One-Month Anniversary

Like a high school, puppy-love romance that’s lucky to last 6 months, I’m keeping track of my deployment time done by celebrating each month as an “anniversary”. It’s the last day of November; one month deployed…one down, five to go. The good is that it seems like the first month has gone by relatively quick. Of course, the bad is that I’ve got five more to go. I’m anticipating that January, the third month, will be the hardest. I think the length of time will start hitting me just before I hit the halfway point. Hopefully, moving into a roomy, hard-billet dorm room and enjoying the new MWR tent “sometime” in January will occupy some of the month. Then can I start focusing on being past the halfway point. Still, I hope Val and the kids have a mini-celebration today with some kind of dessert. Later tonight, I plan on enjoying a chocolate Zinger while I watch a “30 Rock” DVD, both of which Val sent in her latest care package. “Happy One-Month Anniversary, Guys!”

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great day. Even though a lot of the leaders, to include the international officers, told us Happy Thanksgiving I have to admit it just felt like another Thursday. I had a pretty easy day though. It was very slow at work, so in the morning I went to the south side of KAIA and did some shopping; found some Christmas presents for the kids, and in the in the afternoon I went for a run. That may sound like I goofed off all day, but when you work a 14-hour shift there’s a lot of time to get work done. The chow hall did make the effort to give us a good Thanksgiving dinner. I had to wait in line for 30 minutes since everyone wanted the good meal. Night shift workers got up early to come to chow. And every foreigner on base wanted a taste. They should have made the rule that Americans go to the front of the line. Oh well. I had real turkey, mash potatoes, green beans, and crunchy stuffing, which I softened with gravy. For desert, I had a Danish! A real pastry and NOT pudding! That was a real treat. I wasn’t able to call home to Val and the kids though; that was a bummer. We use to be able to make 15-minute morale calls for free, but (of course) people abused it and they reconfigured the phone system so now you have to use an international calling card or go through a base operator. Unfortunately, the Army operator back in Heidelberg says I need a PIN to get through. AND the free Internet for the dorms is still not operational (three months behind schedule), so no Skype’ing home either. I’ve had it with the base support here. Tomorrow I’m going to go to the south side again and try to buy a cell phone and calling card. Val and I need the mutual support of a phone call more often. Wish me luck!

Another Day in Paradise

As I’ve said before, this blog isn’t political or operational; it’s personal. It’s more a diary of my deployment; things I want to share with my family and save for future memories. Well, yesterday was a rough day. Yet, as I was counting my miseries, I thought of Val, Emily, and Vance and it helped me get through the day. I just want to add it to the blog to share and record my feelings for my wonderful family. Hope you enjoy the thought.

“Sweetheart,

Well, the weather finally turned. It's been very cold and rainy for the past two days. The rain also effects aircraft flying in, so no mail today. They made an announcement this morning that people in the tents "should" be moving to the dorms "around" the first of January. If you're that unconfident or unsure about the timeline, it's not even worth making an announcement. I thought about buying Internet access from some civilian contractor that has some kind of personal deal set up, but I asked one of the colonels that used it recently and he said it wasn't worth it. The guy's charging $100 for the first month, then $75 per month after that, but the colonel said it very slow at certain times, namely between 9-11 p.m. which was primarily the time he needed, so he dropped the service. Of course, 9-11 p.m. is the exact and only time I could use the personal Internet. I don't want to spend $100 and still be frustrated when trying to contact you. I've tried to call several times today, but couldn't even get past the country code before it started beeping. I think the Army guys from Heidelberg know the code for making morale calls. I'm working my second tasker for these guys today. I should have it finished by tomorrow; 3 days early. After that, I'll feel comfortable enough to ask one of the Lt Col's for the code. Maybe a Heidelberg DSN will be more consistent. So to sum it up...no mail, no Internet, at least 6 more weeks in the tents, no gym, cold and rainy, and even my lower back is killing me today. (I must have slept on it wrong somehow; I was even thinking the other day, thankfully, how well I was sleeping on the firm mattress in the tents. I was trying to be positive and thankful and then I get lower back pain. I'm really starting to feel like I'm being tested.)

