Out and Back

So yesterday, 18 April 2009, I went outside the wire. Nothing big, we went to lunch with a demining company that works around Bagram. We went out in MRAPs, really big trucks. They have a com system that allows everybody to talk to each other without yelling, and somehow, the driver had music going through too. We started out going to the gate, but the road was still blocked from the flood. The road was no longer flooded, but the fence was down, so it was blocked for security reasons. So we had to go the long way around. Once we left the post the ride got real bumpy, but it was ok because of the 4-point seatbelts, it was a fun ride. When we got out to the site, there was a canopy set up with a table, chairs and snacks. Those of us along for the ride sat down, ate the snacks and drank tea. The Majors, Gunny and the contractor who came along discussed the contract for HDI, the demining company, with the CO of the company. The rest of us talked amongst ourselves, and took pictures. Then lunch was brought out. There was a lot of food, big bowls of rice, sheep (?) and tomatoes roasted on skewers that looked like swords, chicken, and some yummy flat bread. In the middle of lunch, there was a controlled detonation of the mines that were found that day, yes I took pictures, and video. But my internet connection is narrow, and it takes forever to load any pictures, and quite often they don't even load at all. After lunch, the outgoing Major was presented with a rug and a plaque for his contributions to demining and the local villages. Then we returned to the base, another bumpy ride. I nodded off for a while; it took even longer to get back to our area due to traffic. It was 1600 when we finally got back, we left at 1000. Back at the office I played a few games, chatted with Josh Beilie (Little John from TRF, now living in Alaska) on Facebook. Then it was 5pm, so I went to my room. I figured that I was tired from guard duty the night before and waking up early, but I found out in the bathroom that I was sunburned. Someone forgot sun block... I burn under any high wattage light bulb, or so my Mum says. So I watched Twilight - OMG I loved the movie too! Then I went to bed. I am still tired today, luckily it is a low battle rhythm day, and nothing is happening, thus I am writing here. The outgoing Major left this morning, so now the new Major is officially in charge. So now we get to get used to another style of leadership. He seems cool enough though. As of this post, I have 2 months, 8 days, 8.5 hours until I go on R&R!!

Falling Fillings

So I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. Now I am wishing that I hadn’t. First off, the showers were cold. Not almost warm, but ICE COLD! So I just got my hair wet to put up and got a baby wipe bath. So then I go to the chow hall and all the bananas are green, as usual, no gripes there. But a nice yellow banana makes a better day, especially after a workout the previous night. So I get in to work and everyone is getting ready to go on the mission this morning, which is why I couldn’t sleep in at all this morning. For the past week or two I have been meaning to go to dental Sick Call because I thought I could feel a cavity, and I have had a chipped tooth since Kuwait. I chipped it on a twizzler, now that is talent!! So while I was munching on some jellybeans this morning, big thanks to Saybrook United Methodist church. They sent me Jolly Rancher jelly beans – YUM!! So any way there was a crunchy bit in one of the jelly beans so I dug it out – I know, yummy… And it looked rather like dental cement, I felt around my mouth and I found a hole. Boo. So I announced that I was going to dental sick call as one of my fillings had fallen out. Now I have an appointment at 1130 to get it drilled and filled. This time the dentist will put a silver filling in. But I have an opportunity to get a coin in exchange for the Mine Action Center Patch that I wear (I will try to get a picture of it posted later).
In other news I have really started to do PT on a scheduled basis. The other day the two Majors ganged up on me and asked how my running was going? I said that it went, twice… So now I am going to the Aerobics class on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, when I don’t have duty. I am also going to try to get some walking in on the days I don’t do Aerobics because walking helps me shed inches.
This place is worse than Houston as far as flooding goes! Luckily though the flooding is scattered enough that the porta-pottie sucker trucks can eliminate some of the more inconvenient small flooded areas. Like the pond in front of the female latrine: insert picture here - the wireless here sucks >(

OWWWUUUUCH!!

