Two words: DUSTY AND HOT!!

Greetings from Camp MIKE SPANN. I've only been here about 4 days and I'm still working on getting acclimated. The average temp, so I'm told, has been aroundn 120 degrees. I've saw the thermometer yesterday reach 125. Getting motivated in that temperature to go outside is difficult at best. However; there's always work to be done and it isn't going away just because it's hot outside.

My job here apparently will be as the Camp Mayor. Realistically, I'll be a public works manager. There are a couple of other officers here who have been overseeing the project on the camp as well as the other two FOBs and the ANA camp SHAHEEN adjacent to Camp MIKE SPANN. So, I'll be taking over the projects and services for this camp so they can effectively mannage their own projects. It seems like it'll be a challenge and I like a challenge.

When you aren't in a sandstorm (almost never), you can get a really nice view of the mountain range near our camp. I had very brief window of opportunity where I could see the mountains a little, so I took a picture to share with you all. It really is a nice view when you can see it. Problem is, most mornings are quite windy and all you see is a heavy haze of dust. One would think that when the wind blows then you could get a respite from the heat. No such luck. Imagine the heat you feel when you open an oven to check on your dinner. Now imagine that you are in that oven. The last couple of days, even the locals were saying that it was very hot. If they are saying that, then you know it's hot!


I took some photos of the camp and the B-hut that I'm living in. A B-hut is not much more that a wooden structure with some plywood partitions to create the illusion a separate rooms. There are airconditioners and heaters inside, but they only help mitigate the temperatures. It never really gets cool in the summer nor warm in the winter. I'm really going to appreciate the cold weather sleeping 'system' that I was issued back in FT Riley. This picture is of the B-hut that I'm in.

Luckily, we are allowed to modify our spaces for our own confort and needs. In one of the pictures you can see that there is a metal bunk bed in my space. Every single little movement causes that thing to squeek in such a way that it wakes me up. Not very conducive to getting a good nights rest, to say the least. I also have a metal locker, which I may or may not get rid of. It's nice to have a place to store items and clothes but it's very rusty and not very stable. So, I have a plan to take out the bed and build myself a raised platform for my bed. I'm planning on building it perpendicular to the space against wall. I'll build in doors that I can lock with a clasp underneath the bed. Then I can have some storage. I am also planning on putting in some shelves for books, toiletries and pictures. This plan should allow me some extra storage space while at the same time opening up some floor space. I've also considered buying some local carpets to put down on the floor. There isn't a door in our spaces in the B-hut, but I can put up a curtain. I'll probably use my poncho for that. Try to create the illusion of privacy anyway.

I'm really happy to say that the internet connection here seems fairly stable. Most days I've been able to use a program called SKYPE to talk with my wife via a PC-to-PC connection. This allows for a video and audio connection that is fairly good. It is amazing to think about the changes in communication that have come about in the past 18 years that I've been in the Navy.

When I first came in, I was stationed on a submarine and the only mail opportunities were 'snail mail' when we pulled into a port. That could be anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. There were times when guys would receive a letter at home that they had sent themselves while underway. The internet came about in force while I was in college in '94. Even then it was mainly between colleges. I know that it was in place well before then, but it wasn't mainstream until then. Internet capability was available on my first ship as an officer in 1999, but the bandwidth was so limited to make it unusable while underway. We had phone service underway (sailor phone) with AT&T, but a $20 phone card would last about 10 minutes. When I came to my first department head tour, I had a phone in my stateroom and internet capability that worked fairly well underway. Now, I'm in the north of Afghanistan, which is the 4th poorest country in the world and I'm able to speak with my wife over the internet in real-time and with video.

Well, I've gone on long enough for now. I'll do my best to keep you up to date. If any of my friends and family want to chat with my on SKYPE, send my an e-mail or comment on here and I'll give you my SKYPE user name.

Take care,

Arrived in Afghanistan!

Hello All! To my loved ones: I miss you all so much!

I know that I said that I would keep up with this blog and I am determined to do so. Life has been so busy in the last weeks that I've barely had time to keep up. Mainly, my priorities have been my wife and daughter. I tried to spend as much time as I could with them with what little time I've had.

