Toodles

Not much has been happening here in Ghazni since my last post. We are
trying not to count the days :) Our replacements are
due to leave Illinois around the 20th of February and should be in
Afghanistan by the 1st of march or there about.

Our weather around here has been surprisingly mild. It only got really
cold for a few days. I don't think I have seen it get much more than
into the teens. Most of our snow has melted. To be honest I am somewhat
disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing what 3-4 feet of snow
actually looked like. In most places we are back to walking around on
the big ole rocks. The snow was nice because you didn't worry about
twisting an ankle. With all of the freezing and thawing you do have to
worry about the ice though. I have some chain things I can put on my
boots. These boots offer very little traction on snow and ice and just
about everyone has "biffed" it a couple of times. So far I have managed
to stay upright but it has cost me coolness points cause shuffle around
like I'm 85 and half blind.

In other news I have new addition to the family. I'm a very proud owner
of a Yorkshire Terrier puppy. Her name is Toodles. I didn't get to name
her. I have a jewelry commercial I think it was Helzberg diamonds, to
thank for my dogs name. By all accounts she is settling in nicely and
likes to crash on the couch right beside Micca. Back to the commercial.
I guess Helzberg was doing a promotion and the dog from the commercial
"Toodles" was all over the store in the form of a stuffed animal.
Anyways Micca bought a couple for the kids, this was before we even
considered the idea of a dog. Fast forward a month and Micca puts down
the stuffed Toodles for the real Toodles to see and she growls and
attacks it. I'm sure it was pretty cute.

Well that's about it for now, I'm just counting the days 53.....
52.......51 sigh it's still to far away for my liking.

Later

Brent

60 Days

It is Tuesday morning as I write this. The weather this morning was sunny and about 14 degrees. We haven't had any snow for awhile but we are still dealing with the stuff that was left behind. Because most of it has melted and thawed many times we have mostly hard packed snow or ice to walk on. So far I haven't fell yet but almost every one has taken a spill. You don't dare walk around here with a normal stride. Everyone looks like they are in their 80s shuffling around not quite sure about their balance and footing which of course we aren't lol

The big news for us is as of today we have 60 days before we leave Afghanistan. Hopefully everything will go fairly smooth and we will be home about a week or 10 days after that. But if it's anything like trying to get home for leave it could take longer. I'm pretty sure just to spite me the Army will have us leave Kuwait on the 31st of March. The reason I say this is, is because if I left on the first I would get another month of tax free pay and my hazardous duty entitlements.

Not much else is really going on. Our replacements start their mobilization process on the 18th of February which puts them in Afghanistan sometime in late February or the first week in March. When moving as such a small unit nothing is for sure. We have to piggy back our movements on the existing system, whereas if we were a larger unit we would have our own planes and schedules and such. Honestly it's nice to be part of a smaller unit.

Later for now, 60 days and counting!!

Brent

Back in Ghazni

Well today is my second day back here in Ghazni. Believe it or not I got back here rather quickly. I left my house Thursday morning at about 0330 in the morning. Micca and I drove to Bloomington for my flight at 0610. My flight from Bloomington took me to Chicago which then took me to Dallas. I got there at about 1230 and had to register for our flight to Kuwait. For some reason there were not enough seats on that flight so I spent the night in a hotel in Dallas. I couldn't really go anywhere or do anything so I just hung out and ended up watching the national championship. I got up the next day and headed back to the airport which was Friday. We left Dallas at about 1700 that evening. I was lucky and got the first row behind the first class seats so I had quite a bit of leg room. We landed in Bangor Maine at about 2200 or so and let the plane refuel and then were back off on the next leg which took us to Ireland. Same drill as in Maine as in Ireland more fuel and then off on the final leg to Kuwait. Well not the final leg but the final leg of that specific flight. I arrived in Kuwait some 20 hours later on Sunday morning and got settled into my tent about 0330. I had to get my bag and track down my Body armor from the warehouse before I could crash for a couple of hours. I had to be back up at 0630 for accountability and possibly to find out what time the next flight was. When I had arrived the night before I had thought that I wouldn't have any problems getting on the next flight that would leave. There was only about 20 people who needed to get back to Afghanistan from my flight. Well when I got there at 0700 there was about 350 people there and the 2 guys that I was traveling with back from Illinois were still there, they had left the day before me. Well they called about 60 names and barely made a dent in all of there. We were told to be back at 1900 for another manifest call. So with nothing to do and tired as hell I thought I should stay busy and try to fight off the jet lag and then I would just sleep normal that night after the next accountability and manifest call. I didn't think there was anyway in hell I would get out on the next flight.