Ok, so I did some PT (physical training) last night. My buddy Oxner invited me on a short 1 mile run. I didn't stop to walk so I counted it as a success. She just started a workout program called P90X. It is a terribly wonderful workout. My job involves a lot of sitting. Needless to say I am so sore today. I have tried streching on and off all day, I think that if my job involved a little more activity, I might not be so sore. Sigh...
So today is my birthday. There are 2 DQs on base here so I treated myself to a Snickers Blizzard at lunch. I didn't tell any one about my birthday until it was too late for anyone to do anything about it, mostly to avoid some crazy Army tradition involving pushups. Speaking of tradition, I just got a messsage on MySpace from Cogan, a buddy from 1ID. He asked if I had any near-beer this birthday. While I was with 1ID we deployed to Iraq and I had my 21st Birthday there. It sucked! This video prooves it! But then the cake was thoughtfull. It is a lemon poppyseed MRE cake with a chem-light stuck into it.

It is dreadfully borring here on BAF and I hope it stays that way. I have a count down on my Desktop at work that is currently counting down the time untill I leave for good, and until I leave on R&R. I have about 4,200 waking hours left untill I go home for good. That is give or take a week or so. We don't realy know the exat date/time we will be leaving. Something about a horse pushing a cart. Oh well.
Thanks for all of the well wishing and prayers.
Untill I feel like typing again!

Getting Settled in

So I am now settled in to a room, by myself this time. I bought a TV from one of the guys who was leaving, and I bought an Xbox from the PX. The package I bought usually comes with Kung Foo Panda and Lego Indiana Jones, but since the PX is “the best place to buy anything while being a soldier” or something like that, it came with another game for free! I have never heard of it though, I think it is called Blue Dragon… Oh well. My new room has a book shelf and a TV shelf. I am going to put in a 2 x4 clothes rack to hang up my uniforms and jackets. I am also thinking about getting another set of plastic drawers for my cold weather gear as most of it is still in my duffel bag. Although in a month or so I shouldn’t need any cold weather gear.
I had tower guard for the first time on the 1st of March. My shift was from 2100 to 0500. But we wound up getting relieved at around 0600. Usually tower guard is pulled by one American soldier and One Afghanistan soldier. But since there are only male Afghanistan soldiers, the female American Soldiers pull the tower guard with another female, so that was good. The night shift is the hardest, I was given the afternoon of the first off to sleep, but it was as if there was a conspiracy against me getting sleep. It seemed like if anyone wanted to have a conversation, they did it right outside my b-hut, and then someone barged into the hooch and yelled for one of my roommates, sheesh, at least he could have knocked like a civilized person. So I got up a little earlier than I expected so I went and got some chow, then reported to my tower. It was OK at first. Then we started getting tired so we started singing, just little silly songs. I did the Princess Pat, and then we went into other Girl Scout songs. From there we started into Disney songs. Then we got tired again. I walked outside around the catwalk in the cold morning air to try to wake up, it worked, but then I went back inside. It was definitely the longest 8 hours ever. The next times I have tower guard are all second shift that starts at around 1300, thank goodness.
I have given up TV for lent, so I have been reading. I am on my second book so far. Now that I have internet in my room, I will have something else to do so my books should last a little longer. I am currently about halfway through the third Twilight book, Eclipse. Oh my, those books are good! I heard that the movie was fairly close to the book, so I am going to pre-order it on Amazon.com. I was looking at some books at work and noticed that sometimes the Barnes and Noble price is lower than the Amazon price, and sometimes it’s the other way around. So I’ll be comparing now. Speaking of online shopping, the PX, both the big PX and the smaller North PX Shopette, does not have any gel or hairspray! So I went online to find some. I did and I am thinking that I might should have ordered sooner as I am almost out of gel. Well If I do run out, I’ll think of something.
Every person who comes into Afghanistan has to go through the Day 2 briefings. The Mine Action Center (MAC) is responsible for the Explosive Hazards Awareness Training. Since I work in the MAC I have to be able to give the briefing. Usually the other two guys, Loughran and Stoeger, give the briefs. But today Loughran had guard duty, and we were expecting 300 people, so I got to give it for the first time today. The other instructor said that I did ok for the first time. He said that I started out ok but then I got nervous. I didn’t remember being nervous. But maybe I just forgot to breathe. When we were practicing at the office that was my only problem, I try to talk so fast that I forget to breathe. So I need to work on that a bit more. But Loughran has guard duty again in a day or so and then R&R will come around sooner or later so I will get plenty of practice.

