I'm...dreaming....of a beige Christmas...

HO HO Hold on a minute…..it’s Christmas already?? It sure doesn’t feel like Christmas. Might be the lack decorations around here. Though my room is styling thanks to two of my sister’s sending me a package last week. Some of the guys somehow tracked down an actual Christmas tree, I have no idea where they found it, but they put it up in the recreation building, made some ornaments and put some lights up. I’d say it might be the best Christmas tre I’ve ever seen. So unexpected, and such a nice reminder of home. 

We had a cookout tonight with all the guys, well and the 1 girl….imagine being the only woman here in a camp with 4-5 dozen men!  Talk about needing a thick skin. The guys somehow got their hands on a massive amount of steak and chicken. Rumor has it that the chicken was so fresh that they had been clucking merry Christmas to each other this morning…..I didn’t ask for details. Myself and 1 other guy did all the grilling, I think it took us at least an hour to finish cooking all of it. It was a fun day, a bunch of us grabbed some gloves and played catch for a bit, we took our lives into our own hands when letting some of the guys jump in with us, might have been the first time some of them have ever thrown a baseball, or at least it looked like it. We all gathered in the recreation building for food and after a bunch of the guys fired up the karaoke machine. That was my time to exit! It’s such a great group here, no one is better than anyone else, and that showed today when you looked around and saw managers doing dishes while the lower level guys hung out in the other room drinking beer- well non alcoholic beer. This may not be my chosen family, but they do a pretty good job of making each other feel welcome. And after all, nothing says Christmas quite like a guy from India dressed in a cheap Santa suit!

Last night my family called me from my mom’s house as they were all gathered for the traditional Christmas Eve gathering. For those who don’t know my family, we need our own zip code. 10 children, all married, and 24 grandkids that range in age all the way up to their late 20’s, so the crowd quite literally is still growing. Well they all paraded through my mom’s spare room where her computer is to say hello. I felt like the circus freak inside the computer! Although I bet the majority of them would tell you there is some truth in that! It was great though, made me feel like I was part of the night, even if I am in the middle of the Afghan desert.

Work has been a bear. I’m completely fried. Is it wrong to be thankful for Jesus’ birth because I got to sleep in? It seems like every day my workload grows, it’s almost like I am treading water and the waves keep getting bigger, but I maybe my legs are getting stronger too since I haven’t drowned yet. Tuesday night was another all nighter putting together a proposal. Went to bed at 6am, back to work around 7:30. Seeing the sun rise over the desert can be a gorgeous sight, but I recommend waking up early to see it, not catching it out of the corner of your eye as you leave the office. I basically was a zombie all day. Told my boss after dinner that I was going to bed early and not to look for me, but of course I found myself staring at the ceiling until past midnight! My body clock is so out of whack right now, I’m not sure if I have fallen asleep on the same day as I have woken up more than a few times. That can’t be healthy. But I guess you can just add that to the list along with lack of time to exercise, excessive coffee drinking, poor eating habits, stress….so ya poor sleep habits doesn’t mean too much. I have so much going on during my days right now that I can’t even process it. It’s catch up all day long. I usually mark emails that need me to either respond to or are an action item with that red flag you can check off….what does it mean when my entire inbox have red flags? I need to figure out a color coded flag system now.

A friend of mine put it perfectly in an email to me yesterday…this might simultaneously be the fasted year of my life and also the one that drags the most. It’s so true, time is flying, but is comes to a screeching stop when I get a chance to think about what I am missing back home. I can’t believe I wasn’t with the boys for xmas. Such a bummer. Hearing them jump out of bed and head for the stairs when they wake up as we jump out of bed to get to the bottom of the stairs in time to turn the lights on the tree and see their faces as they stumble down the stairs. Those of you with kids know exactly what I am talking about. I want to be there to help them put their stuff together, watch their brains go into overload as they try to play with 5 new things at the same time, and I even missed the stress of making sure that they don’t cross pollinate each other’s piles with the numerous small parts that inevitably will be lost within 24 hours. But what makes me missing all that worth it is that Jolie and the boys were able to travel north so spend time with both our families. That has been something that we haven’t done since moving to NC over 4 years ago. Either not having the vacation time, or not having it in the budget for holiday travel has made being home for the holidays difficult. So if me being over here has taken both those hurdles out of the equation, sign me up. Even though it tore my heart out to not be there with them, seeing them on skype all excited about being at grandma’s house and talking today about all the fun they had with their cousins made it all worth it. 

Happy Holidays to everyone, I love and miss you all....well most of you.

Left Kandahar With A Bang

New location, same dust. It's been a busy few weeks since I last blogged. Lots of packing, working, packing, working, and finally another military flight with no movie or refreshment cart. I did get to sit next to one of the bomb sniffing dogs though, not such a good flier by the way, but considering that it was my second flight in a row that had people getting sick from the turbulence, I'm just glad he didn't puke on me. I was a bit nervous though, having this trained machine with fangs literally tucking his head against my leg made me hope that he realized that I am one of the good guys.

The big move finally happened on Saturday, just 3 days after I started trying to get on a flight. The windy season is starting to come and the dust wreaked havoc on the flight schedule. I was booked on a noontime flight but got delayed an hour due to a "Ramp Ceremony" taking place. It is a ceremony where they honor a fallen soldier and load his/her casket onto a plane for transportation home. I had heard about them previously, but this was my first time seeing it. I was able to stand at the fence line about 50 yards away and watch. There were about 100 troops present, 8 were in their formal dress with the casket. The ceremony lasted only about 30 minutes, it was an amazing site to watch them walk the casket up the ramp and onto the plane. It was another one of those moments here where I felt honored to watch, but saddened immensely by the subject matter.

Kandahar must have known that I was leaving, each day seemed to provide me with some sort of a wish goodbye. Monday night we had the most rockets come in during my time there, I lost track at 10. As funny as it sounds, there was a rumor that Obama was here, obviously he wasn't, but I wonder if they were showing their cards just in case. I had spoken with an Afghan sub contractor that I know earlier in the day and the word outside the wire was that he had stopped in Kandahar after his appearance in Kabul. He was probably coming to meet with me and have his picture taken for the blog....darn dust must have canceled his flight. Tuesday night we lost power around 3am, seeing your breathe is not a great way to wake up in the morning!

