I am past the half way point and I get to get out of this mess. Ideally they figure out what they are doing before they cause too much damage, but I don't hold out hope.

I uploaded a couple of pictures that Steve took of our first snow storm. Huge flakes, but none of it stuck. The mountains all around us still have snow all over them, but we are a couple thousand feet lower, so ours melted away. No idea when we will have snow on the ground that stays permanently.

That's about it for now, it's been pretty slow!

Gary

Ghaziabad Village trip

Had my second of two GREAT days here in Afghanistan.

We had planned on going to Tangi Kalay earlier in the week, but it was canceled when the roads went black and we weren't allowed to travel outside the base. After some additional planning, we decided to go to the village across the street from us to our South - Ghaziabad. They have a tent for a school, just as many kids and don't get as many visits so we thought they would enjoy it!

We loaded up about half of what many of you have donated (thank you SO much for all of it) and headed over a little after noon. This visit was mainly to check up on the progress of getting them a real school built, but I wanted to ensure they got some of the great stuff that was donated.

Once we got there, we lined the kids up on the wall, and tried to maintain some sort of order. I was in back of the first Humvee and giving out toys and shoes, while Bob was behind the second one handing out candy. The looks on their faces when they saw HUGE boxes of toys, clothes and shoes was neat. I tried to let them pick out what they wanted for the most part, but it got a bit chaotic towards the middle and end, and by that point, I was picking out toys for them based on age and gender. Not sure why, I guess its because the girls get so little, but I love giving out the stuffed animals to the little girls. Their faces light up and they actually smile. Bob and I had a big discussion today about giving to charity and how it usually makes you feel good, but in this case, I get to be on the far end of the process and see the tangible results. It's just so wonderful and I thank you so much for letting me be your eyes and ears.

While I gave out toys, the two interpreters we brought along were pulling out shoes and giving them away to the kids who were barefoot, based on their shoe sizes. It's pretty funny seeing little Afghan kids running around in Spiderman sandals! I was amazed how many didn't have shoes to begin with....the ground was really cold and of course rocky, it was great to see them in shoes.

Somehow one of the little girls ended up getting cut on her ankle - it was more a case of a whole bunch of skin being scrapped off, but she was bleeding pretty good. We found some gauze and some tape out of a first aid kit we had and I grabbed a bottle of water and we got her cleaned up and put a bandage on her. I felt really bad when I saw her because she was crying a little bit and she didn't really have anyone there to help her. It was nice to help her out and make her feel a bit better.

After we had given everything away (the clothes I gave to the village elder to distribute evenly), we were hanging out playing with the kids and someone discovered we had an entire box of candy we hadn't yet given out. Suffice to say a mob scene ensued, but it was a blast. Those poor parents are going to have kids on a sugar high for days.

All in all a great day. We had some of our new Navy folks with us and it was their first trip out and about. They had a great time taking pictures and playing with the kids. Fortunately it was also a great day weather-wise for it, as the temps were reasonable and we had no rain or snow.

I still have a ton of stuff left, and the other guys have a few boxes as well. We have another trip planned soon, to be able to get the rest of it out to the local kids. Again, thank you all for your generosity, it was very well received and I couldn't be more proud of you.

Pictures are here.

Gary

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, Happy Thanksgiving to you, Happy Thanksgiving dear youuuuuuuuu......Happy Thanksgiving to you. Okay, so it's not really a song, but you DID sing along in your head, no denying. You also probably read this and gave it that look like a dog would give if you tried to explain nuclear fusion. It's ok, its late and I am tired!

Good day today, although a bit odd. Didn't feel like a holiday because I went into work, and then later worked out. Two things I rarely do singularly on Thanksgiving, and have never done them both. The camp had a 5k run today, and I did the honorable thing and took pictures. It was much more fun, and easier on my knees. I am more of a treadmill guy.

I was fully expecting to be sorely disappointed with dinner tonight, but fortunately they came through and it was excellent. Probably a 7/10 on a normal scale but for here it was a 12. I guess if they are going to get one meal right, this was the one. Our food has been horrid lately as someone figured out we were 50k over budget for food and they had to cut back. Let the good times roll.

Just wanted to check in on the holiday. Enjoy it, I wish I could be there with you.

Gary

Half way day

We have arrived at the half way point of this always fun and entertaining deployment. Ideally we are quite a bit past half way, because we hope to get relieved a little bit early and get home earlier than expected.

As we transition to part 2, we start off fresh with our new Marine team. They have already started asserting themselves and we have had some run-in's with the Sgt Major on whether or not we can walk in to get food in our PT gear, or if we have to be in full uniform. The guidance we had put out was that it was ok, evidently there is clarifying that needs to be done. From our perspective, there are much bigger things to worry about around here, than whether or not the 10 Navy people at Blackhorse are in their shorts and sweatshirts to walk in get food and leave. Ah well, the longer I am away the more the little stuff gets to me.

We had snow on the mountains to our east. It was actually was pretty cool looking. It rained here off and on for about 3 days last week and the ground is still wet. Really its just mud everywhere since mostly we have dirt as far as you can see. I don't mind the mud so much, but it ends up getting trapped in boots and then gets everywhere. Hopefully it holds off snowing where we are for a little while. I don't so much mind the cold, but being knee deep in snow would get old.

Not much else for now, its a slow day!

Gary

Winter has arrived

Sorry about the long delay in between entries. It honestly has been really quiet and I didn't have anything to write about.

They more or less finished the camp expansion via B-huts, at least round one of the expansion. I had pictures, but my memory card for my camera died, so I lost some. I will replace them and get them posted.

Speaking of B-huts, our new Marine group has arrived, and the old Marines have moved out into the new B-huts. I haven't met but a couple of them, they seem like decent guys. Unlike our current group, this group came in as a unit, and knew each other and have worked together before. Should make for an easier transition. After this current group of Marines leaves, we are the elder statesmen of this place. Scary. When you look back on it, the turnover rate is really high considering most of us are here for 6+ months.

Some new Navy folks arrived a week or so ago. A couple officers came in to augment our Garrison team which was 1 short due to Andy leaving for the airport, and I think 7 enlisted with various specialties. It's sorta nice to not have just the 6 of us Navy guys here as we were seriously outnumbered by every other service, but it was also nice to know everyone so well. We are a little more anonymous now.

Zak has his engagement party tomorrow. I still haven't broken the code on when this event occurs, but for him its now. It's a formal event with certain things that must take place, and a requirement for the marriage. I will try to figure all that out and I will let you know. He is supposed to give me an invitation even though I can't go. I told him it would be a neat thing for me to keep hold of. I had posted a long time ago - I think - that Zak met his future wife at school. That was a bit off....he SAW her at school. He then had his family contact her family and they arranged all this. They have yet to speak to each other. Shocking how normal arranged marriages are to them.

Kabul decided to skip Fall / Autumn this year. We went from nice summer weather to full blown winter in one day. It's been very pleasant into the low 70's during the day, but this week our high is now in the 40's. No snow here yet, but in the mountains to our east and west they got some. I expect it here before too long. Zak has been telling me since Sept that "next" month it will get cold, his prediction finally came true. I think he should be a weather man.

Gary

Sounds of Afghanistan

I am oblivious - at least in my normal life. I am the type of person that will drive a road 10 times before I notice a huge billboard has been put up, or that they started building a store on an empty lot. That trait doesn't serve me all that well when I am home, and here, it's damn near a death wish. I changed in a hurry once I got here, and now I think I am at the other extreme.

The only good thing about being at the other extreme, is that sometimes you are validated in your paranoia. It was about midnight and I was getting ready for bed a couple nights ago and heard what I thought sounded like a muffled explosion. Usually, I'd ignore this, at least old Gary would. New Gary listens intently. Anyway, I listened again and heard it again, so I walked over to Steve who was still up and asked him if he heard it, he waited and did. Then he said he had heard the first two, but didn't think much of it. We decided to go outside at which point, there were about 12 of us out there because we all "heard it". The other guys were all Marines, and typical of Marines, they hear explosions, they start running towards them. Gotta love the Marines. The one guy who is a senior enlisted Marine and a good guy said, "Sounds like incoming", like its no big deal. Gotta love Marines. Yeah, it did, thats why we were outside in shorts, although come to think of it, that was a bad idea. So much for the helmet under my bed. We all sorta walked towards the direction of the "incoming" and figured out it definitely wasn't landing in the camp, and didn't appear to be landing on the ANA side either. I think it was hitting the range or the mountains that are just to our north. Either way, sometimes I hear stuff, and walk outside and I am by my lonesome, obviously, no one else "heard it". This time though, I was secure in my paranoia. The only problem around here though is that we also have a tank range and quarry really close, so there is a constant stream of explosions, you just have to learn to pick out the bad from the benign.

A few weeks back, another incident happened that DIDN'T need clarification. I was walking to lunch and I hear the unmistakable sound of a bullet ricocheting off of metal. Turns out an ANA guy was cleaning his gun over the road (loaded mind you), it went off, fired a few rounds, one hitting his buddy in the head and at least one of the others landing on our side of the wall. Nice. He didn't kill the other guy, just grazed him, but amazingly, they give these guys bullets. Hopefully HIS mentor taught him the value of unloading his weapon before cleaning it.

Who knows if my obliviousness (is that a word) will wear off when I get home, I have a sneaking feeling it will.

Gary

Everyone in the pool

The post World Series euphoria is wearing off. I am still really happy for the Cards, but honestly, I am now more curious about next year. I guess that is why Cubs fans can keep from killing themselves - next year. I realized yesterday that I have now been here for 3 of the 4 major sports finals. After the Super bowl I will have made the rounds and I should (better) be back for the hockey and basketball finals.

I got a flu shot two days ago. It's mandatory and honestly with the amount of dirty people here that can't figure out how to wash their hands before eating, or after using the restroom, I should have gotten two.

They chlorinate the water here. We have a couple guys whose only job is to ensure the water is more or less safe for us, although you still can't drink it. You can shower in it, and brush your teeth if you are brave, but no drinking. Anyway, I can always tell when they have just put a new batch of chlorine in, as it smells like the an indoor pool at a Holiday inn. Its not a slight smell of chlorine, I mean its like I am 8 years old again, and being told not to run. Smells are amazing, and although I hated knowing my hair was being bleached and my skin was being seared off, I liked the smell as it got me out of here for a few minutes.

Today is day 165, which means we have 200 to go. I blogged at 299, and I think this will suffice for the 199 entry. Breaking into the 100's is a great mental thing, and in two weeks we hit the half way point. For some reason, although we still have a pile of time remaining, just getting there will be very satisfying.

Gary

That's a WINNER! That's a WINNER! A World Series Winner for the Cardinals!

I am not even sure what to type right now. I got back from watching the first championship since I was 8 years old, and I think it could be one of the most bittersweet moments ever for me. I just can't believe that I am in Afghanistan for this. I can't believe I missed every one of the games, the clincher at home, the after party and the not yet to happen parade. Blah.

Blah.

Great win, LONG over due and lets hope it happens again during my lifetime! Enjoy it Cards fans! CELLLLLLLEBRATE good times CMON! Wait....wrong year! :)

I added pictures.

10 down, 1 to go

It's the reverse title from the first Cards win. I can't believe they are in a position to win the World Series. This after 24 years, and damnit if I am not in Afghanistan. Ah well. It was a horrid game....messy, ugly etc, but the outcome was great. It was a hard one to watch, and easily the one that frustrated me the most so far. I am seriously concerned about closing this thing out, but we have three shots at it, let's hope it only takes one.

Kara managed to get on Fox 2 news last night after the game and they gave her about 2 mins of time to talk about the fact that I wasn't able to make it due to being here etc. It was great....!!!

