Saturday, September 30, 2006

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.

Friday, September 29, 2006

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

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

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.

Monday, September 25, 2006

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

Friday, September 22, 2006

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

Monday, September 18, 2006

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.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

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

Saturday, September 02, 2006

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