Wednesday as I was talking with a client out at one of the maintenance yards, there was a massive explosion just outside the wire, shook us to the bone. It literally took my breath away. I'm still not sure exactly what it was, but clearly it was not a planned explosion as they announce over the speakers if they find something that needs to be detonated. Whatever it was, it sent a mushroom cloud into the air that seemed to hang for an eternity.
Thursday night was nearly sleepless as the activity in the mountains was echoing across the desert. Explosions, helicopters, A-10's doing some damage with their massive guns....lots of money being spent out there. Seemed like every time I was about to drift back to sleep it started up again, and I just don't know how to roll over and go back to sleep with that going on.
Friday was another day without power, lost it for about 8 hours....I think I got out of there just in time.

Things at Leatherneck have been happening at warp speed since I got here. It's been a slightly difficult transition to this point as the personnel changes are not clearly defined yet. In time they will fall into place, but for now I am in an all hands on deck mode. I showed up to find out that I am now the lead PM on a large fuel storage project that starts construction on Thursday. So I have been cramming like I have an exam as all the contracts need to be sorted out ASAP. I've also taken on the lead PM role on pretty much all the other work we have going on as well, luckily they are projects that I was involved in bidding, so at least I have some background info on them, but throw in the 4 bids that are also on my plate right now and I am not missing the fact that I haven't gotten my TV set up yet...I'm lucky to even remember where my room is at night!

 I went to one of my job sites this morning to see what was going on, I got there just as the daily safety meeting was getting underway. I stood there staring at the group of workers wondering if any of them even understood a word that was being said. All of them (about 30) are direct employees of ours, including about 6 Afghans who work for us but live outside the base. It was the usual safety meeting, make sure you don't get run over by a roller, don't fall in the wet concrete, report any ammunition you find on the ground.....huh? It's not uncommon around here to find a few bullets here and there that fall out of a soldier's pocket. One of our guys found 8 bullets the other day and innocently put them in his pocket to turn in later when he was over at the job trailer, well he forgot, and when he went to dinner they were discovered on him- all TCNs (third country nationals- meaning they are not from Afghanistan or a NATO country) and all locals, must get a body scan before entering the cafeteria. He was arrested on the spot....not good. Our security had to go work the system to get him released. Needless to say we are expecting to be raided by the military anytime now to have our compound searched. I'm picturing masked men banging on trash cans as they throw our mattresses out the doors and tear up the flooring. Ok probably not, but if that happens I'll be sure to get a few pictures for the blog, right before they hit me over the head with a billy club.
Back to that safety meeting, after the ammo talk, my site manager kindly reminded everyone to remember their personal hygiene....that's the one thing that I still have not gotten used to, the smell of some of the locals hits you like a brick. I'm not trying to be mean, but yikes it can make your stomach turn if it catches you right. I climbed up into the crane today to ask the operator a question and when the door opened I had to climb back down and yell up to him.
 
One thing that has me spinning a bit is my next R&R. I was scheduled to be home the first week in February. Was is the key word. My boss, another manager, and myself are all pretty much on the same rotation schedule, which doesn't work well. Last time we were scrambling and coverage wasn't good. So I knew that we would have to rework the schedule a bit to alleviate that. Long story short, I am now not on R&R until the first week in March.....argggg. That was a kick in the privates. An extra month here. I'm now about 80 days from being home instead of about 50. Here would be where I would insert one of those frown faces if I didn't think those things were created by the devil. I guess it's time do the only thing that makes the time pass quickly here....work my ass off. Although at this rate I may have to move on to another body part once that one has worn away.

So long Kandahar....it's been fun!

Yup that's right. I'm outta here! In what seems to be a concerted effort to keep me wondering where I am when I wake up...I am being pulled out of Kandahar and will be permanently (if there is such a thing) back up at Leatherneck. I gotta say, I've been somewhat expecting it as the workload up there is continuing to pile up at an absolutely epic pace. I have been bidding jobs up there almost exclusively and we have been winning more than our fair share. What I wasn't expecting is the reason for me being relocated.

Our company is doing a major re-shuffle as we are taking on a massive venture back into the country that got us on the map overseas...Iraq...hello Mr. oil company. So with that the head of Afghanistan operations is jumping over the border, leaving his position for my boss, which leaves my boss's position of In Country Manager open, and in what must have been a scenario that resulted in a massive head contusion, he has chosen me to step into that role. Holy shit! Sorry mom but I have no better words for this one! What a crazy place this is, 4 months into my career here and I am now the new In Country Manager, third on the totem pole in all of Afghanistan. This is a huge step on every level, it's really quite overwhelming to think about the challenge of this. It's had me on brain lock for most of the day. Not just from the quadrupling workload and responsibilities, but I am now going to be directly in charge of the day to day operations of our companies most successful operation. An operation that is now up to over 160 direct employees throughout our 4 beach front resorts (Kabul, Leatherneck, Bastion, KAF). My boss will take up his new position working from Kabul, so thankfully I won't be needed too much there but I will be responsible for the other 3. I will also continue to carry on being the main estimator here and have my hands in on all proposals and active projects, so lucky me, on top of the new gig I get to continue to do my original one as well. Anyone know of a watch that has more than 24 hours on it?? Or any Estimators and Project Managers that what to come live the dream? You know who you are!!!

The timing is still up in the air a bit as this is all still coming together, my guess is that it will be sometime mid to late December, but who the heck knows? The only thing that I can predict accurately around here is the weather and even that has me guessing a bit these days.

I'm actually going to really miss KAF. No really. I've come to appreciate the dynamics here. There's a real connection to things here that I don't really see up at Leatherneck. A feeling like you are really in the middle of someplace here. Leatherneck is extremely generic compared to here, but hey, at least I won't have to worry about the incoming rockets anymore, and the noise level is much lower there. As I sit at my desk right now there is a convoy sitting out on the road about 20 feet from my desk. Needless to say the sweet sounds of diesel engines have come to be my constant backdrop, but that's what you get when you are living on a postage stamp sized compound.

Funny thing happened on Thursday, at about 10am I realized that it was Thanksgiving. It's not that I forgot, I just woke up and subconsciously slummed into the office per my regular morning ritual. And when both people that you are working with at the moment are from the Philippines, there isn't much to remind you of the holidays back home. So what did I do once I realized it was the big day? Nothing. It's not like I could sit and watch the Macy's parade, it wasn't on until mid afternoon with time difference. I did go to the American cafeteria for lunch though, it was the only one here that was serving camel...I mean turkey. The line to get in was more than 1 1/2 hours, oh joy. Once inside I was greeted with the sounds of the Army Brass Band, swan ice sculptures, and absolutely no place to sit. I circled the place twice before finally finding a seat. And nothing says Thanksgiving like sitting with a table full of soldiers from Jordan. I mean no offense to them, but it just wasn't doing it for me. I pretty much ate and left. The good news is that dinner later on was the exact same menu and provided a entirely new opportunity for some good American pride on Thanksgiving. It was like having left overs!