Bob made it back from leave....our room is much noisier now, but it's great to have him back.

Gary

Tiny little mustache

I am certain that the "white Bob Gibson" Chris Carpenter made the real Bob Gibson proud last night. Those are the sorts of games you see highlights of in 20 years. I am really happy that Carpenter's first World Series game was so successful, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. If the Cardinals end up winning this, even with the crap they went through during the year, we will likely look back on this as a very special team. With the aforementioned 2000's version of Gibson and the Dominican hitting machine known as Pujols on the same team - similar to Musial and Gibson in 59-63. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.

The mustache continues, I haven't taken pictures yet, it's just now almost respectable. :{)

We are half way through Eid so I have been off work and its been REALLY quiet around here. I like it! It's my first extended break since Qatar, and although I have been getting up early for baseball, at least when I am done, I can just hang out and read articles on the internet rather than having to rush over to work.

A clump of dirt

Baseball had a near-miss (a stupid term) Pine tar incident part du. The World Series is underway and any of you following it I am sure know about the issue so I won't belabor the point. What I will say is this: I am not mad at Rogers, I am disappointed. I just wish we could have gotten through this entire series without some goofy distraction. If Detroit wins, fine, but do it on the level, same goes for the Cards. Anyway, it matters not, the first two are in the books and the Cards are in the drivers seat. They took a game in Detroit which they had to do if they had any hope of winning, and now they head home with their two best starters going in games 3 and 4. I like our chances of going up 3-1 or at worst a split at 2-2 before game 5. The game 5 starter will be in a position to win it, or put us ahead going back to Detroit, its shaping up to be a good series. So much for all the BS I read about Tigers in 3...ha ha, very funny.

We are under a mission essential travel only order. The end of Ramadan was yesterday and now we are into Eid (a three day celebration that last for 5 days). For some reason they have decided to increase the already increased for Ramadan attacks on NATO forces. Thus, we are told to stay home for a few days. Christians should go on bombing runs during Christmas....wouldn't that just put you in the holiday spirit?

Not sure if I have mentioned that we are trying to get the Garrison Commander fired. I know I have mentioned he is a crook and his crookery continues so our press to get him ousted continues. We are having to quietly figure out which ANA officers are on our side and which ones he has on his personal payroll. We think we have the dividing lines drawn and its going to be interesting to watch play out. If we screw this up and go after him and fail, the officers that turned on him will end up paying for it. I am not worried though, the body of evidence is great, and the senior leaders at the Ministry of Defense want him gone.

I think I mentioned our office / lounge was being moved to a B-hut and we finished that move yesterday. Its not bad digs, we will deal with it. Our only hope is that they don't move us again before its over.

Bob is officially on his way back from leave. I am sure he is going to come back pissed cause now he has 6.5 months left and nothing to look forward to leave wise. Steve and I have decided to kill him if he starts complaining right away! :)

Gary

The playoff mustache lives on

I think I said it would be a coin toss and damn if it didn't seem like that all game. Again, not pretty by any means, but it was emotional and gut wrenching which makes for good baseball. Add in unexpected hitting performances and it turned out to be a pretty good Game 7. On to the World Series with Detroit where all sorts of interesting story lines will play out and hopefully the Cards don't embarass themselves. I don't expect a win out of this, so anything they do is above getting swept is gravy. They have been playing with house money since beating the Padres, might as well put it all on the line.

As the title states, my measly playoff mustache gets to continue growing. Maybe it will end up respectable before the series is over!

The S-6 went downtown yesterday to get food, and on the way he ran into a mob scene. There were a couple hundred guys in the middle of the road fighting about something. His vehicle was stopped, and he was told to wait until they were done and then he could pass. At some point, someone noticed he was ANA and threw a rock at him and hit him in the leg, and then threw one and hit his driver in the head. At this point, he got out his gun and stood on the roof of the truck and told anyone that threw a rock at them again was going to get shot. Unbelievable. Please don't take for granted that you can drive around in the States with very little fear of some sort of attack. Its amazing how a small thing like driving from here to downtown can turn into an event. Hopefully someday these people will learn.

Gary

5 Months down

As usual, first the Cardinals. One good, one bad game, I guess it's to be expected. It's amazing how tired I feel after those games when they lose, and how good I feel when they win. The good thing is that I am pretty much a zombie and its making my days go quickly!! One more win to get to the World Series.....its a coin toss at this point I think.

Today marks the 5 month mark here. Not much excitement involved in that but it's one step closer to half way. It will be nice to be on the down swing of this fun.

Camp construction continues, pictures are here, check them out. I will keep updating those as they get closer to being finished.

Gary

Waving

Two Cards games, two very different outcomes. A shut out and a blow out. Ah well, can't win them all and I knew were were vulnerable in game 4. Game 5 is a crap shoot, but of course, I'll be up to watch it! I have been getting up at 4 and heading over, but tomorrow its 330 for me because its Monday Night Football and first come first serve on the TV. I have to claim the spot early. :)

I am not exactly sure when but at some point in the recent past, I have started waving like a jackass. Its not the standard, put your hand up and shake it around wave, its the two fingers in a peace sign with the thumb extended wave. I have NO idea why I started it, or even when, but I caught myself doing it today, and once I started paying attention, I realized I do it every time - I can't stop it. My theory is that I didn't like doing the standard wave to all the Afghans, it just doesn't feel right for some reason, so I adapted to an acknowledgment of their existence, but not a full on "Howdy Do" sorta wave. Don't ask me why I am analyzing this, I must have excessive free time.

I started growing a mustache. Its only 2 days so far, so its literally nothing to write about, but since I didn't get to grow a playoff beard for baseball, I am doing what I can. I've never had one before and I seriously doubt I will keep it past about day 3 once it comes in, but it should make for interesting pictures.

That's about all I have today, construction continues and now I find out they are going to start building 24/7 and remember - one of the construction sites is literally outside my window. Wonderful.

Gary

I love the smell of re-bar in the morning

What a fantastic win for the Cardinals. It wasn't particularly well played, nor pretty but it got the job done. It sorta made me think of a street fight between two amateurs using rusty pipe wrenches and broken glass. Gritty, but a classic game none the less. I wonder what the Vegas line would be on So Taguchi having a slugging percentage of 4.000. Just amazing. Again, I was up at about ten minutes to 4 to get ready and watch the game, and giving up that sleep was well worth my time. Let's hope for three more good ones at home.

I think I have mentioned before that we are expanding here at the camp. We are like that neighborhood everyone wants to move into and the ones where you see houses going up in every direction. We have B-Huts (basically wooden structures that can hold people or office spaces) going up all over. They have re-bar spread out in the rectangular pattern to lay concrete for the huts at every turn here in the camp. We have one going up right outside our window, and then an entire row out back. This was a tiny little nothing of a camp, and we are doubling in size before my eyes. It's a bit disconcerting though....I'd like to think we are succeeding in our mission and that they will send more guys home, not bring more in!

I've spent my week configuring the ANA command center for internet. We finished today, and I can only imagine the mess we have to clean up in the next week as the ANA get their first taste of the world wide web. I have to get some controls in place I think.

We have an office here for just us Navy guys. Well, we got kicked out and they are moving us to an existing B-hut. I am going to spend the next couple days re-wiring our computer and phone lines, as these huts have never been used for an office before. Our next door neighbors in this hut are the French(insert white flag joke here). They are VERY new to the camp, and I don't know them very well, but they seem nice enough. At least in moving for the third time we get to keep up international relations!

Gary

Waking up at 330am

The Cards made it interesting for a few innings, but in the end put the hurt on the Padres and got back into the NLCS for the third year in a row. Maybe this year being huge underdogs will help. All it really means for me is that I have to wake up at awful times of the day to go watch the games on AFN. 330am arrives quickly when you aren't used to being up that early. I am going to doubt there will be a huge rush for the TV! Also, I found out its not really playoff baseball if you are watching while eating breakfast. There is just something about a game at night vs one with the sun rising! Either way, baseball has been a great distraction for me lately and I am thankful that I get a least one more week.

Muhammad Ali (my ANA counterpart) was gone yesterday. Zakz(my interpreter) explained that Ali was basically out shopping for women. Evidently his parents (Ali) found him a couple of different girls and they were going to go over and check them out. I sorta knew the answer, but I asked anyway - what happens if she doesn't like him. The response - "Doesn't matter" - as long as her parents are happy with him. More fun for the girls here!

Our weather has had an upturn....its gotten warmer. I was promised that it was going to start getting cold here in October and it would remain cold. Well, it started, but then has over the last few days been in the 80's again. Who can figure this place out. The number of dust storms has increased though, so something is definitely happening weather wise.

The shoes, toys, bears etc have started rolling arriving in droves! I have about 10 huge boxes of stuff so far and I know there is more coming. Thank you so much for all of you that have donated and spent your time and money getting it here. We are working setting up a time to get to the school, but with Ramadan, its a bit harder. I will certainly let you know when we make it over and get you pictures of the day!

Are you trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curve ball?

The title is a quote from the Movie - Major League - if you haven't seen it, its a must watch. It's appropriate because obviously the San Diego Padres, despite the name, do not have Jesus in their line up. The Cards threw curve ball after curve ball into the warm Southern California sun and watched as the Pads swung helplessly. These same pitchers that merely a week ago couldn't figure out how to get one out, completely shut down a fairly well balanced offensive team. Great to watch. Good thing was that even though I was once again up until 4:30am, it's my day off so I was able to sleep in. I watched the Yanks lose the first game, which was great, and then saw the improbable Cardinals take both games in San Diego. Should be a fun one to watch them close out.

I picked up a cold or something the other day. I woke up with a sore throat, which has stayed about the same, and then have added a small headache and fever. For those House watchers out there, what's the differential diagnosis? I am thinking Polio or Leprosy. That show always has a twist. I think its the first time I've been sick, at least the first time I remember being sick, so I consider myself lucky. Most of the guys have had week or two long battles with the Afghan crud that goes around. I have missed it to this point. If some of these dirty people around here would just wash their hands once in a while, I don't think I'd get sick either. I use that hand sanitizer stuff like it's water, but I guess you can never be clean enough.

We are losing one of our guys...he is heading to the Kabul airport to work with the Air Force in teaching the Afghans to fly. For some reason when I wrote that, I pictured them throwing guys off a building. See, now you just did! I digress. He is an aviator by trade and they are really short out at the airport so the Navy let him go. We will get a replacement at some point. We have a HUGE group of Navy folks coming in country soon, haven't quite figured out what they will do yet. Good news: they are here a year, someone is leaving after us! We are quickly becoming the old men of the camp...the Marines leave in a month and at that point, the 7 of us have seniority here. That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, but its a positive sign of progress.

1 down, 10 to go

I was up LATE last night. I found out the Cards were going to be on AFN TV, which is usually a bad omen. They have lost all but 1 game I got to watch on AFN, but this is the playoffs and I wanted to see it. The game started 1230am local time, so needless to say, I was alone in my playoff watching adventure. It was a great game, well played on all aspects and was great to watch. It's just that 430am bed time was a killer. 10 more wins for the World Series. Fortunately for me, Zak had a doctor's appt or something and had to leave early, so it was an early work day!

Speaking of Zak, he does a strange thing. If he bumps into your foot with his foot, he has to shake your hand. I THINK its an Islam thing, but not all of them do it. It's really funny though because out of the blue, he will come up and shake your hand, because you didn't even realize he bumped your foot. Sometimes I kick his on purpose to see if he notices. Most of the time he does and its like OCD until he gets to shake your hand. He says it's basically so that whoever you kicked doesn't hold a grudge and then one day start a fight with you.

