Some Random pics

I will shortly be departing Kabul to go back to Leatherneck for a brief respite. Here are some pics that didn't make the blog previously but should have.

Below is gun enthusiast Capt. Smith. Look at the pure joy on his face while holding this Russian AK 47. Tears were shed.

Two ANA soldiers holding hands. The Afghan's idea of PDA for males is far different than Marines'.

Sgt loving his new Russian inspired hat. He went on all night talking in a Russian accent, we all just fell out. Hilarity, nothing less.

So this is called a Hind. This is a better picture than the one I showed previous. Rambo killed it with a tank I believe, I will have to consult with the historical documents.

Christmas Dessert Challenge

Christmas is often a time for being together with family and friends. I am happy my family doesn't have to be here in Afghanistan but to help enjoy the time together some of the Marines and myself got to gether for a friendly dessert eating challenge. Here are some pics below. The rules were basically, every person got to pick a dessert and everyone had to finish it. If you couldn't, then you were eliminated. There was a time limit in the form of: the the last person had 5 minutes to finish the dessert in hand after the first to last person was done. Time wasn't an issue, intestinal fortitude was.

CPl's Roche and Bowling enjoying round 5-Ice Cream

Roche not enjoying round 4 - 2 Cookies

Sgt Cruzado thoroughly enjoying round 1 Pudding (2 big scoops)

Round 2. Chocolate Cake was rich and dense. The desserts never made me so full, it was the richness I just couldn't handle.

More round one. Things to be noted: 1. We all ate dinner first, except for Cpl Phillips (bottom right.) He tied for 7 desserts completed with Roche but due to not eating dinner he gets second place and an asterisk. He is not very happy about that either. 2. the rounds were Pudding, chocolate cake, Pumpkin pie, 2 Cookies, 2 scoops ice cream, orange jello with fruit (I finished sixth earning me third place overall. 8 of us participated) and round 7 was an ice cream bar. The Final two agreed to tie at seven, though I explained that Roche won. We all felt sick afterwards. Some threw up but all of us gained weight and gave our pancreases a terrible insult. Tis the season.

Christmas

Here I am holding a British issue rifle. Note the magazine is posterior to the trigger. It is an odd design (at least by american standards) but I thought the folks at home would find it interesting. You are right, it has little to do with Christmas; unless I took it home, then somebody would be having a really good Christmas.

Me and Lt Bruce marvelling at the Christmas Decor in the dining facility. Amazing Ice Sculptures. The food was quite good that day.

Incredible trees of candy and frosting!

There are small contingencies of soldiers here at this base. Germans, Romanians, a few British and the French. The French were in fine spirits on Christmas eve. They went around the whole camp singing Christmas carols. Here a French soldier dressed up as Santa poses with me and a corporal. The French are allowed to drink out here and had certainly opened the wine before they went out carolling.

What I got for Christmas. Some DVD's I wanted, a CD and a Cardinals Tee. Thanks Mom, Dad, Jay, Yvonne, Shannon and Santa.

Training day

O.k. so the other day we got trained on how to use the ANA weapons. While some of them will have our American rifles and sidearms, others will have the old Russian ones. Below are some pics. Also, some other random pics. These weapons were all nonfunctioning by the way.

Rocket propelled granade launchers.

Me holding a very light German rifle.

The A.K. 47. Awesome

The RPG launcher. Nuff said.

Afghani Bakery

We went to an Afghani Bakery here on the ANA side of the base. It was kinda like a little field trip. It has certainly been the highlight of my whole deployment. Seriously. Is that a surprise to anybody; food being the focal point of my favorite Afghani adventure? I loaded these pictures backwards apparently. Anyway you might want to start from the bottom and move up.

The finished, delicious product.

Me and the Baker. He was a crazy guy. Very kind, especially since we had money to spend and gave him a gift of two jars of honey. It was in the Christmas spirit, but we didn't tell him.

A worker carrying wood for the fire. The oven, in the background. They stick the dough against the walls on the inside of the oven/kiln/whatever it is called.

A young worker, probably a son, preparing the dough. They put some cool design on it.

The largest mass of dough ever. The journey begins.

Afghanistan Graveyard

The theme of this blog is death in Afghanistan. Not death in the macabre sense (except for the mouse) but one of the long struggles this country has had. Each day we wonder if we will just be another passing conquerer these people will wait out or if we will enact some real change.

We have a mouse problem. We are staying in warm little huts/cabins with snacks lying around. We might as well have put a sign on the door inviting the mice in. I got some traps, the sticky kind where the mice get stuck and can't escape, from the welcome office. We caught 4 mice in 36 hours. You might call us mouse killers, but don't tell my kids. It is sad, but they carry disease and are generally unsanitary, thus need to go.

We heard some shuffling in the middle of the night, so we turned on the tactical light and this is what we saw. I will not go into detail about how the mice leave their mortal coil.

Stuck Mouse

This is the Russian tank graveyard. Look how many tanks are stacked on each other in the distance. This was a day first exciting by seeing these old vehicles, then introspective as we wondered if in 15 years there will be a graveyard of Humvees and 7 ton trucks. Time will tell.

This one was particularly interesting. Think Indiana Jones and the Last crusade, when they are fighting the German tanks in the North African desert. Something bad happened to the cannon on this tank.