It was kind of an up and down day for me, I just tried to keep myself busy with work. I got to talk to the boys and Jolie, and even her brother Kyle who was in town, but it really made me miss home. Thanksgiving has never been a huge holiday with me, I guess I'm just not really a turkey fan, but I do love the time with family and friends that always surrounds the weekend. But being my first official holiday away from home, it made me think of all the things that I am missing being away from them. I did finish the day with a smile though as the Patriots game was on at 10pm. Speaking of the Patriots, remember that Red Sox flag I found at the local market a few months ago? Well I went back over to the market yesterday, and as I walked by that booth, there it was hanging in the back..........

I love it!! The Afghans clearly love Boston sports teams!!!! Haven't I told you that I have felt a connection to the locals??

So I guess the possibility exists that the next time I have a chance to blog I may be gone from here already, not likely, but neither was the chance of me taking a job in Afghanistan.

"Bring Two Set Of Body Armor....One to Wear, One to Sit On".......wait, what?

Oh the places I get to see. I guess this tour here is all about letting me see the sights and meet the people. Yesterday it was a Forward Operating Base (FOB) located about 30 miles south of Leatherneck in an area called Lashkar Gah. We have been invited to bid on a massive service contract through out Afghanistan and this is one of the locations that it would cover. Friday was a day full of meetings about the contract along with our safety briefing for both the flight and the area surrounding Lashkar Gah. Crazy stuff. We had to shut off phones, no notebooks, etc before the briefing started. We heard pretty much everything that had happened in this part of the country within the last 48 hours. Lots of madness out there for sure. Lots of stories of young Afghan children being used as "runners", as shields, and as signalers when coalition forces came near, and even a story of a donkey at the side of a road that had TNT hidden IN it and a control wire running from it's but. Luckily seen before it was too late. They concluded the briefing by announcing that we should bring an overnight bag, etc in case the helicopter became grounded and we couldn't return...in the words of my lovely wife "oh like a sleepover"....she's a funny one huh? By a show of hands they asked if anyone still wanted to go. Mine was about half way up I would say. Later our security director would suggest to me that I "bring two sets of body armor, one to to wear, one to sit on".....nice.

We would be riding down by helicopter as the FOB is too small to have a runway. The trip would take only about 20 minutes. And what a 20 minutes it was. We rode down on a British Royal Air Force Merlin helicopter. It seats about 15 passengers, has 2 pilots, and 2 gunners- 1 in the front ride behind the pilots and 1 who kneels out the back on the ramp that they leave down. So basically the whole back of the helicopter is wide open. It was crazy. We took off and started hauling ass low and straight out over the desert, after about 5 minutes we climbed up a bit and stayed up high for the majority of the flight until we got within a few minutes of Lashkar Gah. As we approached, we suddenly dove down low and began to snake our way over the houses. We literally could see the faces of the people and the wind from the helicopter was blowing the trees as we flew over. The helicopter was rolling side to side almost in a zig-zag pattern until we hit the perimeter wall of the FOB, then the nose of the helicopter shot almost straight up to the sky, through the tail we were looking straight down at the ground as our speed dropped down enough that we could drop down onto the helipad. Once we touched down they got us off and they were back in the air within minutes. We were still on the perimeter of the helipad when they were already taking back off. I had some pretty obvious questions after that little video game of a landing, and of course I asked. The reasoning for it is pretty simple actually, if you come in high it gives them more time to set up and aim, plus the weapons they use are not good for close range, they need time in the air before exploding. Plus if you come in high, that means you need to hover and lower yourself in a straight line down....easy target. So they figure it is better to come in low and only have small arms fire than up high where they can get you with the rockets. Good idea....I guess. They say that they get small arms fire every once in a while, I can only imagine what that looks like when the gunners unload all that fire power back down on them from just 100 ft up. Yikes!

Grenade Alley

We spent the day out there., nothing too exciting. About 1,000 soldiers are living there in what is a very small and tight space. Lashkar Gah is an old Afghan city that is considered to be the capital of the Helmand Province. It now has a base right smack in the middle of it. The houses quite literally are right up to the perimeter wall. So close in fact that one side of the FOB has a road named "grenade alley". Nice of them to tell us this after we had been walking along it for a good 100 yards. We went through the compound where the explosives technicians are, interesting place I must say, plenty of recovered bombs, rockets, etc. But the thing that caught my eyes was the wall that had single shoes nailed to it. Me and my big mouth of course spoke up...turns out they are shoes from suicide bombers that have tried to attack the base. I need to keep my questions to myself more I think.  Lots of local flair out there, strange to see a few large gardens in the middle of the base. And get this...the food in the cafeteria was also better than at KAF.

My ride coming in for a landing.

At the end of the day we stood out by the helipad and waited for our ride. What a cool sight to watch them coming in from the distance, doing their dodge and weave, and dropping right in just a few feet away. Cameras were not allowed on the first flight, but there were a few soldiers that had theirs out filming as the choppers came in, so I took that as a yes and grabbed mine and was able to film the entire flight home. I spliced together some of it and you can watch it HERE.. Sorry about the audio, the combination of noise and wind did wonders on the microphone. We flew home on a British Royal Navy Sea King. Pretty much the same as the Merlin except it has a side door gunner and not the rear. We took off and immediately buzzed the roof tops and out into the open desert we went. 20 minutes later we were back safe and sound. Do I have the coolest job or what?

I'll admit it, I was nervous. More from the unknown and not from the I'm gonna get shot. I've got pretty good faith these days, even before coming to this place, and I figure that between all these soldiers and the big man, I'm good for a while.

What days like yesterday do is really open my eyes to what happens over here, seeing how these guys operate out in the war zone and not just around the base is a whole different world. Those guys were locked and loaded, and all business. Probably annoyed to have another group of civilians watching them like they are some kind of reality show. I've said it a thousand times, I could never do what they do.

I'm wrapping up my time here in Leatherneck, heading back to KAF tomorrow if I can find room on a military flight. Between my R&R and my time up here I feel like I haven't been there in forever...it's been hard to get to sleep without the rocket attack sirens.