Tomorrow he is taking off because he is going shopping. He has to buy presents for his Fiance for the post Ramadan celebration. Until you get married, every Ramadan you have to buy her presents, and give them to her within 2 months after Ramadan is over. He said he will spend 200-300 dollars, and he makes about 700 a month. Quite an out pouring. Getting married is prohibitively expensive, to the tune of about 10000 dollars after bribes and presents and parties. I realize that's about the starting price of one in the States, but remember, the average income here is about 300 bucks a year. Takes a long time to save it, or you have to borrow it.

We explained divorce to them the other day, and they are just stunned. Here, only the man can initiate a divorce, and even then, he takes everything, including the kids, and she isn't allowed to re-marry. We explained that there are some questionable women in the states who marry as a profession, just trying to get the rich guy's money. It's amazing how different we really are.

Congrats Cardinals!

They may have backed into post season play, but they are there again as Central division champs. Going in as the favorite hasn't worked the last couple years, lets hope going in as an underdog helps!

The rest of the guys took Bob up to BAF today to get him home for leave, it will be strange without him around. We discussed last night how amazing it is that as much time as the three of us spend together, that we haven't completely snapped on each other. I think it helps that none of us are really that uptight about stuff and there is a lot of give and take. It makes it easier because if I had to put up with this place, and crappy roommates.... I don't even want to think about it.

You can't sneak the sun past the rooster

Day started off great today.....woke up to a Cardinal lead and they held on. Found out shortly after that Atlanta won as well, so it was a good morning. Lets just hope for the exact same outcome today so they can rest the starters on Sunday.

Commander Nail's daughter had a baby last night late our time, so he broke out the cigar's today and we all smoked them out back. It was also a good time to burn our address labels and customs forms that we have been saving up. You have to burn them or the Afghans go through the trash and get your home address. Weird eh? Anyway, we sat out back playing with fire and smoking cheap cigars. Bob had been working on a class for the Navy and finished it and wanted to burn his books so we tossed those in too. Would have been fun except there was no beer, and we are in Afghanistan.

I work for the ANA Garrison here, and they are basically in charge of the base. They have tenants here and one of them is the 201st corps for the ANA. The corps doesn't have any computer expertise on the US side so I went up to help them with some anti-virus, and firewall installs. We did about 15 machines today, and 3 of them had over 500 virus'. Ack. It's what they get for using pirated software. So much of what I do here is just getting them to understand why what they are doing is so wrong for keeping the machines running properly.

Kara sent me a great book on a recommendation called Lee's Lieutenants - A study in command. I will be reading for a while as it's 806 pages. Sokay, I have really been into reading again lately, its weird how I cycle here. I go through spurts of not wanting to read, or not wanting to be on the internet or whatever, and then after about a month, I completely switch. I think its from being stuck here so much.

I have also been blogging more lately....I guess its from frustration. Doesn't matter I suppose.

Crisis averted

My boss' boss sent out an email the other day, letting us know they are starting to look at next year's rotation of guys. He told us that it wasn't too early to let him know if we wanted to stay another year. FAT CHANCE. Well, Steve started thinking about it and was seriously considering staying here in this backwards third world hole of a country. Bob and I spent days trying to convince him what a horrible idea it was. I mean really....if you want to come back here, go home, take a break and volunteer, the Navy will be more than happy to toss you back over here. Hell, get a job as a contractor and come back here making double what we make now....at least that's financially advantageous. Last night at the 11th hour when he had to make a decision, stuff we were saying started sinking in and he backed off his ideas of staying. I feel better for him.....if he would have volunteered, he would have about 19 months left here. I think he will be really happy come next June and he isn't spending his summer in this heat, with the wafting camel odor.

Bob heads home on his two week leave on Monday, so he will be out of the room for probably three weeks total. This is good for a couple reasons. He is really the first one to go on leave at a reasonable time (Andy went in July for a wedding), so it is much more real that we are actually making progress here. It also means that when he gets back, I will be within a week or two of the half way mark. I think once we get to that point, and we are on the downhill part of this fun, it will be much easier for me to deal with the crap that comes up. The second half contains my leave, and our reliefs showing up, so really, even though there will be six months left, I only have to deal with about five of it.

Ok...seriously, for those of you not Cardinal fans, I don't care. I am frustrated. How do you cough up a 7.5 game lead with 10 games to play? It's hard to even look at the scores anymore. It will make for a frustrating October for me if they blow this. You will all have to read much more of Angry Gary, and no one wants that! Go Braves!

Gary

Remote control theory

I assume that in your house, like most houses the "man" of the house has physical custody of the remote control(s). I know for the most part, when I am at home, I have the remote inches from my fingers to ensure those quick channel changes and avoid the dreaded commercial.

Ok, so every night at dinner we (the Navy guys) get together and watch some TV show. We have been through four seasons of 24, one season of House and have started the second of House. I noticed tonight that I have the remote. The more I thought about it, I ALWAYS have the remote. Even in a room full of guys who are used to having the remote, I have it. Now granted, there aren't commercials, but there is the ever important fast forward through the opening credits and then the starting of the next episode; It's a responsibility I do not take lightly!

I am not exactly sure where I am going with this, or what it means, but it must be some sorta alpha dog thing, or I work with a bunch of sissies.

One small step for Gary, one giant leap for the ANA

Three day weekends have a way of making you feel a little better about life. I went into the office today, first time since Thursday (Ramadan, they took days off, so I did as well), and I see Muhammad Ali crowing about the printer. Its been out of toner for about 2 weeks and I have been working diligently to get them used to filling out the correct paper work for the supply folks to get the stuff we need. They have a habit of just begging me...but the way I look at it, at some point, I am going home at which point they should really know how to do this on their own. We are here to teach them how to do it right, not to give hand outs. I remind him of this weekly, sometimes daily. Anyway, he was pointing to the printer and I notice a new box of toner that was opened. Through Zak, I asked him what the deal was and low and behold, without me, he filled out the paperwork, took it to the supply guys and got himself some toner! I was very happy, it was utterly amazing.

Another it's a small world thing happened this week. We have Marines who are in charge here, and honestly, other than the Comm guy I don't interact with them much. I happened to run into the XO the other day and previously I had heard him talk of being from or living in St. Louis. Strangely enough he was at the recruiting district in St. Louis at the exact same time I was. We both mentioned that we thought the other looked familiar but never put it together. We never really interacted at the recruiting district either as he was the Marine XO and I was looking for college kids silly enough to join the Navy. We had an office maybe 50 ft apart and we end up in this place together. Weird eh?

It was really pleasant here today. Temps were probably in the low 70s with no humidity, it was a great fall day. It's nice to not go outside and bake....although I imagine fall here is pretty short and I will be in full blown winter sooner rather than later. Fine with me, its one more season down. Once it starts to warm up again, I am outta here.

If someone could get the Cardinals a left handed reliever that doesn't give up late inning home runs, I would really appreciate it. It would do wonders for my morale here.

Gary

4 months down - another lousy day

Well, every once in a while, I wake up thinking, wow, this is going to be a good day and then I am utterly amazed at how fast it goes to crap. Today I woke up, and being Thursday, it's our Friday. I get tomorrow off and that usually makes for a pretty good start to my day. Unfortunately, as I was leaving for work today, Steve came and told me what they discussed at breakfast, and it immediately soured me on this country, this tour and this situation in general. First of all, he mentions there is now a cell of female suicide bombers in the Kabul area, great, more wack jobs intending to kill coalition soldiers. I am REAL tired of the sect here that has decided its such a terrible thing for us to bring them democracy and white bread. Also, Ramadan starts up this weekend and I have been reading that the Taliban and Al Qaeda here have piles of bombers ready to go and are going to step up the attacks during the month of Ramadan. More fun.

Secondly, he tells me that MPRI (its a contracting company that is training prison guards here at the ole Pol-e-Charki prison) caught an interpreter of theirs stealing a cell key. With a bit more tugging, they found out he was working with the Taliban and that his cell phone number was on a watch list. Great. The set of guys SUPPOSEDLY on our side .....argh. Needless to say, I went in to work a bit edgy and Zak (my interpreter) got the brunt of my irritated mood. We discussed this interpreter, suicide bombings, intolerance, the pope and other nice touchy subjects. He is a really good kid, he is the supposed definition of Islam, accepting and peaceful, but he is part of a system that supports this crap and I called him on it. It just angers me to know I am here giving a year of my life for people who don't give a damn if I live or die.

On a much more less serious note, a new Navy guy showed up, and was immediately given a room with one of the Army guys.....two of them in one room. He is the same rank I am, has been here 2 days and gets a double, vs tripling up like Bob, Steve and I. It's not that I would have moved, but jeez, at least offer it to us, the ones that have been here 4 months. Argh. It was just a pile it on sorta deal.

I just figured out the other day that people read this. I use it mainly to vent, share fun stuff and to get thoughts out. I have NO clue how many people actually read this, especially those that read it on a regular basis. I have subsequently added tracking to the site to get an idea of visitors and where they are coming from, BUT if you want to help, leave me a comment lemme know your first name, last initial and city you are in.

Sorry about the negativity, some times its a good one, some times its a bad one. Welcome to the days that are Gary's life. Ill try to end positive, I am 4 months down, 8 to go, I get leave in 3 months and I am making progress!

Gary

Qatar R&R

I am sitting in a tent in Kuwait as I write this...I am on my way back to Afghanistan after my 4 day R&R in Qatar. Pictures are here.

The city we were close to, Doha, is an up and coming Arab city and it definitely shows that it is trying to westernize and catch up to the supreme Arab city, Dubai in the UAE. They are hosting the Asian games here in a few months and literally are building 20 huge sky scrapper hotels. I have never seen more massive cranes in a skyline in my life. Its also HOT. Not Afghanistan hot, which is not hot now that I know Qatar exists. It was 105/110 temp wise during the day, but the real kicker is the near 100% humidity all day. It really hits hard when you walk out side.

It was by most accounts, a very entertaining 4 days. We arrived at 930pm on the first day in Qatar, and were met at the C-17 by a liaison officer who took us to a briefing room. There they collected our ID cards, immigrated us into the country and loaded us on a bus. It was incredibly organized and quick. There were hundreds of troops coming off of planes either for pass or for leave, coming and going, but the system they had in place seemed to work well. They drove us through a place they called "grab and go" which was basically a food line setup to get a couple sandwiches, sodas and snacks. It was a nice touch, and was welcome being as we hadn't really had dinner. The bus ride to Camp As Sayliah was right at 30 mins, but then the fun started. They have 3 separate gates to drive though each one checking a different piece, orders / id's, the vehicle etc. It took a good hour to get through the gate, and its almost as slow leaving!! We have less security by a factor of 10 where we live than this place, and as far as I could see, there was NO reason for it to exist. Anyway, we did make it through, and got our assignments for living quarters. Basically the entire base is setup with warehouses, and then there is "stuff" inside. In our case it was a warehouse with tents inside. We set down our stuff, looked at the clock and noticed it was 1140 and decided to go get beer rather than unpack as last call was 1145! No need to panic, we made it!

Day two we signed up for a Dhow cruise in the Persian gulf. Yes, I have been there before, but it was a way to get off the base and allowed us to get some decent pictures of Doha. We ate dinner at Chili's, which was a real treat. Actual table service, the menu was a true Chili's menu and it was just great! Went back over to the Irish bar (Guinness, Kilkenny, Fosters and Heineken on tap) and had our three beers while playing some pool. I managed to stay up until about 1am this night just hanging out and then Steve wanted to head back to go to sleep. I wasn't really tired yet so I putzed around on the computer and decided at about 130 I should go as well, but as I was walking out Monday Night Football was coming on!! I went back, got a coffee and sat down to watch until about half time. 330am comes quick!