Well, as you could probably tell: I am now in Afghanistan. I have to tell you it's HOT here! I know that I expected it to be so because of my previous experiences in the Middle East, but knowing what's coming and living the reality of it are different things entirely.

I am currently in Kabul at an ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) base. We finished training at FT Riley on the 11th of July and I went home for 10 days to my wife and daughter. It was a great time although way too short. I hate having to leave them for so long. I spent a lot of time preparing the house and doing some much needed "honey-do" projects. We did spend a few days in Nags Head, NC. We had a hotel room on the beach and we took our daughter to the sand dunes and the Wright Brothers Memorial. I was really happy to see that my daughter (only 16 months old) was really happy to be with me. She sometimes has a hard time with people she hasn't seen before or in a good while. I worry about that when I see her again. I'm going to miss a lot of changes with her. I do get to use a web program called Skype that allows for video calls from PC to PC. This is proving to be an invaluable program for us.

When I returned to FT Riley on the 22nd of July, I took all of my body armor, uniforms and weapons out of storage. We had about a day to prepare any last minute items and we left the night of the 23rd. We had to take a bus from FT Riley to Topeka, KS. From a National Guard Air Base, we flew to Shannen, Ireland, then onto Baku, Azerbaijan and finally to Manas Air Base in Kryzgstan. We stayed there for about 2-3 days before finally boarding a C-130 to Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. Kryzgstan is a very beautiful country. The mountains were particularly beautiful to see.

We arrived late at night in Afghanistan and had to convoy in Humvees (HMMWVs) to Camp Phoenix, which is the American base in Kabul. There we had to endure 2 days of in-processing briefs while awaiting coordination for our transportation to our final destinations. We are all being dispersed to different FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) around the country. I cannot say here where I am finally going to be due to operational security. Once I arrive and have connectivity, I can tell you.

Funny thing about this mission is that I could end up doing any number of things. I don't even know yet what is intended for me. I know that I am here for 1 year and that isn't going to change no matter what my job ends up being. With all of the ever-changing events here, people are moved around all of the time. Therefore; jobs change and it becomes impossible to say that what job you are assigned is the job you will ultimately end up doing. SEMPER GUMBY (Always Flexible).

For the past few days, I've stayed in a tent with about 13 other guys. You get a real good appreciation for having a good packing plan for your gear. You need many things here, but you can (and do) prioritize so you don't have to dig into every bag looking for something. Also, you have to be really well prepared on what you bring. Supplies are limited here and you might not be able to get something if you come up short or have forgotten something. There's no Wal-Mart to run out to here.

One of the first things that you notice when you arrive in Afghanistan is the smell. We arrived late at night, so it was the only thing to notice. Imagine a very large dairy farm. The smell is like that. There's also a very heavy amount of sand in the air, so everyone ends up coughing and blowing their nose a lot in the beginning. OH, and did I mention it's HOT. Easily around 110 degrees on average. Walking fast in full body armor is not technique I would recommend.

The thing I noticed yesterday on the way to the ISAF base was the stark reality of the abject poverty here. I saw a little girl on the side of the road who could not have been much older than my daughter running on the side of the road. She was hoping that we would throw out some candy or food to her. There were other children as well. It was truly heart breaking. I really hope that we can help these people. They are, on the whole, very proud and tough. They do want us here to help, not just give them everything. Their pride drives them to want to improve their country and mostly they are grateful for our assistance.

Now, when I say 'our assistance', I mean all of those countries that are here. I've met people from at least 12 different countries just last night. There are somewhere around 30 countries here, all trying to help the Afghan people. It really is a joint effort. I hope we are helping.

I've included some pictures that I've taken since I left FT Riley. Some are of the plane ride out to Kryzgstan, those of the tent and me are at Camp Phoenix in Kabul. If you have any questions, just post a comment and I'll be happy to reply. Keeping in mind, of course, that I can't talk about certain things.

Later!

1/2 Way There!

Well, we are at the half-way point. Just about, anyway. I am sorry for not updating recently. It has been a couple of long weeks.