A Mike Crandall cameo next to a sweet (at one time) tank. Don't I look totally excited?! I am losing my mind at this moment!

This is the humorous death photo. Even the goats smoke in Afghanistan. If it's not war, people here are dying of smoking. Actually, I wonder if the average mortality age is even high enough for a large percentage of the people to grow old enough to die of lung cancer.

Old and Cold

Per my last blog, here are some civillians just driving throught the training. Note the humvees in the background. All I can say is that this is a totally different experience out here.
Below is an old Russian tank. When they left Afghanistan, they left everything. There are remnants of them everywhere. In fact one of the other American bases here is an old Russian base. The buildings are old and quite odd looking. The history, here while rich, has been infiltrated by conquerers and dictators for hundreds of years. From Alexander the Great to Ghengis Khan to The Russians to the U.S.?

These last two views show an old Russian outpost. No, not thousand year old ruins. These walls were apparently built by the Russians during their time here in Afghanistan. Us marching in the foreground.

Beautiful mountain ranges and a better view of the outpost.

Kids and Kidds

So we went to a range the other day to watch the Afghan National Army practice. It was quite an experience. Civillians and livestock all over the place. Much different to what I am used to.

Me behind the kids. I didn't want to get too close and scare them away. Just so my wife knows I am still kind and the long months here haven't made me too battle hard, I did give them all fruit roll ups for their hard work posing for these pictures.

Some Afghani kids just walked out of nowhere onto the range where we were practicing. That is wrong on so many levels but it is just the way it is here. What I find interesting, is that despite their deplorable conditions, they still look happy and oh so cute.

A friendly goat. This however, is not a petting zoo and I have no idea what kind of diseases these animals were carrying so I am only pretending to pet it. No actual petting happened.

Here I am trying to get a shot of me with the mountains in the background. You can see the fellow behind me wanted to get into the picture.

Kabul Continued

So it turns out I had more time today than expected so I blogged twice. In your face!

This picture is actually from Bastion but I thought it was hilarious. I would never use the word fresh when talking about treated water that is not healthy to drink. Maybe I am alone in my humor.
This is a picture looking out the back of a C-130 with Marines and cargo inside. Kinda cool. It was actually a pretty easy ride.

Me and our travelling gang.

The main street of Kabul. I know the picture is not great, but you can get an idea how dirty and slummy it is. (Is slummy a word?) The people live is squalor and the children play in filth. It is truly sad. Many "shops" like this line the road we travelled on.

A ray of light after that sad sight-a French vehicle. We all want to drive it. I doubt we will have the chance.

Kabul

This week I was transferred to Kabul to help train some other military types. These images are from the City and the base we are at.

This is a toilet. No seriously. You put your feet where those ridges are and squat to do your business. It is on the Afghani side of the base (The American side has regular toilets).

Just loved this picture.

The formidable and foreboding entrance of our new home. Doesn't it say welcome?

This is the Rhino. It is the uparmored-bus we drove in from the airport. It is indestructible, or so they say. It definitely was cool.

This is me in Kabul. It was cold, but has more vegetation and a richer colloquialism than Basiton. The scenery was more beautiful. It was still cold. You may be wondering, if it is so cold, why aren't you wearing a coat? Sorry mom, I put it on right after this pic.

New Job

I am going to be moving to a different location for a while. I am not sure I will be able to keep blogging where I am at. I just want you all to know how much I appreciate what you do and that I am thinking about you. Thanks for all the kind gifts you have sent. I really appreciate them. Good luck where you are at and Semper Fi.

A View to a Hospital

So, this is a picture of an ambulance probably used by the ANA (Afghan National Army). Kind of cool looking. Small but new.
This picture shows that four countries run the Hospital here. Estonia, Denmark, U.S.A. and England. The backdrop isn't beautiful but I thought the sight of the four flags was still somewhat regal. This is the view looking out of the hospital.

This view is the main hallway of the overflow hospital, a second, used if there is ever a mass casualty incident. Note that at every new entranceway, there are very long hallways going off each side. This tent-complex can hold a lot of people. Hopefully it never gets used.

Holiday Night Shift

So, the other night all the Staff noncommissioned officers and Officers were asked to work on this runway we are building. We were out from about 1800-0100. While cold and exhausting, it was also a lot of fun. Working together and talking, joking and doing something to help the young guys who get to do this all throughout the day was great. Here are some O.K. pictures elucidating the event.

Notice all the cold weather gear. Slamming mat is a little more complicated than laying bricks. The pieces are heavy, don't always lay flat and they don't always fit together so nicely. However, we had a great time.

Chief pushing a port-o-john over with CDR Tucker still inside. Not really, but this really is my worst nightmare. When I have to use the port-o-john in the middle of the night, I fear this sight. If it ever happened, I might not recover.

Deza, Lozada and Alberto manning the front desk and admiring...

the totally awesome tree their LT acquired for them. Long story short. I was driving, saw one, pulled over and asked the British guys how much they wanted for it and they just gave it to me for free. Seriously. No theft or bartering took place. Maybe I just have a silver tongue?  Now it is now dressed and most importantly, the BAS smells like pine. Delicious. Nothing reminds me of home as much as a Christmas tree.