Nights

Well its 30 march and I have the next three days off so I can reverse out and get ready to fly nights. I will be working from 22:00 till 10:00 for the next few months or so. It should be ok though there are a good group of people on the night shift and I look forward to working with all of them. So for the next three days it’s all about staying up as late as I can and sleeping in as long as I can. The only down side to all of this is that the chow hall has breakfast food for midnight chow and nothing till 06:00 chow which is also breakfast and you all know how much I like breakfast food. So I will have to enjoy lunch as often as I can and that is not served till 11:30 so who knows.

The weather is starting to get pretty warm over here not 130s warm but warm none the less. Today I was taking off out of one of our small FARPs with three bags of gas and I was lucky to get the aircraft over the Hesco barriers with the power I had available. Next time I will have to watch the refuelers a little closer and cut them off before I have too much fuel on the aircraft. The aircraft is pretty smart it knows how much it weighs and as you add fuel it calculates the weight and adjust your performance numbers and it will let you know what it can do. Unless you get caught up in a conversation with your front seater and let the fueler top off all three fuel tanks before you give him the signal to stop putting fuel in your aircraft. I could have hovered around for a bit to burn some fuel / weight off the aircraft but I was supporting an exfill and had to be on station 25 clicks away. So I got the best running start I could and did a cyclic climb over the 20 foot Hesco wall. It seemed really close but I am sure we were at least 5 foot above the wall and off I went to do my exfill. But never again, must be diligent in everything I do here and I need to always set the right example for all the junior guys I fly with. I have flown about 260 hours since I have been here and for the most part most of my front seaters would be lucky to have twice that in flight time. I typically fly with one of the four pilots right out of flight school and I did all of their progressions in Savannah and finished them up here. They are all doing well and I am sure that they will continue to do great and wonderful things during their tours here. The nice thing about nights is we have more of our experience on nights so I will have someone in the front seat that has over 1000 hours or so.

Tomorrow I was asked to take pictures and video of CPT Kittleson’s change of command it’s at 11:30 so that won’t be too bad I am hoping to stay up till about midnight tonight and 2 or 3 tomorrow night I will be reversed out in no time. We are doing it outside and it should be a pretty nice change of command ceremony, it will be my first in a combat zone. I guess I have done and seen a lot of first this year that’s why I am trying to write them all down so I can look back at this blog after I am retired and think to myself what the hell was I thinking.

Tonight I am going to try and call Marie even if I have to use my cell phone to do it. I have not talked to her in a few days and I miss her voice. Plus the last few emails from her have been pretty short so she has some holes to fill as to what is going on over there. Don’t get me wrong I get one from her every day even if it short I still have a smile on my face when I check mail and I see one from her. I need to try and figure out new time to call over to the states based on my new shift too. I am thinking it will be easier to talk to the kids but I might need to sit outside and talk because 5 out of the 6 guys that sleep in my building will be sleeping when I am at work. I am glad I brought cordless phones with me although the walls in this building are 18 inches thick and make it hard to get a good signal. All right enough for now I need to get off of here and try to call home. I hope that you are all well and healthy because our new health care scares me to death and I can’t even imagine what’s to come, night all

Wild Wild West

To start, I had a great day flying around Afghanistan if that’s even possible. This place is like the Wild Wild West sometimes. We live inside this FOB totally self sufficient surrounded by Hesco barriers filled with sand stacked three high with razor wire all in front and on top of them. But yet sometimes we are still awaken by the sound of Big Voice telling us we have in coming rounds. Fortunately this morning no one was hurt by the indirect fire coming into the FOB. I was just going in for my brief so the last QRF crews scrambled out to the aircraft and launched to look for bad guys near all our historic POO “point of origin” sights. We went and had our brief and launched on a deliberate mission and flew 4.5 hours in support of many missions in the AO and then we assumed red con 3. Red con 3 means that we are still postured to launch for QRF but the aircraft are not running and we are near bye ready to go at a minutes’ notice. So back to the Wild Wild West remark, I think it’s crazy that we all walk around this place packing heat. Everywhere else I have been I carried my weapon but I never had a clip in it. But here in Afghanistan it’s the norm for everyone to keep their clips in their weapons at all times. Needless to say no one ever gets into a big argument with anyone because like I said it can be a little like the Wild West.

