Thursday 28 July.
So Monday morning I woke up and went to work expecting another boring day as I was scheduled to leave for Afghanistan on Friday 29 July. My how things have a tendency to change. As I walked into the office I was approached by another officer who’s mama was having heart trouble and he asked me if I would take his place on the Monday night lift to Afghanistan. My first response….yes of course I will….my second response….panic. I was pretty much packed up and ready to make the trip but there is something about the mindset change that must be made quickly when plans change that takes one off guard.
Well friends I’ve made it to Bagram Afghanistan. The trip was excessively long, more so than it should have been but these are the way things are in the Army. Imagine if you will for a moment giving one hundred and fifty nineteen year olds automatic weapons and moving them from Germany into a combat zone, the point is that things have to be done in a necessarily slow manner.
My odyssey continued Monday night at 1800 hours local time in Germany with sensitive items draw at the arms room followed by 2100 hours bag drop for the line haul (convoy) down to Ramstein Air Base. I was able to snap a few pictures of some of the sad goodbyes that took place there at the company I deployed with.
The families all left the motorpool by 2100 hours and those of us left standing hustled into a maintenance bay and received a “rules of engagement” (who you can shoot and for what reasons…and more importantly who you can not shoot) and a prayer by the unit chaplain. At midnight we all boarded coach buses and drove four hours through the night to Rhine Ordnance Barracks (ROB). ROB shares a common gate with Ramstein and that is the place where large units that are moving go to wait for the Air Force to call us forward, meaning that the aircraft is ready for us.
After manifesting and weighing equipment there at ROB we drove fifteen minutes over to Ramstein and boarded the Omni Air Boeing 777 and flew to Manas in Kyrgyzstan. By the time we unloaded all of our bags and received the base inbrief and bed down plan it was midnight local time in Manas (four hours ahead of Germany).
I was in the midst of celebrating my 10 year anniversary over a steaming bowl of chili in the chow hall in Manas when I was approached by a sergeant who informed me that I was to report to the passenger terminal at 0115 for a flight departing for Bagram Afghanistan. My response…sure why not!
At 0115 I showed up and manifested for a flight to Bagram and caught a few hours of sleep until the 0530 show time back at the flight line. I departed Manas around 0930 hours and landed in Bagram at 0900 local time (lost 1.5 hours).
After standing in the sun and playing the duffel bag load / unload game on a series of trucks I finally made it to my bunk for the next few days (pictures below). So here I sit for my second straight night waiting for onward transportation to locations further downrange.
I hope everyone is doing well back home. I think I will be at my final destination in the next week or so. Until then.
S.
31 July 2011
Day number two has come and went at Forward Operating Base Connolly. First impressions; this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, chow is a lot worse than I thought it would be, and OMG there is an Afghan carrying an AK-47 walking around the FOB.
Two nights ago I manifested for a flight from Bagram to Jalalabad (JBAD). On the C-130 with us was a platoon of Marines who were heading to a small facility in our sector (location omitted for OPSEC.) Our C-130 arrived at JBAD around 0200 hours and we were met by the liaison officer for our task force. We bedded down in transient tents and by 0530 I was snug in my plywood quarters. By 1000 hours I was up again and manifesting for the helicopter ride down to FOB Connolly.
The helicopter ride was pretty cool. There is an outfit at JBAD that delivers supplies and personnel to the distant FOBS and COPS (combat outpost). They are a civilian run company from Canada. So I ended up riding a Huey from JBAD to FOB Connolly. I’m sure my Uncle D would have been proud to hear that.
So my trip took me five days and just as many different types of aircraft. I’m now in a brand new B Hut and I have procured office space for my small team that will be following me here in the next week. I also managed to buy an internet satellite system from a Soldier here who is getting ready to leave.
As for the FOB, it isn’t a bad place. There is no track or anything to run on safely, but hey, I’m not the running type. The center of the FOB is an old walled-in structure complete with a castle type turret and a dungeon. The Afghan Army is here with us and we can all walk freely around with each other. For better or worse I plan on spending a lot of time with them over the next year.
That is it for now. I hope you all like the pictures.
S.
13 August 2011
Ok friends so here we are working on week three. I am happy to say that I am writing this blog entry from the comfort (well…relative comfort) of my snake free room.
I’m going to have to figure out a way to post pictures to the blog. The internet in the room isn’t fast enough to handle uploads of good quality pictures, so more on that later.
We had our transfer of authority ceremony today which marks our ownership of the battle space that compromises Western Nangarhar, Afghanistan. I can’t go into details on this but we are in contact and this area is contested on a daily basis.
I’ve spent many hours in the past few weeks with the Afghan National Army (ANA). We are investing a lot of man hours into getting them ready to take over the job of providing security for the civilians in the area.
Today I had three border patrol police in my office…each came with their own AK-47 and chrome plated pistol. That was a little weird.
The rest of my team made it here a little over a week ago. Our office is up and running and we are making progress slowly but surely.
Pictures are on the way.
Steven