Finaly In Afghanistan

12 February 2009
Since I haven’t had internet access I have been saving what little has happened as word documents on my computer. Now I have internet – YEAH!! I have told some people that I would be at FOB Sharonna. Things have changed, as they often do in the Army. When we arrived at Bagram Airfield (BAF) we found that there was a need for a topo guy (or gal as the case may be) at the Mine Action Center (MAC) on BAF. As of now it’s me. I will be working with an Australian Major, a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant, and another SPC and a PFC. The hours are easy for being deployed, 0800 ‘till we are done, tonight it was 1900, but it could also be 1700 or 2200. BAF used to be a Russian base, so it is mined like crazy so there is plenty of work to do at the MAC, also the database has passed through many hands, and it shows, so I will also work on that so it will make some kind of sense for whoever replaces me.
BAF is one of the larger bases in Afghanistan, as airfields tend to be. The main drag, Disney, is about 4 miles long. The base, excluding the runway and flight line, is not that wide. Most everything is on or just off of Disney.
BAF is an airfield, so there are all sorts of planes taking off and landing at all hours. It is funny how the largest ones, C17s, make hardly any noise, and the smaller ones, some sort of fighter, are so loud! Today was overcast and drizzly all day. This morning as I was on my way to work I saw 2 of the fighters taking off and I could see the glow of the exhaust –COOL!! :)

In Kuwait

So the plane left at 2000(8:00pm) Eastern Time. We stopped in Shannon Ireland for about an hour, and we landed in Kuwait City at 2000(8:00pm) Kuwaiti time on the second of February. After we deplaned we sat in buses on the tarmac waiting for the baggage detail to unload the plane. But they had to wait until the fuel truck disconnected from the plane. So the buses took us to a staging area with water and porta-potties - YEAH!! We finally left the airport at around 2200(10pm) on our way to Army LSA Ali Al Saleem. We swiped out ID cards in (now my pay is tax-free and I am getting extra combat pay) and were briefed about the rules on the LSA. We then signed up for Space-R. Space-R is an interesting thing, we signed up and our names were put at the bottom of the list. but whenever an R&R flight came in we were bumped down on the list. Evidently their computer system was messing up as we later found out. There are 4 categories of people trying to get on flights. Groups of soldiers on ULNs (Unit Line Numbers), Space Blocked soldiers and civilians, people returning from R&R, and people getting into country for the first time - like us. But usually groups of 20 soldiers - like us - have ULNs and get out on the very next flight. But not us. I found out later that we had something like that and were supposed to fly through Manis (in Tajikistan) but some leader decided that wouldn't work for him. So here we are on day 6 and we finally have a ULN because our LNO(Liaison) is tired of looking at us. Yeah for persistence!! So we will be on the next passenger flight out of here, assuming that one is not reconfigured...

Finally Goin'

Well here I am at the Atlanta Airport waiting on the flight to Kuwait. I woke up this morning at 3 am to be ready by 430. The bus left at 5 am and we got to ATL at 2pm(Eastern time) we needed to be at the airport by 2 to check in for the flight. but the flight doesn't leave until 8pm. So we have been waiting. Luckily there is a USO here and there were Hooters Girls there for the pre Superbowl party. The USO volunteers were giving out raffle tickets for phones, t-shirts and caps. The guy across from me had 3 tickets, he was close quite a few times, then he won a phone(a go phone). They called a few more numbers and another one of his tickets came up, so he gave me his second winning ticket and now I have a free go phone that I won't be able to use for a year. Hopefully the minutes won't expire before I can use them. I might give it to one of the soldiers getting off of the Kuwait shuttle plane we are about to get on.
We are in the international terminal, so the running joke is every time we hear a boarding announcement some one asks ooh, you wanna go there instead?! Of course we want to go somewhere else. But we might get into trouble. On the up side there shouldn't be any small children crying on this flight :)
My bags weighed about 185 lbs. I can barely get my rucksack off of the ground. But I packed according to the packing list, so it is not my problem. My next update will hopefully be from Afghanistan, and will include an address!

