1st day off

mmmmmmk, blog time.  Figure now is appropriate.

Ok, where to begin.  should just post all the emails I've been sending to friends on here.  That would cover everything.  I'll just start at random.

So, I'm currently sitting in the green bean cafe here at Bagram Airfield watching a preview for a new bruce willis show called "Red".  Never heard of it.  Just like several of the movies that have come out in the last year.  It's hard to believe that I have been here doing this since May of 2010.  That's how much time of normal life this has taken.  It's been tough but I've had some great experiences and gotten to do some incredible things that few Air force can relate to.  Also, gotten to network with lots of people for future employment or career progression as well.  The deployment has been tough but great but I'm definately ready to get back to normal life.  This has been the first day off I've had in 7 months and it has been wonderful.  I took a nap today that was supposed to be an hour or so and turned into 3 1/2.  Guess it's been a while since I've had a full sleep.  My own doing though.  This is also the first time I've had personal internet since the alst time I came to Bagram a couple months ago. 

Jumping around a little here.  So, at Bagram Airfield(BAF), there are frequent mortar attacks.  Usually they hit the flightline though.  Well my luck has been that the last couple times I've been here, they have NOT hit the flightline and instaed have landed within a few hundred meters of where I was alking or sleeping. Last night, some friends and I were walking to the gym and wheeeeeew boom wheeeeeew boom.  Several rounds landed maybe 150-200 meters away and they were walking in closer and closer to where we were walking.  Immediately we were up and running for shelter.  We scrambled into a wooden building which is definately not the greatest protection but it was something.  the sirens started going off and we ran out to make our way to a concrete shelter.  running for life or limb is intense but not the greatest feeling.  I don't know how all the guys in the field who experience combat every day can deal with it mentally.  I hear explosions nearly daily at the FOB but they are rarely combat oriented and I still wake up at night sometimes heart throbbing whenever there's loud noises thinking we could be under attack.  I jump everytime a fighter jet engine powers down and makes that whistling noise.

Now, our FOB is really not all that dangerous as we bring to much money to the market just outside the gate and thus, there is speculation that the market owner pays off the Taliban.  Plus, the Americans don't do kinetic operations against the insurgents so they usually leave us alone.  The French marines that I work with however, do night raids and compound searches and clearing operations and the whole 9 yards so they get into it a lot.  We've had more than one fallen soldier ceremonies (in French) in the last 7 months.  Fortunately, none of my team members have been seriously injured.  We've had some close calls what with people stepping on IEDs and the convoy being shot at but we've been lucky.  The infantry guys hate it though.  They yearn for combat like they've been trained for but that's not what our team's here for and the French and route clearance packages clear out our areas before we go anywhere.  There is still a risk for suicide bombers and vehicle bombs though.  Things have heated up a whole lot here in the last month with the warm weather and we'll see what happens in the next 30 days with the death of the famed bin laden.

Just a quick side note on that topic, Everyone is asking if now that Bin Laden is dead, can we go home?  the answer is NO!  that's not what it's about.  He may be the reason that we have come here in the first place but that is not why there are thousands of international forces here  If only now we could take out Mullah Omar, the one-eyed iconic Taliban leader, and Anwar Al-Awaki, another high profile Al Qaeda leader.  If we don't stabilize this country first, and bring security, it's gonna fall right back into the hands of the Taliban again.  The American people want the troops to come home because they don't understand what is happening over here.  I could talk about this subject forever but perhaps in another blog.  Afghans do just want to be left alone but there is so much pressure from Iran and Pakistan to destabilize the country, it seems ours is a neverending mission.  We will never win soliditarity for Afghanistan without fixing the situation in Pakistan first.

Ah Pakistan, those so called "allies" who claim to assist us, and then play dumb when it is found to harbor multiple terrorist networks.  Hell, even in our own province, the main shadow governers(Taliban leaders running the insurgent network in the background) do all their commanding and orders from Pakistan.  Afghans go to Iran and Pakistan for work and insurgents go to Pakistan for shelter and relief from coalition force operations.  We have several of the m running and Talib leaders move several times even multiple times a night to avoid capture but all of that is for naught if we don't fix Pakistan.  That is a tangled web though as Pakistan has a strong military and nukes and thus cannot just be "invaded" as some have put it the same as Afghanistan.  Another thing, everyone is whining about the fact that the pictures are not being released, but why do people really need this?  Look what happened when the German magazine "Der Spiegel" released photos of American soldiers smiling next to bodies of dead innocent Afghans.  it turned many people against and created new insurgents.  Look what happened when the US media released a news story about Terry Jones, a "pastor" in Florida, burning copies of the Qua'ran.  10s and 10s of international forces were killed in multiple protests here in Afghanistan, most notably a riot on a UN compound by normal Afghan citizens in Mazir-e Sharif.  People were killed because of one idiot's craving for media attention.  Pure acts of arrogance and ignorance really get me worked up.  People don't realize how far their actions reach or don't care.  We couldn't go to ceratin areas of our province due to all the riots going on in protest of these actions and this just fuels the Anti-American propaganda of the Taliban.  And one more thing, I find it funny that people call on the White House to "justify" it's killing of bin Laden as opposed to capture.  This man has killed thousands and thousands of people and would not hesitate to do it again but people want him captured.  Then people would critique the way he was treated and the US would receive even more threats and bargain proposals.  lol I'm sitting here listening to Jay Carney at the white house saying that bind Laden will never walk this earth again.  Hoorah.

