All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Not really much new to report over the past nine days. It’s hard to believe it’s been nine days since my last post, which is a good thing in that the days are indeed going by. I’ve started to receive some of your care packages, so thanks very much for that. It’s always nice to get things from home and if you do plan on sending something, don’t worry so much about what you put in the packages, it’s just nice to get things from home. It’s nice to get things you can use, but it’s also nice to get things as simple as notes. As weird as it sounds, written sentiment still holds a lot of meaning out here, even in the age of email, blogs, Facebook, etc.

The weather is holding true with clear skies and temps into the 120’s. We’re about to head out of July and into August, which means it’s either going to cool down or warm up as the summer will peak before descending into fall. Fall could be my favorite season for no other reason then it stops getting hot outside. The colors and clarity are also unparalleled, and it means the start of hockey season, football season and baseball’s postseason. A time where legends are made and new campaigns are begun. For a sports fan there is no better time.

I still haven’t found out anything about my mid-tour leave. I was asked what country I would be visiting yesterday though, and I was one of a handful that said they were returning to the United States. If I’m going to go vacationing in Europe, Dubai or the South Pacific I’d rather do it in the obscurity of a private citizen, than with the guilty conscious which accompanies one temporary leaving their mission in a combat zone. Home is where we all irrevocably belong, and that’s where I’ll be going.

Thanks again to all who’ve sent me care packages I have received or have yet to receive, and for checking out the blog.

Until next time,

-DM

One Month

Well, we’re starting to make some progress; I’ve been deployed a little more then a month now. It’s not really that long a span of time, but it’s in one of the increments that you look forward to while going through a deployment. A lot has changed from the old way of life. Not so much that it makes you a radically different person, but enough to where you notice how being the military gears you for adapting to changes. Of course most of us don’t have to adapt to changes like this unless we’re in the military, so it might be a one-way street. Either way, getting that first month out of the way leaves hope that the remaining months will eventually just blur together.

We’re still trying to get set up so we can get going. It’s getting increasingly crowded around here with the continuous flow of new troops. We’ve been doing a lot of work to get our work site ready to go so we can have a place of our own. It’s kind of a drag when you’re spearheading an operation because you aren’t really relieving anyone or taking over facilities. A lot of prep work to do. As a new development, yesterday I saw my first camel spider. It was a little smaller than my hand and headed away from me when I saw it. Either way, when I stopped running I realized I was lost and had to find my way back to our work site. I really, really dislike spiders, especially ones that big. A spider that big will take the bug spray out of your hand and throw it at you. It’s not a joking matter.

I noticed today the Yankees have overtaken the Red Sox. It happens about this time every season, the Red Sox start off well, everyone thinks the Yankees are going to choke, then things start to even out and the Sox chase New York into October. The only exception to that rule was last season where the Yankees and their $250 million pay roll did choke and missed the post season. I don’t think that’s going to be the case this year. The Giants are trailing in the Wild Card now, too. It must be a case of the post All-Star Game slumps. The Sox are under .500 in their last 10 and I think the Giants might be a little better then that.

Here in Kandahar the temps are still hanging around the 110’s and 120’s. It was insanely hot the last few days, but not as bad today. For someone who doesn’t like warm weather, the bad guys sure chose a spot that wasn’t inline with my best wishes. Oh well, we don’t chose our fights anymore, we just win the ones we end up in.

Until next time,

-DM

120 degree temps follow Don Shula to Kandahar

The past couple of days the temperature here in Kandahar has reached into the upper 120’s were told. We’ve all gotten used to hot, but when you go outside right now it’s like standing next to an open oven door. It is ungodly hot here. Luckily we have various ways to keep water cooled so you can find some relief from the heat. We have air conditioning in the tents, but it’s almost a futile effort when it gets this hot.

As far as comings and goings of the area are concerned, the great Don Shula visited us this past week. I didn’t find out about it until he had come and gone though. It’s a pity, how many times in your life do you get to meet someone like Don Shula? I guess that’s one less chance for me. It’s nice that people who do things like that. They obviously don’t have to stop their lives and come out here. They do get to go back home after like a week, but they do make their rounds and we appreciate it.