I'm not trying to whine or complain; just tell you how my day was. I'm just letting the conditions speak for themselves. At least work, other than being 14 hours long every day, is going okay. They haven't asked me to do anything too over my head. I've even continued to be a "great example" of the support they need in the security working group I'm in. But best of all, and the ray of sunshine, joy, and encouragement that I can always depend on, I know that I have a wonderful and loving wife and sweet and caring children at home that love me very much! Compared to having you guys in my life, the conditions here are just temporary annoyances that will be long faded memories years down the line when you and I and the kids will be able to tell fond, if trialed, stories of the time I had to go to Afghanistan. Faced with these minor (yet many) annoyances, it really helps to realize that I am so bless to have you and the kids. Thanks for being so wonderful and working so hard to always support me and the kids every day. I love you with all that I am!”

P.S. What a difference a day makes. It’s still cold, but it was sunny today. My back isn’t hurting. I finally got my third care package full of DVDs and snacks. Hopefully I'll be able to get a call through to Val! Don’t let the little annoyances get you down. It will get better. And remember to be thankful for the wonderful families you all have.

Battle Rattle

It’s not as elaborate as the Army guys here, but anytime we travel off base, I have to wear my “Battle Rattle.” I just carry a M-9 on my right hip, a couple of full magazines on the left front of my vest, first aid kit on the right front of my vest, helmet, and full goggles for eye protection (and my gloves were in the vehicle). I attended another meeting with our ISAF and Afghan partners the other day. So far, I’ve been off base five times. As I look at this picture of me, it makes me think how foreign this image is compared to the image my family must have of me. I’ve been in the military a long time and I’ve worn various types of Battle Rattle and carried (and fired) numerous weapons, but I don’t usually see myself dressed like this. And my family, who’s never been at any of those exercises or deployments with me hasn’t seen me dressed like this. They usually see the easy-going husband/dad in Florida Gators or international soccer jerseys. While it looks a little foreign to me, it feels natural given the environment. I wonder how strange it must look to them.

Mice Like Milky Way, Too

So the other day I was craving some chocolate. I had already eaten all of the Hersey Kisses that Val sent me, (don’t do the math!) when I remembered that I had a Milky Way bar in my backpack. I had gotten it at the Manas chow hall on the way to Afghanistan, but forgot I had it. So I took a break from work and walked back to my tent. I picked up my backpack that I leave out on top of one of my bags because I have my magazines and books in it. Apparently I also leave the zipper open so I can get into it easier. Once I pulled the Milky Way bar out, I noticed a small, bite-sized piece missing. I didn’t remember starting to eat the candy bar. Then I realized that once I start a candy bar, I finish it. Then I realized a mouse had chewed on it. There were strips of wrapper in the backpack. I was devastated! I thought about eating the opposite end, but thought about what Val would think, (she’s my moral compass) so I just threw the candy bar away. Since then, I’ve gone to the south side of the airport and bought a variety bag of bite-size candy bars (aka “portion control”) and I now store all food items in my footlocker. Every now and then, I leave a small empty wrapper on the floor so the mouse can smell it and think he’s going to get some more of my chocolate. I hope he’s as disappointed as I was when I missed out on enjoying my chocolate bar. And I hope he thinks of me and says to himself (in lyrical, Seussian form), “That fat rat!”

Thankfully, inauguration day was relatively very quiet. There were lots of pre-event threats and a few actual attacks unfortunately in other provinces, but nothing happened in Kabul city. I imagine most Americans won’t think too much of the non-attacks and safety of the day. As Americans, we assume a high standard of safety. We realize that something bad ‘could’ have happened during the inauguration. We understand that Afghanistan is a war zone after all. But here in Kabul, we, ISAF in support of the Afghan government and Security Forces, were expecting that something ‘would’ happen. For the past several weeks, every sub-organization in ISAF did a LOT of coordination to help the Afghans plan and execute an effective security plan for the inauguration. And a lot of credit should go to the Afghan government and Security Forces. They led the way in executing the plan and the fact that no attack happened is a huge victory for the government. The more competent the Afghan government is in protecting its people, the more confidence those people will have in their government. And in classic counterinsurgency terms, that is what will win the war against the Taliban.

“Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, swears in his first Vice President Qasim Fahim, left, and his second Vice President Karim Khalili during his inauguration as President of Afghanistan at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009.” Noticing the different ethnic, traditional head dresses alone, you can see how diverse the Afghan government leadership is.

Yes, President Karzai did rock the purple and green robe. Actually, it’s an Uzbek chapan and it’s his signature look.Speaking of colorfully robes…did you see Secretary Clinton’s inauguration day coat? I think it’s kind of a nod to traditional Central Asian fashion, with Fall (Thanksgiving?) colors. Without trying to be too much of a fashion police, I think it was a nice gesture for the occasion.

And speaking of Secretary Clinton…they made the announcement yesterday evening that anyone who wanted to see the Secretary could go to the passenger terminal where she would be departing soon. Now, I’m not a Democrat or typically a fan of the Clintons, but she is the current Secretary of State, so I figured go check it out. It’s not that often that the average American gets to see a cabinet member up close. She spoke to the troops for about five minutes, stressing the importance of the mission that we and our allies are doing, the goal of training the Afghans to lead in the security and governance of their own country, and thanking the service members AND their families back home for serving and sacrificing time away from loved ones to carry out the mission. It seemed heart-felt. Then she made a pass down the front row of people to shake hands and have a few pictures taken. I was close to the front, but not close enough to get my picture taken with her; I didn’t feel like fighting through the crowd. Again, I’m not THAT big of a personal fan. Below is a picture from the US Embassy’s Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kabulpublicdiplomacy/) of the event. (I was about 2 more people deep to the right of this picture.)

Tomorrow's the Big Day

Well, tomorrow’s the inauguration of President Karzai. We’ve been doing a lot of work preparing to support the event, as well as countering any insurgent threats. It’s been a long couple of days and we’re starting extra early tomorrow, but I just wanted to pass along President Karzai’s official website. It’s www.president.gov.af. They’re supposed to webcast the inauguration live. I’m most interested to see if President Karzai will be rocking the green and purple robe again.

Didn't Stay "Bored" For Long

When I first told the family, Val and the kids, as well as my Mom and brothers, that I was going to Afghanistan, I emphasized the fact that if I had to go to Afghanistan, at least I was going to probably the safest place in the country. As an international airport in the capital city, great efforts are made to secure the airport and surrounding area. It’s a prime symbol of control and stability for the government, as well as being vital to the economy. Since I knew the new command that I was going to had just moved to the airport and there weren’t going to be many of the MWR functions on the base (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation is the fun, after-duty organizations like a good gym, library, and Internet café), I made the comment to my family that even if I got bored, I would be more than happy to stay on base and stay as safe as I could. One of my brothers even told me that I had “better stay bored.”

Well, after just one week here, while still trying to get my feet under me and understand all the duties my work required, one of the colonels told me that I needed to represent the office at a meeting the next day. That sounded fine, since as I’ve said before, meetings are really where you learn what other people and organizations are doing and what you can do to help. What surprised me was that the meeting was at different base/compound within the city proper. The good news though was that one of the coalition partners transported us to the meeting in their military vehicles. For OPSEC purposes, I’m staying very vague, but given the situation it was probably the safest transportation we could have taken. I did get a picture of the vehicle, but I’ll have to share that after the deployment. So now, just two and a half weeks into my deployment, I’ve already been to four meetings at two different locations off-base. I’m glad I got the opportunity to get off-base and see even the tiniest bit of the city, but I hope the family isn’t too worried. These quick trips to meetings are relatively pretty safe and I’ll continue to stay as bored as possible.