Anyways...calm down for a minute...so getting ready to head out to Costa Rica for weeks for some rest and relaxation.  Thank goodness.  I've been VERY disgruntled the last couple months.  All I ever heard was people counting down the days till they went on vacation and then thinking how it was so long before I could leave.  I got asked last way back when, when I wanted to take leave so may was the last choice.  May is a terrible time to take vacation anywhere for weather but it will work out as this is the only time of the year my sister can take time off of school for travel.  Imma fly her out for part of the trip.  I think we'll have a really good time and got hiking and canyoning,surfing, snorkeling, sailing, and other activites planned.  Just gotta brush up on my spanish skills now.  Been focusing so much on Japanese language studies lately, gotta kind of switch gears.

In the last month or so, I've gotten to do lots of really cool stuff that I probably shouldn't talk about in a blog but they've definately helped me get the ost out of the deployment.  I've also driven convoys on a couple missions.  how many aircraft maintainers can say they've done that?  I've also gotten to talk to people from all walks of government service about their jobs and where they've been and their experiences.  This is a tremendous help in deciding what I want to do with my future.  Just today even, I was able to meet and Airborne linguist which has long been my job of choice, and ask him several questions about his job.  I've almost met Air guard, army guard, government intel, ground linguists, army people galore, and several other assortments of military A type personalities whether they be American or French or whatever.  I've gotten to fulfill a lot of military desires with this deployment.  I frequently joke about how I made a bucket list in high school that was supposed to be accomplished over the course of 20 years or so and I have already knocked out probably 90% of it in the last 5 years.  Crazy.  If only military life didn't frustrate me so much and I could tolerate it a little more, the sky would be the limit.  I struggle with the decision to re-up every day.  I just don't like the miltiary structure and many other things about it.  It does let me do some pretty cool stuff though.  But if you are not happy in your daily life, is it really worth it?  the grass may not be greener on the other side, but I've never been on the other side, so  I don't know.  I've been in the workforce since high school graduation so I don't know what it's like to do what you want when you want where you want.

Good grief, I just noticed it's 23:00.  I don't have anything I have to do tomorrow but nonetheless.  Perhaps I'll add more to this in the next couple days as I don't have much to do anyway.  But that's the beauty of it.  Having nothing to do and no schedule to make and no appointments is WONDERFUL for a few days.  much much needed.  The more time I spend here waiting on my vacation, the less time I have to spend working at the FOB when I get back.  To hell with getting out of here early like some of my other team members did.  Imma enjoy as much time off as possible.  Gonna adopt the Costa Rican motto, Pura Vida!

long time coming

ahhhh, finally, relaxation. blog time. Soooo it's been quite a while since I updated this blog. Some things have happened but not a whole lot. Man, where do I begin though? So in the last several months I've seen a billion helicopters up close and at distance firing away at the mountain, made several friends who are always coming and going, driven on a convoy for a mission, won airman of the month 2x in a row one time competing against several soldiers who I beat in physical fitness, PRT knowledge, and target practice with a rock and spear, attempted and still working on building a rock climbing wall, put up a slackline, worked EVERY SINGLE DAY, been to the gym about 5x every week, started a math class, started taking Japanese lessons 3x a week with a Japanese French foreign legionarre, and worked my butt off.

As people have gone on vacation and still are going on vacation throughout the last few months, I have had to pick up their responsiblities which is quite a bit of work for a meekly E4 Senior Airman. At one time, I have held the responsiblity of Imagery specialist, flight scheduler, deputy analyst/briefer, convoy driver, and linguist manager. I still maintain all of these as primary duties with the exception of flight scheduler. It's quite overwhelming at times but somehow I manage. Don't get nearly as much free time to myself as I used to though. This means that the rock bouldering wall I'm trying to build has all the materials set aside for me to build but I have no time to build it. It has been a gigantic pain to get this thing approved for construction as I had to go through all the political chains and I still can't climb on it even if we build it because we have no pad to crash onto. Oi!

It has finally warmed up here. It was like overnight. Crazy. For nearly a month straight it rained and snowed and hailed almost daily. Then oneday I woke up and went outside and it was short sleeve weather and has been since. Crazy.

One thing I can never get used to here is how dark it is which means you can see an infinite number of stars and shooting stars on a moonless night. Absolutely stunning. Never seen anything like it. I see shooting stars almost nightly. Pretty much every time I pay attention.

The days are often filled with the sound of helicopters churning their rotors just overhead and explosions and gunfire from the french firing at the mountain behind the base for target practice and blowing up unexploded ordnances.