Yeah Camp Shelby!

Sorry for the lack of recent updates, there is Internet available but finding time when I am awake enough to walk over there and finding a buddy is difficult. So I am writing this on my computer in the barracks and will save it and upload it later. On The 16th or 17th of December I finally left Ft Belvoir to go to Camp Shelby. We flew into the Laurel - Hattiesburg Airport. It is SMALL! There are two gates and the plane had around 20 seats. There were 7 people on the plane. We flew from Reagan in DC to Memphis, TN. Our plane to Memphis arrived 30 minutes late because of an A/C problem. So we figured we had another 30 minutes to get to our terminal at the opposite end of the airport. Just before we got out of the first terminal, we heard the FINAL BOARDING CALL for our flight - oh noes!! So we start running, I had a heavy back pack and a bulky laptop case, and it has been a long time since I was in any kind of decent physical condition... We finally arrive at the gate, sweating. And we wait in the doorway to the tarmac for another plane to take off, and as we are getting on our plane, we see our duffel bags - Yeah! And we sit on the plane for another 10 minutes... grrrr. When we got to Camp Shelby, we stayed with the Replacement Company for a couple of days. The day we arrived we watched 7 hours of briefings in about 3 :) The next day we were told to start in processing with Medical at 0900. When we got there we were told to come back at 1300 - i.e. Nap Time! Medical in processing was easy mostly because we already did all of it at Camp McCready. All I needed was another shot in a series, Hep A I think. Then we went on to in process personnel. We didn't even start the first station, because we didn't have orders to Camp Shelby (we still haven't finished in processing, we have orders to Vicksburg, MS - the unit's Headquarters) that night, Thursday, we packed up and got to our Unit, the 168th ENG BDE. We are then told that we need to arrange transportation home, or wherever, for leave starting Saturday (in two days), and we also needed to be ready to go to Wal-Mart to get supplies to put in a footlocker to put into the conex (shipping container) that is leaving the next day! We were able to get it all done, surprisingly. The next morning we tried to in process, but the lady’s computer was down. She wanted us to come back later in the day but First Sergeant said that was not going to happen because we were going to be released at 1500! The flight I booked left New Orleans at 8ish on Saturday. The people I wound up sharing a ride with, decided to leave when we were released, so we arrived in New Orleans at around 5. Since we had plenty of time we decided to hit Bourbon Street. We went to Rockfish Grill, Yummy. When the waiter took our orders, he called me sir! So I wound up getting a free Dessert. It was the best Bread pudding EVER. So at Dinner I started off with a nice Mojito. After dinner we walked up and down the street and found some other nice drinks. One place had 2 for 1 Daiquiris ;D One for each hand! Fun. At the hotel we decided that we would stay out until midnight. We headed back at 10... Dylan was getting into New Orleans at midnight so I invited him to stay at the hotel with us, but he thought we were staying on Bourbon Street and he didn't want to be that far away from the airport. So we met up at the Airport the next day, after security found the Gerber on my belt that I forgot about, oops. My flight was delayed by 30 minutes, and Dylan's was delayed by about an hour. I was still a little hung over, first ever and because I was not properly hydrated. So my plans for being home mostly included cleaning my room and relaxing. But no, I had to clean the house, and mostly by myself because Dylan would conveniently disappear. And then Mum wanted the Christmas Decorations put up. The night before I had to return to Camp Shelby, I threw stuff out of the way to make my room appear to be cleanish.