Weekly Schedule and Base Pictures

It’s Sunday morning, which means an 1100 start for work, so I have a few hours to update the blog. Friday, being the Afghan holy day, is another late-start day. So every Friday and Sunday, I get about a half-day off. Of course, it would help if I could keep track of the days. This past Friday, I came into work a little early so I could check the Internet in peace before work got busy. By 0830, I was wondering where everyone was, then realized it was another half-day. Oh, well. I got a lot of personal Internet work done. For the rest of the week, I’m up at 0630, breakfast by 0730, and work by 0800. Throughout the day I run around attending various briefings, operational planning teams (OPT), and working groups, and coordinate information for various projects. I usually work to after 2100 (9 p.m.) and then head back to the tent to read “The Short History of Afghanistan” or watch movies on my laptop. Then it’s light-out around 2300 (11 p.m.) so I can get up the next day and do it all again.

Here's a view of my morning walk to the chow hall. You can see the snow has already started to form on the mountain tops. I think I'll be able to watch it gradually make it's way down. My work area is to the right behind the fence. The buildings to the left are the hard-site dorms. There are only international partners in the few that were finished before I got here. Hopefully, I'll be moving into the new ones, further down on the left, within a month.

The Post Office (or Mail Room) is a CONEX box between the dorms, and it's only the last box, (AND it's also the ammo distro spot). Everyday a few soldiers bring the mail over in a Humvee, sort it by name, and stack all of boxes in alphabetical order. Mail call is only 1100-1200 and 1800-1900. During the 1100 mail time, most of the boxes are still spread out on the ground, waiting to be sorted. It looked like a yard sale the first time I saw it.

Other than your work desk or your bunk, here’s the only other place on base that you can kind of hang out. There’s a little coffee shop in the CONEX to the right and all of the seating is outside, which is fine during the day, but once night falls, it too cold outside to hang out. The two big tents behind the coffee shop are going to be the cardio and free-weight gyms. They’re supposed to be open in the first week of December. That will be nice not to have to run around in the dust so much. The third big tent, which is just a frame right now, is going to be the MWR tent, which will have TVs and WiFi connections. That will finally be a proper place to hang out after work. It’s supposed to be ready by mid-December.

I'm Officially a Tent Person

During the first week of settling into the tent, there were several things about tent living that I vented to Val about, particularly having to sleep on the top bunk, and consequently not having anything to sit back against during my off time, and having to walk outside to go to the bathroom. I told her I dreamed of getting a bottom bunk so I could lean against the head rest, as well as being able to hang some poncho liners on the side of the bunk to make some privacy walls and that I was worried about it getting colder during the winter (it’s supposed to snow often) and it making the walk to the bathroom harder. Well yesterday the deputy commander told me there was a bottom bunk open in his bay-room dorm. It sounded great; a bottom bunk in the hard-site buildings, with an in-door bathroom. I went over to take a look before I made the move. I wasn’t that impressed.

They actually have less space per person than the tents. There are four bunk beds per bay-room, but zero storage. Everybody’s stuff is everywhere. It looked like the messiest frat house in America. Each person only has a small wall locker half the size of my current footlocker. There was only one electrical outlet with a power strip plugged in and literally a dozen plugs waiting their turn to be plugged in. In the tent, each bed has its own extension cord. That’s a big deal since everyone, myself included, has computers, iPods, and cell phones that they need to be charged. Yeah, the bathrooms are inside, but they’re not really better. I think the trailer bathrooms are actually better heated, since they’re “outside”. And their toilet stalls are ridiculous. The doors are so close to the toilet that your feet actually rest under the door. I’ll just have to rough the walk to the bathroom. I found a parka in the cold-weather gear they gave me at the Transit Center, so I’ll just use that as my overcoat to and from the bathroom.