The food as I might have mentioned before is terrible here and incredibly rationed out. Everything is pre made and filled with preservatives so all they have to do is heat it up in the "oven" and serve it. I have pictures of our board of ration sizes indicating that you are allowed to take like 3 chicken nuggets, 1 scoop of butter soaked veggies, and 4 fries. Things of that nature. Health goes right out the window.

An unhealthy diet makes for a difficult time obtaining results from the gym. Several of us here to include myself bust our butts in the gym with little payout due to not getting enough calories and the ones we do get are not very nutritious. I'm taking about 4 vitamins a day on top of malaria pills and proteing shakes after workouts just to keep up with daily health. With the exception of the malaria pills, these were all paid for out of pocket.

Mail takes about a month to get here and we usually only get it once a month. A package may arrive at Bagram in 2 weeks after being sent but we cannot get it until there is a convoy from our team heading to Bagram Airfield to pick it up. There used to be a helicopter that came with mail but it has been down for maintenance for over a month. This is quite frustrating but it's the norm around here.

Our barracks are somewhat nice now. We live in permanent buildings that have 4 hallways in each and 4 rooms in each hallway. We get out own rooms but the catch is that the walls are less than an inch thick plywood and they don't go all the way to the ceiling. There is about a foot gap between the top of the wall and the ceiling. So more or less you get visual privacy but no audio privacy. I put up a styrofoam like substance to block out the hallway light and give me a little more privacy. The rooms are about 5x12 feet. So not that large. We each have bunk beds in our rooms but I took out the bottom bed on mine and leaned it up against the wall so I sleep on top. Underneath I have my own personal man cave with a hammock that I recently bought and am sitting in typing this, a tv, an xbox, a stereo system, 2 chairs, 3 rugs, and a tuffbox. All this is a six foot space. We used to use this area in my room for myself and all my friends to come over and watch a movie together while eating popcorn and then some officer here decided to crack down on everyone's morale and impose a no males with females in the barracks period rule. We can't even be in the hallways. So that was a real buzzkill and really took away from our hang out time together as there's not really anywhere else we can all hang out together. Friends are what make the deployment bearable so I've learned.

On the subject of friends, people here are always coming and going to this and our other bases, and on vacation so we rarely ever get to keep the same group. It's tough always saying goodbye to people. Especially if you know they are going into dangerous areas and you may not see them again. You just wish them the best and say "see ya when I see ya, shoot straight and get back here".

Everyone on this deployment gets 2 weeks R&R and so far everyone has gone back to either their home station or back to the US. The catch to this is that the military will pay for a FREE plane ticket to just about anywhere in the world long as it's out of the Middle East and not on the forbidden countries list. SO WHY WOULD YOU GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM IF YOU HAVE NO SPOUSE/CHILDREN AND NO OBLIGATIONS??? I swear, I don't know what it is about people being intimidated by travel. All these guys are going back to their hometown, getting drunk, spending lots of money, then coming back with nothing to show for it. The infantry guys are notorious for it but they are all Army National Guard guys so they are military once a month on a normal basis. ANYWAYS...so yeah, I convinced my coworker, who was also going to go back, that we needed to break this trend and travel elsewhere. Its funny becuase so many people before this deployment said they were all going to these crazy places and so far NONE of them have followed through with it. SOOOOO...my coworker and I will be the first to go somewhere other than back there. I can't list our destinations right now as it's a security risk but let's just say we're both gonna have a blast. lol, someone played country music on his mission today and he got all homesick and told myself and others he was gonna change his mind and go back to the states. I proceeded to explain to him why that was such a ludicrous idea and what an opportunity this was and Alas! peer pressure won this round. I got him back on track for adventure.

People in the miltary think you are crazy when you tell them you are going to a foreign country by yourself where you don't know anyone and have no plans. Who would do such a thing right? GASP! lol, people who love sponteneity, that's who! I've had a better time on trips when I was on my own and meeting new people than I did taking people along. No offense to anyone I've traveled with before who so happens to be reading this blog.

Things I miss...hmmm...well...ROCK CLIMBING! Gosh I miss rock climbing like a sin. It knawes at me every day when I wake up to see these snowcapped mountains all around us and know that I can't climb them or anything else on the base. All I can do is do these ridiculous rock climbing workouts in the gym to keep my strength up which seems to be surprisingly effective but the true test will come when I finally get this wall built and get on the holds I've ordered. If it ever happens and the political nonsense doesn't stop it. it takes forever to get a project approved around here. i've been working on this one for moths...

Other things I miss...well of course the gal I had a great relationship with prior to this deployment. Man, that was an incredibly painful separation. I miss good, real food, beer, longboard skateboarding, snorkeling, mountain biking, swimming, scuba diving, surfing(the little bit I did), airplanes(but not the noise), crazy spontaneous adventures, TRAVELING, kayaking, slacklining, bouldering, sand, the beach, mountains I can go in, A PERSONAL INTERNET CONNECTION THAT IS NOT A COMMUNITY ROOM WITH NO WIFI, fast mail(a week), Japanese people, sort of miss driving, my big screen tv, did I mention food?, cookouts, lightning, family, a bed that's not bunk, not being woken up by roomates, A SHOWER THAT'S NOT A 5 MINUTE WALK THROUGH THE COLD TO GET TO!, nice people lol, and other things...

