10th Anniversary of 9-11

Here we are, 10 years later, still in Afghanistan fighting terrorism and from some of the news stories I've read there are Afghans who have never even heard of the September 11th terrorist attacks.  They have no idea why the U.S. is in their country.  It's quite sad really that something that has affected our lives so drastically and is the reason why we're over here---they've never even heard about. 

Anyway, please take this day and an opportunity to pray for everybody over here: contractors, DoD civilians, and military members both U.S. and foreign.

The days drag on here b/c we work 12+ hours a day, however the weeks really do fly by so that is a blessing.  I ran into a friend I went through combat skills training with last week.  We were only able to hang out for about 5 minutes because she was on her way to work but it was great to randomly see a friendly face. 

Since I work with a bunch of Canadians we have found weird idiosyncrasies in what we call things.  Our most debated recently is Smarties.  Americans think of them as small sugar-like discs in a clear cellophane package.  Canadians think of them as something similar to M&Ms.  Several care packages came in this week, so here are the two different types of Smarties. 

In other big news--I moved off of the top bunk last night.  YEAH!  I am now in the 'Cadillac' bed that is all by itself and in the back of the room.  It's awesome!  And through some twist of fate I ended up with the room all to myself for 2 whole days.  It's a huge luxury and I'm so happy to be able to have some privacy and not have to worry about being quiet for a room mate or wondering if I can/can't turn on the light.  I've learned to celebrate the little things. 

Thanks for all your support, love & prayers.  I'm over 40% closer to coming home!

Early September

Well, Ramadan is now over and the Eid al-Fitr celebration, which marks the end of Ramadan, has come and gone.  So now Muslims can eat and drink during the day.  For the past month they woke up early to eat and drink, then they couldn't eat until the sun set.  This meant that during the hot month of August they realistically only worked until 11 a.m. or at the latest 1 p.m. because they would get dehydrated and weak.

The end of August was quiet in terms of media and public affairs stuff, but I stayed busy.  I've started running several time a week and am thinking about running a 1/2 marathon when I get back home.

I was amazed by the care package that the Las Vegas Quilt Guild (my quilt guild) sent me - they made a quilt just for me and mailed it to me!

They personalized it with my name at the top.

 

Here are a few other blocks they put on the front for me.  

And finally, here is the quilt label that they made.  I think it's absolutely gorgeous!

I am so incredibly grateful to my quilt guild.  The weather has just started to turn and I was thinking about buying a blanket but now I don't need one.  Plus this is so beautiful, hand-made just for me, I will treasure it forever.  Thank-you LVQG!

If you've been following me on Facebook you'll know that I've been concerned over the welfare of a kitten here on Camp Eggers.  They did a sweep of the base several weeks ago and caught 2 of the 3 kittens I had become attached to, so that left Mike alone.  

Another gentleman and I were very concerned over his welfare.  We didn't want him to stay in the camp b/c he would eventually be caught and that meant certain death.  So we put our heads together, I found a rescue organization, he got his sister to agree to adopt Mike.  Then earlier this week with some help from a lady with a big heart that I knew from work, she took Mike to Tigger House.  An Afghan vet works there and will give him a health check, vaccinations and then after 2-3 weeks of waiting for the Ramadan back-log of animals gets cleared out (sent to their new homes) then Mike will be on his way to America.  

As Mike makes his journey I will let ya'll know how he is doing.  Many people don't understand why we're saving Mike, and they're actually quite mean about it but I don't care.  I just ignore them.  It makes me feel good to know that I've helped out this little guy, who is just a sweetie and deserves a wonderful life and now I can sleep at night knowing that he's safe.  This is the single thing that I'm most proud of doing so far in Afghanistan--I have saved a life. 

In my deployment countdown I'm 40% done & closer to going home.  YEAH!  Thanks for all your prayers.

Mid-August

Work has evened out and I've found a little more balance between work & off-time.  Still not too much time off but I'm not working 14-16 hours a day, so that's excellent.

A few days ago I met the astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell & Gene Cernan.  I thought that was pretty darn cool!  We talked about it for days beforehand - I can't believe they came out here to Afghanistan on a USO tour. 

My friend Carolyn & I.

Unfortunately we didn't get to talk with them because hundreds of people we waiting to get their photo taken with them.  We did however express our gratitude that they came all the way out to Afghanistan to visit us.