On a great news note: a great friend who I worked with a few years back has accepted a job to come and play in the sand. I've requested he be sent to me at KAF, but in this place you never know. Who knows, maybe he will become my Wilson!!

Back Where It All Started

Back at Camp Leatherneck
So here I am sitting in the office that I had originally thought was going to be mine in the beginning. I must say, this place looks nothing like it did when I was here for those 3 short days in July. The company has nearly doubled the footprint of the compound. They now have their own concrete production plant, a metal building fabrication shop, twice the living quarters, and are finishing a new 4,000 SF office building. Oh...don't forget the gym, basketball court, and the entertainment area. A bit more room than my little 1/2 acre set up at KAF.

When I was first here I was fresh off the plane and scared out of my mind. I think that those first days here were by far the worst I've had. My nerves were a mess, I missed home already, and I was doubting this decision big time, add in the jet lag and I quite literally freaked out those first few nights in my room. I don't mind telling you that I wanted to turn around and go home on the next flight, I didn't care what anyone would think about me, I just wanted out. This was the ultimate eggs in one basket scenario.

Fast forward almost 4 months later, and here I sit again, this time with a much better head on my shoulders, and a much better understanding of what it takes to not just live and work here, but also to succeed here. I've been fortunate to have had a very good first tour, and right off the bat in the start of the second I am hitting the ground running. With the help of the Head Designer, we have just completed what might be the most complex pricing package yet over here. A contract that allows the UK Works Group (British Gov.) to pick and choose tasks from a list of 496 items as if ordering off a menu. He did the write up, I did the pricing. Nothing like jumping back into the deep end! I started on it on Wednesday morning, and after working on it literally every waking moment, we are just finishing putting the package together and it is ready for delivery on time tomorrow morning. All this while both my 2 bosses are out of the country and unreachable. Daunting when we started, but incredibly satisfying to be completed. That's what I like best about working here, everyone knows how to do their job, and everybody just does it. I wish that I could say that I will catch up on the sleep I've lost by working an average of nearly 20 hours a day since Wednesday, but I have to finish pricing a 78,000 SF building that is going to be the command center for all of Afghanistan and is valued around $50MM by Wednesday night......I knew I should have left the estimating part off my resume!

Leatherneck is the polar opposite of Kandahar. For starters, it's just the US Marines. Camp Bastion is connected to it and has the British Forces, so you do get a mix, but when you go around the place you are pretty much only seeing 1 or the other depending which side of the base you are on. Compare that to KAF where you have troops and people from the entire NATO coalition and you start to think that the place is pretty vanilla. Another major difference is that although you still can hear explosions, they usually are just from the firing range, there's not much incoming action here at the base. Now when they head out, it's just a nasty as everywhere else, the Helmend Province is one of the historically violent areas of Afghanistan, but it never seems to reach the base, it's almost weird actually....no rocket attack sirens, no strange explosions at night....I could almost get used to this. But what's funny is that I kinda can't wait to get back to KAF. How strange is that? The whole time in KAF I've been somewhat jealous of the guys up here, better living quarters, better office, lots more people, MUCH better food...but what it really does is make me want to succeed at KAF that much more to say that I was the one that turned KAF into an operation like Leatherneck. Maybe it's my self loathing side, or maybe it's been the professional spark that was part of what I took this job for. I was on a conf call with the VP of the company last night about these bids, and he mentioned that we are going to be making a major push in KAF in 2011 now that we have started to establish ourselves there, I say that's more reason for me to be there...make sure I get the best room!

Today we had to go over to Camp Bastion for a few minutes, there was a ton of activity, reporters, extra security if that's possible out here. Turns out Prince William is here. I was thinking of seeing of young Billy wanted to maybe grab a coffee, kick the ball around a bit. But I am guessing that the amount of security around him would most likely have a different idea.And no there are no pictures for the ladies to swoon over. There is a strict no cameras on this base, even to document the construction projects takes getting permission first. I even am not supposed to take pictures inside our compound. I swear all these places make up there own rules. at KAF I can literally take a picture of anything except the airfield. Here they check your bag for cameras when you get off the plane.

It's almost 1am right now...outside temp of 39 degrees....are you kidding me? It quite literally is freezing here at night. I walked back to my room last night around 2:30am and i couldn't top shivering...and I was wearing a fleece! Then the generator that feeds the area where my room is shut down for some reason around 4am, by 4:30 I could see my breath in my room. Those metal boxes we live in pretty much have no insulation in them. I found myself lying there praying for summer to return quickly. The days are around the 70's for the most part, but there is a constant breeze here, I don't know if it is seasonal or always like this, but I didn't notice it in KAF.

This whole time I have been writing this I have been waiting for the Design Manager to finish up his portion of the proposal that is due at 10am, he's now done, so now it's time to start pulling it all together and tying a bow on it. Gotta run....and then maybe get a few hours of sleep.

And So Begins Round 2....ding

Thank god I'm back in Kandahar, now I can get some rest! That whole parenting thing is flipping exhausting, more reason why I think that Jolie might have the harder half of this deal. Everyone keeps commenting on how tired I must be. I might be working around the clock, by at least I only have me to worry about.Props to my lady.

What a great trip home it was, The flight actually went by easier than I had anticipated, thankfully the seat next to me was empty so I could spread out a bit. Plus on the flight from Kandahar to Dubai I had two beers, which pretty much got me loaded I think. They were the best beers I have ever had by the way. Ice cold Heineken (sorry Cramer it's all they had) and after 3 months without, they tasted wonderful. Our personnel manager was on the same flight when I boarded, and considering how much business we give that airline, they were buttering us up with beer. Nothing wrong with that by the way.

I got home on Tuesday morning the 19th. Jolie and the boys met me at the airport, what a great sight. After a quick shower we went right over to the water, sat outside, and had some nice seafood for lunch, couldn't have asked for more. The best part though was that as the 4 of us sat there, it felt like I had only been gone a week. I must admit I was somewhat curious to see if there would be an adjustment period of any kind with the boys. I've never been away from them for more than a few days at a time. Thankfully we all just fell right back into place.

The first few days at home I was definitely feeling wiped out, not to the point of being asleep on my feet, but I probably could have gone to sleep at anytime if the opportunity arose. But you see, being married to my wife, those opportunities don't come up, that woman doesn't sit still! But truth be told I wouldn't have wanted to sit around being lazy, it was great to be out and busy, and great to be with her.

