Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
... but they haven't captured, killed, or wounded me yet. HA!
So after a huge pain in the ass waiting on Uncle Sam to get us here, and a really stellar ride over on a 777 (seriously, that was a SWEET plane, and the in-flight entertainment was off the chain! Stunning service! Economy tickets were $1800 each though..
), all of us arrived safely in Afghanistan.
Highlights you say?
-- the ride over on the 777, top notch!
-- the enormous airport in Qatar, at least 4x bigger than you'd expect
-- being stamped in by a veiled woman with henna hand tattoos
-- sleeping in huge air-conditioned tents
-- nearly hitting a camel at 80mph on the way to the base in Qatar
-- the painfully bright sun on the nearly-white dirt/sand in Qatar
-- flying in a C-130, in full body armor and helmet
-- taking a crap on the C-130, on the weird elevated, thronelike pot in the back of the plane
-- the sweet combat landing from hell, so steep a drop that I was weightless for a bit, yee ha
-- seeing enormous military equipment all over the freakin' place (the 36-hole Hummer rims are sweet, and so are the MRAPs.. and the Tooele-made armored 2.5 and 5-ton trucks are neat too.. and the planes and the Apaches. )
-- Food in the mess hall! It's damn good and I am not kidding.
-- not being assigned a roommate for the time being. I like that very much
-- the work we are going to be doing is going to be INTENSE and it's going to be close. The finished product is absolutely vital to the is country's defenses.
-- Lots of newer Land Cruiser wagon things, and military Mercedes G-Wagens. If I can, I'm going to buy some FJ40 soft-top bows... not sure how things work here yet though.... Now that I'm mentioning it a lot of strange vehicles are afoot here-- my favorites are the lifted, 4-door Toyota Tacoma-looking things with the tiny rear beds and the mutant 3/4 scale Ford Ranger things, on the tiny 12" rims LOL
Lowlights?
-- 2 people were killed a couple days ago, by a remotely-launched, coordinated mortar attack. Mortars suck! and we are pretty damn close to the perimeter-- I can see houses when we walk to the mess tent. I don't like that.
-- We're REALLY, REALLY far from home
-- it's hot... ish
-- there is one guy on my crew that might not make it home, as he complains without END and we may kill him and bury him out here.
-- being able to see the awesome landscape but not go out into it.
Overall it's pretty mellow here right now. We are not in any real danger where we are, despite our proximity to the perimeter.. and there are a LOT of armed people around, at all times. Pics when I can get them.
So after a huge pain in the ass waiting on Uncle Sam to get us here, and a really stellar ride over on a 777 (seriously, that was a SWEET plane, and the in-flight entertainment was off the chain! Stunning service! Economy tickets were $1800 each though..
), all of us arrived safely in Afghanistan. Highlights you say?
-- the ride over on the 777, top notch!
-- the enormous airport in Qatar, at least 4x bigger than you'd expect
-- being stamped in by a veiled woman with henna hand tattoos
-- sleeping in huge air-conditioned tents
-- nearly hitting a camel at 80mph on the way to the base in Qatar
-- the painfully bright sun on the nearly-white dirt/sand in Qatar
-- flying in a C-130, in full body armor and helmet
-- taking a crap on the C-130, on the weird elevated, thronelike pot in the back of the plane
-- the sweet combat landing from hell, so steep a drop that I was weightless for a bit, yee ha
-- seeing enormous military equipment all over the freakin' place (the 36-hole Hummer rims are sweet, and so are the MRAPs.. and the Tooele-made armored 2.5 and 5-ton trucks are neat too.. and the planes and the Apaches.
)-- Food in the mess hall! It's damn good and I am not kidding.
-- not being assigned a roommate for the time being. I like that very much
-- the work we are going to be doing is going to be INTENSE and it's going to be close. The finished product is absolutely vital to the is country's defenses.
-- Lots of newer Land Cruiser wagon things, and military Mercedes G-Wagens. If I can, I'm going to buy some FJ40 soft-top bows... not sure how things work here yet though....
Now that I'm mentioning it a lot of strange vehicles are afoot here-- my favorites are the lifted, 4-door Toyota Tacoma-looking things with the tiny rear beds and the mutant 3/4 scale Ford Ranger things, on the tiny 12" rims LOL Lowlights?
-- 2 people were killed a couple days ago, by a remotely-launched, coordinated mortar attack. Mortars suck! and we are pretty damn close to the perimeter-- I can see houses when we walk to the mess tent. I don't like that.
-- We're REALLY, REALLY far from home
-- it's hot... ish
-- there is one guy on my crew that might not make it home, as he complains without END and we may kill him and bury him out here.
-- being able to see the awesome landscape but not go out into it.
Overall it's pretty mellow here right now. We are not in any real danger where we are, despite our proximity to the perimeter.. and there are a LOT of armed people around, at all times. Pics when I can get them.