The other day I went for a run, and got caught in the prop wash of a French helicopter probably no more than 20 or 30 feet over my head coming in for a landing (I was close to the helo pad). It was like being in a dust storm and I got covered. Not the first time this has happened though. The Chinooks are worse. Seeing the helicopters constantly flying around is one of the coolest things about living here. Riding on them is even cooler.

Running here is near impossible as the terrain is so rough and uneven. I roll my ankle every time I try it. I already wear a brace on one ankle. Just gotta slow down over the rocks. Also on my run the other day, I saw some French guys training their dog. One of the guys had the suit on and the dog was attacking him. I also ran by all their combat vehicles. Also smelled poop as I passed some Afghan workers on the base. As you can imagine, plumbing in Afghanistan is pretty much non existant so they all squat wherever they can. As a result, pretty much all of Afghanistan as I've been told, smells like poop.

I am taking a math class here in addition to Japanese classes 3x a week. It's funny at the Japanese lessons becuase the guy teaching it doesn't speak the best english so he says things in Japanese, then attempts them in English but ends up saying them in French to another guy who's in the class who then spits it back to me in English. It's pretty entertaining and we have a blast. the other guy in the class already speaks like 6 or 7 languages. Good grief. My freakin rold model. The classes are taking up a lot of my time on top of my primary duties and I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed so I'll have to find a deputy to help me out with my duties. I am working nonstop from whatever time I come in in the morning until about 7 pm. At 530 I eat. Once I leave work, I still have to do math homework and work out and Japanese class on certain days and shower. I do this EVERY SINGLE DAY. For myself and the others that work in my office, there are no off days, not even half days. I sort of feel like I should be getting overtime pay for the amount of effort I have to put to making things work. It's like they say, if you don't want to do something, then don't do good at it. I guess people thing they can trust me to get things done and that I can handle the responsiblity so it is handed to me. It is also because of where I work. I promise I am the hardest working lower enlisted guy on the whole team. Not to toot my own horn, just a statement of truth. The infantry guys go on missions but when they get off, they usually get to sleep or do what they want. When they are not sleeping or on mission, they are constantly doing crap busy work like kitchen duty or cleaning connexes or sweeping or whatever the Seargants(real pricks) can find for them to do. So I guess in that sense I'm grateful for staying busy. I love my job and all, it's just really difficult to handle everything. Especially when movies and tv shows are always on the television and I am extremely ADD prone. lol. I counter this by drowning out the noise with loud Trance music in my headphones(usually DJ Tiesto) which has GOT to be detremental to my hearing. This usually helps me focus. I have to write a lot of reports and memos and read tons of reports and emails on top of getting whatever imagery required for the mission and taking care of the needs of a dozen lingusits and attending meetings wherever I'm needed. It's mentally exhausting. Thank goodness for the gym at the end of the day. It's difficult when I don't make it cause I'm too busy. Results are slow to come too due to always making up for hunger with sugary snacks cause we are so rationed at the chow hall and even if you do eat a lot, youll probably have a heart attack.

All in all, I try to stay positive and as far as deployments go, this is a dream come true. I don't get to go on missions nearly as often as I want for multiple reasons but mostly cause the infantry supervision is very biased about using their own guys exclusively for security and driving despite us AF guys being trained as well on the vehicles and gunning systems. Then when we get up there and have questions about it, they ridicule us for not knowing because we never get the opportunity to use them. I still have a good time though and make it all work.

lol the constant war between AF and Infantry guys is, "we go outside the wire, do you?". But truth be told, they never do anything on missions anyway and always complain about how they never get any action. It's just the best default they can come up with. It creates a lot of feelings of animosity and most of them have no idea what any of us "Staff" guys do but you just learn to laugh it off after a while. Well, I have. Some other staff members still get angry but I just blow it off as I've heard it SOOOO many times. Besides, I go out sometimes. I've even been a driver on a mission so...

I try to keep my time productive and not spend too much time doing unnecessary blogging and stay on time killer facebook all the time. I'm learning quickly that time is precious and I've got to manage it best as I can. Tonight I just decided to stay up late and type this out as I've been putting it off for a long time. Random thought, man I wish I wasn't out of tuna. I eat tuna every day especially after my workouts but I'm out of stock now and keep forgetting to order more.

Alright, that's enough nonsense rambling for tonight. I'll blog more another time. I'm past the halfway point in this deployment and counting down the days until I get to go on R&R and until I get to leave this place. Oh how I miss normal life. Definately gonna do a lot of traveling this summer. So it's 1230 am and I have to go to work in just a few hours so I'm outta here. Goodnight to all and to all a good night. -Deuces.

