Work....work....work....

I promised you some pictures and here they are! Sorry, it took me a while to get them. Everyday is a new issue and a new solution.

One of those issues was getting all of the personnel on this camp accounted for. There was not a very good job done about this before. So, when I was charged with supervising housing, I decided to do something about it. It took me about two weeks, but I finally finished. It is difficult because people like to move around on their own and change things about their rooms without telling anyone. I came up with a solution to that. Anyone, now, who moves without my permission has to move out of their room and move into an open-bay barracks. Like those that I lived in when going through training. No room, no lockers, no space to themselves. I'll give them about a week and then move them back to their original assignments. Haven't had any complaints from those above me yet.

Another problem was that I was moved into a real rat trap of a b-hut when I got here. At the same time, I was 'assailed' by these government contractors about being promised one of the new buildings for their sleeping quarters. Well, they were 'promised' by this Command Sargent Major, who is a blow-hard and doesn't have the authority to promise anything. Well, I corrected the problem. I moved into the new building and found another one for them. You've seen pics of my room when I first got here. I've included some of my new space. I made some improvements. I had a wall locker built and a bed. I built a desk myself and a door for the room. I actually feel like I have some illusion of privacy.

I had to leave the camp the other day to escort a dump truck full of sand to the camp. So, I took the time while walking out there to take some other pictures. This whole place looks like this. I know, it's a little barren. Nothing modern out here.

I had to participate in a convoy today. We had to go out to a German base on the other side of Mazar-e Sharif. It took us about 1 1/2 hours. Still amazing to see how they live. I know that they have no choice, but still a stark reminder that we have it pretty good.

I'm getting more involved with things around here. I'm supervising the expansion of the camp. Basically taking over a part of the camp that was previously separate and belonged to some special forces guys. We had to renovate all of the b-huts for people coming in. Some were turned into offices. We also have started a winterization plan. The buildings here were built very poorly and do not have much, if any, insulation. The newer ones are much better, but the old ones need a lot of work. Should be able to get it done before it gets cold here. Hard to imagine it ever being cold here!

I get to talk with my wife and daughter most days via SKYPE. I even got my parents to get a webcam. Really helps to keep the morale up. I got a couple of packages the other day. Even though I have the internet, it's still cool to get mail the 'old fashioned' way. I received a pillow, some sheets and a few other things I needed.

Anyway, I have to get going. I have more work to do. Take care all. Let me know if you like what I have to say or if I can tell you anything else. I'll talk about what I'm allowed to.

Later!

Week 1 - complete...

Hello all!

Well, the first week is completed. Sometimes I think that my job will be more like hearding cats than anything else. Dealing with camp bearthing and services is definitely proving to be a challenge if only just on my patience. :) It's not really that bad. I just have about 18 different projects or problems going on at once.

I'm still getting a handle on bearthing assignments. People are supposed to come to my office for permission to move bearthings or change their bearthing configurations in any way. Of course, getting this concept through to the Army is a bit difficult. Then there are the issues with broken items like doors, showers, sinks, toilets, windows.....and the list goes on. Oddly enough, the females have been giving me the most issues lately. Several power outages in the female bearthings due to plugging in 110v appliances into 220v sockets. Then someone kicked out a drain pipe to a sink in the female latrine (head). Shower head was busted. Little things.

I can tell right away that trash is going to be a problem. Too many people; civilian, military and local nationals alike are leaving trash all over the place. Mostly it's water bottles. I might have to hire a local just to walk around cleaning up. I would hate to have to do that, but I can't be everywhere at once.

All in all, this job is very manageable. Just like any job I've done, division officer and department head, there are are always varying personalities to deal with. Resource management, both with people and materials. The biggest variable here is the weather. Dust storms, wind, glaring heat. From what I understand it gets so cold here that some days no work at all gets done. Well, we'll see.

Today and yesterday, I've spent my time rearranging the office space to accomodate two more desks. Problem I cam across was with the LAN. Apparently, the Army has their computer network set up to lock out a LAN connection any time the cable is unplugged. Well, I didn't know that and all of the computers had to be unplugged for the move. Now, we have to get the Army to open up the ports. I'm not suprised to have learned that the Army has kept control of their network at camp Phoenix in Kabul. So we have to wait for their civilian contractors to 'get around' to fixing the ports remotely. I hope to have the computers back up tomorrow. ***fingers crossed***.

Well, I'm going to get going. I hope to have some more pictures for you on the next post.

Take care.

Getting settled in

Well, I've begun my first full week here and I'm getting settled in my new job. It's proving, as expected to be quite the challenge. Not only do we have new construction in planning and some in progress, I have to work with the million maintenance issues that come up daily.

I have to apologize for not having any new pictures for you on this installment. We've had a dust storm these past few days and it's been impossible to take any pictures.

Every day I meet with someone new that I have to coordinate with to do my work. I have a wood shop foreman (a second class petty officer) that works for me and there is a civilian contractor that I meet with to get repairs completed. I feel like I am constantly filling up his e-mail with my never ending service orders.

Currently, one of my major projects is to organize billeting. Apparently, people have spread out over the different buildings and that really isn't ideal for accountability. Therefore; I am reorganizing the billeting plan and verifying where people are actually residing. Once that is complete I can consolidate personnel and I'll also know accurately what available space I have. This should make it easier to plan for visitors and the occasional surge of personnel when people arrive to replace others.

Well, sorry this is shorter than usual, but I have many things to track and complete for today. To my family and friends: I love you all and I hope that this finds you well. Be safe.

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,