We left for Disney on Sunday night, spent 4 nights and went home on Thursday night. It was great, officially scared the crap out of the boys right off the bat. Their first ever Disney ride was Space Mountain. There was no request for a repeat ride by either of the boys. We had a fantastic time, it was perfect. I even didn't mind that Mickey had his hand on my wallet the whole time! That's why he wears gloves ya know.

On Friday my son's teacher asked me to come into the class and give a talk about my time in Afghanistan. It was a blast, but man was I nervous...presentation to the planning board in Kandahar- piece of cake...talking to a room full of second graders- yikes! The spider bite pictures were a big hit by the way.


Back in the dust...and cigarette smoke. I might be the only person in the entire country who doesn't smoke.
Coming back here I had to go through the fun of getting another visa in Dubai. They again have changed the rules. I had to get yet another visa in Dubai before entering Afghanistan. It's kinda funny actually, they are making it harder and harder to get a working visa which would allow you to move more freely than the tourist visa they gave me last time. But to get those, you have to jump through hoops and prove to them that you are an educated person, they also will only give you one if you tell them that you are an engineer. So needless to say they must be thousands of engineers running around Afghanistan right now. It's their way of justifying all us westerners "taking their jobs". I tell ya what though, find me a local who can do my job and I'll give it to him. Seems ironic in a country where the majority cannot read or write that those of us who are here trying to rebuild the place need to prove ourselves.

This new visa required me to go to Kabul before coming back to Kandahar. I didn't mind it though as it gave me a chance to see the guys at our Kabul office and quite frankly, I got to see Kabul. And see it I sure did, what a crazy place. As you fly in over the Northern part of the country, the mountains are everywhere, some even had snow top peaks already, actually quite beautiful. As you get closer to Kabul and you start to descend, you feel surrounded by them, at one point the peaks where actually higher than the plane, is it me or shouldn't we be as high as we can at this point? As we got close to the airport an F-16 pasted below us...nice. I was imagining that Kabul wall a very mountainous city, but as you get over the peaks it flattens out and you just drop right down.

Customs at the airport was a trip, lots of pushing and shoving and what I assume was swearing in Afghan. And I think a lot of it was at me, most of them were clearly not happy to have me in front of them in the line, the backs of my ankles can attest to that as the guy behind me was jamming his cart into me without mercy the entire time. The guy who was checking all the bags to be sure they belonged to each person was choosing to fight with everyone about it. I don't know how they all prove that they have the right bags, most of them are simply sacks that are rolled up and tied shut with thick rope around them. Once through the customs it was out in to the wide open city. My company owns a villa about 20 minutes from the airport, they sent a driver with the security team to pick me up, interesting ride to say the least.

I called to say I was there, and about 1 minute later an SUV pulled up, guy jumps out, asks my name, then tells me to get in the back. Either this was my ride or I was about to be glad I read the section of the company handbook about how to survive a kidnapping (no joke, it's in there). We have a group of about 10 armed security guards working in Kabul just for personnel movement, we have even more out on the job sites. The driver told me it wasn't a good idea to be taking pictures....I left it in the bag for most of the ride.

I have no words for the ride to the villa. The main roads are loaded with everything from vehicles, bikes, animals, livestock, people, trash, etc. You are constantly weaving your way down the rode. Misc Afghan Policemen just standing in the rode trying to make you stop. We made it past 3 of them before we had to stop, the driver rolled down the window, half yelled with the guy, and then gunned it, starting the weaving action again.

The area around the airport is the poorest section, and I mean POOR. Houses looked more like refuge camps. Storefronts along the streets where selling lord knows what, people where everywhere. Trash is piled up in the streets as kids pick through it filling up baskets. As we got closer to the villa, he told me that we were entering the nicer portion of the city...all relative I guess. But I must say, if you take away the constant threat of death..it really would be a beautiful old city. The villas are huge, and some of them have gorgeous detail work on them. The one our company has is 4 stories, marble on every floor and wall surface, massive wooden doors, etc., all the villas look similar, the problem is that they all now have huge walls with barbed wire above them, and without exclusion they all have armed guards in front. Kinda takes away the warm and cozy old city vibe.

It was Friday, which is the day off at the Kabul office, that worked out great. It was a no stress environment and I got to relax and take in the place. I went out on the 4th floor terrace and sat out there for a while. I took some picture from up there where no one could see me from the street. There was a loud speaker that was broadcasting what I was told to be the usual Friday propaganda, typical down with westerners type stuff. I took a brief movie from up there and you can hear it in the background. Once it ended our security manager asked if I wanted to go grab a burger...I thought he was joking...he wasn't. Soooooo he called downstairs and told them we were going out, they then get a truck ready and check the roads to make sure that there is nothing blocking them, we get in the truck and they open the gate and away we go, we only went a few blocks, but the roads are so chopped up and bumpy is some parts that you cannot go more than a few miles an hour if you want your guts to be in their proper place. We pulled over to the side of the rode and he says to me "hop out so I can park"....uhhh...say what? I jump out and he pulls up tight to a building, once he gets out, kids come flying out of no where yelling his name, he pulls out his wallet and hands dollar bills to them all. While he does this, armed guards start coming out into the street smiling and waving to him. The guy is like the mayor of Kabul or something, he tells me later that as long as he treats them all well, they watch his back...good plan.

So we walk toward a solid metal gate, and I'm wondering what the hell we are doing there, it doesn't look like a burger joint. A guard opens the gate and as he is about the let us in he says "guns or knives?" Our security manager answers "no, those are dangerous" to which they both get a chuckle...jokes...great,,ya, funny stuff people. As we walk in, he tells me that this place is owned by an American, suddenly I hear country music, and we walk around to a courtyard complete with nice wooden tables, and sitting there already were a few guys from the office enjoying a beer. Yup, I was at an American owned bar in the middle of downtown Kabul, sitting outside. 5 of us sat around a table and ate and drank for a few hours, totally bizarre, but what over here isn't? oh, and the burger was the best I've had here. We eventually made our way back to the villa for the night. Happy to be safe and sound after my first day in Kabul.

Saturday morning I flew on a Military flight to Kandahar, just me and about 50 of my closest friends with guns. Funny to put your bags through a scanner in between all the weapons and body armor. We flew on a C-130 cargo plane, not the most comfortable seating I've ever been in. You sit sideways on what amounts to a fold-able bench you might take camping with a cargo net as your back support. All jammed in there, yet again the only guy without a gun. Flight was as smooth as can be expected. They take off what feels to be straight up and land going straight down. They passed out earplugs, and I couldn't get them in fast enough once they started up those massive propellers. After we were in the air for about 10 minutes I realized that I was probably the only one that was still awake. So I did what I had to do to fit in. I must say though, hard to keep your head from snapping off when you are falling asleep with a Kevlar helmet on.