Day Three was the aforementioned boat trip, followed by another dinner at Chili's (note the theme) and then beer. It may sound all the same, but it was really a great time. I figured we would get beer in a can, or crappy bottled beer, but we had nice big Guinness and Kilkenny on tap. Good good deal. I can't complain in the least about the setup in country, they make sure you have a good time. Speaking of that, the only way to get off base here is to either take an MWR sponsored tour, or get an escort by someone that works there. LTC Girard from my USTC days is stationed here as a CO and was nice enough to volunteer one of her guys to take us out in town. Good kid, has been here 10 months and has the city wired. Took us to the Gold Souk, which is great because all the gold is 18k or more, and you pay by the gram. It's hard to get cheaper gold anywhere in the world. We also went to the city center mall which is by far the best mall I've ever been to anywhere. It was just enormous beyond belief and had every modern western store. Not to mention I loved seeing all the Qataris in their white outfits and white turbans sitting at Starbucks. I tried to get a picture, not sure how it came out as we aren't really allowed to photograph locals.

We ended up having to leave to fly, so now as I write day four, I am actually back at Blackhorse. Yeah for me!

Day Four was a pretty mellow day. We didn't have a tour or an escort so we just planned on sleeping in, eating and relaxing. Most of the day went as planned. We were told to come back to the briefing room at 7pm to find out when we would leave Qatar. We did that, and of course, they then said come back at 8pm. We came back to the girl typing happily away on SMS (the computer program I work for at USTC), it was my first time seeing it used in the wild! Fun!! We found out our flight was at 3am and we had to report back with all our stuff packed at 11pm. So much for relaxing. We ran back to the tent, did some laundry, packed up and headed back over early to get one last beer! With that finished, we got into uniforms and went to wait for our flight where they decided to send us to Kuwait (the wrong damn direction) for no particular reason. Kuwait had no idea we were coming, so we ended up spending 36 hours there. Ah well.

Anyway, 9 days later, for our 4 day vacation we are back at Blackhorse and its sad to say that I was really glad to be back. Good times, probably wont do it again as it was just a bit too much hassle for days off.

Gary

Fallen Comrades

POST FOR 09 SEPTEMBER

I just participated in something by complete happenstance, but something that I am utterly grateful for having done. I was sitting in the terminal at Bagram, waiting for my flight to Qatar when we were told there was to be a ceremony outside and that if we weren't engaged in something, to go outside.

By now, most of you have probably seen that a roadside bomb killed 16 people, including 2 US soldiers yesterday(8 Sept) in Kabul.

We all lined up outside, and it just so happened that Steve and I were the last two guys on one side of the road, right before the flight line.As we looked up the road, it was lined as far as you could see with people. The entire base was involved in this evolution, and it was incredibly moving. As we stood there, a police escort drove by, followed by two Humvee's each carrying one metal coffin draped in an American flag. As the first escort approached, each group of soldiers, airmen and sailors saluted in unison. It was very touching, very somber and puts everything in perspective.

You hear the phrase "ultimate sacrifice" often, today it hit me in the head.

Not a great way to start a "vacation" but it will keep me grounded.

The great Blackhorse flood!

HOLY CRAP. I had to say yesterday that nothing exciting has happened didn't I? Well, today it rained, again, and we are talking Noah, his ark, and the doubled up animals kinda rain. At first it was like yesterday, came down, sounded normal, but it got worse and worse. Hail again, big stuff...some of it like a small golf balls, but that went away fast. I took a couple pictures, a bit of video and went back inside to wait it out. It picked up yet again, and really poured for a good hour or two. The next thing I know, I get a phone call from Steve telling me to come outside to see this, and then he abruptly tells me never mind, he can't get in as the front gate is flooded. This I have to see, and honestly, I wasn't prepared for what I saw. This place is DRY, dry dry DRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Always. We have a huge ravine for lack of a better word behind us, that is probably 70/80 ft wide and 50 ft deep, its ALWAYS dry. I walked out the back door, hopped up on the hesco wall and saw the Colorado river flowing behind us. I will try to upload the video, not sure if Picasa will let me. It was amazing, I couldn't see the ravine, or any of the surrounding land. It was protruding up and was 3 feet high up against our walls. We are in a flood plain more or less, but since its dry all the time, no one cares - until it rains excessively. The front gate was in fact flooded, the water was backed up and came in the front gate and worked its way through 3/4s of the camp. Our dining hall had a foot of water, the gym had about 6 inches. Fortunately the building I am in is at the high point of the camp and only the outer edges were damp, everything inside was dry. Even once the rain stopped, the water rose because it was pouring off the surrounding mountains and ran right through the middle of the base. An hour after the rain stopped, the water started receding and you can see in some of the pictures here the water line on the Humvee tires and some of the walls. Our dogs had a good time if you can tell, they were like pigs in well... Anyway, it was just incredible to watch, although now we are in cleanup mode for the next few days. So much for being bored lately! :)

Gary

Another corner turned

It's been about a week without anything terribly blog worthy happening, but since we crossed into September I thought I would jot some things down.

First of all, mentally, the changing of the months is good in several ways. The obvious, being that it's one month closer to the end is always good, but with this month,we break into fall as well. Instead of temps reaching the upper 90's +, we are seeing low 90's and upper 80's more than the intense heat. To be honest, weather wise its been a pleasant week. Oh, it rained again today. I don't know when it was that I blogged the last time about rain, but it occurred again today. Hard rain, small hail, rained for quite some time. Not nearly as exciting since it was the second major rain, but I still managed to stand outside and watch it for a few minutes.

The 2 star Admiral in charge of all this who ha crap in the US visited today. It's more a less a big deal, but honestly, we all weren't all that thrilled with it. He isn't going to send us home early, and just side steps the questions we ask about this deployment in specific, so we didn't learn much. I asked a couple pointed questions, but was given the equivalent of a pat on the head with a - just run along little boy - attitude. Ah well, felt good to ask anyway.

The camp continues to grow. We started with about 180 I think when I first got here. At this point we are near 300, and the word I get is that we will reach 500 before too long. It is seriously taxing our infrastructure as food lines have increased 10 fold, the Internet has slowed considerably and there are just piles of people around all the time, makes me wonder if any of them work. Supposedly we are tearing walls down in every direction to build new buildings, and we are losing our gym as it stands to increase the size of the dining facility. They better replace it with something nice and get more machines as its getting impossible to work out with out waiting in line for equipment.

On a completely different note, my brother Matt's wife Maggie had a good idea to contact build-a-bear to ask them about sending bears for the school. They have agreed and are going to be sending some bears. Who knows how many, but ideally enough to give them out to at least 1 or 2 full classrooms. Those kids love the little toys, so if you have a burning desire, feel free to send some, and as always, school supplies are welcome (re-iterate as it changed 5 times, no crayons!) :)

That's about it, I have babbled sufficiently. I leave this week for Qatar, I will definitely have new stuff to post after that trip, and likely during if I get the chance.

Gary

Must it take a life for hateful eyes to glisten once again

Back to back posts: Completely different thoughts on the world. Today is the first day I have really had enough of Afghanistan. I woke up in a crappy mood, and when I went in it was a rare day. Commander Banana was there, so was Mohammad Ali, they are rarely together and I think from this day on, it's probably a good idea. By the time I had arrived they had already been arguing for about an hour. Basically Banana needed a truck to go downtown to get the food. The religious officer took his truck so he decided he would take the S-6 truck, but that was signed out to Ali. Ali told him you can't have it unless you get the Garrison Commander to sign off on it. For some reason, Banana and the Education officer wouldn't go to the Garrison Commander and proceded to brow beat and intimidate Ali for the next hour. I have to give him credit, he stood his ground. When I arrived, Banana was in a chair sulking, and I had to ask him why he didn't just go get permission and this whole mess could have been avoided. In the fray he took a book that Ali and I have been working on (it's an inventory) and basically shredded it. I told Zak (my terp) to ask him why he was acting like a child and had to destroy this book that didn't belong to him. I also said you are the Major, and have to act like an adult. Zak made me laugh for the only time today when he said "You want me to tell him that?" Sometimes I feel bad for Zak and the things I make him say, but they don't respect anything but firm words, so I press them. He never did respond to either of those questions, he just sat there while the Education officer went to get permission. Turns out they didn't get permission to use the S-6 truck, they got another one entirely. They left the office in a huff with none of the standard Afghan pleasantries. Screw um, I wasn't in the mood anyway. At least the Cardinals won, had they lost to the Cubs I would have had to throw myself off a non-existent bridge.

Gary

My best day.

What a great day. I mean fantastic. Today was the day we took all the great stuff you guys sent, and delivered to the school, and let me tell you, it was just incredible. This is the same village we have been too now three times, and this time we got to actually go into the school and hand out the goodies to all the kids in their classrooms.

We started at about 9am, I loaded up the back of the SUV with all the boxes to head over. We met up with a group of Army folks from Camp Phoenix who brought just a huge pile of regular notebooks (we wanted to ensure each kid got one and didn't know how many we would come across today). We all drove over and as soon as we hit the village kids were following us. We made it over to the school and unloaded the boxes into an empty classroom and sorted as best we could to get started. We started on the girls side of the school and it was unlike any classroom I've ever been in, as they were silent and as obedient as any children I've ever seen. We started by giving each of them a notebook and two pens, and then colored pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners The incredibly shy smiles, followed by the look of joy was so awesome. It was very obvious people don't just show up and start handing them things. A couple even got brave enough to whisper under their breath in Dari the word for thank you (tasha khor). We moved our way through that wing, and even managed to get a good chunk of the girls little stuffed bears and animals and you would have thought they won the lottery.

We moved onto the boys wing and it was a much different story in the boys classrooms. Now, don't get me wrong, the boys are great, but they are so much more aggressive and end up getting so much more than the girls, it was much easier giving things to the girls. They sat quietly and you could see genuine appreciation. The boys are scammers! :) They would get something, hide it and ask for more. Some of them are setting up for lives as used car salesmen. Either way the girls get so much less in this culture, I feel bad not giving them more than the boys. The last class we went to had a ton of kids and we had a whole bunch of little toys. Carnival type stuff....little bendy guys and balls etc. We got MOBBED. It was like the LA Riots with kids up on desks, and the teacher having to push them back to keep us safe. We ended up basically having to toss some of the little bendy guys towards the back of the room to escape. It was fun!

Fortunately, due to your incredible generosity, we gave a pile of stuff to each kid and then some. I think all told, there were probably 300 kids in class today, and as I said, each one got what I would consider standard school supply list of things each. That didn't include the glue or crayons as we gave those to the teachers so the kids didn't eat it or write on the walls.

I want to thank all of you who sent stuff for letting me be your eyes and ears on this project. It was a joy to give out, and I thank you all sincerely for taking the time to send it, and I want you to know that you have made an entire village of little kids happy.

I posted pictures here on my picasa page, please take a look. I will get more up when I get the ones from Steve, Bob and Andy.

After the school visit, Deb and Babrock (sp?) had us back to their house for a lunch of Afghan ravioli and naan (bread). It was great, and nice to wind down. The are very hospitable people.

We learned today that the pens, pencils, standard notebooks, small erasers, small sharpeners, and ANY small cheapy little toys, plus stuffed animals are HUGE hits. I'd actually like to get a run of just little toys for all of them. If you run across a place that sells little toys in bulk and want to send me some, I'll be happy to play Afghan Santa again. The clothes and shoes we didn't give to the kids, we gave them to Debra so she could ensure the families that needed them most would get them.