I called Marie tonight and told her that I will be home the first week in July so she can start to make planes. I went outside to talk to her on my cell phone and she got to experience Big Voice first hand for the first time. We had to launch Dust-Off and then shortly after that announcement we had the call to let the medical staff know that we had one incoming wounded Soldier. We have pro words for everything and I was glad it was the pro word for one wounded Soldier. Sometimes it’s for four or more and that’s when my heart skips a beat. It puts things into perspective and reminds me where I am and that I am living in the Wild Wild West right now and I need to keep my head on a swivel and do my job the best way that I know how.

Well I am off tomorrow then I fly the next three days straight and then I am off for three days to get use to my new shift 22:00 till 10:00. So I will try to stay up late and get use to my new shift in the middle of next week. I hope that the switch is not too hard on me sometimes it’s hard to reverse out 12 hours in such a short time but I got to do what I got to do. I am looking forward to flying nights it’s a little less stressful at times and I like to stay on top of flying night system. Well what do you all think I am doing right now as I sit here and type on my blog? That’s right I am listening to all the new music that I have just put on my iPod and a great song just came on that reminds me so much of Marie. E.C. you look wonderful tonight. On that note I think I will let you all go for tonight but first I want to say thanks to Lynda and Sharyn for their thoughtful packages that they sent, Thank You both that was really nice of both of you. I am sure I will post more tomorrow since I am off till then, night all

Going to Nights

Going to nights, well I just got the news that next week I will be going to deep nights. Their schedule is from 22:00 till 10:00 so it will be a little bit to get use to. They fly about the same amount that we do on my shift that I am flying right now so as far as flight time it will be about the same. They don’t have as many AMC’s “Air Mission Commanders” so I will fly a few more days a week than I do on my shift that I fly now but that is ok with me. After all it helps the time pass when I am on the schedule more often so I am looking forward to the change. I think the only shift that I would not like to be on is the one that starts at 14:00, those guys will be going out to preflight their aircraft in the heat of the day. I was told the other day that the summer temps here can get into the high 120s so no thanks with that shift. I am sure I will shed some more pounds once the summer gets here I have already noticed that I do not have the apatite that I had when I got here.

I was able to catch up with Marie last night on the phone and it was really nice, I wish that I could talk to her a few times a day but with the time difference that is just not possible. I went outside my building to talk to her on my cell phone and I asked her about the moon not realizing that in Savannah it was the middle of the day. On some of my other trips back in the states when we were only on opposite ends of the country I use to tell her to look at the moon when I was and it was something we could share, not so much from here. But hey we had a nice conversation anyway and it made my night that much nicer, thanks Marie.

Well it finally happened, last night we had a bad shoot. The ground commander cleared the crews to engage some targets that turned out not to be targets. Fortunately no US soldiers were hurt but two people did lose their lives and that is something the crews will have to deal with for a long time I really feel for them. I have said all along that when I leave here I will be ok with everything that I have done as long as I don’t make that mistake, I truly feel for those guys. It’s so hard over here because there are so many on the battle field that are not in any kind of uniform ANP “Afghani National Police” ANA “Afghani National Army” ASG “Afghani Security Guard” not to mention lots of the local tribes have their own militia. So you see it can be extremely difficult to PID “positively identify” the bad guys. And when all hell is breaking out on the ground when our forces are in contact with the enemy sometimes mistakes happen. Tactical patients is the ability to look at things from a distance and figure out the best course of action as far as what to shoot and what not to shoot. But sometimes when the ground unit is in contact screaming over the radio for help decisions have to be made.