Delectible Delights and Frozen Nose

Delectible Delights and Frozen Nose

After the Bagram adventure, It was not even a week before we started having issues with the generator at out tent. One night I got several care packages and some of my possessions in the mail to include a new microwave and my xbox. I plugged in the microwave and began to use it but it put too much strain on the transformer and blew a fuse in the transformer. This was the first issue we had with power. From this point we found a replacement transformer that was larger and more powerful. We hooked the microwave into in and the xbox and it worked like a charm. Being over here we have to deal with a lot of 220 power settings because local technology runs off of it. Constantly using adapters and transformers. So that all worked fine. The next night, at some random point in the night, the power started flickering and fading. This went on for a while as we were unplugging different plugs to maintain stable power before the generator finally just died. We went out to inspect the generator to see if we could repair it but there was no obvious damage. With the loss of the generator power also went the loss of all heat in our tent in 20 and 30 degree farenheight weather. We waited a while and hark!, the generator started again. This time we were careful not too plug in too many things. We didn’t have enough power to run the heat pump so we all bundled up in sleeping bags and warm clothes. This went on for the next week as we continually found that the generator was filthy and had not been taken care of at all. The oil was changed and the filters were dumped but this only barely prolonged the life of the generator. Finally after a week of this, the generator finally reached the end of its life when someone went to check the fuel line and it broke off. This further reinforced our supervision’s notion to move us out of the tent into more temporary lodging while we wait on the new buildings to be ready. We were given a 3 day deadline and everyone else moved out stat but I was resistant to move so I stayed in the cold dark tent one more night by myself but I loved it. This was the first time in 6 months of training and deployment I had true privacy. No one was moving around or snoring or waking up and talking and slamming the door. I slept great and it was the first time I dreamed in months. I was plenty warm being in 2 sleeping bags with warm clothes and a beanie on my head. Thank goodness to all that camping experience. Everyone else slept in the other temporary lodging with lots more people in open bays of about 30 or more people with snorers and the whole 9 yards. I was perfectly fine in this solitary abode.

Also during this time, our rations were quickly running out at the chow hall. As it is, we usually have to eat corn dogs, hot dogs, hot wings, with the occasional chicken cordon blue or an excuse for Chinese food. Vegetables? Green stuff? Fruits? What is all that? Every day its fried food or something microwaved. Whatever is easiest for the cooks to prepare. This week our new shipment of food was a week late and our food choices were getting worse and worse. We ran out of regular milk and many other things. You don’t realize how much you miss regular milk until you eat cereal with chocolate milk and strawberry milk for breakfast every morning. We have finally gotten our shipment of new food in but the food choices haven’t changed much. One night we had steaks but that’s about the best. It’s impossible to eat healthy here and I firmly believe it is the goal of the military to give us all high cholesterol and heart attacks. One almost has to live off either the French chow hall or care packages or the pizza place. Those are the only food options.

So that’s an update on the last few weeks here at the wonderful FOB. As for my job, its going really well. I’ve taken on a new position of managing linguists on top of my other responsibilities and it takes up quite a bit of my time. It’s satisfying though. Taking a week off the gym this week as I’ve had hardly a day off from it since I arrived in country. We go to work every single day and get not one day off until R and R. One gets used to it. Watched the new movie Inception the other night and loved it. Great movie if you haven’t seen it. Got my first real coin today from the Command SGT Major(Army E-9) of our parent unit. Never been in an official coin ceremony with such a large coin so I screwed up the proper procedures for receiving the coin. If you don’t know what I mean by coin, no its not like a quarter or a nickel, it’s a large coin with a unit logo and design in color imprinted on it and its an honor to receive one. It’s a military tradition and most people collect them and end up displaying them on their desk or bookshelf. I have moved around so much that I’ve never been anywhere long enough to do anything outstanding so that I might receive one before. The proper procedure is for the individual giving the coin to hold it in his hand and present it in the form of the handshake while the person receiving the coin shakes the hand containing the coin and takes it when the handshake is broken. The coin was heavy and I actually ended up dropping it as I was receving it to a certain amount of embarrassment. Soon to go get a haircut from the French Boutique and enjoy the rest of the day at the lovely as always FOB Morales-Frazier.

Broken mirrors, convoys, helicopters

Intro and Trip to Bagram

So this week finds me at the end of a streak of a somewhat eventful few weeks. Here I sit on my bed with a cup of hot ginseng tea next to me and my speaker beanie, while reflecting on my time here.