That's it! I'm tired and sweaty but it was GREAT. Thank you again for letting me do that!

Gary

3 months down!

Today will be short, although I always go in thinking that I and just keep typing. I guess maybe I will let you know if its short after I am done, but by then you will have read it all and it won't matter. Who cares, I'm an idiot.

Today marks three months (out of twelve) boots on the ground. I guess if I were a baseball game, I would be heading into the bottom of the second (actually thats a lousy example, because that doesnt seem like much!), if I were a person with an average lifepan, it would be my 25th birthday (happy birthday to me), and if I were some Navy idiot in Afghnistan, it would mean that I only have 273 days left.

While we are gone, we get 15 days of leave, and two 4 day passes to Qatar. I found out a couple days ago that Steve and I both got a pass for September, so on the 9th, we will be flying OUT of Afghanistan down to Qatar. It's still the gulf, but there are several key things going on there. 1. Beer. 2. No shooting 3. No blowing up. All things I enjoy. It will nice to be out of the combat zone for a while, it sorta takes a mental toll on you. All told with travel, I will likely be gone for a week. Not a bad break.

Speaking of breaks, today is Afghanistan's Independence day, so I am off! That means for the first time here, I have two days off in a row! A real weekend. Anyway, its more or less absurd becuase they are celebrating independence from the Brits in 1917(I think), but they have been captured and freed like 5 times since then. Weird. I don't care, it allowed me to sleep in.

Ok, that's it, its not as short as I expected, but I got a burst of creativity, you are all welcome!

Oh, school supplies have been coming in at a good pace, thank you all who have sent them, you know who you are!

Take Care.

Gary

The glue trap strikes again

Another week, another creature. Yesterday morning we awoke to the squirmy sounds of a creature trapped on one of our many well placed glue traps. Steve was the first to notice him, and made us all come look. Stuck to the paper was a mouse, no relation to Mickey that I could see, so that meant he had to go. We took him down to the office so we could turn him in and get new traps. I wont post the pictures of him cause he was entirely too cute. The key to remember, he was disease ridden! The good news is I think this was the little bugger that has been in here for a few weeks, I think at this point we are now finally rodent free. We have glue traps to the right and left of our door on the way in, and then several placed all around to catch any that happen to get by the door guards. I actually have one under my bed.....maybe I should check it?

I say it almost every blog, but its been a boring week. They really are all very similar. Only exciting thing this week was that the ANA had a dog and pony show gun shoot. President Karzai was supposed to show up so we all went to watch. Turns out he didn't show so the only fun thing was to watch them lob artillery at the mountain. Its good to see the army that we will be fighting against in about 20 years learning from us.

Oh, I almost forgot! It RAINED here this week. Amazing. Sustained, no kidding rain. First time I had seen it in months. In fact, it hailed a little bit. I had to stand out in it for a little while and I think Steve got video. Yes, we are amused at little things.

That's about it, we are approaching the 275 day mark, that wont be so bad!

Gary

One degree of separation from Osama

Made another trip today, back to Tangee Kalay, and this time we were meeting the American woman that lives there. Turns out last trip I missed a ton of key details. The man we met last time, who I think I equated to the mayor, is actually the Khan, as in Genghis. Khan is a word used to describe important leaders in this here part of the world. Anyway, this guy we met, is the head honcho of pretty much any land I can see. His grandfather was a land barron, and owned pretty much the east side of Afghanistan. This guy now owns most of it, and fortunately for us is very generous, and is making a very concerted effort to improve his country. His wife, an American who I guess was a journalist of some sort back in the early 80's is now a huge advocate of getting women in Afghanistan their rights back. She has been with him for 20 years or so and they have been fighting back against the Soviets first, and then the Taliban in the early 90's. When it got real bad here, they tossed her husband in jail and threatened to kill her, but they ended up getting out, and moved back to the States for a few years in California. He wanted to come back and help his people, she agreed basically telling him the US doesn't have a word for Khan, and his status was greatly enhanced being here, rather than being a mall security guard in Escondido. She is that sorta woman who you can tell always has a cause and is the energizer bunny on steroids. We were there for 2 hours and she literally didn't stop talking once. Fortunately it was fascinating. So, that leads me to the most interesting part of the time she was talking which was when they were fighting with the Mujahadeen, and came across Osama. He was known in these parts as "the Arab", and if you didn't know, Afghans are not Arabs. They have their own culture and nationalities and are definitely not Arab. Anyway, he lived probably 20 miles from where I am typing, and her husband had met with him and had dealings with him on several occasions. In the few words he was able to get in edgewise today, he described him as "moody". Understatement I think. If any of you have read "The Bear went over the Mountain" and "The Other Side of the Mountain" about the Soviets invasion and then the Mujahadeen's response, he is written about in one of them. He was also a camera man for CBS during the Taliban time here and used to sneak female reporters in from Pakistan. They were just fascinating people and ones whom you only read about.

We did talk about the school with her, she is still very interested in getting "stuff", unfortunately Crayons, are out, AGAIN! It's no big deal if you have them, or have sent them, she said her kids will handle them just fine, the kids in the other villages write on walls with them. She also said no clay, they will eat it, but did recommend two things. 1 - golf pencils, the little kids love them cause they fit their fingers so well, and 2 - shoes and sandals, especially shoes with winter coming. I also found out I may be able to get into the schools at some point and help teach some computer classes as they don't have anyone to do it!

It's hard to encapsulate all of today in a paragraph, but it was fun, and very interesting.

On my regular job front, its been pretty boring actually. We have just been going through equipment and trying to get it repaired and filling out paperwork. Not fun, but necessary. I have taken to amusing myself though and thought I would share it. I think I've mentioned before that I have at times messed with the guy I work with by talking to him and continuing to talk to him while he looks at me in panic because my interpreter is either busy or cant keep up. I have extended that game and now make it part of my daily routine. I get many questions about things and when they ask, always in Dari, I used to wait for my interpreter to tell me what they said. Instead, now, I stare at them, attempt to say exactly what they said back to me, although usually it comes out gibberish, and then I will start up in English, usually about nothing. Yesterday the Sgt asked me something and at the same time, pointed to his ears. I looked over at his ears and told him they looked fine to me. At which point he said something again and pointed to his forehead. I told him you don't listen with your forehead, you do it with your ears, but they looked okay, so I don't know why you are complaining. Then I told him he needed a hair cut and some other mundane stuff. All the while, he was talking in Dari. We had NO idea what the other one was saying, but Zak my interpreter and the civilian that works in the office thought it was hilarious. It really was. It may not sound like much, but holding two very separate conversations face to face with someone in two languages is entertaining.

Long one this week...thanks for hanging in there.

Take care!

Gary

Moved....again

I was told a day or so ago, you are moving. Good thing I had anything to say about it. The back story is that the Air Force is bringing in about 30 people, and 12 are women. See, we don't have women here at Blackhorse, so why are they bringing them? Who knows. Anyway, they have to have their own facilities, and of course, of the 90 rooms here, I was in one of them chosen to move to make room for the females. Oh well. I hate moving but it was over fast. I now live with Steve and Bob in the infamous scorpion room. I actually am in the area where it was found, but I have strategically placed glue traps to protect my domain. So now I have a bit less living space, and an extra roommate, but I guess all in all it doesn't matter. It all counts towards the 365.

Gary

Lions and Tigers and Bears! OH MY!

The contracting company that handles the maintenance, food service etc for the camp has given us a not so subtle hint that we have a rodent problem. All of you by now have heard of or read about the camel spider incident. Since then I check my boots religiously for critters. Well, the last few days has had the aforementioned contracting company laying glue traps out EVERYWHERE. I got the idea that I needed one, or 25 of them, the other night when I was sitting on my chair and saw out of the corner of my eye, a little bugger run and take off under one of the beds. We searched, but couldn't find him. My guess is, it was a mouse, but I wont know until I find him. At this point, I went and acquired glue traps for my own room and have them placed all around. I told Bob and Steve about it, and they decided they needed traps as well. They laid the traps out last night and low and behold this morning, they had a catch! What could it be? A mouse? A camel spider? NO, better! A scorpion! WHOO HOO! The stupid thing had scurried onto the trap, gotten its front legs trapped and then with its stinger "attacked" the glue paper and managed to get that stuck too. It was pissed. Steve started to move the trap to get it outside, and the thing freed its stinger and hit the trap again. It was more stuck at this point, and Steve was squealing like a girl. He denies that, but I have witnesses. Honestly, the camel spider scared me a lot more because it was so much bigger, but this thing was nasty looking and definitely angry. Steve looked it up online and found out it's poisonous, then again, most of the ones around here are. Lets hope this was an isolated incident. Two of the other guys here caught two mice on one trap the other night, to date, mine are all free from rodents, insects or other creepy crawlies. Just thought I'd share some of the fun living in a desert!

Gary

KAIA Trip

Made a trip today to Kabul International Airport (KAIA). Pictures are up here. I had wanted to go and a convoy was heading there in up armored humvee's (my favorite way to travel in keeping with rule #1 - don't get blown up). Anyway, its a short trip, 25 mins or so, 10 mins if the roads here were any good. Its a massive multi-national facilty, and I only saw two American's while I was there, but a pile of French, Bulgarian, Croation and New Zealanders. Now I know where the NATO forces hang out. It's more or less a crap hole of an airport, but there were a couple commercial flights coming in for those that want to visit me ;) That is a joke, dont even try it! We got to eat at a semi-real restaurant and shop at the German, Italian, Polish and some other countries exchanges, so that was interesting. All in all, a decent trip, and now my need for seeing the airport is satisfied, so I can continue to stay holed up here at Blackhorse. :)

299!!

As Jerry Reed put it so eloquently - We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there. I definitely have a long way to go, but I can't put the pedal to the metal and speed this up. Regardless, this is a good day! I have broken the 3xx days remaining countdown, and am into the 200's. It isn't anything more than one day closer than yesterday, but its a mental thing! Every milestone counts.

This week, as I wrote last time, has been a tad boring, but we did have a couple interesting conversations with our interpreters. Steve and I were trying to describe the restaurant Hooters, and the double entendre that it is. Needless to say they don't have anything like it here, and when they finally got the concept, you could see the shame on their faces. Then we sorta moved into other restaurants, and since it was Thursday here, and Friday is a day off, we started talking about TGI Fridays. Which, means absolutely nothing to them, one because Friday to them is called Juma, and two, they have that Allah guy. So, to them it would be Thank Allah it's Juma. TAI Juma. Not quite the same ring.

We also talked a bit about religion, which is a very touchy thing here. We were told EMPHATICALLY not to try any conversions. HA. I am not sure who would be coming here attempting to convert, but good luck to them. We actually discussed the differences between Sunni and Shiites. Both of our interpreters who were there at the time were Sunni (Saddam's chosen sect BTW), and started talking about some of the reasons they don't like the other side. One of the main reasons revolved around the fact that Mohammad had 4 sub? Prophets, and the Sunni's follow all of their teachings, but the Shiites only follow one. They both follow Mohammad mind you. They also mentioned how many times a day they pray, and the fact that they don't wash as much. To me, I couldn't find any substantive reason to dislike the other side, considering at the root of it, they are following the same teachings. I tried to explain that I being Catholic, followed almost NOTHING they did, I don't pray but once a day, and really don't care about Mohammad. I guess showering daily scores me points. Either way, I tried to get them to explain why they didn't hate me (maybe they do), but they really couldn't do it without laughing. I think at the root of all this, they have been told for so long to dislike the other side, its just part of them. Sad really. Can you imagine me jacking up a Baptist due to his showering habits? I am so glad I live in the US.

