O.K. I think I have sufficient bandwidth to upload some pictures. I will try to place them in order and describe each one.
First is the departure from South Carolina with all the groups who came to meet us.
Next is me on the plane with my weapon. Very strange actually having to carry a gun on board.
Then there is me at the airport in Shannon Ireland.
Now here is the tent village we lived in in Kuwait.
Main Street in Camp Virginia Kuwait.
Kabul International Airport.
Main intersection in Kabul City (notice the goat herd).
O.K, next time I will have more pictures of ISAF and where I am working. I am slowly getting used to the situation here and will be starting the night shift this evening. There is a whole lot of work to do here and as with everywhere else in the Navy, we are understaffed. I think I will like to job very much however.
Thanks Mom for volunteering to get me the robe and slippers! I could not imagine walking through snow in flip flops and sweats after taking a shower!!!
I have an additional request, this time not for myself, for those of you with kids in school... Evidently, Afghans love postcards! I think it would be nice if those with kids in school (or anyone) might be able to work something out through the school to collect postcards from the student body with notes written on them for the Afghan children and then send them to me (in a package, not individually please) and I will make sure they get to the people who work with the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and therefore to the children of Afghanistan. I am hoping to even be able to deliver some personally!!! I think this would really be nice!! Please just make sure the postcards are in good taste (no bikinis or buff guys or tasteless jokes etc) and please no religious buildings (they are Muslim and very sensitive religious things). Postcards with pictures of buildings (non religious), monuments, mountains, scenery etc would be perfect!!! Thanks in advance!!!!
Well, I have been in Kabul for a couple of days now and am slowly getting used to life here. I am working for an Australian Army O-5 and will be starting the night shift on Sunday night after I get all of my check-in stuff done. I will also probably be changing rooms once the second floor is finished in the new US barracks although I think I would prefer to stay where I am at since after 10 September, I will only have one phantom roommate who is only here for about 4 weeks out of every 4 months! The weather here is much better than in Kuwait with the highs in the low 90s and lows in the mid 60s and no humidity! On that note however, the winter will be much like that of the DC area and since Birthday/Christmas is coming up, I need to ask for a nice warm bath robe (XL) and nice warm slippers (11). If someone living in a climate that would have such items would be gracious enough to supply one of these, please let me know that you are doing so in a comment for this post so that I can post it and do not end up with multiple robes/slippers. I am very grateful for all the support I am receiving from family and friends and will be ecstatic with anything so please do not feel that you have to send me a package! I am just as happy with letters, postcards, or even comments on my blog post.
Now, some more on the base here. I have not been outside of the Forward Operating Base (FOB) since arriving, but i can tell you that it is just like in the news and movies. It is very run down and busy. Numerous buildings throughout the city are damaged or destroyed and have not rebuilt. While I was traveling from the airport I saw a whole lot of people walking, quite a few cars, horse drawn carts, goat herds, and some signs of progress though it is slow! I will post some pictures once I get somewhere with a higher speed connection (probably Saturday). The food here is good, mostly European. Not much of a variety, but interesting. Kabul is situated between some mountain ranges so we have heavy smog, but I am sure it will be a nice view after a good rain. There are representative from about 50+ countries here all working and living on the same ~15 acre plot of land in the middle of down town. There are also three PXs (Post Exchange) here all European and with Euro prices that you would expect in dollars from an American PX which makes everything about 1.5 times as much. I will be going to the nearest American base in the next couple of days and will probably stock up on some essentials there. All in all, everything is going well although I am looking forward to digging into my job which will make me very busy and should make the time go by much quicker! I will write more when I get a chance and again, I will include pictures from Kabul and my jaunt in Kuwait!
I finally arrived in Afghanistan on late Saturday night and after some slight trouble was able to get a 15 minute flight from Bagrahm Air Base to Kabul. We took a convoy of a couple of SUVs driven by British Marines from the Kabul airport to ISAF headquarters through very busy streets. The city looks just as it does in the news! It is very run down and there are still numerous destroyed or damaged buildings everywhere. The base is very small, but seems to have quite a bit of stuff on it. I have to go now, but will write much more later!