On a lighter note, and it’s not 100% yet but it looks like I might be getting out of here the first week in July for my mid tour not August. Keep your finger crossed I f this happens I will be home when the kids are out of school and that will allow us to do whatever we want. So I am sure we will come to Cincy for a bit if it works out and then do something as a family just the 5 of us. I can’t wait to see everyone I will post my dates when it is for sure. Well I think I am going to get some dinner and relax for a bit. I tried to upload a movie today but after two hours the connection dropped and that was just to much pain I will try again once our internet is better. Till next time, night all

Down South

Yesterday I flew 5.3 hours in support of some dismounted troops in the most southern portion of our area of operation. Needless to say our mission was totally uneventful and all our dismounted troops went home or should I say back to their FOB unscathed. So for me it was a good day and I was glad to be there for them. I have come to the conclusion that when 64’s are over head the bad guys aren’t much for coming out to play. And I don’t blame them, they are not stupid people they have been at war for most of their lives and they have learned a thing or two. I found out from our S2 that the average life expectancy for an Afghani male is only 40 years old and 44 for a female. I can’t even imagine what that must be like to hit your twenties and know that your life is already half over. Most of the men over here have been fighting for more than two thirds of their lives. Between the tribal feuds and border enemies and the Russians and now the US I can’t even begin to think how these people feel. And let’s not forget that only a small few are literate so as far as teaching them what we are here to try and get accomplished is next to impossible. I think if they truly knew what our intentions are they would be extremely grateful to have us here in their Country building roads and schools and the entire infrastructure to help with clean water and electricity. We are trying so hard to win the minds of these people and to show them a better life for their families that sometimes we are limiting our ability to win this war. And let’s not forget it is still a war and they are still hurting our troops every day whether we build them a new school or not.

Well as for me I am doing pretty well, I find that if I keep busy I have no time to think about things that I would rather be doing. I try to call home and talk to Marie and the kids as often as I can and that surely helps. I am listening to a lot of music and watching too many TV shows but I think once I get home I will be able to cut out the TV from my routine fairly easily. I have been trying to get out with my cameras as often as I can to take pictures of everything I see. I am going to try to go out on a ground patrol with one of my friends to one of the villages near our FOB to take pictures and video of the locals as he passes out some of his 400 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I think it would be nice to go into the little town near us and spread some tooth decay, just kidding. I just think it would be nice to put faces to all the people that I see every day from the air and never really connect to. Alright I am off tomorrow too and I want to get on here sometime before I fly again and try to put up a video so I will cut this post short for now, night all

CH-47 Chase

What can I say, I had a nice day. I am not on the schedule tomorrow and the day after that I am getting my tooth fixed so what more can I ask for. I once again sit here in my room listening to my iPod which is packed plum fool of new music and I can’t ask for anything more than that. On a lighter note I took some pretty good pictures today and I am going to try to post them tonight if the connection holds out. I escorted a CH-47 all over Afghanistan today and I can safely say they made it home safe and sound. After all that is my job to keep them safe and sound and out of harm’s way.

I think if there was another aircraft that I would like to fly it would be the CH-47 it can carry almost anything and they are pretty awesome to follow around. I think their mission would get pretty mind-numbing after a while just moving things from point “A” to point “B” but I think it would be pretty cool for a short time. I still think my mission is the best you can have in Army Aviation. I mean after all, to keep people safe and to ridding the world of bad guys makes for a pretty rewarding career.

I have been trying to get my video camera out a bit more often and I am trying to capture little videos of all the people that I am working with they are all such great people. I hope to stay in touch with all of them for a long time, they are really good folks and I am a better person for knowing them. Alright I need to cut this off so I can put a few pics up with this post, till next time, night all

Missing

Wow, what can I say? My first really bad day and I didn’t even fly. I can’t really put my finger on it per say it’s just a lot of little things that all added up to let me know that I am not in Kansas anymore. Things seem to be going pretty well for the most part time seems to be passing pretty quick and I have so many new friends here and we all seem to be doing pretty well. I haven’t heard the siren to alert us of incoming in week’s, big voice has been pretty active lately and that in itself gets a little depressing but we have not lost anyone in a while. So I guess I am just having a bad day, they happen and there is not much I can do about it. I was talking to CPT K. this afternoon he and his wife just had their first child and his son is 15 or 16 months and I truly feel for him. At that age they change so much and there is so much to see and do, so many first and he will miss them all I truly feel for him. He is pretty religious and I know he feels in his heart the same way that I do, that we are here for a greater purpose.