So after complaining about living in a tent to Val, she thought I was crazy to turn down the hard-site dorm. It’s not as comfortable as home of course, but it could be worse. I guess I’ve adjusted enough…I’m not that afraid I’m going to fall out of bed anymore.

We don’t have wireless Internet yet, but I burned some pictures to a CD and was able to upload them to my work computer. Here are some pictures of the tent.

Across from the passenger terminal, 10 rows and 5 columns of Alaska tents form "Tent City."

Here's my home-away-from-home for at least the next few months, until the 2-to-3-man dorm rooms are finished.

You have to walk between the tents to get to the bathroom; that's the trailer in the background.

Here's the view from the front door. There are four bunk beds on either side of the tent. Right now, we are 13 of 16 occupied. Trust me, this in neat and orderly compared to the 8-man bay-style transit rooms.

I sleep on the top bunk, head towards the tent wall. I've hit my head on the light a few times, but I need to sleep that way so I can hang my watch near my head, so I can hear the alarm in the morning. A very nice Dutchman lets me step on his footlocker on the other side of the bunk, so I can get into bed easier.


And below, here's my storage space for all of my stuff. The open footlocker and bags to the right side is all mine.

My First Victory

I had a work-related victory today. After finishing the watch-floor shift and on 3 hours of sleep, I finally tried to do the job I'm here for. We had to review a long, proposed plan and make comments on it (based on our expertise and experience...okay). I had read it several times, not sure what kinds of comments I was supposed to make. It seemed like they wanted things that we could immediately changed and do to improve the plan, but I only questions because the air section was pretty vague. So that became my inputs, asking for specifics and asking them in such a way that 1) showed I knew a little bit of what I was talking about, and 2) guided them to way-aheads that they could/should consider. I sent my comments at the end of my 14-hour shift and went back to the tent. This morning I had two e-mails from fellow working group members saying I had made several good points and another from one of the colonels that forwarded my e-mail out as a "great example of the type of research we're looking for right now." So, that felt good. It was a classic case of not being exactly sure (confident enough) in what you were thinking, but finally overcoming the insecurity of the situation and just saying what you thought and be validating that you do have a clue after all.

First Care Package

I got my first care package from home yesterday! I picked it up just before lunch and the funny thing was that I could tell I had a huge grin on my face all the way back to my tent. I felt like a little kid that had just found some treasure or gotten a gift from Santa. It was exciting. After just two days here I realized there were a few home-medicine items that I needed that I couldn’t get here. I asked Val to send them, along with granola bars and a few one or two Euro coins for snacks. Of course, being so wonderfully caring, Val sent three magazines, two boxes of granola bars, a bag of Hersey kisses, and eight five-Euro bills. Man, now I’m set for awhile. (I did do a mini-binge on the Hersey kisses though. They’re one of my few weaknesses, but I should be able to space them out now.)

And now, I’ve already put in a second request for a care package from home. I need some cold medicine for a runny nose and family photos from the home computer. My PC laptop doesn’t have our family pictures on it because I had to re-format the hard drive and my Mac laptop doesn’t have them because it’s so new (bought it for the deployment) and I didn’t have time to transfer photos before leaving. Unfortunately, Val’s the one left trying to figure out how to save photos and burn a CD on the new Mac desk-top at home. “Upgrading” to Mac sounded like a good idea just before I left, but I didn’t realize how hard would be to learn a new computer system. It’s like Mac purposed tried to make EVERYTHING different. Yeesh. I’m sure it will be great when Val and I learn the system, but until then…”Sorry, Sweetheart.”