Well Imagine that at 1900, and after managing to fight off sleep we were told to be back at 2230 (10:30 PM). Well we all know that if we are going to start the process at 2230 than that means we won't fly until probably 0230 or so. That happened to be just the case. By the time you get done with the manifest call and baggage prep it is 0230 before we take off for the 3 and half hour flight to Bagram. If you are keeping track this is the 6th leg of my journey. We arrive in Bagram at about 0730 ( add another 1.5 hours for time change). Our next task is to see if we can catch another flight to Ghazni. Now this isn't near as easy as it sounds. Luckily we talked to our polish contacts and they took care of us and put us on one of their helicopters. I was back in Ghazni by about 1700. Not until after we landed did we find out that all the other American flight had been canceled for the day. It's very lucky we made it back when we did because it started to snow soon after we got here. Tuesday morning had about 5 inches on the ground and this morning we got about another 7 inches. It is suppose to keep snowing until Thursday. So as long as it took to get back it could have been much longer. All in all I spent about 26 hours of actual time flying.

Believe it or not it's good to be back, that may sound odd but I'm back knowing that I have about 60-70 days before I'm back home again.

Later,

Brent

Let the last 70 days begin

So tonight I'm sitting in a hotel in Dallas because there were not enough seats on teh plane today to get me back to Kuwait. I'm not to heart broken I just wish I could have had this day at home instead of here.

My Leave was 18 days long or I should say short. By the time I get back to afhganistan I will have less than 70 days before I will be headed home.

It was great to finally get home and now evevn though I am sad to have to head back I am excited as well becuase the end is so very near. I'm really glad I decided to come home later in the deployment rather than half way through. Not only did I have the added bonus of being home of Christmas and New Years but rather than dreading the rest of the deployment I have a upbeat outlook since the end is so near. I'm sure it will drag out more towards the end but thats to be expected.

I will try to Blog a little more often. Micca is going to post for me since I no longer have access while in afghanistan or if I do it's kind of cumbersome to get it posted.

Thats all for now

Brent

On my way home

So here I sit in the country of Qatar. Why you may ask. Well flights in Afghanistan to get out on R&R are all backed up and they were just trying to push us out. I will be headed to Kuwait in the next few hours where I will finally find out when I will get home. Things have gone a bit slower than planned. So far in the last 6 days I have had a 5 hour helicopter ride and a 3 hour C-17 ride. Still in front of me are another C-17 ride (1 hour) Commercial plane ride from Kuwait to Atlanta (15 hours) and another short plane ride from Atlanta to Bloomington. Hopefully I can cut out a leg to Chicago, we will just have to see.

I had hoped to be home by the 18th but now it doesn't look like it. I was hoping to surprise Ashtyn at school and go to Dade's last cub scout meeting but I will probably miss those. I should be home for Christmas but the way things are going I wouldn't go as far as to promise that. One good note is that the longer it takes me to get here the less time I will have to spend in Afghanistan when I get back.

Later for now

Brent

Waiting

So the time has come where I'm so close to going on leave but for now I'm stuck in Baghram Afghanistan waiting on another plane. I say another because the 1st one is all full and delayed on top of that. So the next plane that comes in may not even be mine because all of the other people on the delayed plane may get on that one.

After almost 9 months to say that I'm a bit anxious is an understatement.

I haven't written in sometime as my access to a civilian internet connection isn't very accesible nowadays. You would think that in going to a larger FOB we would have more ammenities. Well we do have more things but internet isn't one of them.

Things in Ghazni have been pretty busy most of the time. We spend a lot of time watching unmanned arial vehicle feeds and the camera feed from our Blimp. I don't know if I ever mentioned the blimp. We have a blimp that is tethered to the base and provides a camera feed into our operations center. We are able to keep an eye on a pretty vast area with both of those platforms. Winter hasn't set in yet so the bad guys are still pretty busy. We can see the snow on the mountian tops which are at about 8k feet. I imagine the snow will be on the ground in Ghazni by the time I get back.

Speaking of when I get back. When I get back to Ghazni I should only have about 70-80 days before I am back home again.

I would really like to thank everyone that has helped out my family thus far. It is the support network that helps them out at home that helps me out here. It keeps me from worrying to much. My wife was able to move our entire household from Deer Creek back to Prairie City. I'm so excited to come home for Christmas!!!

Well that's enough for now. I hope to see those of you arund town for Christmas and New Years

Later,

Brent

One more day down

Today was just another day but it was special since it was my wife's birthday. If you want to know how old she is you will have to ask her yourself but I can tell you she is younger than me.

Today was another beautiful day in Afghanistan. High of 74 and will probably get down into the low 40s or high 30s. While standing outside today enjoying the weather the guys and I heard a jet flying pretty high over head. When we finally found it in the sky we were looking at a B1B bomber. That was a very cool sight.

It seems as though I have found another friend here in the camp. Our camp pet is a 5 month old dog that looks like a german shepherd mix. Hes a very cute pup, big pup. The first night I was walking by and he started barking at me now he knows me from anywhere in the camp and comes up to say hi or just lay down and hang out. You would think that a dog like that would be hyper and kind of aggressive. This is the type of dog that you could take his dinner away from. I think its probably because he is the most well fed dog in the country. He actually turns down food. I sat down this afternoon outside the door of our dining facility and watched as everyone come out. They all keep something back and toss it to him on the way out. I found out his favorite food is M&Ms. That dog goes crazy for M&Ms LOL.

Well I dont know what else to talk about so that's it for tonight.

Later,

Brent