I am on mission tomorrow with Jen and my buddy Bob from flight school and his front seater will be in the other aircraft I have no idea if we have a deliberate mission yet or not but I am sure it will be a six plus hour flight. We are flying six plus most of the time these days there is always so much to do once we get off the ground. Everybody and his brother needs us yesterday to come to their aid and I hate it when we can’t be everywhere to help everyone. Just our presence in the area brings the shooting to a quick halt. The bad guys are getting pretty good with their early warning as to when we will arrive, not that it helps them all the time because most times they will never shoot at US forces ever again.

Tomorrow night the primary staff is having a meeting to discuss PDSS “Pre Deployment Sight Survey” which is when the Unit that is coming over here to replace us comes over to get a good idea what to expect and how they might want to adjust their training to better support their mission. If you all recall last May I went on a PDSS to Iraq to help determine manning shortages for one of the CABs that we were getting ready to deploy. It was kind of an eye opener to me; this was my first look at what is going on over here in OEF and OIF. The last experience that I had with being in a combat zone was Kosovo, and I am happy to report that times have changed and conditions have improved tenfold, thank God. I was looking at some pictures that I had on my computer of A troop 6-6 CAV when we were in Kosovo the other night. And it made me think of some great people, Mike and Keith from my troop and Kevin and Dave from C troop. All four of them are Hero’s to me, they were truly great Americans and I was lucky to have served with them, I will never forget them.

Well this post is going south quick so I need to try to bring it around as best I can. I am going to try to call home and talk to my best friend for a while that always brings a smile to my face. She is doing such a great job keeping the home fires burning for me. I would like to think that it is because she is getting some help from my great kids but I will never know. I was able to get on line last weekend and Skype with them for a bit that is always the highlight of my week. I love to watch Elli do her gymnastics and to talk to the kids is the best medicine out there for homesickness. If I have not said it before, I am the luckiest guy on the planet to have Marie by my side and Robby, Shirley and Elizabeth as my kids. I am truly blessed and I know it.

Tonight I will spend some more time trying to get out of my bad mood and it should be easy with all I have to be thankful for but none the less I will listen to some music and look and picture of the ones I love so much and later I will try to call. But for now I will close and promise to try to get on here more often than I have in the last few weeks. This really does help, it helps me to put things into perspective, and Life is short I need to put my effort into things that I have control over and forget about the rest. Because as we all know the rest is in good hands and we can’t change the outcome, what happens just happens, night all

Off today

I flew last night for 5.4 hours and got my NVS reset done. It was nice to get out there and fly around in the dark for a change; it’s almost imposable for the bad guy to see us at night. But then again it’s a little harder for us to see them too but that sure doesn’t stop us from finding them. So after flying last night and getting a little off schedule I was off today so I could get back the 05:00 to 17:00 shift. I am on tomorrow with one of our new LT’s I am not sure if we have any deliberate Ops or not but I am sure it will be a long day again. We have been pretty busy lately on day shift like I said in earlier post the bad guys are coming out of the woodwork not that the weather is getting a little nicer in the mountains.

Today I added many new songs to my iPod that I got off our internet server. We have a collection on there that is unbelievable I have never seen so much music in one place. Not to mention the music is all perfectly categorized and they have everything. From Jazz, classical, country to Rock, they have everything. So needless to say I had to grab it all about 250 Gigs worth. I am sure Marie will be excited when I bring it home with me. I spent a great deal of time listening to a variety of music from all sorts of artist today as I added them to my iPod. It made for a pretty relaxing day, it almost made up for last night and all the chaos that I dealt with last night during my flight.