What This Blog Isn't

You may have noticed already that I haven’t written very many details of my job, or operations, or even current news events related to Afghanistan. I’ve seen several blogs where individuals share highlights of very work-related things that they’re doing and/or comments on reported events that have happened in Afghanistan. But I don’t plan to do much of either. For starters, because of my primary career field (for those that know), I’m very conscience of OPSEC (Operational Security) and even though this blog is not supposed to be connected to any search engines, I don’t want to put out any operational information that any ‘bad guys’ could use. So when I do talk about work, it will probably be in the most general terms possible. As for commenting on news, anything more than my opinion would probably venture into OPSEC concerns again, and there are plenty (maybe too many) opinions already out there. If you’re interested in lots of reporting and opinions on Afghanistan, there are plenty of websites and blogs that you can surf. However! I will share with you one website that I think is very good at factually reporting the bad AND good of events going on in Afghanistan. Check out the official homepage of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at http://www.nato.int/isaf/index.html. They report and comment on all of the events that you’ll hear about in the news. They’ll also report on a lot of human-interest stories about the positive, non-military impact the international community is having on Afghanistan. Check out the multimedia section for maps of supporting countries and their general areas. It also has a link to ISAF’s Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/. There’s a lot of cool and interesting information on these pages. My blog will just have to be a human-interest story about little-ole me, trying to get through 6 months deployment away from my family.

What's my Job?

I’ve been on the ground and on duty for just under seven days and today’s the first time I’ve felt like I have a clue what I’ll be doing for the rest of my six months. It’s been hectic. The Lt Col I’m replacing hasn’t had a lot of time to explain things to me and even when he has the guidance has been vague. It’s not his fault. This whole organization is new. When Gen McChrystal took over as ISAF Commander, he/they decided to stand up the ISAF Joint Command (IJC) to more effectively manage the entire international Afghan campaign. On top of standing up a new organizational layer, parts of the old ISAF HQ and many new people/functions moved from downtown Kabul to Kabul International Airport. The Lt Col had been doing three different jobs really, so he explained how he envisioned my duty position evolving. As an Air Liaison Strategy Planner, I’ll help track and forecast asset/resource movement in and out of theater. (That’s not within my career field, but it’s interesting and career-broadening (and better than a year in Iraq.)) However, more useful than the Lt Col’s broad guidance, I’ve finally started attending some meetings, planning teams, and working groups. That has really helped. I realize now that there are a lot of other people in my situation and most of us are just getting together and working solutions for the challenges we’ve been given. It’s one of those ‘what-you-make-of-it’ situations where you hear part of a problem and say, “I’ll take that on” and become part of the solution. So now I’ve got to go find the people that have the information that I need to make my part of the solution work.

Arrival

Well, I finally arrived to Kabul International Airport late last Saturday night. I flew in a C-130 with about 10 other Airmen and 40 Soldiers. We had to wear our full gear (helmets, flak jackets, and weapons) and had to sit hip-to-hip and knee-to-knee. It was a loud, dark, cramped 2 and a half hour flight, but thankfully, it was uneventful. The first thing I noticed in the dark of night was what I thought was a fine mist or fog in the air. After getting my bearings, I realized it was a fine layer of dust. Environmentally, that’s the worst thing so far. Dust is everywhere! It floats in the air, from ground level to above the light posts, all day and night long. It’s on the computers and phones and desks at work. Fortunately, it’s not too bad in the tents.

I spent the first night in a transient tent. After carrying my five huge bags to the tent, it was after midnight so I pulled out a poncho liner, took boots off, and went straight to sleep. The next morning I cleaned up and checked in with my new work area. I spent the first day in-processing; getting my badges, access to four (!) different computer systems, and checking in with the Army admin office. They told me that I was assigned to tent “B1”. Most of the guys in my unit are in hard billets (brick and mortar buildings), but they actually have less floor space than the tents, so I just went where the Army told me. Of course, the trade off for more space is that I have to leave the tent and walk outside to the bathroom. It’s not too cold yet, but just to be safe I been going to bed slightly dehydrated so I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night.

There are a lot of little things that I could complain about (and did just to vent the first time I actually got to call Val), but at least I’m in the safest place in Afghanistan that I could be. I’ll update more later. Internet access is limited and I can’t upload pictures yet, but free wireless Internet hot spots are planned to be on-line within weeks, so I should be able to show you all my living conditions and environment soon. Take care. Eric