Afghanistan

In a week I am going to Afghanistan for two months. In a couple of years we will not have to go there anymore according to the President. The rosy picture of success in Afghanistan put forth by the administration is not the same coming from the solders on the ground. Here is a link to a good article about what the real situtation in Afghanistan is like. http://armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030 The Lt. Col who wrote the article also has a blog www.afghanreport.com Both sites are good reading to a feel for the real side of the war.

Daily Life at Bagram

The first day I walk into the bathrooms here and the only available toilets were clogged with toilet paper and crap.  The second day there was no hot water when I took a shower. It was semi warm like the hot water heater was trying.  At least it hasn’t been raining. But because there is no rain the roads are choked with dust as the water trucks, buses, sewage pumping trunks, and semi rigs hauling everything. Been watching a lot of movies. Have to do something mindless and numbing to make the hours go by.

Daily Life in Bagram

This will be my last post from here this trip.

Tired of being bored how about a little aggression?

I walk most evenings and some mornings. Social etiquette on the sidewalk is stay on the side that the cars do. My right side is on the edge.  Some of these antisocial idiots insist on walking with their left hand on the edge against the flow of traffic. What I do is walk closer to the edge and make them walk towards the center to go around me. It’s like a game of chicken. I have always won. I have forced people who don’t want to move off the sidewalk and into the dirt. I refuse to move. Funny thing is no one gets mad and says anything to me. It’s because they know they are wrong.

I was going to call what I was doing passive aggression until I looked up the definition. No its pretty much blatant aggression.

This sidewalk like I have said before is 5 to six person’s wide if they are shoulder to shoulder. When a group of three guys comes down the center of the sidewalk talking I will move to the left to force them to move to their right. When I do this I usually keep my shoulders straight instead of moving my arm forwards or backwards to move around people. The majority of the people tighten up their group or move towards their right. I have bumped a few people with my arm. Believe me my watch hurts if it hits their arm.

Buy guns, store food and God help the socially inadequate

Daily Life in Bagram

Thursday night we had an earthquake here. It was kind of cool. The building we work in is like a giant tent. It has metal ribs and a cloth covering. They are very large. The ones next door have 3 Cessna sized planes inside. Ours has 2×4 and plywood offices built along the sides that are 2 stories tall. We call it a clamshell because both ends are rounded and can be raised or lowered and it looks like … wait for it … a clamshell. Any way on some nights like tonight it is windy. When a big gust hits it will also shake the our offices. That is what I thought was going on Thursday night until I felt the concrete floor shaking under my feet. Nothing fell off of any shelf. It kind of tickled.

Afghan War Journal

Wednesday night I was on my after dinner walk  when I heard a boom and the zzzzerrr of flying metal. I looked at my watch it was 8:15 pm. There was a mortar attack on the far  east side of the base. I stopped and looked around everyone else was going about their business like nothing was happening. Sooo I kept walking too. I was headed towards my hooch any way. Five minutes later the alarm went off. The military people started running for bunkers. I can’t run. I just kept walking towards my hooch. When I was in front of the Dragon chow hall the cops came down Disney with their lights on saying we are under attack go to a bunker. So I went across the street and got in a bunker by the chow hall. At 9:05 pm they sounded the all clear.

The difference between the mortar attacks now and the rocket attacks last summer is that I cannot hear the mortars coming. Maybe it is because they are so far away. The rockets were going over my head. If the mortars were closer maybe you can hear them whistling through the air. I don’t know and I would rather not find out.

Daily Life in Bagram

The emergency alarm started going off as lay on my bunk. It was 9 am. “Incoming, incoming incoming” the voice said. I was thinking do I need to get up and go to the bunker? , the voice continued, “this is a test of the emergency alerting system, this is only a test, all clear, emergency terminated”. My heart was racing when the alarm sounded and  incoming started. Why couldn’t the have started with “This is a test…”? Not so boring sometimes.

I started to study up to get my Ham Radio amateur operators license. I found a radio I wanted on craigslist but he had already sold it.

Daily Life at Bagram

One my walk the last couple of evenings I have heard a locust. It’s lonesome  wail can be heard from far off. Last year it seemed every tree I passed had several locusts in it. Now there is but one. Maybe more will hatch later in the month, but maybe the poor guy was born out of the cycle and will miss his chance to replace himself.

Now on a totally unrelated equally boring subject. They burn our trash here at Bagram. The trash pit to the North East puts a constant hazy cloud in the sky. A week ago the fire was so big I could see it. It looked close like something else was on fire (Like a plane). The wind keeps the smoke pretty much blowing east. On rare occasions the wind shifts the smoke our way. It smells of the hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles that are consumed daily.

Daily Life in Bagram

Are we dead from boredom yet? I dread laundry days or nights. Because I have to put my 3 days worth of clothes in a laundry bag and carry it, maybe a  quarter of a mile to the compound to wash it. I put it in the washer and then go to breakfast or dinner. Usually dinner. After dinner I come back to the compound and wait for it to finish. I put it in the dryer and then go for my evening walk to the end of the side walk (footpath the signs call it). By the time I get back it is done. I fold it and stuff it in the laundry bag and take it back to the hooch. I rotate the newly clean items to the bottom of their respective piles.

Daily Life in Bagram

You people must be a glutton for punishment. After supper I go for a walk. I go from the North Dining Facility down the sidewalk until it ends. Every week or so it goes a little further as they lay more concrete. Which is good because it gives me time to build up my stamina. The sidewalk is next to Disney ave. They did not name it after Walt Disney they named it after Jason Disney. He was one of the guys who was killed early in the war. They named a lot of the different camps here after people who were killed in battle. I live in Camp Yoon. My B-hut number is CY -42. Camp Cunningham is the Air Force base.

The part of the walk that is most crowded is when it goes past the Base Exchange on one side and the Scorpion Chow Hall directly opposite.

On my walk I pass the power plant which is a yard full of diesel generators. Over the fence I can see the tops of the generators with 2 exhaust pipes each. There is lots of bright lights in there and yesterday the breeze was blowing the heat over to the sidewalk. With all the lights and pipes it looks like something out of Star Wars.

After my walk I usually brush my teeth (not many people in the bath room trailer) and then read. A few minutes before 10 pm I sling my satchel over my head and walk to work. Work is a two minute walk. I have to crouch over at one point because I have to pass through a bunker. The obstacle is the flightline gate with cypher lock. More is a day or so.

Daily Life in Bagram

Are you bored yet? Read on… More about the showers. There are eight of them and I like the first one on the right. The ones towards the back usually have a puddle of water in front of them (I have been thinking about drilling a hole in the floor.) Most of the ones in the back  spray water out the side of the shower head and it hits my face.  The shower / bathroom is 87 steps from my B-hut so when I get up in the middle of my sleep time (Usually twice) to go to the toilet I have to quick walk it across ankle twisting rocks before I pee my pants. I look down the whole time. I sleep during the day so I wear my hat and sunglasses to the toilet trailer. I try not wake up too much.

I eat my breakfast (which is actually the supper meal here). After I eat I go for a walk. They have a new wide side walk but there are more than a few  parts missing where there are man hole covers. They have rocks down. I hate walking on rocks. I will go out of my way to walk on concrete so I will not have to walk on rocks. Where roads intercept they are mostly dirt and dust flies when trucks drive on it. The wind most days is blowing the dust away from me, but a few days I have not been lucky and I have enough dust in my lungs to grow potatoes.