For those of us looking towards life after deployment, apparently by mid 2010 the Army wants to extend dwell time to 18-24 months. With the conflict slowing down in Iraq and hopefully Afghanistan turning around, it’ll be a nice change of routine for people with deployments. The way it’s worked, you have people deployed for 12-15 months, home for 12 months then back out for another 12-15 months. I guarantee there are some married soldiers who’ve been married for three years, and spent two of those years away from their spouse. Things cannot successfully work out for people in their lives with things working that way.

So, with change here and in Iraq, hopefully things can draw back a little bit and people can direct more of their attention to the homeland and their families. It’s been almost 9 years, I think people deserve a break.

Until next time,

-DM

The Swelling of the Ranks and Sharing Cy Young

As has been published many times over, our brigade has been in the process of moving out here to Afghanistan for almost a month now. Getting here early as I did, the influx of soldiers has started to make itself obvious. Where you could at one time just walk up to the mess hall without waiting in a sizeable line, you now have to wait in a line that might be a quarter mile long. It moves fast enough, but had me wondering if we were waiting in line for food or Rolling Stones tickets. I can’t tell you how cool the latter would have been, but I don’t think the Stones play Kandahar. Even still, aside from waiting in lines and busses jam packed with people, everything else remains nearly the same here. It’s still hot, still sunny and by some freak happenstance, I have a cold.

Some of the “issues” I have mentioned in these pages before are beginning to find solutions; I have wanted to go back to school and stay in better touch with home via some sort of internet service. It seems that in the near future we’ll have an answer for that one through the expensive wonder that is satellite internet. It’ll cost some capital to start, but should pay for itself in the long run. Being able to better keep in contact and start classes will be a major weight off my shoulders.

In a similar tune, more permanent barracks are going up for us, so we may move out to more proper quarters in a little while. What was an open area a few weeks ago is now covered with work tents, and a small, but growing city of portable housing units. When we may take advantage of these units I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Either way, we’ve done what we can to make the tents work for now. There is also talk of putting a party together to approach the Canadian’s about perhaps a MICO hockey team for next season. I have made it known that me and my nearly 2-point per game average in regular season and playoffs will reluctantly accept the captaincy.

I found I also missed another no-hitter by a player on one of my teams. I missed the no hitters of Clay Bucholtz and Jon Lester at Fenway in the past two seasons, but did catch Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter with the Red Sox at Baltimore (1999 or 2000?). Jonathan Sanchez, who was in the doghouse when I left home, threw a no-no in his return to the rotation. Really, how good is the Giants pitching? Not since the days of Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux in the early 1990’s have two pitchers done what Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are doing this season. Then on top of that the guy who throws a no-hitter is neither one of them, nor Cy Young winners Randy Johnson and Barry Zito? That and somehow the Giants are in the top 5 in hitting in the National League. Who saw that coming, or the emergence of Pablo Sandoval? Unbelieveable.

Matt Cain is finally coming into his own and getting some run support. He’s always been an excellent pitcher with bad luck. This season it appears his luck has changed. If they keep it up could there possibly be talk of the first shared teammate Cy Young? Last time I checked they were both 10-2 with ERA’s flirting with the low 2’s. I’d like to see one of them with an ERA under 2, but not since the early days of Pedro Martinez with the Red Sox has that been a more common occurrence, for it’s a true mark of the elite pitchers. Could the Giants make the playoffs this year on the backs of dual 20-game winners? For you hockey fans, that’s like having two 50-goal scorers on your team. You might have one score in the 50’s and one hit 40, but never both in that same elite, upper echelon. I think they’re both under 25, too. I guess we’ll wait and see.

Due to the wonder that is the NHL schedule, I have found out that each set of mid-tour leave dates I have asked for coincides with a Sharks’ home stand. Outstanding. Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Until next time,

-DM

News and Notes

First off, a note: Due to the lack of readily available internet, some of the blogs are back dated because I write them over time, but usually am only able to get around to posting them later on. So with one time to post, you’ll usually get a few blogs. Nothing is lagging; I just have to post multiple things all at once.

Anyways, in the news you probably saw something about a suicide bombing we had here at one of our entry points. While I’m nowhere near an entry point it was a big enough bang to be heard and felt throughout the base. I think you can of have yourself geared to accept that those things will happen, so it neither bothers nor shocks you when it does happen. You just wish it didn’t. I’m also in a position to where I can’t say anything about something that happens out here because I have no way of knowing what is public and in the news, and what isn’t. Things happen here, it’s part of being in a warzone. Unless it ends up in the news, I’m simply not going to disclose things long considered part of the weekly routine, as unfortunate as that may be.