So now I am back here in KAF, but only for a few days. I'm heading up to Leatherneck in a few days for a couple of weeks while my boss goes on his R&R. He wants me up there to help cover for him and we also have a few huge proposals to do and it makes sense for me to be there with the design staff to work on them. Not really sure when I will be back here, but I think I might need to get used to that, It sounds like I might be doing a bit of jumping around here for a bit. If nothing else it will help make the time go by quicker.

Oh, just for the record, my first meal back I chose the "vegetable macaroni & cheese", I'm sorry...is there any other kind? Makes me wonder what the regular kind has in it.

The weather here sure did change in just a few weeks, I had to turn on the heat in my room last night, those drafty doors and windows were letting the 30 degree air right in. When I went to the office this morning I could see my breath, I wore a fleece most of the morning. I love it. Couldn't be happier.

By the way, you may notice the clock up there on the left shows now that I am 9 1/2 hours ahead of the east coast now, no daylight savings here, had me all kinds of messed up here.

Just 85 days until R&R........

Homeward Bound

27 Hours, 17 minutes from now (7:15pm Afg time) I will be boarding a plane in Dubai headed home.
WWWWWWOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I officially leave KAF at 1:45pm, but until I see the destination of USA up on the board in Dubai I'm not counting it.
It will be my 98th day since leaving for Detroit on July 13th, and my 92nd day in the desert. Hopefully the time on the planes (nearly 20 hours total) will go by quickly, it might just be the best flight of my life considering the destination. I can't wait to see Jolie and the boys at the airport.

What a whirlwind this has been. I still look back and wonder how it all happened. Who the hell would have thought that I would be here? I certainly didn't. It's hard to explain the feeling about going home, I couldn't be more excited. I quite literally have butterflies in my stomach tonight just thinking about it.

I couldn't be more at peace with things in my life right now, this first three months has taught me so much not only about the war and the people of both sides, but I've learned so much about myself in such a short time that I could have never done without being here. You learn to adjust, you learn to accept what is out of your control, you learn that you really don't need everything that you thought you did. I mean really, what would a nice big boat do for me over here anyway?  Don't get me wrong, being away from the family has been brutal, I get torn up sometimes after talking with the boys on skype, sometimes it just hits me hard when I am talking to them and realizing that life for them is still moving forward, and I'm missing it. I am always wondering how they are doing without me around. Believe me, Jolie is a rockstar, and she's got things going full speed ahead there, but I wonder constantly about them and how they are handling not having Dad around. It's funny thought, I bet I think about it more than them.

I started to make a list the other night about all the things that I wanted to do when I got home. From the obvious...see the boys soccer & baseball games, got to eat some food that actually tastes and looks appropriate, maybe breathe some non dusty air...the list was starting to get long. And that's when I realized exactly what it is that I want to do when I get home......be home. That's all. Just be home, whether that's on the couch watching a movie as a family, hanging out in the yard with the boys, maybe take the dog for a walk, how about see true blue sky and maybe even some clouds, and if it rains..you'll find me laying in a puddle. But most of all I just want to be home. I just want to be back to some semblance of normalcy. I really can't wait.

I keep meaning to update everyone on the spider bite, I mentioned previously that it was all cleared up, and it is, but what happened about a week later when the small scab on the initial bite fell off I guess will act as a lifetime reminder, you see, I have a hole, not like a hole into my brain obviously, though some would say I've had that for years, I guess more like a little divot, that son of a bitch ate me! And to make matters worse, they are signs up right now about frequent sighting of Saw Scaled Vipers around the base. I looked it up, it's just what is believed to be the most venomous viper in the world....awesome. So now I have not only the fastest spider in the world...the Camel Spider, which they think is NOT what bit me....great, there's a worse bite crawling around out there, but now the most venomous viper in the world. Sure can't wait to get back! Oh, and you know those annoying horseflies that dive bomb you at the beach, at the pool, at the lake...well can someone explain why one landed on my monitor yesterday? Did he make a wrong turn on his way towards oh I don't know....WATER!!! Seriously, we been inundated with flies as the temperatures have dropped a bit and they can actually not fry when they land, but now the occasional horsefly has been in the office. Does everything here need to bite??

So you all can take the next 2 weeks of from desperately checking the blog, no offense, I ain't blogging from home. You will just have to wait until Nov. 4th to hear all about the trip to Disney and everything else that will happen far too fast for me.

Here's to everyone on the plane tomorrow practicing proper hygiene....

Still Plugging Away

First off I need to apologize.
For as many years as I can remember, I have been going to Red Sox games. That includes making it back to Boston every year for at least 1 game even after we moved to North Carolina, heck we still have our season tickets. This year we were all set to make the trip back home to go to a game, I mean see friends and family. Well that got canceled as the timing of leaving for Afghanistan was rapidly approaching and it just couldn't happen.
So why do I need to apologize? Because this was the first year for as long as I can remember that I didn't get to Fenway Park for at least 1 game, and it clearly is the reason why they did not make the playoffs. I guess it might be well enough though since I wouldn't be able to sit in my lucky seat on the lucky couch wearing my lucky hat and only changing the channels during commercials if they are losing, cursing friends who dared to call me during an important game. I won't name the guy who caused that one, but Mike knows who he is..."Woohoo...we're going to the World Series".....cue the collapse in Yankee Stadium...why didn't they pull Pedro? He was clearly tired!!!....sorry, I'm back now...So I apologize to all of Red Sox Nation for being the cause of the horribly early end to the season. Thankfully I hadn't seen a game since coming over here in July, it was bad enough seeing the highlights online each day.

But how about this for representing the home team? I went to the bizarre this morning that they have every Saturday. I don't go often, and prior to today I haven't bough a single thing. Fake watches, fake bags, bootleg DVD's are not really my thing. They have some cool stuff in some spots, I would by some of it, but every time I ask if it was made locally....let's just say the answers are not that convincing. I mostly go to walk around and see the sights. Nothing says relaxing day of shopping as a guard tower casting a shadow on you. I figure if something ever catches my eye maybe I pick up a little something for the misses back home. Well today as I was about to leave, I saw the most beautiful thing I have seen here. It was a true mood improver. A little reminder of home......