I guess the first major event was traveling on my first convoy(mounted comat patrol to be P.C.). Now granted it was only to Bagram Airfield which is not that far but nonetheless, it was a convoy. I had to go get a chipped tooth looked at and repaired. The first couple minutes outside the wire were a bit exciting but after spending so much time in armored vehicles in training, it was nothing new. This time though, I was only a passenger, a window licker, a strap hanger, whatever you want to call it. Despite very tiny windows and uncomfortable sitting positions, I was still greatful to be here and have a view of the country I presently reside but have never really seen outside the base. The trip was uneventful but I was able to take several pictures of the landscape and see how people here make their way of life. To see shabby tents pitched on the rocky terrain and know these were peoples homes. Seeing cattle and donkeys and dogs wandering around and wondering how they survive in such a barren land. Now granted its not the desert, but it is still pretty bleak. I was not blown away, having been in third world countries on multiple occasions on my own personal travels, but no two places are the same. I remember noticing all the caves in the mountains and the steep grades and dirty rivers and scattered rocks and thinking, so this is what all the books and movies are talking about. Brutal, near unpassable mountains in the north and barren desert in the south. These people have been fighting almost nonstop for hundreds of years and not only conquered, but beaten the crap out of everyone who has tried to take this land from them. Now if you;ve never read up on the history of Afghanistan, well(besides recent discoveries or major mineral deposits) theres not really anything here that anyone would want. No major economic assets or natural resources. This land is disputed over simply because of its location being landlocked by so many nations and key tactical terrain to hold in the Central Asian territory.

So anyway, off of my sidetrack(darn ADD), we safely arrived at Bagram without incident and I dismounted and locked my rifle and body armour away. While at BAF, I took care of several things that I cannot do at the FOB such as buying things at the BX and getting information on education opportunities and taking a mathematics placement test. My original dental appt was scheduled for thanksgiving day, but then I showed up and they told me all appts for the day had been cancelled and I would have to reschedule. Bummer. So then I went with some guys of my team for Thanksgiving lunch but the line was so ridiculously long, we ended up all getting tuna pouches and microwave meals from the shoppete. Oh well, another holiday in the military away from loved ones. What else is new? Such has been the story of my life for over 4 years now. One tends to get used to the idea. (We ended up having a great thanksgiving dinner with turkey and everything minus the pumpkin pie cause it was all gone. So that made up for lunch)

I hung out at BAF for a couple weeks waiting on my appt. It finally came about and once I had a new filling and numb face from novacane it was time to go. (I actually discovered by accident that eating something to work the novicane out of your system brings feeling back pretty quick). That night my team members signed me up for Space Available on a helicopter making trips that night. I waited to see if I made the cut and was shocked when they called out the last 4 of my SSN (this is how the military identifies people, last name and last 4). I jumped up and through on my armor vest, slung my rifle over my shoulder, put on my helmet and eyewear, grabbed my bags and made a quick video before heading out to the flightline for liftoff. Now if you’ve never ridden a military helicopter or even a helicopter for that matter, there is nothing like the anticipation the first time you are about to board. Perhaps it’s just me because I freaking love aviation and always wanted to ride a helicopter. This was actually my 2^nd experience on a helicopter(first was the first time we flew to the FOB) but the excitement was still alive and well due to the fact that I had never been on a helicopter this large before. While the crew chiefs were doing their pre-flight checks after all the bags had been loaded and strapped down, one of them strapped on a helmet and facemask. I laughed a little inside because he had drawn a goofy looking face on his mask that was impossible not to smile at. He noticed my glance and chuckled. Then the rotors started up. We waited there for a long while, my butt half on the seat because the bird was so jampacked I was hanging off the end of it, when we finally started taxiing. The feeling of liftoff can pass you by if you are not really paying attention. It’s so crazy just looking at the ground and see yourself hovering there just a few feet off the flightline engines blazing full force and all. I grinned with joy. This was one of those moments that I was really happy to be in the military. Who else gets to do that?

So we took off into the dark, moonless, Afghan night. They told us we were first off, so myself and a couple other guys had to be ready. When we landed, it was so dark, I hardly realized we had landed and didn’t know where we were. That green light came on and the guy next to me(our new cooks I found out later) gave me a shove and I was on my feet snatching up bags and hustling to the ramp. I rushed down the ramp and onto the helipad under the roar of the rotor blades. Once we had exfilled the bird, it took off. I was nearly knocked off my feet and my bags went rolling away from me due to the power of the prop wash. It was intense. I wanted to look at this dark beast that can only be seen because it blocks out the stars in the sky, but it was kicking up too much dust and I had to concentrate on bracing myself. Aircraft are amazing. Giant machines in the sky that just give you a feeling of extreme power.( This is best experienced by being just a few hundred feet away from a fighter jet when it takes off on full afterburner or the same distance away from a 747 at 85 percent throttle.)

