Welcome to Afghanistan

Greetings Friends! It has been a while since I have written anything. I am currently in Afghanistan and I am one month into a two and a half month deployment. I just signed up for internet service today so I will try to write more about this place over the next month. Well, what can I tell you about Afghanistan? For starters, it's dusty here all the time, most roads are not paved and as a result, the trucks keep the dust stirred up. It also smells incredibly bad here, this is because there is no infrastructure such as sewer and running water in a lot of places. There are thousands of port o potties here on base and water for restrooms is often stored in large tanks and then pumped into sinks as toilets as needed. All the trash and who knows what else are burned in a large burn pit. So, between the burning garbage and the sewer smell...well, I'll let your imagination run with that one!

Since I arrived I have been on the night shift at work. I like this shift and we are usually busy during the night, which makes the time go by quickly.

I guess I should try to start at the beginning and fill you in up until today.

When we first arrived we were put in two huge tents with hundreds of bunkbeds in each. I think everyone was so tired that we were all just happy to have a place to crash. We quickly learned that this was not a good living situation for several reasons. First, when you have that many people working different hours, there is very little quiet time for sleeping. Someone is always up milling around or talking to their buddy, so that in itself makes it an unpleasant environment. The second reason it was so terrible was that the Air Conditioner kept going out during the day and the tent would heat up so much that it was unbearable to sleep. One day it was 92 degrees in there when I woke up. Third reason it was awful was that there is no indoor plumbing, normally, I wouldn't mind this and would just treat it like a big campout but after a few days of sleeping in a tent, showering in another tent, and using the restroom in yet another tent, you kind of grow tired of the whole "Camping" bit and it just starts to suck.

So, after about 4 days of living in the big tent, the guys in Ops took matters into our own hands and began moving to a smaller tent as our counterparts moved out to go back home, we moved in before the lodging office had a chance to give those bunks away. Compared to the big tent, we were living in much better conditions now. We still had to go to another tent to shower and use the facilities but it was a much shorter walk and the facilities were better, if you can compare one tent restroom to another one?

After about a week of living in our second tent, I was notified that because of my rank, I would be moved to modular housing, which is really just a fancy term for metal building with 6 people per room. If the second tent was better, you can imagine that this was the Taj Mahal. It has indoor plumbing and you have your own little 6X6 ft space, with a wall locker to put your stuff in. The rooms are all open but people seperate them off with blankets and rope so that you have a little privacy. It helps when there are day shift and night shift people in the same room.

As I said, I have been on the night shift since I got here and we have been taking out some terrorists. I have access to listen in on the radio as they overfly the operations and sometimes it gets pretty intense. On one occasion I listened as several of our Marines were shot up pretty bad. I'm not for sure but I think I attended a ramp ceremony for one of them. A ramp ceremony is where they load the flag draped coffin on the airplane to return the military member to their family. It was a very sad event to attend. I was impressed with the other countries that came to pay their respects, Canada, England, France, Bulgaria, there are too many to list. I only hope that we Americans would return the gratitude to one of their fallen. So, for this ramp ceremony we formed up in flights and marched out to the tarmac where our flight leader put us at parade rest behind the airplane. The chaplain said a short prayer and the Seargent at Arms called all the flights/platoons to attention. Then the Marine song was played on the bag pipes as 6 Marines carried thier brother to the airplane. Once they had secured the coffin, they returned to the ranks and Taps was played, after which, we were marched back off the tarmac and released. I'm sorry to say that I don't know the young mans name but I do remember that he was 25 years old and he was married. I pray that God will comfort his family in their time of grief.

The first Saturday I was here, I went to the Bazaar on base. Every Saturday they let local vendors come in and sell things. Most of it is junk...fake Oakley sunglasses for 10 bucks, fake Rolex watches for 20 bucks, that kind of stuff. They do have some nice carpets and some chess sets that are made of stone. The vendors like to haggle prices with you and quite frankly, it wears me out to go and bargain with them so I bought one carpet for Andria and I'm not sure I'm going back. Every vendor starts out with the same thing "Very good price for you, my friend!" then it's back and forth on the price, you walk away, and they chase after you...it's craziness!

There is also a boardwalk here that has a few shops and the Canuks have built a hockey rink in the middle. Of course, they don't play on skates, just tennis shoes, but they do have a game about every night and there is actually a KAF league amongst the different Countries represented here. The Canadiens try to host a lot of events and things to help pass the time, thankfully they invite everyone to their festivities. About 3 weeks into the deployment the Canadians had a band come over and put on a show. I don't know how many of you remember the group Glass Tiger from the 80's but they were here and a few days later the USO brought a tour group over. I got to meet a couple of the guys from the show "The Sopranos" and I also got to meet Rose McGowen.

Then there's the last couple of days...all I can say is that food poisoning must somehow be directly linked to satan himself. I'm not exactly sure how or where I got it, but I never want it again. I puked and well, you get the idea. Anyway, I ended up passing out twice, once in a port-a-pottie and once in front of the DFAC. If you are ever having a bad day...just remember, it could be worse, you could find yourself waking up in the floor of a port-a -pottie with food poisoning. "Good times my friends, good times!" So I spent Easter Sunday in the hospital here getting fluids and anti nauseau medication. I feel like a pin cushion because I was so dehydrated that they couldn't get an IV going and between the Army medic who first responded and the Navy folks at the hospital, I think I counted that they stuck me 8 times.

Now you are up to speed on all the fun times here at Kandahar Airfield in sunny, Afghanistan. I'm sure there are some details that I left out but I am keeping a written journal so I will go back through it and fill in the gaps later.

Have a great week!

Mike