On August 13th I ran in a 5K with some friends.  Carolyn, pictured above, motivated me and ran the whole way with me.  It was a lot of fun as you can tell from the goofy pictures. 

Carolyn, me & another Public Affairs Officer, Russ.

I can't believe I was smiling--by this time I was wondering why I signed up for this race in the first place.  I work with the guy behind me, DZ.  He's pretty cool.

Right after the run.  Can you see how red my face was?  I was beet red!

Me, Angie (future roomie) & Carolyn.  We all went through the 4-week Combat Skills Training together.  And since Eggers is such a small base we see each other around & hang out a good bit. 

Since I work with folks from lots of different countries I get the chance to get to know them and occasionally there are perks.  One of them is that the Italian Embassy had a party one Sunday night there was fresh pizza made right there in their wood-fired pizza oven.  It was amazingly delicious!

And stepping into the Italian Embassy made me wonder if I was in Kabul.  There was grass, trees, real buildings & sidewalks.  We had room to spread out and the entire atmosphere was different. 

Then we ate pizza, drank some cokes (the Italians drank stronger beverages but I stuck with Coke... stupid General Order #1).  Then as the night wore on there was dancing & I thought to myself (I'm never going to see these people again so I might as well have fun, make a fool of myself dancing & have a good time.  So I did.).  So I danced, I had fun; it was a nice little escape for a few hours from my deployment.  All thanks to Marco!

He was too shy to dance but some crazy Indian guy tried to salsa dance with me to Lady Gaga.  It was interesting to say the least & I was the butt of some jokes due to his bad dancing.  I'll see if I can't dig up a photo from that dance for ya'll to laugh at me too.

Anyway, I'm settling into a groove - I'm 30% done & that is nearly 50% done.  :)  YEAH!

I've lost my reading glasses, so that sucks since most of what I do is read & stare at a computer all day.  I hope to get some more here soon from the military and order another nice pair from back home.

I'm doing good and all I ask for is your prayers for me and for everybody over here.  And especially for the families and friends of the 30 servicemen who died last week in the helicopter crash in Wardak province.  Here's a toast to the host...

Early August

Last week was pretty busy.  Dan Rather's producer & videographer were here for a few days, then he came out for 2 days.  I got to meet him, so that was pretty darn neat. 

Dan Rather is 79 years old and he's a really nice guy.  I spoke with him for an extended amount of time.  He's been married for over 50 years and he still sends his wife emails or texts while he's gone so that she won't worry.  I think that's awesome. 

The person taking the photo told me to hug him.  I was embarrassed and nearly killed the photographer afterwards, but Dan was a good sport and gave me a hug. 

The episodes that he shot will be shown in September on HDNet on his new show called Dan Rather Reports.  Apparently it'll be split into two segments, one in early Sept & one on Sept 11th. 

Not nearly as exciting, but good news - I have found out who my replacement is.  YEAH! 

I can almost sit up all the way in my bed.  I'm paranoid about falling out of bed.  So I put a pillow on the edge side of the bed so I won't roll over too far in the middle of the night.  That's why I have so many pillows. 

Late July

I've been really struggling with this job over here.  The hours are long, the system is complex and there are lots of issues that require a lot of attention to detail.  (Attention to detail is definitely not my strong suit.)  The good news it that I work with really nice people and I have some amazing bosses'. 

I haven't had much of a change to work on my hand quilting project.  I've decided that I can only take one class in the Fall.  So I'm delaying my masters classes until I get back home.  That's disappointing but it's a realistic decision. 

I've been here for almost a month, away from home for almost 5 weeks and I'm homesick.  I miss my husband, my cats, taking a shower without shoes and real toilet paper.  I've had to call friends and pull them away from work so I could vent.  But at least I have friends that I can do that with and they've done the same with me.  So that's been a blessing. 

I try to occasionally escape the office and sit and read or either be quite and watch the birds and enjoy the roses or grapevines that they have around camp.  I haven't figured out what type of bird this is but they're everywhere and they have a nice song. 

I hope everybody is doing well.  I miss ya'll!

Mid-July

I've been here for over two weeks and I'm finally getting used to my job, how things work around here and figuring out who is who and who does what.  I don't think I'll ever get used to the long hours though.  It's just inhumane.  The only time we get off is Friday mornings and two extra hours on Sunday morning. 

