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.

Morales-Frazier 24 Oct 2010 Part 1

Wow, the mountains here are gorgeous.  This altitude will certainly take some adjusting though as my lungs are burning from my recent workout.  5000 ft actually makes quite a bit of difference.  The difference was painfully apparent immediately after exiting our ride to the base-an HH-60 U.S. Blackhawk helicopter.  Yeah, like the ones in Black Hawk Down the movie.  The air is much cooler as well.  As for the food, its kinda tough to get proper nutrition when for lunch you are fed thawed out corn dogs and pizza.  I resentfully downed a can of V8 vegetable juice this morning along with some vitamin cereal just to maintain a healthy diet.  Soon we are going to the first barbecue where will commune with some of the previous PRT members.  Then who knows whats next.  The entire day has been filled with the sound of helicopters, mortars, and small arms fire but dont worry, it's all friendly.  Those Frenchies on the other side have been doing some display of force and turnover to their new team members.  Apparently artillery fire and helicopter rotor wash is a common thing here.  One tends to get used to it though.  As long as the Afghans security forces and the French team do a proper job fending off the Taliban, we American Provincial Reconstruction Team members remain safe while here on the FOB.  Where am I?  FOB Morales-Frazier in Kapisa Province, Eastern Afghanistan.  We are approx. 15 miles away from Bagram Airfield, a major Coalition Forces hub for Central Afghanistan.  How did I get here?  Well thats a bit of a story.

8 months ago I was fairly new to Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan as a fairly experienced aircraft maintainer.  I was 4 months into my assignment and already felt like I was in a rut.  Not that there's anything wrong with Okinawa, but it was winter time and I didn't really know anyone.  I had been wanting a deployment for years in the military and frequently bugged my shop chief about putting me up for one.  I wasn't too fond of the normal deployments we get tasked for of watching Third country nationals do work and guarding them but I was willing to settle for this if it was all that was available.  Then one day out of the blue, my shop chief came and met me in the break room as I was eating my lunch and asked me what I thought about a 9 month deployment to Afghanistan with the US Army.  My jaw dropped and I got a big chance.  This was what I had been waiting for but 9 MONTHS?  That was a little more than I bargained for.  He told me that a tasking like this would go quick and the volunteer slots would be filled quickly which I believed.  I told him I would think about it.  I guess I didn't wait long enough to think about it because I was worried that all the slots would be filled.  I went back into his office and several other people kept telling me that if they were young and single, they would absolutely volunteer for it.  I was kind of choked up and nervous about it.  This was the opportunity I had been waiting fo4r but there were other factors to consider.  For one, Kadena is a great place to be stationed and there is tons to do.  I would be missing an entire summer and winter and with training, another summer just for this one deployment.  For another, I had just met a wonderful girl that I was really clicking with the night before this offer.  I really thought we could do well together and wanted to see where it would go but this was the chance that I had waited 3 1/2 years for.  Without much more thought, I took a gamble and said "Screw it, I'll do it".  This was the beginning of a looooong, life altering, lesson learning experience for which I would embark soon or so I thought.

I told everyone about my decision and waited a while to tell my mother as I was waiting to see if my commander and chain of command would approve me to go.  I was put in for it and it turned out that only 1 other person in my squadron had volunteered for it.  So much for the slots going quickly.  Everyone told me I was dumb for volunteering for it and I didn't know what I was getting into.  I often think they were right but I always thought I was a little too hard for the Air Force anyway.  A month went by and I finally got word that I was approved for the deployment.  I was thrilled!  This was my exit from the rut I was in in the shop and a way to keep myself from getting tied down in any kind of relationship.  Everyone encourage me to get my things ready and be ready to go within a month or two and that it was imperative that I take care of any business that I would need in the next year while I had the time.  I began getting everything taken care of in proper excitement and anticipation that I would soon be departing for the greatest adventure of my life.  Then, it happened.  Word came down that I would not be leaving until October or November.  I was almost heartbroken and definately let down.  The military got me so excited then told me I had to wait 6 to 8 months before I could leave.  Now what?  I knew this could not be good for my nomadic life and would be just enough time to get comfortable before I would have to up and leave again which is actually exactly how it would play out.  Well, sort of.