August 23rd was a significant date in my early Navy Career: August 23, 1990 I graduated from Boot Camp; August 23, 1991 I graduated from Nuclear Power School; August 23, 1992 I returned from my first deterrent SSBN patrol; August 23, 1993 I got underway on my second boat USS Pennsylvania; and now August 23, 2008 I will be arriving in Afghanistan. I am not sure of the exact logistics of my trip to Kabul, but I should be arriving in Bagrahm Afghanistan today and Kabul, hopefully within 24 hours of that.
The Udari range was interesting. I slept in a tent with AC and 39 other people (male and female in same tent) on the floor and ate nothing but MREs. I think we got lucky because it did not get above 140 while were there. We did some shooting and convoy operations geared mostly to Iraq and made it back to Camp Virginia in the early afternoon Friday. That being done, I AM FINALLY DONE WITH ALL MY TRAINING!!!! After 4 weeks of living, eating, and breathing Army grunt stuff, I can finally go to my job in an air conditioned office dealing with the three basic p's powerpoint, presentations, and paperwork! No more living out of seabags or MREs or running around with 70 extra pounds of equipment in 120+ temperatures!!!!
I will write again in my blog as soon as I can after arriving in Afghanistan.
We are leaving this afternoon for a couple of days of isolation in the desert and I will not have access again until Friday. I do have some more information about the base in Afghanistan however. First, I will be moving directly into my new room once I arrive. The rooms there are 2-3 man rooms however, the guy I am relieving has set me up to replace him in his room which is shared with a civilian O-6 equivalent so there will be no third person in our room! I will have Internet access in my room and should be able to keep up the blog and with e-mails with no problems! We do not have U.S. stores on the base, only European PXs which have been described as "corner convenience stores at twice the price." That being the case, I would appreciate RED licorice (Twizzlers or Red Vines), some beef jerky, Circuit City/Best Buy/Frys/Home Depot/Lowes/Target ads from the Sunday Paper, Chex mix (homemade kind), cashews, sugar free jolly ranchers, microwave popcorn (butter/movie theater butter), or anything else you may want to send. Letters and pictures would also be extremely appreciated!!
I have my new address and it is making it's way around via e-mail. If you do not get it, please e-mail me, Jen, my Mom, or my Dad for it and I am sure you will receive it. As for my wish list for any possible packages, I do not know what will be available to me in Afghanistan, but any home-made items I am sure I will not be able to get especially: chex mix, brownies, cookies, and chex mix.
The trip over to Kuwait was long, tiring, but some good things happened. First, when we arrived at the airport in Columbia, South Carolina, there were several groups there to meet us and see us off. They had food and small things for us and we were able to talk to them for a few hours before boarding the plane. It was very nice to see the support! When we landed in Bangor Maine at 1130pm, we were surprised to see that there were a few groups there to meet us and provide some stuff during our two hours on the ground there. They even opened up one of the giftshops and one of the resturants in the airport for us. Finally, when we arrived in Shannon Ireland, we had a long walk from the gate to the waiting area in the international terminal. All along the walk, there were gates for domestic and international flights separated from us by a glass wall. I was very surprised that the entire walk (probably past 15-20 gates) people stood and cheered us thanking us in Irish, British, American, and other accents. Then in the food court (Pub) in the waiting area, we received a standing ovation. It is very nice to know that 7 years into the Global War on Terrorism people are still appreciative of what we are doing and that that appreciation transends country boundries!!! I truly believe in what I am doing here and I think I will look back on this as the most rewarding experience in my 20+ years in the Navy! I am very greatful to my wonderful family for their love and support during this deployment!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!
Well, it turns out I do have internet access in Kuwait after all so I will keep the blog updated while I am here. We arrived at Camp Virginia around 0430 and got settled into our tents just as the sun was comming up. By 0630, it was already around 100 degrees and bright, when I awoke from my nap around 1100, it was 115 and even brighter. There is sand everywhere here, but the DFAC is not that bad and there is a good sized PX and some fast food places as well as a huge USO. I will be here for a few days, then I go for more training in an even hotter and more desolate place, then finally to Afghanistan sometime in the next 8-9 days. We are living in tents here, but we do have AC when the power is up and wooden floors and even sleep on cots. The theory is that they make you live in these conditions, then move you to the range where you sleep on the ground and eat MREs (real MREs, not the crap we had at Camp McCrady), just so you will better appreciate your living conditions forward. I will post some pictures in the next couple of days.