Afghani

The people are nice though and I've finally moved into my permanent room.  My room mates are nice.  I'm on the top bunk but only until late August.  Then one of them goes home & we'll re-arrange ourselves so I'll get a bottom bunk.  I've got the quilt I made on my bed and it's much nicer than sleeping under a sleeping bag.  It makes my little area feel like home. 

I celebrated my 30th birthday a few days ago.  I woke up early, went in to the office & opened the presents from my family. 

That is a SC Dork bumper plate from my sister. 

That evening we had cake.  A friend's translator had brought it in from downtown & it was quite good.  It wasn't as sweet as the cakes we're used to in the US and it had a slightly herbal taste to it.  It was interesting, unexpected but not bad.  Overall it was an awesome birthday. 

Afghanistan Arrival

A lot has happened in the last 15-20 days so let me fill you in.  I am now in Afghanistan & officially on day 6 of my deployment.  However, getting to this point was a comedy of errors followed by repeated tests on my patience and willpower to function without good quality sleep.  I weathered the storm but let me share some of my high/low-lights with you.

My flight out of California was delayed.  The travel agency had recently lost the contract for our base, so they didn’t finalize payment for my flight.  So while I was booked on the flight, I hadn’t paid for it.  So I paid at the ticket counter for the flight so they could transfer me to another airline so I could make it to Norfolk that same day.

At Norfolk I find out my flight left in 2 days (not 1).  So I sat around for two days.  The good news is that I got a lot of work done during those two days.  I find out I had the wrong type of orders and was able to get that fixed.  I went to the mall, did some shopping & watched a movie (Mr. Popper’s Penguins, which I recommend.  It was funny, light-hearted & a nice G-rated comedy). 

My last night at Norfolk I was almost booted out of my hotel room but they moved some folks around so I could stay in the same room.  

The day of the flight it was delayed by 12 hours.  However, I still had to be out of my room by 11 a.m.  So I spent all day hanging out in the hotel lobby, which thankfully had pretty good WiFi.

That evening I caught the flight out and managed to snag a seat in first class.  (The DoD contracts out airlines to fly us to & from the US.  I flew out on a 757)  Our first stop was in Shannon, Ireland for almost 2 hours.  Many folks got Guiness but for me it felt like 6 a.m., so I ate breakfast & passed on the beer.

The next leg took us to Germany.  At this layover we weren’t allowed off the plane or to turn on any electronics.  So… we sat there for about 3 hours.  We picked up 11 passengers.  Here’s the kicker; they didn’t have room in the baggage compartment for their bags, so they had to go in the first class cabin.  Meaning, I was kicked out and booted into the back of the plane.  We ended up all squished together – it was terrible.  

The last leg of the flight was to Manas, Kyrgystan.  I should have spent less than 24 hours there but my first flight was canceled and I ended up leaving 3 days later for a flight to Bagram.  The good news is that the second you land in Manas your hazardous/combat duty pay starts.  YEAH!

Bagram Air Base is in Afghanistan so at least now I’m in country.  It took us two days but we finally caught a flight to Kabul.  From there I went to my final destination, Camp Eggers.  11 days after I left Las Vegas I finally arrived.  

I'll post more photos of Kabul shortly.  

IBA

You've heard me talk about the body armor that I have been wearing.  It's called IBA and that stands for Interceptor Body Armor.  The interrnal plates are appropriately sized for the vest size and are removable. Websites for IBA state that the vest weighs 16.4 pounds and the plates weigh 4 pounds each, the groin & neck protectors weigh about 1 pound, for a total of 25 pounds.  I was told that the large vest with plates is 10 pounds heavier than the small vest with plates.  So the size truly does make a difference in comfort, weight and protection. 

Here are a few more pictures to give you a better idea of what it looks like and is made of.

 The front of my IBA.

Here is the plate that goes in the front.  The back plate looks exactly the same.

Here is the profile of the plate.  It's quite substantial. 

Ft Dix in my rearview mirror

After spending 3 days and 4 nights in the field (or camping) Army-style we finally returned to our dorms and were able to fully-appreciate modern conveniences like air-conditioning and flush toilets.  It was good training but the days were long but there was a lot of waiting for our turn to do the training.

The best news is that I'm done.  I am done with CST.  Thank-goodness!