We started off on Tuesday because of the Memorial Day weekend. I went home to see the little monkey and Andrea. That was SO GREAT!! I got to see her walk!!! Oh, man that was amazing. I'll include some photos. I've been away before, but I did not realize, really realize, just how much I missed my wife and daughter until I saw them at the airport.

When I returned from my weekend with the family, we had a long week of shooting qualifications on the M9 pistol and M4 rifle. We started the day about 05:00 and finished at 01:30. The first range was the M9 pistol. I went with the first group and shot only a 19 out of 30 shots. I asked to try again and they let me. I knew that I could do better. I love to shoot. I would have shot again even if it hadn't counted for qualification. The second run went much better. I scored a 30 out of 30 on that attempt.

Once we were finished there, we moved onto the M4 rifle range. There, we had to first 'zero' in our rifles. That means we had to shoot a very specific target and adjust our sights until we shot 3 shots into a 4cm circle at 25 yards. It took me a while because my range coach didn't really know what he was doing. He was the guy who was supposed to adjust my sights as I shot. A senior enlisted came over and relieved my coach. Once that was done, I was zeroed in about 15 minutes. After I zeroed my sights I moved over to the qualification range. This was much more difficult. We had to shoot from 3 positions: standing, prone unsupported and kneeling. At this too, I went twice. The first time I scored a 29 of 40 shots. The second time I shot a 31 of 40. The kneeling position was the most difficult for me. My knees were 'screaming' at me at 3/4 of the way through the qualification round. I could have shot again, but I knew that I was too tired to try again. Also, I knew that we had to shoot again at night for qualification with our Night Vision Goggles. I had never done any shooting with those before.

The night shoot was interesting. Again, I shot twice.
This time it was because my rifle malfunctioned and it had to be removed from the range. An Armorer had to break down my weapon to remove a live bullet from the chamber that had become lodged hard in the weapon. On the second round, I did pretty well. I scored a 33 of 40 shots at a qualification that I had never attempted before.

The following week found us learning our communication (COMMS) gear and ended with us shooting at the machine gun range. The communications portion, I found, to be fairly easy. I used to be a Crypto Material account manager, so I was familiar with how to load the encryption keys. Being a surface warfare officer, I've had a good amount of experience with using radios of many types. I just have to get used to doing it the "Army" way. Mostly, it just involves using a different type of 'speak' and vocabulary.

The Machine Gun Range was a lot of fun and it was
also one of the longest days of our training to date. We were there for 26 hours! Afterwards we still had class the following morning. Gratefully, the Battery Cdr had the afternoon classes moved to another day. This gave us some much needed time to sleep and recuperate. The course of fire for the day was instructional fire and qualification of our M2 .50 cal, M240 7.62mm, and our M249 5.56mm machine guns. Additionally, we had to conduct instructional (or familiarization) fire on the AK-47, PKM (Automatic version of the AK-47), and the Dragunov Sniper Rifle. The first thing that we had to do was to zero in the M240.

The M240 is a 7.62mm machine gun. This is a massive machine gun. Not as large as a .50 cal machine gun but it gets the message across. We separated our teams into primary and alternate gunners for the different weapons. I have only 8 people on my team, so most of my team became an assigned gunner of some sort. I had two personnel assigned to the M2 .50 cal, and 2 personnel for the M240 and two more to the M249. The two personnel assigned to the M249 had to qualify on the M240 as well. The M249 is like a 5.56mm version of the M240 anyway.

Once we had the M240 zeroed in, we changed it over to the qualification range and mounted it to our 'Up-armored' HMMWV. This weapon is not that difficult to shoot accurately, so the qualification time for all of the teams there wasn't that long. The problem came afterwards. The Range personnel realized that many of the qualification ranges were broken from the previous days storms. The repair of these lanes and change-over to the .50 cal qualification targets required almost 4 hours of down-time. The .50 cal is one of the more difficult weapons systems to qualify on because it is an 'area' weapon meant mainly for suppressive fire. However, when you qualify you have to prove accuracy on a weapon not known for accuracy. I quickly learned that I am not meant to be a .50 gunner. I hit 3 of 10 targets and qualification is 6/10. Maybe with time and more instruction, I could get good enough, but not that day. Some people are naturals at it. I had some of those on my team, so I was able to have the two that I needed to qualify. I had already assigned myself to the M249. I qualified with a 7/10 on the M240 earlier in the day, so I wasn't worried about that.

