1 Year In The Books....almost

1 year in the books…almost. Sitting here today I am just 3 weeks shy of my one year mark. Hard to believe it has been this long, the year has mostly flown by. I bet my wife would have a different perspective in the time though. I can’t say it enough, she has the harder part in this chapter of our lives. It might be long hours, and rough conditions over here, but at least I only have to worry about myself. Whenever this is all said and done I owe that woman one hell of a vacation!!

This rotation has absolutely flown by, I can’t believe it has been 3 months already and I am heading home in a few days for R&R. it’s probably since I am leaving on my 95^th day instead of last time on day 132. Add the fact that things are busier than ever for me here and days turn into weeks, sometimes quite literally. I guess it’s better than the alternative, I couldn’t imagine having a boring job out here,  I’d go out of my mind if I had the time to think about it. 

I’ll be heading back up to Boston to start of this R&R, meeting Jolie and the boys up there. We will spend about 5 days seeing family, and of course hitting all our favorite places in Boston…including Fenway park! Should be a great trip. We’ll head home to North Carolina for the rest of the time, I plan on planting my butt on the beach and for once be happy that I am covered in sand. Can’t wait to show off this raging farmer’s tan that I got going on, it’s a great look…might have to fight off the ladies. I’ll have to lather up good, and by the looks of my belly, I might need to use more than normal. Hard to believe that even though I have been running somewhat regularly in the gym, I feel like I have actually put on weight, just goes to show that the food here is aimed towards marines who are training and working out all day, not those of us who use keyboards for a living. A skill I might add that I think I have improved on far too much, some days I wish I could stay out in the field all day and make lots of noise and dust and swear all day. Then I walk outside and the sweat begins to bead off my forehead before I even get to the truck and I realize that it is better to stay inside in the AC and swear under my breathe.

1 of 3 tanks

Business is good, my biggest project is moving along well at this point. Building 3 massive fuel tanks that will hold 1 million gallons of jet fuel in the middle of Afghanistan was certainly never on my career radar, but man it has been pretty cool. The amount of organization both from the office and in the field has been enormous, and at times it has seemed as if we have been spinning our wheels. But now the project has hit its stride and it seems each week we are hitting milestones.  We have nearly 100 workers per day in the project, plus a night crew as we are working 24/7 right now, and let’s just say that English is not the primary language for the majority….challenging to say the least. It’s great to go down there and climb to the top of the tanks and look around, they are the tallest structure on the base, but don’t go up there in the middle of the day. We have been getting temperature readings on the roof of over 180 degrees. Pour water on the steel and it doesn’t even make it to the edge to drip off. Have I mentioned it is hot here? I have added a photo gallery on the left (click here) with more pictures of the project for those that are interested in seeing how real men work for a living.

The average temperature lately has been right around 120 degrees. I have a thermometer on my desk that has an outside probe on it, in the shade it has been around 114, I laid it on the ground the other day and within a minute it shot up to almost 140….its brutal. Walking outside is like walking into a wall of heat, it honestly feels like the sun is about to land on the earth out here. It’s about the only time that I am thankful for spending so much time at my desk…in the AC. When I get back from R&R it will most likely be pushing 130.

So just after my last blog….a long time ago I know (people can stop sending me emails through the blog complaining now)…well we had the first real attack here at Camp Leatherneck that has happened in quite a long time. About 7am we had a total of 5 rockets come in. 3 landed on the British side in Camp Bastion and the other 2 landed on the Leatherneck side. At the same time they had a handful of suicide bombers trying to get close to the base. Thankfully none ever did. We learned later that they found another 5 rockets out a ways already loaded onto the home made launching rails that they use. To be honest it felt kinda like my days in Kandahar, minus the poo pond! We all lost count around 16 at the amount of those kick ass rockets that we have shooting out over us and towards the mountains. How crazy that I just sat at my desk looking out the window as they all shot right over us. I always wanted an office with a view but this is not what I had in mind.

It was a bit of a reality check here as this place is generally thought of as being safe…at least as safe as can be when you are located in a portion of Afghanistan that is referred to as the “Desert of Death”. One good thing that I am sure has come out of it is that I guarantee they have pushed the patrols out even further than before to be sure that no one slips through again. We all thought that it might be the start of something here, but ever since then it has been pretty quiet. 

So I am sure that you have all heard about the big announcement of us starting to withdraw troops from here. Well I couldn’t be happier about that, for all those troops do, it’s great to think that soon some will be heading home. Well now before you think that might mean that I am out of a job, the work out here has no end in sight. My company in the past few weeks has been awarded contracts worth nearly $6 Billion (yes with a “B) over the next 6 years. 1 contract is for work in over 20 countries though nearly 70% of it is here and in Iraq. Another one that we bid on and have a good chance at winning is to build 5 more cafeterias here at Leatherneck, another one is for additional troop housing.…..so that should tell you something. To be honest, they could remove at least a few thousand just from Leatherneck with no impact to the actual war. I see no reason why you need 10 marines working at each cafeteria checking ID’s and making sure that you sign in, or working in the post office, or just wandering around like zombies. It has always been pretty clear to me that there are two levels of troops here, the ones that fight and the ones that don’t fight. I say get all the non fighters out of here.

Well I better get back to it, 2 more wake ups and I start my long journey home, still too much to do before I go, but that never changes. I promise when I get back I will keep up with the blog better, I have really slacked on it the past few months. The day I return back here will be my wedding anniversary, and will be 1 day shy of my 1 year anniversary of arriving here. If you see my wife on the 18^th give her a hug for me please, she deserves it.