Afghanistan is an extremely poor country with many poor people just trying to get buy. For the most part I think they all have good hearts and want to live a peaceful life but sometimes the decisions that they make change their lives forever. As much as I would like to look the other way and try not to see the bad in these people I can’t. I truly believe that by holding them to a higher standard and not looking the other way I am weeding out the bad to make room for the good. And after all isn’t that what I am here for, to help this country make changes for the better of all Afghani’s. I will continue to fly in support of many missions for the remainder of my tour here and if anything, I think it will just continue to get busier as the summer approaches.

Have I mentioned how inspirational music has become to me lately? It really is amazing, I have never really had much of an interest in music and now I find myself listening all the time. I can’t wait till I get home and I can listen to Robby play his guitar over Skype it sounds like he is getting pretty good. I wonder what kinds of music my kids will be interested in as they grow up? I hope they don’t get too crazy with their music but I am sure to me it will be crazy no matter how mellow it is. Well I was wanting to tell another story about one of the locals that works in the laundry building but its 21:00 and I need to cut this post off so I can call home and talk to Marie and the kids. It’s mid Saturday at home and I want to talk to all of them before they scatter to the wind. Well before Shirley starts her day, she is quite the social butterfly these days and she usually has a pretty busy weekend planed out by mid week, night all

NVS reset

Well it’s starting to get pretty busy over here. The weather is getting nicer and we are seeing signs of the natives getting restless. I am on tomorrow night so tonight I am trying to stay up as long as I can to try to reverse out a bit. I have not flown night system in a while so I am actually looking forward to it. We are trying to figure out a way to make it as easy as we can for everyone to stay current both NVS and NVG “night vision system and night vision goggles”. We have to fly system one hour every 60 days to stay proficient. I think we would all like to fly night system more than just the minimum but we can’t all be on that shift. I am on from 05:00 till 17:00 or so and as you can imagine I do not get the opportunity to fly in the dark much.

We are all dealing with some of the new rules of engagement and the time it takes to get approval from a ground commander in our own way. All I can say is it’s not helping matters much from where I sit again I wish the politicians would let us do our job and they would do theirs.

Joe left for home yesterday and I already can’t wait till he returns. I hope he has a great visit with his family and I hope he has a great time state side. He was really looking forward to going home he just wished that his date to go home was closer to the middle of our tour. Unlike mine towards the end of our tour his was pretty early. All I can say is that when I get back from my midtour I will not have much time left in country so that is a good thing right. Oh well time is going by pretty quickly I can’t complain this entire tour will be over before I know it.

I will be trying to get more video now that I have a new drive to back all the video up to. I have not been taking as much video since I was all out of hard drive space but I just got my new 2tb drive and I again have room for days. I am trying to capture as much of this country as I can both on video and with my pictures. I tried to get approval to go on a RCP “route clearing patrol” and the boss said no again. One of our other IPs family sent him 6 packages of girl scout cookies and he was wanting to go out into some of the towns and give them out and I was hoping to go and take pictures and video but the Boss doesn’t think it is such a good idea. Don’t get me wrong I have great respect for the Boss he is a good man and I would follow him anywhere. He has a difficult job to accomplish here. He sends guys into harm’s way every day and I know he does not take his job lightly.

The night before last HHC company commander came to my room about 01:00 to tell me to come in on my day off to possibly fly with the Boss and do an escort mission if one of our UH-60s could not make it. We were just the backup aircraft in case one of the 60s broke. As I have mentioned before we do not fly single ship in this country it is just too dangerous. Unless we are doing training in the vicinity of Salerno, as an IP I can fly single ship as long as I stay within 10 miles of the airfield. I did a great deal of this when I first got here it was my job to progress all our RL3 aviators to RL2. Once I got them all to RL2 I was no longer flying single ship every night. And I can actually say that I don’t miss all the traffic pattern flight. It is nice to go out and do missions with other aircraft. Well I am going to try and get some pictures around the FOB today so I am going to cut this post short for now, night all