There this was just hanging in this guy's booth. How funny is that? If nothing else, this place never stops cracking me up! Best $20 I ever spent I think. This is going to look damn good hanging above my bed back home...right Jolie? ...Jolie?
On a somewhat related note, my sister sent me a care package the other week, and inside was a package of Red Sox pens, I am guarding them with my life. She also included the most delicious granola bars that have ever graced my tongue. It's the little things here that make all the difference.....Thanks Marilyn!

Me and the great crew made up of Afghans and Pakistanis.

So I officially have completed my first project here. I took it over from the other company (that we bought) and man was it a mess. Behind schedule by almost the time frame that it was supposed to take to do the entire job. Not too mention that the Ministry of Finance at one point accused myself and the Chief Contracting Officer for the Army of corruption (cross that off my bucket list). I still have the email in which he does it and I may frame it, so cool. Well this week I officially turned the buildings over to the government. Woohooo!!!!! Getting that disaster turned back around and handed off has been a major task. One that would have broken a lesser man....come on people...I'm reaching here! The project consisted of 4 buildings, each is 5,000SF and they house maintenance shops for the armored vehicles.

Each building has bays for 20 trucks, each of which cost approx $750k to buy, than they fit them up with the armor plating, radar jammers that stop the remote signals that the Taliban sometimes uses to detonate roadside bombs, etc, etc....and they top out around $1 million a piece. Yup, so each of my buildings have $20 Million worth of vehicles in them. I would guess conservatively that there are 15,000 vehicles here minimum. I would not be shocked to learn that I am way low on that. Ya my calculator gives an error message when doing that math too.
They have now started installing a 360 camera system on some of them that can relay live pictures of the battlefield to each vehicle in the convoy, and also back to main command. On a clear day they can see for 13 miles in every direction.Talk about a video game.

Afghan Policeman on his way to work at the civilian airport.

Alright...time to get political....sorry I know.....I'm sure you have been hearing about the supposed talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban leaders. They are apparently in talks about ending the war. Believe me, I would love for that to happen. Seeing somewhat first hand what this war is doing to the country I want nothing more than for it to end. But the problem is how does it end and end well? This country is in no shape to protect itself from the Taliban. I have seen with my own eyes the level of protection that the Afghan National Army & Police can provide. They were the ones that let myself and my co worker into THEIR base by simply showing them a shopping club membership card! And in what can only be considered a close call for me...a suicide bomber got through the Afghan Army check point here by paying the guard $5 and he drove down the access road towards the entrance to the civilian airport where he blew his car up killing 3 local Afghans. Close call because earlier that morning I had dropped off someone at that same spot.The fact is that everyone involved in this war needs the war. The Taliban know nothing else, even if they say they want peace, all that means is that want NATO troops to leave, and as soon as that happens, they will take over the country without hesitation. Afghanistan cannot defend themselves well enough yet. Not to mention that the amount of money that is being pumped in here for more than just military reasons cannot be replaced. Heck, the Afghan President's family owns the largest private security firms in the country, and they also own companies that are major players in the supplying of heavy materials such as gravel, stone, etc. The war ends, and all those avenues of income end. Again, I hope it ends, and ends soon, I would be honored to become unemployed because of it....although we might just pack up our bags and move the operations to Pakistan.....I think they are next.

I've spoken a lot about my times of interaction with the local Afghans both on the base and off, and I hope that no one thinks that I am in any way romanticizing those interactions. They just seem to stay with me for so long. Earlier in the week I drove someone outside the base to pick up a truck. As I sat in my truck waiting for him to finish arguing , I mean negotiating, with the other guy over how much it would cost him, suddenly out of nowhere appeared a small girl right in my window. She jumped right up on the running board and before I knew it she was right there at eye level. Not only was I bit shocked at the lack of fear on her part to just jump on the truck like that, but also at the way she started right into a conversation with me...in ENGLISH. She asked me my name, told me hers, I asked her how old she was, she told me 7. My guess was 5. I was so taken by her, I mean here I was sitting in the middle of a war zone talking to a completely fearless 7 year old Afghan girl. After a few minutes, her little brother came walking along, wearing his old, faded spider man shirt mind you. So there we were, me now leaning out the window of my truck as they stood side by side looking up at me. That's when it hit me, they had walked over from a building that prior to this, I assumed was empty. I'm talking no walls, just cardboard and wooden crates to close it in, roof missing off part of it, no running water, obviously no electricity, backed up to an area that is known to not be de-mined yet, and about 1/2 mile from where that car bomb went off. Holy cow. This is insane. These 2 children were absolutely gorgeous in their innocence. I haven't stopped thinking about them. Jolie even asked me if I was planning on bringing them home. I would if I could, believe me.

9 days until I hop on a plane, 10 days until I arrive home.......I can taste it!

And on the 76th day....I rested.

And by rested I mean collapsed. I've written many times in the past about how hard it is to get a true day off here. Well yesterday it finally happened. I got in bed around 1am on Saturday night, and I didn't wake up until 1pm.....man did I need that. I had turned off my cell phone, shut down my outlook so I wouldn't hear the ping of a new email and feel the need to check it, and set my Skype to only ring if Jolie called. I even took the measure of telling my boss not to look for me until after lunch, thankfully he respected that. I probably could have stayed in bed all day if it hadn't been for how hungry I was. Let's just say that the previous night's version of lasagna wasn't as filling as one would hope.

I showered, shaved, and whipped open the door to the steaming greeting of that dreaded sun that I have come to know. Certainly was strange though to be heading out for the day at such an hour that the heat was already running full blast. I'm used to being up and in full steam ahead mode as the heat of the day starts to climb. Lately the weather has been playing some serious tricks on us. Most days first thing in the morning is actually getting quite cold. The temperature overnight is really starting to drop, which makes the overall daytime temperature have much further to climb before reaching that scorching mark. High temperatures right now are mid 90's. Occasionally it hits the triple digits, but it is becoming rare. By the way, if you are checking the temperature widget here on the blog...you need to add about 10 degrees to it. There is no temperature tracker on the internet for here on KAF. So that is picking up the temperature in the nearby Kandahar City, which is about 2,000' higher than we are here.

