Hello,
I know that it’s been a while since my last post. There have been some big decisions since then and I allowed myself to get distracted and ‘otherwise motivated’. However, my wife has since wisely reminded me, these accounts are primarily motivated by my daughter. I want to give her something tangible to have so she can understand what I did and why I was gone so much during the early part of her life.
There’s been quite a bit that has passed since I last wrote. To begin, I’ll let you all know that I’ve decided to leave the Navy when my tour of duty is completed here in Afghanistan. There are several reasons for this move. Some are professional and others are personal. In any case, I feel that it’s better for my family and for myself to seek another line of work. I am leaning toward something in consulting or project management. My wife would prefer us to live in the Maryland/D.C. area. I've always liked it there, so I have no problems with that.
This is a HUGE paradigm shift for me. I have served in the Navy in one form or another for 18 years. I have never known another line of work in my adult life. I was 17 when I joined the Navy. I had to ask my parents for permission to join. My life has changed considerably since then. I’ve been to over 2 dozen countries, learned another language, gotten married, had a child, received undergraduate and graduate degrees, etc. I am not ashamed to say that it scares me sometimes to consider the weight of the changes to come in the next year. However, I take strength from the fact that I have a great partner in my wife.
As for my experiences in Afghanistan, there have been changes here as well. I’ve traveled some, people have transferred, new people have come in and sadly, some have died…
Since my last ‘discussion’ with you all, I have been able to travel to Kabul. I had to go to the American Embassy to process my passport renewal. That was “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” experience. Just joking, but it was interesting. I had tried to get this process completed via the military for a while, but I wasn’t able to travel for quite a while. The normal process for getting a passport application processed is through a military office at Bagram Air Field. It’s the largest base in Afghanistan. However; for some reason the process takes 6-8 weeks through that office. I did some research and discovered that there is a Navy Senior Chief stationed at the Embassy in Kabul. After a phone call to him, I learned that through the Embassy I could get my application processed in 8-11 days. This was a much more preferable solution. So, I tagged along with a group that was leaving here for Kabul. Turned out that the group included the ARSIC-N Commander. He’s in charge of all of Northern Afghanistan in connection with Task Force Phoenix.
We rode in a convoy from our camp to a German camp , Marmal, that is about 30 km away. Given the state of the roads in Afghanistan, this trip took us about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Once in Marmal, we were given assignments in tents to sleep overnight. Our flight wasn’t to leave until the next morning. I took the opportunity to have some pizza, a rare opportunity I assure you. The next morning, we boarded a German military flight to Kabul International Airport. Not sure it’s a good thing to be at a place with the initials KIA. Actually it’s a very secure place. Where we were was an ISAF compound. ISAF is short for International Security Assistance Force. It’s the NATO mission to do train the Afghan Police and Army. Anyway, once at KIA, I was able to ‘hitch’ a ride with the ARSIC-N Commander and his Personal Security Detachment to camp Phoenix. I had to stay the night at Phoenix while waiting for a ride to the Embassy. I say ‘ride’, but transportation is not as easy as it sounds. Rides consist, in most cases, of 3 armored Humvees and weapons at the ready.
The next day, I was informed that my 09:00 ‘ride’ to the embassy was postponed until the afternoon around 13:00. That ride finally happened about 17:00. I finally arrived, after a couple of detours, at the embassy around 18:30. I was very thankful for the Navy at that point because the Senior Chief was willing to wait for me. My actual business only took me about 10 minutes. Sort of anti-climactic really, given the efforts it took for me to get there.
Getting into the Embassy struck me as personally interesting. I’ve been to Embassies before and security was always very obvious. It was here as well; however there was one difference this time. In the past, I had to give up my cell phone and ID card and go through a baggage check and metal detector. So, here I was this time, standing before the security guards. I was wearing my uniform, body armor, helmet, 9mm pistol (loaded), and M-4 rifle (loaded). I was asked to turn in my cell phone and ID card at the desk and to go through the metal detector. Now, I thought that funny. I asked the guard if I had to turn over my weapons and armor as well. He said “no”, I was able to keep those items. Then I asked him, “Care to guess what might be metallic?” He didn’t have a sense of humor….
Once I was completed with the embassy business, I needed to get a ride back to KIA. My ‘ride’ wasn’t able to hang around for me, so I was left to my own resources. The Senior Chief said that he could get me to another camp that was close to the Embassy, but he couldn’t get me to KIA. Maybe from the other camp I could get to KIA. The camp he took me to is called EGGERS. That was an interesting ride as well. Every time I’ve traveled in Afghanistan it was always in armored Humvees in a multi-vehicle convoy. So, here it was, around 19:00 and dark and we hop into an armored SUV (Suburban) by ourselves and drive about a mile to the other camp. Of course, we had our weapons and body armor on. Funny enough, he dropped me off just outside the gate of the other camp. I get out of the SUV, on the street. It was all perfectly safe, but it was my first time ‘outside’ of a camp of any sort. I previously had only entered and exited a vehicle from inside a camp after going through gates, blast deflectors and security checks. Now, here I was just walking up to a gate as I would any base in the U.S. With the added exception, of course, that I was armored up and with loaded weapons.