Once this was done, I jumped on the tailgate of a gator that was there to pick up the cooks and hitched a ride in full gear part of the way back to my tent. It was pitch black the whole way as everything is here for safety and security reasons. I finally arrived back at the tent and surprised everyone who were not expecting me to be back for a while. Especially not on a helicopter. I downed all my gear and began to wind down before retiring for the night.

life on MORALES-FRAZIER 3 NOV 2010

Wow, what a place.  Like I mentioned before, we flew into this place on a blackhawk helicopter under a full moon through and Afghan valley.  It was fantastic.  Definately one of the cooler things I've done.  Helicopters are constantly zooming in and out of here and I have to make way for a multitude of different wheeled armored vehicles everyday.  It is not uncommon to hear test fire mortars and machine guns and sometimes there are true firefights outside the base.  Even now after having been here a copule of weeks, it is all still surreal to me.  I havent been on a mission yet but the things I'm getting to do in my life are once again, incredible.  This is everything I could have asked for.  Sure, it could be better or more exciting.  I dont really ever get to see any action but that may change.  I think its going to be a good several months.  All the training sucked but now I'm glad I have it.  It may save my life one day.  Walking around with a loaded pistol at all times is a new experience and its kind of growing on me.  I always wondered what it would be like to walk around in an area that could turn chaotic at any moment and how nervous and uptight I would be but strangely, its not that bad.  Granted, I'm on a protected base and I'm sure it's different when you ride in a convoy but theres still that edginess that anything could happen at any time.  The siren could go off at any time meaning we are under attack.  I don't worry about it too much though.  If it happens it happens.  Over the years I've learned to sleep through fighter jet engines and now screaming helicopters and explosions.

I've finally gotten to move to a botttom bunk after several months of training and traveling and it is marvelous.  I have my own litte room that is basically a bunk sectioned off by sheets and blankets and a little bit of space between my bed and the tent wall.  I grabbed a wooden crate out of a courtyard and it is now my desk/clothing cabinet.  This little 6X8 ft space is mine and I love it.  I couldn't be happier.  I no longer have to freaking share a space with someone else and I can have near total privacy when I close all the sheets and make my "bedroom".  I like the guys I am rooming with(all 7 of them) and we get along pretty well.  Trying to hit the gym every night but it's difficult to get in a routine as I have weird hours.  It's also hard to get up the motivation.  So many of the leaving team have given me workout supplements that I now have about 7 big bottles of various weight gainers and muscle builders which I rarely use.  Of course the water is not safe so it is a new experience using a water bottle for everything except showering.  The bathrooms are about a 3-5 minute walk away from where I live so its a hassle to get there all the time when it gets pitch black dark at about 530 in the afternoon.  Often times, we'll go multiple days without showering or washing hands.  Hand sanitizer, port a potties, and baby wipes become your new best friends.  When I say it's dark, I mean the ONLY light you get is from the stars or a headlamp.  There is very little electricity in Afghanistan therefore, there are stars here like you wouldn't believe.  I have never seen so many stars with a naked eye.  I frequently see shooting stars when walking back which usually causes me to trip in a pothole cause I'm not paying attention to where I'm walking and dont like using a headlamp.  They have a strange kind of dust here that makes a cloud when you step in it.  It looks a lot like the term everyone labels it as-"moondust".  It gets into everything.  We have to take malaria pills everyday so that's something to keep up with.  I took mine this morning on an empty stomach and nearly threw up.  Lesson learned.  No empty stomachs.  We can't drink alcohol here so you find other things to pass the time.  Lot's of people smoke cigars and hookah. The food was crappy when I got here but a bit better now that the 2 cooks we have, have more supplies.  They still have to ration out the food though so you never get a full belly.   One thing everyone really looks forward to here is mail.  Oh the simple pleasure of receiving a package or a letter becuase when you order something, you never know when it will arrive.  It could be weeks or it could be months.  It all depends when someone gets a chance to bring it here.  Theres not a whole lot to do here and its not like we can leave the base at our own will so you find little things to pass the time and mail is one of them.  Little things get us by day to day.

Anyways, those are just a few random observations I've made since being here and some of the experiences I've had.  I'm incredibly enthusiatic and having a great time.  Keeping in touch with the girl and with Mom makes it better of course but the cell phone minutes and prices rack up quickly.  Thanks for all the support from everyone back home.  I'm having a blast.

Morales-Frazier 24 Oct 2010 Part III

Atterbury was...well lets not sugarcoat it.  It just flat out sucked.  Open living areas of 30+ dudes all farting, burping, cursing, spitting, smoking, threatening, yelling, and laughing.  Not to mention I had personality conflicts with a few and everyone was always stressed out.  You sleep when everyone else sleeps and you wake when they wake.  Maybe you dont sleep at all because many snore so loudly.  I slept with earplugs, a beanie, and a pillow over my head and still had trouble every night.  The bathroom always smelled awful and the sinks were always dirty.  Everyone was always right on the verge of fighting and sometimes they actually did.  Air Force was separated from Army Infantry but lived in the same building.  They function and live completely different from the Air Force guys and their softer Army counterparts.  We lived, ate, slept, breathed, showered, trained, exercised, everything all together all the time.  It was maddening.  No way to decompress or get your own private time.  It takes a long time to get used to someone being in your business all the time.  Privacy? Ha! What's that?  The days started early and ended late at night.  We worked pretty much every day for 2 1/2 months.  You never knew when you would be called out of the barracks to go do something and never found out what you would be doing the next day until about 1030 pm the night prior so there was no way to go to bed early and plan for the next day.  There were points in the training when sleep deprivation was definately a factor as we would sometimes get about 2 hours of sleep a night multiple days in a row.  You slept in the truck or the ground or wherever you could when we were out in the field.  For the lower enlisted, it was everything you could do not to get yelled at.  I really think the infantry operates out of fear or getting their butts chewed for these young Army Guard guys were totally whipped.  They were constantly getting "smoked" where their sargeants would force them to do pushups for discipline and pnushment alike.