Another thing I wish to mention, which is completely unrelated, is a little situation I noticed that I feel merits your public attention. When a member of the coalition is killed in action here, all flags are lowered to half-staff. Everyone is familiar with that being a unanimous, official sign of mourning. Whether British, Dutch, German, Canadian or American, all flags are lowered as a sign of respect. All flags that is, except for the Afghani flag. Could someone please explain that one to me?

The Afghani government asks us here to take care of their security problem, and their flag stands tall at full staff amongst American, British, Canadian, German, Australian and French flags, all at half-staff in mourning. It’s an outrage and an insult, both to me as a person sent here to fight, and for you as an American who’s sacrificed several billions of your tax dollars, as well as hundreds of American lives.

Simply put, if their government doesn’t appreciate and value the loss of life from people of other nations in defense of their country, I don’t even know why the hell we’re over here. If you have the time, do me a favor and send your Congressperson an email, and ask them why you as an American are sacrificing so much, and the Afghani government can’t do something as simple as lower it’s flag in mourning when a member of the international coalition is lost for their cause. The absolute least they could do is render proper respect.

Until next time.

-DM

Luxury and Adaptation

Not a day goes by when you don’t miss something about home. Whether it’s somebody or something, at least right now, when you aren’t occupied it’s where your mind kind of leads itself. It’s natural this early on I think. I’ve realized how much I took for granted how easy it was to send an email, or make a phone call. The internet here is so slow you almost see how much you took for granted just being able to check your email. Things that seem to be implied stateside are luxuries here. You find just being in the United States is a luxury.

We’re starting to get to work here as we begin to establish ourselves more and more. As you have no doubt seen in the news, things are heating up significantly. I can’t say there’s really a work routine established yet, but we’re starting to fall into grooves and fall into the mindset that the mission requires. It’s a little different then NTC when you were doing an Afghanistan scenario in a section of the Mojave Desert. We’ve gone from a place that size to something the size of Texas. It’s obviously a significantly larger area, so you have to kind of modify and adapt what you’re used to for a larger scale.

Everything associated with being out here is kind of an adaptation. It’s an adaptation of tactics, an adaptation of routines and an adaptation of your every day life. How do you fill the day before and after work that makes it so you aren’t just sleeping and working? What else is there that you can do? What is there you have to do? Due to the chow halls only being open at certain times, you have to schedule times to go and eat too. You have to schedule times to shower, do personal hygiene, get haircuts go to the gym, etc. Back home you can kind of do things just to do them, here you do things in order to free up time for something else you have to do. There is no autonomy in your routine really. You are afforded some of the privileges of a free man, but the general restrictions of a prisoner. It’s not depressing, just what they call the initial culture shock of deployment. It takes getting used to.

Until next time.

-DM

Independence Day

Independence Day outside the formerly comfortable borders of the United States is really something else. Do you think Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin could have ever imagined American’s celebrating their crowning achievement in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq? The idea of an offensive war on the other side of the globe is probably an idea they couldn’t fathom. At the time of the signing of the declaration, they were about to fight a war on their home soil, which at that time was British, and they couldn’t promise security to even their own families. Times have changed.
Like Thanksgiving is a day to be thankful for the family, friends and blessings in our lives, the 4th of July should be celebrated as a day to be thankful for the work and sacrifices, past and present, of our fellow countrymen in creating the nation we celebrate today. It’s about more than barbeques and fireworks, it is about the most improbable event in world history. Because it’s hard to fully comprehend the difficulty of the tasks they faced, we should all take some time today to look back and reflect on the great things our nation has achieved. Take advantage of the opportunities afforded you by a prosperous, free society. Do those things that make each of you unique and our country what it is. Be thankful every day you live in the greatest nation on Earth, as we enter our 234th year of independence.

On the front here in Afghanistan, we have celebrated Independence Day by moving from our temporary barracks to our cramped, long-term temporary barracks on the complete other side of the airfield. I say long term temporary because when our two man portables are done some time this fall, we’ll be moving again. Relocating to the other side of the airfield means being far away from all the amenities here on the base, which include food options, MWR facilities and the much coveted wireless internet. The only good things we have after moving is that we’re passed the open-air waste pond, and the air conditioning works. Other then that, it’s going to be a pain to stay connected unless some sort of viable option is found.