After some asking around, I was able to get myself into a transient building and secured myself a bed to sleep for the night. In the morning, I was to see if I could beg, borrow, or steal a ride to the airport. This was completely based on pure luck. There is an office at Camp Eggers where people are supposed to report to when they are planning a convoy off the camp. The problem is that at Camp Eggers, there are so many different entities (U.N., ISAF, American, Personal Security Detachments, etc.) that not everyone has to submit a travel report. Just asking at this office who might be leaving for the airport is precarious. Just because the office says that no one is going to the airport isn’t exactly always true. I, incidentally, was told exactly that. No one had reported a planned trip to the airport. So, I spent the morning walking around to different offices and asking for a ride if they happened to be going to the airport. After about 3 hours with no success, I decided to take a coffee break. They had a commercial coffee shop, the Green Bean. While I was sitting there drinking my coffee and reading a book, I overheard an Air Force Captain on his cell phone telling someone that he would be ‘there’ at 11:30 to pick ‘him’ up. Once he was finished with the call, I introduced myself and asked him if he was going to the airport. He replied in the affirmative. I asked if I could ‘hitch’ a ride and he was happy to oblige. My luck had taken a turn for the good!
Once I arrived at the airport, I went to the passenger terminal and asked if there were any ISAF flights going to Marmal. I fully expected to have to spend the night, maybe two, at the airport. Happily, I learned that they were preparing to board a flight to Marmal in about 5 minutes and I could get a seat. I gathered my stuff and walked right onto the plane! After about an hour flight, I arrived at the German camp and walked into the passenger terminal. I immediately ran into a Special Forces guy I knew who asked me if I needed a ride to Camp Spann. Of course, I said yes. He told me they weren’t leaving until the next day, but they had their own American Special Forces compound and I could stay there. So, I stayed there and came back to Camp Spann the following day.
Many of the Navy personnel that I worked with when I came here have since gone home. In the office I work in, I was the only one that wasn’t in their group. They all came here together. So now I am learning to work with a new group of Navy Officers. They seem like a good, hard-working group. I always leave my opinions open with new personnel until they have had an opportunity to settle in and get into the ‘job’. I don’t foresee any issues with them, though.
I wrote last time that we were having issues with our internet. We’ve since gotten a new system; however, the capability is much reduced. We lost all of our laptop drops and we now only have 8 computers supplied for almost 400 people. Given the time differences between here and the United States, it is difficult to find time to use them. Fortunately, I have been granted the opportunity to use the internet connection that the Germans use. This gives me the opportunity to use Skype with my wife and daughter. I love to have the ability to see my daughter and witness the changes in her on a regular basis. This wasn’t even a spark of an idea/possibility when I first joined the Navy. The internet didn’t even exist and cell phones were just becoming available and mostly not for the ‘common folk’. The Germans afford me this courtesy because my wife is German as is my daughter. This is their way of supporting a fellow German. I’m grateful for the opportunity. Of course I have to pay for this service, but it is more than worth it. To make the most of it, I only use it to use Skype. Anything else would become too expensive anyway. It’s about $5.00 an hour.
I try not to think about the time I have left here. It would make the time seem to go by slower. I do think about the time I have left until I get to go on leave for two weeks. I can’t say in this forum when that is for security reasons, but I am close!
Recently there was a suicide bomber attack at an Afghanistan Police Station in the North of Afghanistan. I can talk about this now because it’s been weeks since the event and it’s out there in the public. Two men, American soldiers, died. I knew one of them. I only knew him in passing. We were not close by any means, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have those few memories, however brief, of a man that I recognized who is now no longer with us. He was a husband and a father. I am truly sad for the loss of his family. He believed in the mission here and he truly wanted to help the Afghan people. He wasn’t here for glory or even to hunt terrorists. His motivation was to help those people here improve their futures and that of their children. I just wanted to make it known that he will be missed, even by those that only knew him in passing.
That is all I have for now. I thank you all for reading my ramblings…
Until next time…
amazing to think about a man fired weapon using a .50 cal bullet and being able to accurately hit a target 1 mile away. It has a muzzle velocity of 3900 ft/sec. At that speed, a target would get hit over 1.5 seconds after the bullet was fired 1 mile distant. A target would be hit before the sound reached it. Of course that would not much matter because if anyone was hit with a bullet that large they would be torn in half. A .50 caliber bullet is 1/2 inch in diameter.
though. I'm sure that the beauty will be lost on me as it gets colder and my thoughts focus on just staying warm! Soon though, I'll be with my family for some Leave time. I can't wait for that! I haven't seen my wife and daughter since July 22nd. It's a long time....