My Boy makes me Proud

Wow all I can say is this is my 80th post and I had no idea that I would be still at it. I am glad that I have had the desire to get on here and talk about what is going on with me this year in Afghanistan. Today I spent some time moving pictures to a new drive that I got in the mail and I came across one in particular that really made me smile and I will post it tonight with this blog entry. I think it was from Germany based on how old Robby was but I am not sure. Kids are so precious, they are full of questions, they think of their parents as super heroes and there is nothing in the world that you would not do for them. I am lucky to have the three great kids that I do, Marie and I are so proud of all of them.
This afternoon I spent some time doing paper work and that was about it I had a pretty nice day off. I even got to Skype with the kids a little bit and that made my day that much more enjoyable. I am on the schedule tomorrow and I am not sure if we have a deliberate mission or not but I am sure we will fly between 5 to 7 hours that is getting to be the normal amount these days. So I need to get done and post my pictures and go to bed. I do hope that you all like them they brought a smile to my face today but then again he is my son, night all

Sitting at the gas station

Well it’s been a few days since I have written so I will try to catch up with all that is going on. It should not be hard really the weather has been pretty crappy lately and we have not been flying as much. But that is not to say that the bad guys have not been pretty busy because they have been out in force. I was reading in the news that our rules of engagement are going to become more restrictive and that we are going to be somewhat limited as to what we will be able to do in the hours of darkness. I am glad that the politicians are so educated on how to win armed conflicts. All I can do is hope that lives will not be lost while we are soft knocking on Afghani homes during the daylight hours. I think it’s hard to understand sometimes how war can have so many rules. I mean after all it’s a war right, I thought it was all about the good guys going after the bad and being relentless in our search to find and eliminate them. Alright I will change the subject, I had a bad day and it’s over now so I need to move on.

I am pretty excited about finally having a definite date to go home on my midtour. I look forward to seeing everybody especially Marie and the Kids. Speaking of them I am also looking forward to getting on line with them tonight and Skyping. I finally have a pretty good internet connection and I think it will be pretty good tonight. I was out flying yesterday and I took some pictures and I want to put them up tonight as well. The weather was not that great but the clouds were pretty and the mountains were even more beautiful than usual. So I will see how long it will take to put up a few pictures tonight on my new internet.

I hope the weather in Cincinnati is starting to break and the snow is behind all of you. I can honestly say that I don’t miss it at all, not that I don’t like snow because I truly do. I got hooked on skiing when I was in Germany and bought my first pair in Korea were I was on the slopes every chance that I had. But it’s nice to live in the south with the warmer weather. I truly think the harsh cold weather is hard on you not that the heat of the sun is not just as hard on your body it’s just that I think cold weather is worse. So on that bit of advice I will expect all of my family members to move to the south were we will all live to the ripe old age of 100 or so. Just kidding, what I really need is for some of you to move out west near the mountains and the rest of you to tropical islands so Marie the Kids and I have places to go on vacation. Speaking of vacations I have spent a lot of time over here thinking of vacations and believe me I have plenty of time to think. I would like to plan a trip to Alaska and try to get as many of the family involved in this trip as we can. It was the one place that my day wanted to go but ran out of time. I think about him a lot over here too. I think he lived a great life; everyone who knew him would have to say that his life was pretty rich. Not in a monetary sense but in a fulfillment sort of way. I remember the week I was lucky enough to spend with him in Hawaii, all we did is walk around and take pictures of everything, and I mean everything. Taking pictures was a true passion that we both shared that truly brought us closer together later in my life. I say it all the time that things happen for reasons that we may not understand. But the reason my friend Barry dislocated his elbow the week before he and I were scheduled to go to Korea was so Dad and I could spend that week together. And that week I will never forget for as long as I live.