My major personal goal out here was to go back to school and get a big part of that completed. Well, that requires the internet, so I have been somewhat vocal about school being a major concern of mine. Hopefully something will be done to rectify this situation. I understand we’re in a war zone here, but there isn’t anything I have mentioned which was something we were told wouldn’t be provided to us. I only expect what I was told to expect, and unfortunately it hasn’t come to fruition yet. You get through a deployment by going to work and dedicating (or rededicating) yourself to a purpose or cause; to use this time away for something personally productive long term. When you find that something already difficult is being made more difficult still, it’s disheartening. Then again, it could always be worse.

With that I will close this less than inspiring chapter of our journey. I hope all of you enjoyed your long Independence Day weekends, spent the holiday with great people around great food, and took some time to reflect and be thankful for Our Republic (never forget it is YOUR republic). Thanks for coming by and reading.
DM

On the Soapbox

Not much new really to report, just still going through the reception process here. Believe it or not, it looks like we're all starting to get more acclimated to the excessive heat. I guess when it's 110-120 degrees outside you really don't have a choice but to get used to it. Between the hours of 8pm and 8am it's actually really not bad out, but as soon as that sun starts to make an appearance, it gets nothing but hot. It's been super dusty out, like there's this dust haze everywhere. It wasn't like that the first couple of days, but now there's this dusty haze that just sits on top of the place.

Today we did various types of training out on a site way on the other side of the airfield, right up against the wire. It wasn't until then I think, that some of us realized where we were. On the base you only really see other Americans, Brits, Canadians, Romanians, etc. You see a few local nationals but not a lot, and they're working on the base so you don't really think twice about it. When you're up against the wire, the actual boundaries of the base, you're looking into the real Afghanistan. Mere yards away are Afghani's working in their fields, looking up every now and again to take a look in your direction. An Afghani boy kept coming up to the fence trying to get our attention. In all probability the Taliban is paying him a few bucks to count how many Americans he sees and reports about what were doing. It's not the kind of thing you like to hear, but its the reality of the situation. If you were a kid growing up in an impoverished nation and someone offered you more money then your family makes in a month to just count how many people walk in and out of a certain place during certain hours of the day, you'd do it too. I know I would. That's really what we're up against here.

Really, compare the situation here in Afghanistan during the Taliban to that of 1770's America. Both faced a regime that oppressed their rights. Both faced violent repercussions for actions against the status quo and both had to deal with an insurgency of loyalists. The courses change when one group united behind a cause of national independence, then fought and sacrificed to achieve their goal of creating a new world for themselves. There is a huge amount of national pride American's have in that. It takes events like 9/11 to realize how dedicated people are, even subconsciously, to a cause that is about to enter it's 234th year. In a nationalistic sense, what does an Afghani have to proud of? That major national powers, terrorist groups and religious extremists have used their home like a punching bag for most of modern history? During the American Revolution, you didn't talk to or deal with loyalists, simply because if you did you were a traitor to "the cause" and people came looking for you. Here? The new boss is the same as the old boss and $50 is still $50, no matter if its from us or the Taliban. There are no sides, just opportunities to get through every day life. The bottom line is they can't comprehend the extent of American power, and they couldn't comprehend the extent of Soviet power before that. By the time the war on terror came around, they had widely given in to the fact that they had been beaten and would continue to be beaten into submission as a people. Operation Enduring Freedom, while branded as an operation to free Afghanistan, probably looked to the normal Afghani like the same thing they've been seeing for thousands of years. It's a hard trend to break.

All that being said, don't confuse the difficulty of the mission with a lack of a will to fight on the part of the US. Is it a tough task? Absolutely, but we're the United States of America and that fact alone speaks volumes. One thing you get from coexisting with a multinational force is the respect other nations have for the United States. There's a reason we're here; they know it and we know it. It's because we don't work just 9-5, we work until the mission is completed and we get things done. It's one thing when you represent the military inside the US, it's quite another when you represent the US in a place with nearly 50 foreign nations represented, and though you're new in town, you're immediately top dog. We don't come to sustain, we come to win.

Anyways, off my soapbox. Thanks again to all who visit, read and follow the blog, as well as support the military. There is no amount of home they can bring here that substitutes support from family and friends at home.

-Danny

The aforementioned hockey rink.