While we waited for the main range to be repaired,
I spent my time shooting the Russian weapons that they had there. As I said, I love to shoot and the opportunity to shoot some weapons that I would not normally be able to shoot was too good to pass up. I really appreciated the simplicity of the weapons and how reliable they are. It makes me wonder why we do not build our weapons to be so simple and reliable? The Sniper rifle was really impressive. The Dragunov is world renown for its accuracy. It fires a .308 round. Even with iron sights, I could accurately hit the target past 400 meters.

Once the range was repaired, we still required most of the afternoon to get our .50 cal gunners qualified. Once during the shoot, we had to stop because some moron of a pilot decided to fly into our restricted airspace. That took about 1 1/2 hours to get the space cleared and resume firing. Once we were completed with our instructional and qualification fires, we had to remain at the range and wait until 21:00 to resume our shooting. We were required to shoot and qualify again on our M2 and M240 machine guns at night using thermal sights.

To add to our time as well, there were about 30 Army soldiers who were added to our numbers because they were not able to qualify at their original date due to storms and tornadoes. I was quickly reassured that I am NOT a .50 cal gunner! I thought that the day shoot was difficult. The night shoot was almost impossible for me. The .50 cal has a considerable recoil when firing. Well, when you have the thermal sight on, you have to keep your eye pressed to the sight to keep it on. It turns off every time you take your eye off of the eye piece. So, you end up 'riding' the recoil every time you shoot so you can keep your sights on. You have to do this as well with the M240, but the recoil is no where near comparable to the M2 .50 cal and it's very manageable.

The M240 was a great shoot! I had 10 targets come up, and 10 went down. Once I had my orientation confirmed for my lane, I couldn't miss. The biggest problem I had was people who were confused shooting into my lane. I could have found this useful had they actually been able to hit my targets. As it were, they missed and I just found them to be a distraction.

I am currently at my parents house in Oklahoma. My wife and daughter flew in from Virginia and we are spending a four-day weekend together. I have to leave tomorrow to drive back, but it's been great to see them and for my parents to spend some time with the little monkey! My Dad hadn't yet met our daughter until now. She seems to have taken to him fairly well. She doesn't usually warm up well to those she first meets.

Next week is Urban Combat Training. We learn to set security at checkpoints and how to kick in doors and clear rooms. This should prove interesting because we will be shooting simulated type rounds that have a marking on them and we'll be shooting at other people. I am interested in how people will really react to shooting a real person and being shot at as well. I am interested in seeing how I'll react to it as well. First time for everything.

Anywho, I need to get going. Taking the wife and daughter to a water park!!

I'll do better in my updates in the future!

Later!

Memorial Day Weekend

Hello all!

Last week was all about Combat Life Saving class. The first two days were all academic and purely "death by powerpoint". The third day was more interesting. That was I.V. day. We were all paired up with a buddy and we had to insert I.V.s into each other. Sounds crazy, right? It was actually, quite fun and very educational. There might come a time where your buddy might be wounded and needs an IV. Well, medics are pretty scarce and if you can save someone by giving them fluids until more modern treatment can arrive, then that's fine by me.

This was the first time I ever put an IV in anyone or anything. I was a bit nervous, but it went fairly smoothly anyway. Some had a more difficult time than others. Some were bleeding more than others. You really have to get a grip on the vien while you are preparing the rest of the IV or the blood will just start pumping right out. I included a couple of pictures to give you the idea.

The week ended Thursday with each team completing a type of Mass Casualty drill. Both involved the chaos, noise and confusion involved in a recent mortar attack. My team was completed by 12:00. Afterwards we were allowed to turn in our weapons to the armory. The weekend, due to Memorial Day, began that evening.

The next morning, I went up to Kansas City and flew home to see my wife and daulter. This weekend is exactly what I needed. Unfortunately I have to return to FT Riley tomorrow. It was so great to see my daughter walk! I try not to think too much on the other things that I'll be missing over this next year.