As for Afghanistan, not much has changed over here except for the ROE, some of you might have to look that one up. But I am doing well just a little tired from a very busy week I flew 5 days and racked up almost 20 hours even with the bad weather. And that is the big reason I have not posted much recently. I will cut this one off right here and try to add some of the pictures I took yesterday. I think the mountains were beautiful, night all

HGST Complete

Monday night, had a pretty good day for the most part. I was not on the flight schedule so I was able to get caught up with all my master gunner stuff. I spent most of my time grading all the HGST and getting them posted on the server. I was pretty happy with the results, we had an average score of 94 percent which means that everyone paid attention in all of the classes and studied for the test. I was pretty happy with how it all turned out.

I went to the Bizarre to buy the fifth season to Alias which is another TV show that I have gotten addicted to and I was there for at least an hour talking to the brothers. They have so many stories about their Country I could write a book about them. The elder is 34 and his younger brother is 31 they sell movies and video games that they get from China. I asked them what they thought about the Americans being in their Country and they immediately started in on how much safer their Country is now as compared to ten or fifteen years ago. But they also told me that even though they are the majority in the way that they think there are still Afghani people that fear the US Soldiers. I asked them to explain and they went into great detail about what happens to some of these remote villages when the Taliban come into the towns. They told me that they are told horrific stories about Americans murdering and raping woman and children and it is believed to be true because 95% of the Afghani from the small villages up in the mountains are illiterate and if the Taliban tell them this it must be true. When I asked them for a good number, a percentage, of how many of their fellow Country man like the Americans here they both said about 90 to 95% which I thought was pretty good. I then asked if they thought we were making a difference and they both told me that in many ways we are making great improvements and in some we are going backwards. I asked them to explain and they told me a few more sad stories of how they lost good friends to the corruption in the ANP “Afghanistan National Police”. It sounds like the Police are pretty corrupt and you can’t trust them all the time. But they did say that there are good people all over just a few rotten apples that bring the whole thing down. I told them of a flight that I had a few day earlier where I came across and ANP convoy that struck an IED. The IED hit the second vehicle which was an unarmored truck kind of like a small pickup and it cut the vehicle in half. I was diverted to their location to secure it for Dustoff to come in and get the wounded out. My first report to higher was that it looked like the trailer attached to the lead vehicle was destroyed which was not the case after we came down a little closer we were able to see the other half of the truck. The front axle and the rear axle were probably 25 yards apart and at first glance all we saw was the front of the truck. Five minutes later Dustoff was on location trying to do all they could to get the wounded out. We often support ANP and ANA “Afghanistan National Army. The brothers did tell me that the ANA are all the good guys that they have many friends that have joined to try to make a difference in their Country. They both told me stories of friends and family that have joined the ANA and that they are trying to do whatever they can to make their Country better. I guess the biggest thing that I took away from my conversation with the brothers is that they both seemed hopeful that their Country has a chance. They told me that their economy is doing better and that people are finding work and that wages are getting better. They both thanked me for being here and both became emotional, I told them that I was proud to be a guest in their Country and that I was glad to be able to help. I explained to them that I wanted for their children all of the opportunities that my children have and that I appreciated their sacrifice and the risk they take to come into my FOB to work. It’s so hard sometimes to talk to these guys over here about what is going on in their lives. I have no idea; I can’t imagine in a million years what it would be like to live in a Country that has been at war for as long as their Country has. They have never known peace or what it would be like to have freedom and choice. But yet they are so hopeful and they have such great optimism I find myself in a better mood after I go to the Bizarre and talk with the Afghani workers. I hope that someday they do have a chance of a normal life where they don’t have to worry about being kidnapped or murdered for what they have done here on this FOB.

As for me I am doing pretty well, four months down and eight to go. I can do this on my head if I have to. I think deep in my heart and in my mind I know we are making a difference and the end result will be that my time here will affect many lives, not just mine. I need to get off here so I can call my best friend and tell her that I finally got an official date for my mid tour. I have owed her that for some time know I can’t wait to see her, night all