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.