As for the training, we received so little training on so so many things.  We received training in everything from machine guns, building clearing, driving hmvees and other armored vehicles, and grenade launchers to Afghan language and culture training.  It was very broad but the scheduling was chaos.  In the end, I somehow made it out alive and succeeded in completing all the training without getting too banged up.  Had several run ins with Army NCOs but it worked out eventually.

When stateside training FINALLY came to an end after 4 1/2 months, we were allowed to take a week of leave.  Most people went back to their homes in the US, but I had someone I desparately wanted to see back in Okinawa.  She and I had kept in touch and on great terms somehow and she coaxed me into buying a plane ticket all the way back to Japan for a week to come see her even though it would only be for about 5 full days.  (I was later told that since I was traveling overseas, I could have departed one day sooner, but this information did not come to me until a day before I left for leave. Thank you US military)  I hopped on a plane full of excitement and anticipation and embarked on the 25 hour journey back to Okinawa. 

She was waiting for me at the airport and it was somewhat strange to see her again as it had been the last time I came back.  When I left for Army training back in the states 2 1/2 months earlier, it had been very difficult and probably was a major contribution to difficulties I faced while in the US.  This time though,  I was gonna make up for lost time.  We spent as much time together as possible and it was one of the greatest weeks I've ever had.  We went all over the island and just had a wonderful 5 days together.  She had been able to take off work for the whole week due to a break in her schedule that was pure happenstance.  As much as I had endeared her before, it was amplified 10x over on this short trip.  I was still worried about losing her over these several months, but at the end of my stay, I felt much more confident in our relationship.  Those few short days had done wonders for my morale and I felt totally refreshed.  I knew that everything was going to be fine and I could finally depart with a clear conscience and clear mind.  This was going to be both a valuable test for the two of us and one of the most terrific adventures of my life.  So I hopped on the plane and headed back to the US to prepare to depart for a little FOB in Afghanistan.  I walked with a pep in my step and a smile on my face ready to face whatever was thrown before me.  I just told myself "I can do this" and so my journey began.

Morales-Frazier 24 Oct 2010 Part II

So I retracted into my antisocial lifestyle and spent the rest of the summer keeping myself entertained.  I hurriedly booked a climbing trip to Thaialnd with an old high school friend and had a blast there.  The rest of my time was spent rock climbing, longboarding, and just waiting around for what I thought would be a mid-winter departure.  I entered into a phenomenal relationship with the girl and told her that even though I was leaving soon, I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.  She ok'd it and we had wonderful times together.  I explored a good chunk of the island and lived life as someone who had several months of freedom would.  Then the news came.  Seeing as how no one had ever heard of a thing like this, no one knew where to find information for the deployment.  Everything I knew was what I had found on google.  Then I got an email stating that I had training in 2 weeks starting at the end of May! This was WAY earlier than I thought I was leaving.  I knew I had training but I thought it would only be a month and that i wouldn't leave unitl early October sometime.  I was shocked.  I had mixed feelings of excitement and dread.  I had viewed this deployment as a way out of the lifestyle I had been lkiving and a way to ot get tied down to anything but now I had already gotten comfortable  with where I was in life.  I had a good job with good rank and a great girl and lots of great toys and adventurous weekends and now I was gonna have to give it up.  I thought it wouild be ok as it was only for a week and a half, perhpas more.  I prepare my things and say my goodbyes and arrive in the states at training with no transportation, no idea how to get to base, and a small hotel reservation.  I met someone in the airport who was also attending the training and hopped a ride with her to my hotel which no one else from the training happened to be staying in.  I waited an yhour for a taxi to the base in the morning and paid $40 then hitched a ride at the gate to the schoolhouse.  Once I arrived, I found out that no longer was my training only 1 1/2 week, it was actually going to be 4 1/2 MONTHS TOTAL!!! AHHHH!!!  So much for my summer in Okinawa. 

So after 1 1/2 months of teraining was over, I got to go back to Okinawa for 20 days which was basically spent running around like a chiken with its head cut off trying to get ready for the depoloyment and combat training I would wsoon be attedning.  This is the most maddening time period I have ever been through.  To this day, I stilll have not quite accomplished everything I needed to get done.  I remorsefully said a teary goodbye to my girlfriend and an adieu to my friends and hopped on a plane for Indiana.  Let me tell you, this was like nothing I have ever or likely will ever experience again.  If you've never worked with the Army, it's a heck of a ride.  This would be the beginning of the craziest, most stressful, maddening, chaotic time of my life as of yet.