Today, we went to the beach. Ella had never had the opportunity to play and walk in the sand and water. She seemed like she really loved it! We were very nervous about scarring her too much. I'll include some pics as soon as my wife downloads them from her camera.

Well, it's getting late. I need to crawl into bed. Take care!

It's my B-day!

Well, today is my 35th birthday. I kind of woke up a little upset. I immediately thought of the fact that it was my birthday and it served to remind me of the other events that I would miss with my family this next year. I'll miss 2 of my birthdays, 2 of my wife's birthdays, our 8th and 9th wedding anniversaries, the anniversary of when I met my wife, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and possibly my daughter's 2nd birthday. I know, a little depressing. i received a video this morning from my wife. It was of my daughter walking. She wasn't walking on her own when I left. I was both very excited and upset that I couldn't be there for such a truly once in a lifetime event. I also twisted the crap out of my ankle this morning while on a 2 1/2 mile run.

We picked up our Humvees last Saturday. That was interesting. It took us about 2 1/2 hours. We had to inventory all of the communication equipment, weapons mounts and maintenance equipment. Additionally, we had to pick up the machine guns for the Humvees. We received 1 .50 cal, 1 M240 and 1 M249. We picked up 3 Humvees total. One is like a truck, complete with a maintenance trailer, another is a soft-top Humvee and the last one is a full up-armored Humvee. I have included some pics of the event.


The first picture is of me standing next to our full up-armored Humvee. The second one is of one of my team mates. He's a CS3 (culinary specialist). He's very into this mission. We call him "Cock-Diesel". He's big into working out. So, I made him our PT coordinator! He's a good guy.

I took a couple of more pics of us about to "roll out" as we conveyed out of the motor pool on our way back to FOB CAMP ARMY STRONG. I'm sorry, I just find that a very funny name!


This week, we are learning Combat Lifesaving Skills. The first thing we learned was if under fire, and someone is hit, then keep firing. I understand the sentiment, but it's definitely a paradigm shift.

What I really can't wait for is this weekend!! We are getting 4 days off and I'm flying home to see my wife and daughter. I can't wait!!!! I know that I can't count on it, but I have this vision in my head of me seeing them at the airport and having my daughter walk to me! She is so precious.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to be learning and practicing putting in IV's. We get to practice on each other! Wow, this will be interesting. Maybe a little painful, too!. Next week is our initial hands-on practice with our weapons. We will spend a very long time in the beginning learning how to breakdown and clean our weapons and also we have to 'zero' them in for accuracy. Then we get to do some serious shooting. I've always found a great pleasure in shooting. It's about being able to accurately place a bullet from hundreds of yards away. It's truly a skill. I've always been fairly good at shooting. Should be a good week. I only wish that it came later and not right after seeing my wife and daughter. I'll probably not be in a good mood coming back to FT Riley.

Well, I'm going to wrap up for tonight. Time to get some sleep.

Afghanistan Culture Dinner

Hello. Today we had an authentic Afghanistan Dinner. Here at the training FOB (Forward Operating Base) Camp ARMY STRONG, there are several Afghanistan Nationals who act as interpreters and help us understand the mind and culture of the Afghan people.

The Afghans traditionally eat on the floor. They sit around a large carpet with the village elders sitting at the 'head' of the carpet. The others sit according to age and/or position within the village. The Afghans also eat using their hands. This is where understanding the culture becomes very important. Afghans eat only with their right hand. In muslim culture, the left hand is considered 'unclean'.

I've included some pictures of our experience eating dinner in the Afghanistan tradition. The first picture is of the Afghanistan interpreter who was instructing us in the proper way to eat.
It was pretty funny to see everyone try to eat with their hands. Sounds simple, but the Afghans have a particular way they hold their hands. It gives you a spoon-like effect. I swear some people were about to eat with their face in the plate.

The people in the pictures are some of those in my team. I have 7 Sailors and 3 Army soldiers. We will not deploy together as a team, but we came
together for the sake of training.

Tomorrow, we have to pick up our Humvees. Our team will get 3 of them. One is like a truck, with a bed, one is a standard Humvee, and the third is a full up-armored Humvee. We also have to pick up our Communications gear, 2 M240 machine guns and 1 .50 cal machine gun.