Sorry, no pictures today. Just wanted to let everyone know that I am leaving for Kuwait today and will be spending about 10 days there in the 125+ degree heat getting "aclimated" for the 90 degree heat of Afghanistan. I may not have internet there, so this may be my last post until I arrive in Afghanistan, but don't worry, I will take lots of pictures in Kuwait and post them when I can. I will post my mailing address as well once I have received it. I hope everyone is well and safe and I will post more later! Love to all!!
First, let start off answering some questions you may have
about my deployment.
Question: What is a Navy Officer doing in a landlocked country that has few lakes and no real bodies of water?
Answer: We are augmenting the Army so they can send more people to the front and they do not get too comfortable in air conditioned offices.
Question: Why did I volunteer to do this when I have 18 years in the Navy and can just retire in two years?
Answer: I was tired of planning and planning for things that were probably never going to happen and wanted to do some real operations and make a difference, not just write volumes of plans that would never be read.
Well it has been two weeks and I only have two more training days left here at CampMcCrady! I wanted to give everyone an Idea as to what it is like here and how the Army training is going so...
CampMcCrady is an instillation attached to FortJackson where the Navy training occurs along with some Army Reserve and National Guard training. We do use FortJackson for all of our weapons qualification shoots as well as other parts of training, but all classroom and all of our living accommodations are at CampMcCrady. We have been busy here learning how the Army does things and different aspects we may need in our time in theater such as:
Marksmanship Convoy operations Land Navigation
Combat First Aid
IED identification and mitigation
Law of War
Cultural Awareness
Army culture
Eating the Army way
"Organizing" the Army way
"Thinking" the Army way
“Living” the Army way
Speaking the Army way
Basically, it is Army boot camp condensed to three weeks...
I must say, I have a new appreciation for the job the Army does, but I still don't completely understand the Army mentality and culture. Maybe because it is a training command but there seems to be little regard for rank. The senior Navy enlisted seem to be leading the Company and the senior officers are sort of staying in the shadows. Everyone is treated the same way by the staff, from the most junior E-3 (Enlisted) to the most senior O-5 (Officer). The officers do have their own barracks, but the enlisted barracks has newer and much nicer furnature. I am living in open bay barracks with about 30 other officers all living in the same big room and sharing the same bathroom. We are wearing our IBAs (Body Armor) quite a bit and are somewhat getting used to it, but still, 65 extra pounds is 65 extra pounds. The food is O.K. breakfasts and dinners are usually at the dining facility (D-FAC) which at least has fresh salads and gravy at every meal. Lunches are mixed between Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) and sack lunches since most of the lunches are eaten in the various training areas away from CampMcCrady.The MREs are the old style with little variety and not very good.As I understand it, the MREs in theater (Afghanistan/Iraq/Kuwait) have much more variety and are self heating.The bag lunches consist of a sandwich, chips, and cookie and are not that bad.
Training takes place Monday through Saturday and is usually in the field.It has been in the 100s with very high humidity so I am usually drenched in sweat, dirty, and very smelly by the end of the day.We work from 6am to about 6pm most days.They really push hydration here and we go through 3-4 3liter camelbacks a day.It has been interesting training and most of it has actually been fun, but very tiring and somewhat painful.
As far as my plans go for the next few weeks, I am not sure of exact times, but I should be leaving for Kuwait sometime around the 14th or 15th.I will spend about 10 days in Kuwait living in tents and eating MREs (not the “Hilton” where Spencer stayed) before I continue on to Afghanistan around the 25th.I do not know what kind of internet will be available in Kuwait so I may not be able to update my blog while there, but I will take pictures and write about it the first chance I get.I am supposed to be in Afghanistan until late February or early March and then I will return back to Key West where I will continue doing real operations fighting a real war against drug smugglers and terrorists (Narco-terrorism).
I did not want to be outdone by my little brother changing his look with a mustache when he deployed, so I decided to try the Gudgell look.Let me know what you think, although I probably will not be keeping it this way for fear that it may not grow back.
I am excited about actually getting to theater and doing what I was sent here to do!I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! Love to all!!
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