We took our M-4s/M-16s to the field with us.  So I ended up watching all these weapons while folks took their bags back to the dorms.  You wouldn't believe how dirty/smelly I was when this photo was taken.  However, I was so incredibly happy to be done.  (Photo by 1Lt Joel Cooke)

I've had a great time.  I've enjoyed hanging out and meeting new people.  I've learned a lot; probably more than I will ever need (an abundance of knowledge is always a good thing).  I even more so fully appreciate that I joined the Air Force and not the Army.  But I am mostly happy to be going home!

Photo Credit

A special thanks to 1Lt Joel Cooke who took most of the photos posted in the Firing Range post (June 2).  He's a great photographer & really captured what happened during our training.  Thanks Lt & congrats on your promotion!

The Firing Ranges

We've done a lot of training at the firing ranges this past week.  Which means we've spent most of our time outside, wearing all our gear and sweating a lot.  It's the Army's weight loss regimen -- I don't recommend it.

We zeroed our M-4s with our ironsights and then with our optics.  That took an entire day.

We also did the Army's qualification course for our M-4, which was another day.  However this even was a lot more fun because we were shooting at various different pop-up targets.  That was a lot of fun and it makes you truly appreciate your optic.  With that beauty all you have to do is put the red dot on the target; no lining up ironsights. That evening we also did night firing.

Yep, that's me!

I was trying to find shade behind this sign.  Even a small amount of shade is better than none!

Perhaps the best thing about this day was that one of our 2nd Lieutenants was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.

Movement Firing

Another morning we fired our M-4s from different distances after walking, running and moving left & right.  We were very tired after night firing the night prior and getting back so late.  So I was really quite worried about firing and having to move but it didn't turn out to be an issue.  That afternoon & evening we spent qualifying on our M-9 pistols.  Once again we fired at moving targets.  It turns out that I'm much better at shooting the M-4 than the M-9 but I still did a pretty decent job at shooting the targets.  Then, following the trend, we did night firing with the M-9.

The red streaks are from the tracers in our M-4s.  Isn't that cool!

By the way, it was really humid and sunny on all of these days.  At one point for the M-4 and M-9 we had to wear our gas masks and fire.  Now that was a new level of miserable. 

My unit's convoy.  By the way, I'm in the first vehicle, riding shotgun.

We had two days of land navigation.  On day one we learned how to read maps, use military protractors (they are square; yes, the Army found a way to put a circular protractor into a square... leave it to the Army), and use compasses.  Then we spent about 3 hours walking around the woods looking for several different locations using both a compass and landmarks.

(These woods were infested with ticks & loads of folks found ticks on them and their clothing later that day and evening.  I had sprayed my uniforms with permethrin and was tick-free.)

On day two we learned how to use the military version of a GPS and then we drove around looking for 8 locations.  That was a lot of fun because the folks in my HWWMV are awesome!

Finally, on Tuesday we had a class that reviewed low crawls, high crawls, Bounding Overwatch, and the basic infantry walking tactics.  (Bounding Overwatch is where you leap-frog from with a friend from one position to another.  One person provides cover fire while the other says in their head, "I'm up, they see me, I'm down."  It's exhausting b/c you're only up running for 3-5 seconds before you're back on the ground.  So it requires a lot of energy.)  Then we got to throw practice grenades that were weighted appropriately, that had little explosive caps in them.  I was quite surprised, the grenades were much heavier than I thought they would be.

This day was probably one of the worst ones so far due to multiple bad decisions by many, many people, to include myself.  We wore the wrong uniforms (lightweight but non-breathable fabric), black flag heat stress conditions, wearing all our gear (helmet, body armor), not eating a good lunch, and hours of being out in the sun.  I made it through the training, searching 2 hours for a lost item and then the drive home in a HWWMV with no air conditioning.

Throwing grenades; that's me with the tan gloves.

They threw smoke and we had to low crawl, high crawl.  They also had fake bombs and when we heard the whistle we had to hit the dirt.

However, I made it to our building to turn in my weapon and after spending 45-60 minutes with one of my room mates who is a nurse, trying to cool down, I ended up going to the ER and was diagnosed with heat exhaustion.  I got almost two IV bags, some medicine for a headache and nausea and I felt immensely better.  Apparently that hospital had seen 8 patients from the training ranges for heat and dehydration related problems and the doctor was very upset about their poor treatment of us.  Three students ended up going to the ER and so did one of our instructors for the course -- it was that hot and miserable.  I am OK now, and have two days of restriction to quarters to rest and rehydrate before I can go back to any training.  Here are some photos I took earlier on in the day.

Our first heat/dehydration casualty being taken to the hospital.