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

107

107 is the amount of stargate SG 1 episodes I have watched. There may be more but that is all that I had on my terabyte hard drive. I have watched many other movies as well. While in iraq many of us bought a bunch of the boxed sets of movies. They are quite a bit cheaper there than in the states.

So what is in store for me now? I have the Sopranos all ready to go as well as the shield. The SHield happens to be one of Micca's favorite shows so I think I may try not to watch that until I get home. I'm thinking that may be something we can sit and enjoy together when time permits.

Nothing to adventerous has happen here. My Well diggers began digging the well today. It's a little disappointing knowing I won't get to see the finished product. It really is an experiance to work with the local people. Once they understand the hierarchy of our military structure, I think they come to view us or in the case of me as a tribal leader of sorts. It's a little wierd I don't know quite how to explain it. The Polish Captain and I are the 2 highest ranking officers here and because I am american I think those that aren't polish assume I am in charge of everything. I really am just an advisor and a resource.

In other news the LT that was suppose to show up today didn't. It seems as though he was told that the helicopter that was suppose to take him wasn't going to stop here. Well when the helicopter showed up only 2 polish soldiers got off. So that means one more day that I will spend here which is fine by me.

My big project for today was to inventory the kitchen stuff that the polish are using to make breakfeast and dinner and what not. It seems as though the Army has decided that they are going to contract KBR in to cook for us. It probably wont happen until after I leave but I have started the project in motion. I guess they need to know whats here so they know what to bring.

Another day is done and another day closer to leave :)

Later

Brent

Moving Again

Now that I am all settled into 4 corners it looks as though I will be going back to Ghazni for the rest of my stay in Afghanistan. To be honest even though this place is lacking in amenities... lol to think that I would refer to any of these places as having amenities. I like the remote somewhat austere environment. My biggest task is managing the contract that has a local contractor digiing a well for us. Before these gentlemen showed up at the front gate I really didn't know that digging a well was so technical. Now converting these technical bits through an interperter is a challenge. Language is the biggest challenge alltogether since I have been here. It is either Polish or Pashtun neither of which I have much knowledge in.

So now that I ahve established the needed systems here and got things going they are sending someone in for me to train up so I can leave the this company and work for the Battalion. To be honest I dont mind moving as it keeps me from geting bored and learning new tasks and working with new people always makes things interesting.

Micca has only 2 days left of work after which she plans to concentrate on getting everything moved back to the Prairie City house. We are both looking forward to settling into the B-PC community. Dade will start school after the new year and he is excited as well. He has already met his teacher and seen his classroom and his cousin Jax has been sharing his homework with him to show him where he is in school and to be honest Dade is quite a bit ahead so hopefully any problems adjusting won't be because of school work.

I can't begin to convey how much I am looking forward to getting home. My vacation/leave comes towards the end of my time hereso by the time I finish my eave when I get back here I will have less than 60 days left. Micca and I have this calculator that figures how many days I have left and the percent of time served. Today I was at 62%

Thats enough for now

Later

Brent