Enjoy the pictures. As always, if there any questions, please ask or post a comment below.

Night...

Counter Insurgency & Cultural Awareness Week

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay. My parents came in last weekend for Mother's Day. It was great to see them. I last saw my mother in October '07 and it had been about 2 years since I last saw my dad.

We had our introductory lectures for the Counter Insurgency (COIN) training on Saturday until about 13:00. My parents arrived in town about 14:00, so it worked out nicely. We stayed at this Comfort Suites hotel in Junction City, KS. I do not recommend it. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a criticism of my parent's choice. 99% of the time Comfort Suites are decent hotels. This just happened to be the 0.1%. It was ok, just the construction was a bit shoddy in the rooms. They had a microwave, TV and small refrigerator in the room. They were all connected with this bright orange, heavy duty extension cord. A bit "Gheto-fabulous" :) Anyway, it served the purpose.

That afternoon, we went into Manhattan, KS to this district called: AGGIEVILLE. It's about 4 square blocks of bars. There are a couple of deli shops and 2 bookstores as well. We went into one of the book stores so I could buy a book for my daughter, Ella. She's almost 14 months old. My wife speaks German to her, so I bought a children's book of 1000 German words. It has all these cartoon pictures and the German words spelled under them. It was cute. Chances are, Ella will be more interested in trying to put it into her mouth.

Afterwards, we visited a couple of bars and talked. That evening, we went to a restaurant in Junction City. Nice place. Kind of a hole-in-the-wall, but the food was good. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and talked some more until we were tired. Not so exciting, but great because I got to spend some quality time with them.

The next morning, we went to Abilene, KS to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Abilene is about as small as it gets, but the museum was very impressive. They have an exhibit there right now that shows memorabilia from every President from Washington to our current President. We spent a good 4 hours there.

We went back to Junction City for lunch. We wanted to go to the Cracker Barrel, but the line was out the door with a 40+ minute wait time. We decided not to wait and went to the Family Buffet across the street. DO NOT EVER GO THERE!!! This place was horrible and the food was only marginally better. We should have spent the time to drive to Manhattan. Much better choices and quality there.

My parents dropped me off at FT Riley around 16:00. I had some studying to do and they had a 4 hour trip ahead of them. It was really great to see them. They might come up again in a few weeks. I really look forward to it. I also look forward to flying home to see my wife, Andrea and daughter, Ella for Memorial Day.

Today, we started our 6 days of COIN training. This includes lessons in a common language in Afghanistan, called Dari. I'm very glad that I have learned a foreign language in the past. German is no where close to Dari, but I understand the 'mind set' you have to have to be open to learning new patterns for language learning. We, obviously, will never be fluent, but it will useful to have some phrases, pronunciation and it really gives an insight into their culture and how they think.

The day started with retrieving our weapons from the Armory at 06:00. Then we had breakfast. Our classes started at 08:00 and continued until 12:00. We had an hour for lunch and then continued our COIN classes until 16:00.

We have to retain possession of our weapons until the end of training on Saturday. Tomorrow's classes start at 08:00 again. My team will be getting up at 05:00 to do some much needed physical exercises. We'll start at the gym for some weight training and then finish with a 2 mile run. Not too taxing, but we're just beginning. Each team is responsible for conducting their own PT. I found that nice of the Army. They could have been very strict and made us PT formally with them and their Drill Instructors. Then again, this isn't supposed to be Boot Camp. I've heard, though, that the other training bases make the Navy do that and have other very strict rules. We are allowed liberty (time off base) every night after training and we have 1/2 days on Saturdays and all Sunday off every week. We also get three 4-day weekends while we are here. I've heard that the other training sites do not let their trainees wear civilian clothes, have no liberty and cannot drink while there.

I've included a picture of my mother. I've also stuck in a picture of the rifle that I have to carry around. It's called an M4. It uses 5.56mm ammunition, has a collapsible stock, optical sights and laser sights. I also have an M9 Pistol. You can see it if you look close enough. It's above my M4 in a holster. The holster is bulky, so it's hard to make out.

OK, I have to finish some reading for tomorrow's class. Then, off to some much needed sleep!

Good night....