On a more serious note, I saved a life today. I don't know who's, or when they were going to die, but I am telling you, chalk one up for Gary. I was going around this month helping the Sgt in S-6 learn how to update the virus scanners, which by the way, he picked up really fast. We found the security company office, and when I walked in, I noticed that they had instead of a plug for their UPS, two wires just jammed into the wall socket. 220 through very thin wires. Nice. So, I went to supply guy for us, and asked him to get me a power strip, and he was nice enough to acquire one quickly. We went back in and unhooked the monstrosity that was their power cord, and I started dismantling the setup. What they actually had done was wrap 2 pieces of wire onto an American grounded plug through the holes in the end, and then wrapped that entire mess in a walmart blue plastic bag. It was a fire or electrocution ready to happen. Gary 1, Death 0. Take that Death! My other concern is that now that I have fixed this problem, I have a feeling they will take the power strip, sell it downtown and go back to the old way. I had to explain to the Lieutenant that was in there that if I came back and it was back to the old way, I would take their computer. He seemed to get it, we'll see.

That's about it for now, take care.

2 down

Today is a pretty good day. Its the start of our third month. WHEE!! Doesnt sound like much, but it's a nice milestone. We have now been here as long as we were at Camp Shelby, and honestly, it felt like it took 5 years to get out of Shelby. In relative terms, time is flying. Been an uninteresting week at work, so hopefully I will have more things to write about in a few days!

Updated the updates

HA, try to keep up with that title! Alright, so it isnt that hard! Basically, I took my original 7 updates, and have now put them in the post that used to be titled update 8. Everything I have sent in email is now on here.

Gary

Afghan Village Trip

I made my first "real" trip info Afghanistan today and it was really incredible. The army does all sorts of public works projects to help out local villages etc. They were doing one for the village of Tangi Kalay which is about 6 miles from us here at Blackhorse. They asked if we wanted to tag along because we had been asking about going to a school. We were thrilled to be able to go, because honestly, its probably the most rewarding thing we will do here.

The village itself is pretty stardard. All dirt walls and inside are decent little small houses. We actually met the village elder in a small courtyard that the previous army units had built them. Its basically a community center. Some of the pictures (located at my picasa page, or just click the link on the word pictures)I have are from the courtyard and a couple are from one of the little rooms they have setup inside as a classroom for the girls to learn English. We had tea (of course) with them and some cookies and then we were off. The army was building a power facility for a village across the street, different name, but the elders knew each other. All of my other pictures are from that other village. Much poorer, but honestly, the house we went into for this elder wasnt too bad. They scoped out the spot to build while we played around with the kids. What a great experience that was. They are incredible. The real little ones especially the girls are just adorable. The girls are SERIOUSLY camera shy....as soon as one comes out, they bolt. I was only able to get pictures of them from a distance. They are all pretty polite, but definately curious. They want to come up and touch you and are very curious about our uniforms and things hanging from them. They want ANYTHING you will give them. They LOVE, LOVE, pens....and water bottles whether they have water in them or not. We know better for next time to bring a whole bunch of water bottles....I guess even if they arent full they make toys out of them. The elders were extremely hospitable and sat us down a couple different times to feed us watermelon and some other melon, and give us tea. It was also very interesting to see the kids scatter when he yelled. They would start crowding us, and he would tell them to back up and they would take off. The concept of respect for the elder is alive and well in Afghanistan. It was fun to be out with them, as they smiled the entire time...but it was also sorta sad to see so many of them with nothing. Again, the girls get the short end of the stick because anything you give them, a bigger boy will go take it from her. Not much we can do about that. Either way, it was just incredible to be in a real village with real Afghans and feel like you can make a difference.

Don't get me wrong, I won't be spending all of my free time there....we still were out in the open and I'm not a huge fan of being in harms way for hours at a time, but for the time we were there it was very enjoyable.

I know many of you have expressed an interest in sending school supplies etc. and the good news is that now we have an outlet for all of it, and I can tell you from first hand experience that it will go to very good use.

Gary

BAF Pictures

The BAF pictures are up.

Gary

My Bagram adventure

Today was a first for the Navy guys here. We did our own convoy that didn't involve the Marines or Army guys. One of our guys was flying back home for his brothers wedding, so we had to convoy up to Bagram Air Field (BAF) to get him to his flight. Actually, we tried to do it yesterday, but as we left the final gate out of Pol-e-Charki(PeC), we called the command center and they informed us every road went black (meaning NO travel of any kind), so we had to turn around. That is here nor there. The roads went red again today (which means we have to be in up armored humvees, vice our Ford Rangers to leave the gate), so we packed up our stuff and headed out. A couple of the guys had been to BAF before, none of us had ever driven there. We figured we'd get there :)

Things went pretty well until we got past Camp Phoenix and needed to make a turn. Everything sorta looks the same so of course we missed it. At this point, my GPS came out and we figured out we didn't miss it by much and turned around and headed the correct direction, in this case, North. Love the GPS. I figured if only one time it got me in the correct direction, it was worth every dollar, I was right. I recommend if you ever drive in Afghanistan by yourself, have one :)

BAF is about 45 miles ish from PeC, depending on the route you take, so its really not THAT far, but it seems like a lifetime because you are typically on the road about two hours. Between horrible roads, donkey's, bikes in the middle of the road, 4 lanes of traffic on a 2 lane road and then just stoppages for no reason, its not a standard 45 mile journey. About 2 miles up on the road that we had missed, but were now on, it dawned on me: We are 5 Navy guys who don't speak the language driving to a place we THINK we know how to get to in armored vehicles carrying guns. It became surreal as I stepped back and considered what we were doing. Didn't matter at this point, we were mobile!

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, the road is straight, only one more turn until BAF so we managed to make it in. Got some pictures of the AMC passenger terminal there, some cargo sitting on the runway, and some other general parts of the base. Its SOOO much bigger than what we have here, and they have some of the cool amenities of home. Key one: I had a double whopper with cheese for lunch. Horrible for my weight loss goals, but wow was it good! I haven't had fast food in a couple months and it was a very satisfying lunch. Also made an exchange run and picked up a hair clipper, microwave and a BAF item for Kara. Gotta love the microwavable food on lousy dinner nights. We also had to pick up a couple guys coming back to PeC from leave. That is a story for another day, but we did manage to find them.

We loaded up again and headed back out the gates and made really good time on the way home. One of the guys knew a short cut and saved us 15 mins. I think all that means is that we will get lost next time trying to go the same route.

I make it a point to avoid being on the roads as much as possible. Being out there makes breaking my two keys rules much easier. Oh, my two rules.

1. Don't get shot
2. Don't get blown up.

I am very pro my rules, and like to follow them at all times. I will ideally make very few trips to BAF in the future, but at long as they go as well as this one, it will be fine!

Take care! Ill add pictures from the trip later tomorrow!


Gary

4th of July

Happy Independence day! Doesn't really feel like it here, but it is none the less.

update 10

I'd like for these updates to be a bit more exciting, but since we have settled into a daily routine, something really outstanding has to happen for that. Come to think of it, anything really exciting is probably bad, so you all just have to put up with boring updates.

One interesting occurance this week was my first dust storm. Afghanistan is in what is known here as the "120 days of wind". Just what it sounds like, the winds can be intense at times. In Kabul, especially out where we are in the mountains, we are isolated from most of it. Some of the regions down south experience 40/50 mph winds almost daily. Either way, I walked outside yesterday and I couldnt see 25 yards in front of me in any direction. Kinda scary actually. I am so used to seeing the moutains that surround us, having the dust block everything was very odd.

I haven't seen Commander Banana in two weeks, because surprise, he is downtown all the time picking up food. Today I got word he was on the base, so I took my interpreter and we headed over to find him. He was in the Afghan DFAC (chow hall) so I got to take a little tour behind the scenes. I wish I wouldn't have. There were guys cutting vegetables inches from their feet, dirty shovels everywhere and some smell I couldnt quite place. Either way, we found him and spoke to him for a few minutes. I invited him back to his old job, time will tell if he shows up.

Speaking of our interpreters, we are starting to get a little more comfortable with them. Like any new co-worker, you dont really know what you can say and what you cant say when you first meet. We have been here long enough now that we have figured out some of their character traits and things about them. The one guy we found out is REALLY into Joe Pesci. He loves all of his movies and keeps asking us to bring him more of them. He is down to the Home Alone series. It's really quite funny to hear him impersonate him. I don't know where he learned about Joe, but I find it interesting that he has latched onto that actor.

I think I mentioned in the last update, that most days here are the same. Not much changes. We as a group sorta talked about things we need to do keep sane and improve ourselves. We all have decided that the gym is a great place, and I have been in there 6/7 days a week. Its a good way to kill an hour. I did seem to hurt my knee yesterday, so I think I may have to take a day off once in a while. We also have decided that we need to get smarter. I have started taking classes from Navy Knowledge online, and am going to get certified in MS Office and hopefully either finish or at least be ready when I get home for MS certified systems admin. It's good to have goals, and honestly, it makes the days go a bit faster knowing you have things you have to accomplish.

Not much else for now, take care!

Gary

Hunting

I just returned from a hunting expedition. I THOUGHT I was going to the head - I was sadly mistaken. As I opened the door, the air pressure under the door, sucked this little fellow out into the hall, and pretty much onto my feet. I thought, oh how cute: a cross between a spider and a scorpion! I used said facilities, and as I was leaving, I saw "it" get sucked back out into the hall. I thought two things: 1. Photograph it. 2. (and this one was overwhelming) Get a boot and kill it. I grabbed the camera, my roomate grabbed a boot and we went back out to nab our quarry. At this point a Canadian officer walked in from outside and offered to shoot it. I must admit.....tempting. This thing was probably 4/5 inches long, and from what I am told, Camel spiders are very agressive, at least when they get bigger (oh yeah...venomous too). Killing him now was doing us a large favor later on! Anyway, we got the flashlight out, lit him up, and I took some pictures. He was dead seconds later. We gave him a proper burial by hurling his little body outside. Gives me the creeps. Blah. I havent encountered to much stuff here that truly reminds me I am in the desert.....this DEFINATELY did. Oh yeah...if you notice the time, its Midnight. All the fun stuff happens late.

HOT!

You know, I live in a desert. I was well aware of that fact considering all the sand and dirt laying around, but honestly, it hadnt been that hot yet. Humidity is almost unheard of here, so its just raw heat. I try to stay inside as much as I can, so it hasnt affected me that much. I think someone turned the oven to 450 and flipped the switch to bake yesterday evening. When I got up it felt like waking up in Florida in August. It was already over 90 just past 7am, and was actually humid. It didnt get better during the day, I think it ended up near 105 here today. I shouldnt complain, its the first day of heat really, but I have this funny feeling that it will continue on until the fall. No point today, just hot!

Frustration

Today was the first day (of many I am sure) that I was very frustrated. The aforementioned 1LT Ali, is a good guy, hard working and all that, but evidently doesnt like to listen. All of the cell phones over here, use a prepaid sim card. Every month, the Garrison gets a set amount of these cards and they are spread out amoung the offices. The Garrison CO is a crook, documented of course, and he likes to take 90% of the minutes for himself and let the other offices flounder. We have been working on a plan to get him to buy off on that would essentially cut him out of the loop of the phone cards, and let us distibute them evenly. I told the LT today to NOT give the cards to the CO until we had this plan ready. He went anyway, and now the CO has all the cards, and we wont see them again. I got mad, yelled about that and some other stuff and just left. My interpreter finished telling them what I said and then came running after me. But,I was already fed up with that issue and another big one that I have been asking about for days and nothing is getting done. I am usually very patient, but I am giving very clear guidance, and assigning very few tasks at once and its still being mis-handled. Things will be better tomorrow as we will write out the plan, and have it signed and ready to go for next month. Ideally the other issue will be worked out, and we can move on.

