Memories of Arrival

So, I was looking through my pictures. It reminded me of our trip into Afghanistan from Ft. Riley. We flew from Kansas City through Ireland and arrived in Manas Air Field in Bishkek, Kyurgyzstan. It was crazy, as soon as we stepped off of the plane I felt like I was in 1950's Soviet Union. Everything had an early Cold War look about it and Russian writing was everywhere. All I could think of was Borat. VERY NICE! HIGH FIVEA!

A few weeks later, I was riding in an armored bus through the streets of Kabul returning from some training and I took this picture. Grown men in the middle of the day, sitting on a rooftop, looking at traffic. I presume they were thinking of maybe working or finding a job. Maybe that's why the Taliban has such an easy time recruiting.

Excitement of Thursday

Not much happened today since it was Friday. Fridays are the only thing we have which could remotely be called a weekend. Not much happens on Fridays because the Afghan National Army (ANA) doesn't work on Friday. As a result, we have local nationals come in an put on a bazzar for us. Basically there are a lot of Afghan crafts, rugs, cheap electronics and "Antique" watches from China and Dubai (Antique meaning valuable in the Afghan English vernacular). I did pick up a couple of knock off watches a few weeks ago, a nice Omega and an awesome Brietling, both for under $100. They look authentic, but of course they are fake since real ones would cost several thousand dollars. No one else would know, though because they look that good. My friend Doc picked up a Tag Hauer knock-off for, get this, 16 packets of Nestle hot chocolate mix! Now that's true bartering. So basically Fridays are slow and not much happens, which brings me to yesterday.



One of our teams had a vehicular accident while driving one of the Cougars. The Cougar is a huge truck that looks like a van the size of a tractor trailor. An Afghan driving a van failed to move over on the road like he was supposed, and the Cougar driver attempted to swerve. The van hit the Cougar and the Cougar rolled on it's side. The Afghan was killed, but luckily no Americans were hurt or killed. Goofy accidents usually end up with dead or injured soldiers. Thank God for the Cougars with their armor and four point seat belts!



When the Cougar came in, it was the spectical of the day. Everyone went out to see it. (Check out the large piece of the Afghan van stuck in the front bumper!) Amazingly, my maintenance crew and the contract mechanics may be able to get it running again. No wonder we are the greatest army in the world!

P90X

I am completely exhausted today. I've been working hard the past month and a half to loose some weight and regain my college body. Too many sodas, cookies, and ice cream over the past few years. Some of my friends here have said that I've lost a few pounds. It is all thanks to a little torture program called P90X.

P90X is basically a total body fitness program on DVD. Several of the guys here pulled me into their little group, and I'm glad they did. Now don't get me wrong, this program sucks! After we are done each day, we can barely walk. I love it though. I've already lost five pounds of fat boy and I definately feel a lot stronger!

I can't wait for tomorrow. We started two-a-days this week, and it's even worse. That basically means three-a-days for me and Doc (Major John Fulk, Physican’s Assistant) because we run together or get on the treadmill and the eliptical at lunch every day and compete for how many calories we can burn. I sleep like a baby on those nights.

Tonight we did what is called plyometrics which is a lot of jumping and cardiovascular exercises. About 5 minutes into the 50 minute work out, I'm wasted. It's tough, that's why we allow each other to have pizza from the pizzaria on the camp once per week on plyo nights. Boy, did it taste good tonight. It's great having Doc around because he keeps me from eating all the junk food around here, and over eating in the Dining Facility. Got to get to bed. Three workouts tomorrow.

Greetings from the Glorious Nation of Afghanistan

Hello everyone. This is my attempt at an actual blog to keep everyone informed of my adventures here in Afghanistan. Hopefully the details that I find mundane will at least be mildly interesting to you.

For those who don't know, I am serving with the Illinois Army National Guard and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Yes, I did volunteer to deploy to Afghanistan; and for my sins they gave it to me. I am currently stationed at Camp Stone in Herat. Herat is a city in the province of Herat which is about 180km from the Iranian border. It's pretty nice here as far as the weather goes. The terrain looks a lot like Arizona. Of course, that would be Arizona without the vegetation. I could say it's a dry heat, but since it's not summer yet, I wouldn't know.