So what to do on an actual self imposed day off? Rather than go eat lunch in the usual assembly line of calories, I decided to head over the a coffee shop that is in the British area of KAF. What a nice change of pace that was, I had a nice large cup of REAL coffee, and an actual fresh baked muffin. Holy cow I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I just learned about this place the other week and boy am I glad I did. I took my book with me, the same book that I started on the plane on the way over here and haven't picked up since. I spent about  3 hours sitting in there, in a nice over sized leather chair, just reading my book. And get this, I even got in on a few chess matches with 3 American troops that were hanging out there as well. I got my ass kicked, but hey, I wasn't working! Turns out these guys were part of the big push that is happening in Kandahar right now and had just gotten back to the base.

With the exception of going to my job site for about an hour, I spent the rest of the day relaxing, didn't even go across the parking lot to the office...lord knows I've been there enough. And man have I been churning out the work in there lately. Still with just the 1 project that I took over when  I got here, and with that project that I won a few weeks ago now being put on hold, I am still busy as ever. I'm really the only one in Afghanistan with substantial estimating experience, so I have become the default estimator for projects all over the country. I don't mind it though, I guess it just adds more value to me here. Currently I am running the bid on a $50 million project up at Camp Leatherneck. We are close to getting awarded a $6 million dollar project at Camp Bastion that I bid about 1 month ago, and I just received another Bastion project to start working on last night. There is not much new work coming out here at KAF right now as many of the contracting officers are finishing their rotations and the new ones have not arrived yet. When I get back from R&R, I'm going to hopefully be able to focus more on getting work here that I have so far, between taking over the operations and trying to get things back on track here, the search for new work has had to take a back seat. The work will come soon though, I'm confident of that.

So have you ever been driving a vehicle when suddenly the back tire just falls off? I have. And when it has fallen off where you right in the midst of going through the security gate at the new main entrance to a military base in Afghanistan? I was. Things around here certainly are not boring. On Thursday I was heading over the "The Pit" (explanation later). I had to go through a checkpoint and into a holding area of sorts. As I pulled through the checkpoint it felt as if I had driven into a huge hole. I should only have been so lucky, turns out the back left wheel simply fell off. Completely off. I'm talking axle on the ground type off. It would appear as if the lug nuts were either never on, or not on tight and had worked their way off. And to think that this was a truck that was left to me the day before while one of my regular trucks was being serviced. Only in Afghanistan! So there I was in the middle of the checkpoint blocking the entire lane...good times. The Slovakian guards were getting a big kick out of the American whose wheel fell off. One of them walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder and in his deep accented voice said "that's funny". Ya thanks buddy. A quick inspection of the truck revealed that it was missing the jack..of course. I asked the guard if they had a jack in their trucks at all, and I immediately realized that a jack made for a massive armored vehicle was clearly not going to work on my Toyota. So without missing a beat, he suggested a better resolution, one that I wish I had my camera for.....they backed up to my truck, tied a strap to the front, and dragged it across the gravel parking lot and out of the way....works for me! I was going through the gate to meet the truck guy anyways and get my other one back. So instead of driving out the gate and swapping, I walked out, gave him the keys and told him where he could find it, and took my other truck back in. Problem solving...it's what I'm about here.

So what is "The Pit" you ask? Well it's no place for the faint of heart. It's what they call the area where the locals enter the base each day to work. All non badged people come through there regardless of nationality. It starts at a gate about 1/2 mile away. They enter through a check point where they are searched and pass through a high tech body scanning machine. They then walk about 1/4 mile to another check point where they get their eyes scanned. Once they make it through there, they enter in to "The Pit". It's just a large fenced in area with a massive sunshade over it that acts as a holding area. There they wait for their escorts to pick them up and bring them onto the base. You have to have their paperwork sorted out 24 hours before entering or they can't come through. And after they come through they must stay with their escort for their entire time, each escort can have up to 5 people with them.
From the base side, you walk from the parking area about 100 yards to the pit, you have to go through a gate and into the actual holding area to claim your workers. It's an incredibly tense area. These guys have been through hell just to get to that area. And it usually takes hours, in the heat. Fights often break out during the mornings as they push and shove to try and get through as fast as they can. It's an exhausting ordeal for them day in and day out. The process starts at 7:30am, and it is not unusual to have them get through as late as noon. Factor in the fact that on Friday there was a bomb left outside by the first gate, and you've got one heck of an adventure for these guys to get to work each day. I give them incredible amounts of credit. No longer will I complain about traffic on my way to work when I get home. Do you understand now just how hard it can be to get things done around here? Some days I'm only getting 4-5 hours of actual working time on the job. It's a killer on the schedule. And if you get them to the gate late to leave, guess what? The MP's are waiting for you. My subcontractor is responsible for bringing these guys in, so luckily I only have to go from time to time to sign the new paperwork to prove that they are working on a valid contract.

So the other day I was over by the airfield, I love it over there, boys and their toys I guess. I spliced together a quick video, not such great quality, but considering that you need a special camera pass to take pictures/videos over there, I did the best I could. And check out what was just sitting by the side of the road that goes past the airport.

Right now there is a major push going on in Kandahar. The amount of troops that are out in the mountains fighting right now is massive. Some days the usually crowded boardwalk or dining facilities are just plane empty. They are trying to search out the Taliban in the area and take over the villages again. You can tell when they make the push, as close as I am to the gate, I can always see and hear them lining up in their convoys to go out, and by now I have learned when it is just a typical trip or if they are going out with more force. God bless them. Almost every night for the past week you can here the fighting in the distance. Explosions, helicopters, planes, more than just the usual activity.

A-10

Well last night was a full on battle. There was a rocket attack around 8pm, immediately...even before the "all clear" siren went off...all hell broke loose out there. The sound brought me out of my room and I just stood outside absolutely awe struck by the sounds. Explosion after explosion, the 50mm guns from the helicopters just filled the night with that overpowering sound. I don't know how you don't just drop dead of a heart attack if that thing is aiming at you! The battle went on for a good 3 hours. I stood on the top of the 2nd story staircase here and could occasionally see off towards the mountains the blinking lights on the helicopters, I couldn't count how many, but there had to be at least 4, and the A-10 strike planes were circling around as well. They are more of a ground support specialty fighter jet compared to the F-18. I tried to get some audio of it (since you couldn't see anything) but it didn't really pick up too well, I think it's time for a new camera.

Just 14 days left until I am heading home for some needed R&R. My boss calls this time frame the most useless time anyone will spend here. He understands how checked out you can get when your mind is on going home. Funny, it wasn't until I booked my flight that I started to get antsy. Having that date on the calendar now makes me keep looking at it counting down the days. I can't wait to get home and see Jolie and the boys, and to see all our great friends who have been so supportive and helpful to us in more ways than imaginable.