Considering I left a bit early, I took off and did a base tour. There are some really cool old blown out buildings and a couple of tank graveyards. I have posted pictures at the link mentioned earlier. From what we are told, the missiles in the picture are SCUD's that until very recently, had warheads. I think all of the stuff laying out there is Iraqi, and orginally Russian built. The remants of the cold war laying out in a field. Good stuff.

update 9

I have started uploading pictures to google. I will try to mention in my updates if there are new pictures or not, but for now, I am still in the process of putting some up there.

It is located at : http://picasaweb.google.com/gwhopewell

Gary

update 1-8

I started all of this fun March 6th in Norfolk VA, and then headed to Camp Shelby MS on March 13th. This post used to be Update 8, but I have subsequently added 1-7 for those who came late! :)

I have these in order, so once you read all of this crap, you can resume normal blog reading.

Gary


This was sent March 20th.

Hello from beautiful Camp Shelby everyone!

I have now been here a week, and thought I would give a bit of an
update. The living quarters are ok. Barracks style, 14 guys in here.
They were bunk beds, but being enterprising Naval officers, we separated
them so now we all have bottom bunks. There are 6 barracks, 3 rooms per
and I think of all of them, ours has the least amount of complaints. It
smells good in here, the AC / Heat works, no one is a huge snorer
(unless its me and they havent told me), and we all seem to get along.
The same can not be said of the rest of the rooms.

The head, latrine, bathroom, whatever is ok. Its an open bay 8 shower
area, and about 10 sinks. Lots of hot water, so that is good, you just
have to work out your schedule to ensure you can get a spot. I dont
feel "dirty" being in there, but its not the cleanest place in the
world. Its kinda like camping at a place that at least takes care of
the bathrooms.

Another place I really cant complain to much is food. Jeez. I lost 25
pounds before I left, I have no doubts I've put on 10 of it. I actually
eat breakfast everyday now not knowing if lunch will happen, and its
always eggs / bacon etc. I think I will start hitting the cereal and
toast. MRE's for lunch everyday and I think they are an entire days
calories in one. I have tried to not eat the entire thing. They arent
bad, but I imagine after a while I'll be sick of them. Dinner has been
excellent. The army makes its people live in crappy places, but they
certainly compensate with food.

We finally started training a few days ago, a couple of classroom
sessions on the Humvee and some basic Army crap. Today we did some
Close air support (CAS) training and a little time in the simulator.
More of that to follow. Tomorrow is supposed to be an all day Humvee
driving day, including night driving with Night vision goggles (NVG's)
Dunno if we will get to that or not. Should be fun if I get my turn.
Day after that is supposed to be cultural awareness training. This has
been my only complaint so far. These orders are 365 on the ground in
Afghanistan, and I want to get there and get it done. They have not
been very efficient in getting us training everyday all day. We have
had an inordinate amount of time off, but I hope it stops once we get
some of the initial stuff done.

No real updates on where I am going (still think its Kabul), or the when
(around May 13th) or the what (Embedded Training team) that we are
doing. Status quo in this case is good.

I appreciate that you are all keeping me in your prayers. Take care.

Gary

This was sent March 30, 2006

Have I mentioned I hate the Army? :)

Ok, since the last update, here is what we have done.

First of all, the aforementioned barracks....gone. We moved. We were
here for 2 weeks, and they moved us all the way across the base to a NEW
(well, new to us) barracks. Looks JUST like the old ones. They did
give us a stand up locker, but I went from a 14 man room to about an 18
man room. I have much more storage space now, so that is good, but
moving is never fun. This new place has 2 heads now, which is nice,
alleviates the lack of shower / sink issues, BUT a new problem. The
showers in this place have about half the water pressure of the other
place, and the water cyles from 140F to about 75F pretty much at
random. Doesnt matter what you do with the knobs, it just delivers
water and you dance around in it attempting to avoid being burned or
frozen. GREAT. I did figure out last night though, that if I turn on
the shower next to me full bore hot, while I shower, it sorta keeps the
burning at bay. Its better but not great.

We did go through all of our Humvee training, drove both the 998
(regular ole unarmed 7000 pound version) and the up-armored 12000 pound
version. Pretty good time in general. All in all, I'd much rather
drive my accord.

The last three days have been spent in a Combat life saver
class......essentially combat first aid. Great training, great
instructors. This class had a level of dread involved as on day 3, we
the students were to put an IV in someone, and in turn, be stuck. Those
of you who know me well, know that I get light headed, sweaty, and pale
when that sorta stuff happens to me by professionals....having it done
by a buddy of mine wasnt fun! Pictures exist, find Kara or my mom and
they have them. It worked out fine, as my partner Brian (also from St.
Louis) hit my vein on the first try. I was nice to him and reciprocated
and we managed not to mangle each others arms. Some other pairs had to
try 2 / 3 / 4 times, and I have never seen more flowing blood in my
life. Good skill, but I can tell why I am not in the medical profession.

This morning was gas mask fittings, and then after we went out and took
our M16's and M9's apart. EARLY this morning, the General in charge of
our task force spoke to us. Good news is that he re-iterated that we
(the Navy and Air Force component) will not be used as combat forces and
will be used the way we were originally designed. Most of the training
we are getting here is a - just in case - sorta deal. All things I want
to know though, in case something happens.

We start our range training next Monday or Tuesday I think - the
schedule is fluid.

Take care....miss you all.


Gary

This was sent April 12, 2006

It's been a little bit since my last update, but that just means I have been busy.

Since the last one, we have spent some serious time at the rifle and pistol range, and I have learned a few things. #1 - Trying to shoot an M-16 right handed, when you are left eye dominant, is not easy. I was the second to last guy (out of 30) to qualify on that weapon. I eventually got it, but, I think it took me 6 tries to get it done. The range included targets at 50/100/150/200/250 and 300 meters. You had 40 targets, and had to hit 23 to qualify. If you have ever tried to hit a target while in a foxhole, wearing 60 pounds of gear and a helmet, its not particular easy, and not well suited to a Navy officer who spent most of his recent career doing admin! :) I ended up getting 27 on my last try, and the good news is that I am fairly comfortable with the weapon now.

The 9mm range was a whole different story for me. Targets ranging from 7-30 meters, had to hit 16 out of 30, and I think I got 25 my first time through. Its a much easier weapon for me to handle, and I guess I "get it" a bit more. So with both of those, I am fully weapons qualified.

The times we have visited medical to be "screened" has reached 4. I think the over / under is at 7 before we leave.

Today we started platoon and squad movement training. We were in "full battle rattle", or "full teenage mutant ninja turtle battle attire" depending on who you ask. It includes our helmet, the IBA (body armor), backpack with camelback, knee and elbow pads and both weapons. I think when its all said and done, we are carrying about 60 pounds. Then they taught us how to low crawl (its not the same thing as when you were kids), high crawl and how to rush. Basically you rush for 3-5 seconds, and then throw yourself to the ground using the butt of your weapon to slow the fall. Great idea. Then you low or high crawl to the next position. These idiots out here were setting off smoke and m-80's for realism. I was tired, filthy, and had lost 2 pounds of fluids just after the first obstacle course. I think at this point it was 10am. Argh. The rest of the day we did a forced march of about 2/3 miles practicing our wedge, V, and squad / platoon line formations. I am so well aware of why I didnt join the army. I spent most of the day flat on the ground letting bugs crawl all over me, thinking "I know why I didnt join the army" Oh yeah, this was in full gear. Dont ever forget full gear. Nazi's. End of the day, I was more filthy, much more tired, and every inch of clothing I had was covered in sweat. Just think, only three more day of this!

Just remember, if you think you are having a bad day, its very likely mine is worse :)

Take care, keep me in your prayers.

Gary

This was sent May 2, 2006

Wow, a serious extended period of time with an update. Sorry about that. Our schedule optempo has gone up exponentially with my free time doing the opposite.

They have been putting us through the ringer physically and mentally, although I can see the end of the tunnel now so its not that bad.

We did our Squad and platoon ops, where on the last day, as a group we "assaulted" a position with an attack element, and two support elements giving suppressive fire. We were given high marks by the Army guys playing the bad guys as we ended up surprising them on our approach and took the position with no casualties. I was in the attack element, which involved a series of 3-5 second rushes (described below), and ended up being a very difficult week. I think it was easily the hardest most physically demanding portion.

After that we did Urban operations which is basically how to move through a town in squad sized groups, clearning buildings if need be, and attempting to not be seen. Our 4 man squad was taught to kick in doors and clear rooms. Speed, surprise and firepower are key in this fun. I also learned you don't want to be the first man in. I was in that position all week and even just pretending, it was very tense. It was a good class, but its something I really dont ever see us doing.

Following this class we did the reflexive fire range. Its basically a range where you learn to carry your M-16 at the low ready, and as a target pops up, you bring your weapon up and fire quickly, without really aiming. Again, fun stuff, not sure how applicable it will be to me teaching the ANA how to count bullets.

We continued on from there and did 32 hours of classroom on an Army computer system, but we did it in 2 days. 16 hours of class a day isnt productive. The learning stopped around 5pm each day and then it became an exercise in staying awake.

Our next three days was spent out at FOB (Forward operating base) Hurricane here on Shelby. We lived in tents and during the day we had practical exercises on base defense, entry control points, and quick reaction forces. Again, things we wont do in country, but interestesting to learn. BTW, I also hate camping. There are pictures from this fun floating around.

Our last couple days have been spent working on what the Army calls crew served weapons. Basically anythign that isnt hand carried by a soldier. Most have tripods, or are vechile mounted. I got selected to fire the M-2 .50 caliber rifle. Its big, its loud and shoots a long way. I was on the qualifiying range today and hit 9 out of 9 targets from 400 to 800 yards. Its a cool gun, its fully automatic and you just lay on the trigger for a few seconds in the general direction of a target and it falls down. There are pictures of this, someone has them. I also have video from it, ill get that to you guys eventually.

Oh yeah, I forgot, the Army also decided to give me an M-203 grenade launcher that is attached to my M-16, again pictures are around. It makes the gun weigh about 15 pounds now, but at least it looks cool. Lets hope I never use it.

Down to our last 8 days here, and its nice to see the end. We have 4 days of Convoy operations starting tomorrow, followed by a couple days of firing the AK-47 and then I think we are about done with this fun. When its all said and done, ill be qualified to shoot or carry 5 weapons. Fun.

Take care

Gary

This was sent May 22, 2006

Hey all, greetings from beautiful, but dusty and hot Kabul Afghanistan. I have been here for 2 days now after my whirlwind travel adventure. I left St. Louis on the 16th of May in time to be back at Camp Shelby by midnight (we had intended on leaving a bit earlier, but one of the guys got delayed, so we were back 11pm). We spent the next day(17th) packing, cleaning and getting ready to get out of dodge. Our flight left Gulfport MS at 3am on the 18th, so around 9pm on the 17th we stacked all the bags, loaded the buses and went to get weighed to ensure we didnt drop the 767 out of the sky. Evidently we were underweight.

By 11 or so, we were in Gulfport, and sent to a huge hanger to hang out. We rotted there for a few hours while they loaded the plane and fueled up. We boarded a bit late but got off around 4am. We started our first leg of the journey, an 8 hour non-stop flight to Shannon Ireland. I slept almost the entire trip, which was a good thing. Landed in Shannon in a fog(a personal one) although it was raining there, at about 5pm local time, and got off the plane with the other 130 people and got in line for a guiness. I did make it, and had my guiness in Ireland. It was excellent. We were only in Ireland for about 2 hours and we boarded again for our flight to Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

This flight most of us were awake, and it was a little more lively. Watched a couple movies, slept a little bit, ate for the 4th time on the plane and then landed in Manas about 7am. In actuality, the jet lag wasnt bad, because we landed like 27 hours later, and I had slept for a reasonable amount of time. I was able to step right into the new time zone. We were briefed, sent to tents to drop our crap and then told to just wait to find out when our flight out would be. It was nice to have a bit of downtime. Manas is a really nice base. Its in ex Soviet territory, but has really nice mountains in the background and pleasant weather. 24 hour food, a nice PX/BX, and phone / internet access. Best thing: 2 beers a day! I had some Russian jobby I couldnt pronounce and a czech beer called Budweiser (evidently they think they were first cause they were touting it as "the original"). Good stuff. Ran into the first of three people that I "know" there. This guy is a policemen in St. Louis who works in the same office as my Aunt Gerri. Weird. Our flight to Bagram was the next morning at 10.

Loaded our C Bags AGAIN for the plane, and got to the airport to board. We took a C-17 flown by the Air Force, a first for me, flying Milair. Sat in the jump seats on the side of the plane and all in all, not a bad ride. 2 hours later, we were in Bagram, Afghanistan. Short lived there, but long enough to unload and load all our bags again. I think each of us moved about 3 tons of stuff that day as we had to touch the bags over and over. Got old. We then got a convoy consisting of 3 up armored Humvee's with .50 cal guns on them, 2 five ton trucks with our bags on it, and then our two school buses with us in them. The trip from Bagram is 30 miles according to my GPS, but it took us 1:52 mins to get there. CRAPPY roads. We are truly in a third world country. In that 30 miles I saw more burned out, bombed out buildings, camels, nomadic people just out wandering, tent cities and tons of crappy villages. Ive been to Mexico and Jamaica, and I thought those were bad, they just dont compare. I have to wonder how much of the damage I saw was caused by us, or how much was from the Soviets. We have been in Kabul living in tents, AGAIN for the last two days. I am really tired of living out of bags. From what I can figure, we should be at our final destination later this week after some training here at Camp Phoenix. From what I gather, I will be at Policharki, or Pol-E-Charki, or however else they spell it (most just say PeC), which is a small garrison base about 10 miles east of here. From what I gather, its a pretty nice place. At this point, I dont care, I just want to be able to unpack. Its been mid to high 80's here, and the sun is intense. Its also pretty dusty, only a few days here and my ears are collecting it. I think by the time I am done, I will just throw everything I have here away. It will be easier than cleaning it. Since being here, I have met two other people I "know". One is a Navy LT who I put in the Navy while a recruiter, and then I ran into my detailer (the guy who sends you to your next job) when I was on active duty. Its amazing that I have come 9+ thousand miles and I keep seeing people I know. I imagine that will continue.

I do have an address, but I want to confirm it before I send it out. As always, easy way to get me is via email. Its pretty good here so far.

More updates when stuff changes.

Gary


This was sent May 28th 2006

Good Morning! Well, its morning for you, but for me, its mid afternoon. I have been on my new base in Kabul for a couple days and thought I would send out a mini update.



We got here a couple days ago, and at first we had some aprehension as they were talking of splitting up my 5 man team, and sending some of us down south to a different base. Its not a bad place down there, but we all wanted to stay together, and honestly, this base we are at is by far the best in Afghanistan. We talked with the Marine Colonel that is here, and convinced him we should all stay and the 4 guys coming in behind us should fill the 2 openings at the base down south. It all made sense, and he agreed, so fortunately we are all here together. It wouldnt have been the end of the world, but we have all trained together for 2 plus months, you get close to people and you dont want to break up the team you have created.



Ok, so now that we are staying, I'll give the rundown. We live in a REAL building. Not a tent, not a plywood structure. The rooms are very similar to dorm rooms, pretty big ones at that. Usually 3 man rooms, although I think I will only have 2 in mine (more space!). We have stand up lockers and our own little area that is sectioned off with a curtain. Each room has an internet connection, and a TV / DVD. You can get sat TV as well, but I doubt I will as its probably expensive. I'm happy (thrilled) enough with a real room and internet!



Another huge bonus: I dont have to go outside to use the bathroom, or shower! Again, a real building means real restrooms. A lot of guys in my group are going to places with porta potty's and outdoor showers.

We have a barber shop, sewing place, a mini coffee shop, and a post office. The food is some of the best in country and they really try to take care of us. They also have an MWR room with a pool table, ping pong table, 3 XBOX's, a big screen, and a ton of movies / vid games you can rent out for free. The library is full of books and magazines, again, just take whatever you want to read. The place is really amazing.



Its still Afghanistan, so its hot, dirty, and dusty and its not like I am living at Disneyland, but its certainly a HUGE upgrade over where I have been living lately. Dirty tents, cots, and outdoor bathrooms get old really fast. Not to mention always living out of bag.



That is the Camp, called Camp Blackhorse by the way, and its located in the city of Pol-e-Charki (PeC), which is really just a suburb of Kabul.



We started working with the ANA (Afghan National Army) yesterday. Incredibly personable, and very well meaning. They are only a three year old army, so they have three year old issues. They like to ask for things, and have us do their work. We are here as mentors, trying to guide them to do the right thing, teaching them to be professional military officers and then if necessary stepping in to assist when their system fails them. My counterpart is the Comm guy for them, and basically they have some radios and a few computers. No real idea how to run the computers and limited radio knowledge. I have an uphill battle waiting for me. He didnt have a dedicated Navy guy during the last rotation so he is a bit farther behind some of the other ANA officers, but Ill work to get him up to speed. They all have a real sense of "me", they dont get the team concept. The fail to see how making the team stronger helps them, and cant figure out how supporting another department works in their favor. Again, something that I am here to help them learn. Ill get pictures of the place I work and some of the ANA to give you an idea of their working conditions.



Thats about it for now, notice I didnt bitch? Its on purpose. I dont feel right bitching, when I live in this place, doing the job I am doing. At least not yet! :)



Take care!


Gary


Sent JUNE 2nd 2006.
I have been working with the ANA most of the week and had a couple things that I figured I would talk about.

First, the tea. I have had more hot tea this week, than if you had added up all the other times in my life. Every time you go into an office, or sit for more than 30 seconds someone is offering you tea.
Being as the average guy there makes about 300 bucks a month, its sorta
rude not to take something they offer. I have declined couple times
but for the most part, you are trapped. The tea isn't the issue, its the system. The first time I had it, I walked into a room where 3 people were already drinking tea. When we sat down the guy grabbed those three cups, just topped them off and handed them to us. ACK.
That is a fairly common occurrence. Sometimes you get a glass that was empty, but obviously not washed recently. Occasionally you have one of the good enlisted guys actually go wash the cups, but being as ive seen where they wash them, and the fact that the water is not drinkable, I'm not so sure thats better. To top it all off, many of them assuming you
don't finish your tea, will pour it back into the pot! I am assuming
this is why the Navy gave me 10 shots before I came here.

Another issue that we are dealing with, is the fact that to the Afghan's, its the year 1385, and its March (at least what we consider
March) So, whenever we are talking to them, we have to do this mental conversion of +10 for days, -3 for months, and remember that they are
621 years behind us. Which is actually fairly fitting considering how
this place looks. They also don't have unique days of the week. They
have their holy day which is Friday, don't know what that is called yet. Then there is Saturday which is Sham bay (spelling is off I'm certain). Then, Sunday is yuk-sham bay (yuk is their word for one, again, don't hold me to the spelling), then du-sham bay (du is two), say-sham bay (say is three) etc. Basically, everyday is Saturday, and then they just add to it. Saturday +1, Saturday +2 etc. Add all this to the fact that I also try to keep tabs on central time which is 9.5 hours behind me, and I never know if I am coming or going!

I've spent my first week with them, trying to get them to tell me what their current issues are. I want them to document it, and prioritize it, and then we work the priority list. It's a difficult concept for them as they tend to grab one issue (typically not important) and only concentrate on that one. My counterpart's big issue is that he wants an office in the head building. He hasn't mentioned any of the broken printers, computers or the major phone install he has going on, but he wants an office. I am trying to teach him the value of not being co-located with the boss. We did computer inventory yesterday and found most of them, which was surprising. We also found a pile of equipment that wasn't working. So, now we have that on our list to go collect on Saturday, so we can turn it in and get new things. They found that
concept foreign. Which I guess works, because I am foreign! I am
enjoying the work so far, but its really mind boggling some of the things you have to talk about.

More updates as things happen!

Gary


Somehow I have managed to lose my latest update, so ill just tag onto the last one I could find.

Today marks the end of the first month here in Kabul. 1/12th of the way done. Doesn't sound like much, but getting through the first month here is probably the hardest part.

My days have been similar for the past week....I go over early in the morning, attempt to find my ANA counterpart and then work on whatever they have going, and if they don't have a plan, I find something for them. This past week has been inventory and virus software. We finding every piece of equipment they own, from computers, to printers, to radios. Its tedious and obviously has never been done. I am also getting them to use the computer more. Most of their reports are done with a pencil, a blank piece of paper and a ruler. Takes forever. They also refuse to make any extraneous marks on the page. If they make a mistake, they leave it. Cultural thing. The inventory will be an ongoing process, and isn't exciting. I decided on the virus software once one of our guys here used a thumb drive in a machine and promptly brought a virus back to us here at Blackhorse. We will be finished with that project tomorrow, at least until next month when we go to update. We have to do manual updates as they don't have the Internet yet. They are digging on the base, EVERYWHERE for Internet lines. Its amazing how much work a group of 20 guys with picks and shovels can get done. They really can dig. Ill be happy when they are done though, there are holes and trenches everywhere and makes driving difficult.

I learned a couple interesting facts this week. Number 1....the assistant S-6 who I spend most of my time with, is named Mohammad Ali. I had to ask him twice if he was messing with me. No significance, just funny. Two, I have been asking my interpreter what his birthday is. They don't celebrate them here, thus when you ask someone how old they are they always say "about x" In his case, he says, about 25. I got tired of that and made him ask his mom what his birthday was, as I told him, she will know. Of course she did, and strangely enough, his birthday is also March 12th. Weird.

The guy I am supposed to be working with is not well liked by the Garrison CO, and is tasked with a whole bunch of shitty little jobs. His big one is getting the food from downtown. Everyday he drives to Kabul to get the meat, rice, fruit etc. EVERYDAY. I never see him and its getting old. He is supposed to be taken off that duty soon so he can get some time with me. His subordinates have taken to calling him Commander Banana. Which is really funny because they don\'t speak English.

On the language barrier. I speak very little Dari, and they speak very little English, thank God for the terps, but its amazing the conversations you can have with someone using primitive grunts and pointing. Its like I am a cave man. I am making a concerted effort to learn what I can of their language, I have all the basics down...hello, goodbye, thank you, numbers etc. I try to have them teach me one easy phrase a day so I can pick up more. Its slow, as I really don't have the natural ability to pick up languages. I am actually lucky I know English come to think of it.

We did our first trip to the ANA side of the base today for PT. They have a soccer "field" on their side that we wanted to try out. Imagine two soccer goals with nets, and 100 yards of dry dirt and rocks in between. It sufficed for us to play some football and Frisbee, it was nice to do something other than be on the treadmill. We have to be armed while off Blackhorse, so that took a little fun out of it, but all in all, it was a good time. We got some interesting looks from passing soldiers.

Not much else going on, its sorta like the movie Ground hog day here, without all the repeated suicides ;) Thanks for all the support, I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Gary