Volley Anyone?

The Russians left one serious imprent on the countryside, besides pot loads of armor and mines, volleyball. These people love some volleyball and they love to beat Americans. I guess it's like the underdog bringing home the gold. Like Kentucky, in a normal year, beating Georgia. Let's not discuss last year. Anyway, we played their "A" team tonight. Mind you, these guys play ball about 4-6 hours a day when not doing missions. They have their game on. They whipped our tails the first two games and after getting in the groove and figuring out the weak spots we cleaned them up with the last two. The funny thing is how they count. Imagine a bunch of petite men squatting on the sidelines screaming out scores after every play, then imagine them screaming the same score over and over as we gain points. We're like, hey, it's not damn 10-6. We've scored three times." Ironically they never lose count when their winning. Anyway, we came away satisfied that we didn't get beaten by this ancient people.
Not much else to report. I must shower off the ring worm now. Good night.
N

While I'm attempting to upload a single picture (cross your fingers) I'll elude to an interesting/awkward situation that occurred last night. So, Corrigan, A. Johnson and I went to have Chai tea with the interpreters in the camp. Some of these guys live on camp and have small rooms they live in. Well, they are a very social bunch and like us Americans being in the camp because we treat them well and respect them. (Hold the trust, please) Anyway, they love to have us over for tea and discussions. Anyway, they have satellite TV in their room. Corrigan and I are talking to them and watching them flip channels. Of course there are a plethora of channels, some Russian, Indian, British, the US White House Channel (what the hell) and numerous other adult channels that come in fuzzy etc... Well the guy with the remote stops for about a minute on a Televangelist channel. Some lady was on there talking about Jesus and salvation etc.... they were all fascinated and just looked at it. It reminded me of the RCA dog watching the sun rise. Corrigan and I were looking at eachother in bewilderment. How weird it was to see a bunch of devout Muslims checking this TV show out. Personally, I think they were checking out the lady talking vs paying attention to the proselytizing. Here plastic surgery was very good! Anyway, you may not get it unless you were there to see it. I wanted to take a picture but I didn't think that'd fly too well at the local mosque.

It's Over

After 2.5 days the rain stopped. It took about 4 hours for the heat to kick in after the clouds cleared out. The ensuing steam bath did us right, much like Savannah in the summer, without the breeze. It happened to be the only time they've had rain like this in over 30 years. The mosquitoes promptly to advantage of all things wet and popped out with a vengeance. I killed about 20 of those suckers lunging toward my computer screen last night.
I've tried several times to Upload pictures to no avail. Our bandwidth on our satellite is so narrow that if more than a few people are on the internet its shear luck getting one loaded up and passed on. So, I'll try to add them as able.

Rain

It's still raining. How sweet. I woke up at 0500 this am and it was still drizzling therefore, I made a command decision to get back in bed. Looks like we may get more today which is a good thing because when this front moves through it going to turn into a steam bath.
Side note: Scotty, I love the pics and I hold you to a cold one in a sweet stein. For all you left in bewondermant, I'll post the picture of him toying with me. It's beer porn!
Not much else to report. Keep the Indians dancing, the rain is nice.

Sorry people. Can't upload pics right now. The band is narrow and too many people are on satellite right now. By the way, it rained all through the night and it was still sprinkling this morning. One Afghan told us yesterday that he'd never seen it rain this time of year. Well, the US has rolled into town. Things may change around here. A little rain, maybe a little snow if you make us mad. You never know, if you get us really mad we may take your sand away. Take that!

The Rain Dance Worked

Hi everyone. Hope you all are well. We finally made it to Lash. It’s been a tough few days getting our tent in order settling in our new home. The Brits have been a very welcoming bunch thus far. We’ve tried not to John Wayne ourselves in the place being that this is a British FOB. So, in normal fashion we’ve traded and charmed our way as far as we can. You know, “Here’s this, thanks for all your help and having us around….”
Building relationships is what many call it. We like to refer to it as “kissing ass” in order to call in favors later.
It poured down rain last night for a couple of hours. After chow I walked back to the tent, took a shower, and promptly stood in the rain for about 15 minutes or so. Don’t ask me why I did it in that order. Maybe it’s the overexposure to the sun. Who knows? Anyway, it felt so good and smelled even better. It’s interesting the things you miss when they’re not around. This is the third time I’ve seen rain in 2 months. The other two times were merely showers. This was a booming storm over the dessert. Ahhhh!
Anyway, here are a few shots from the trip to Lash from KAF. We took a detour around a patch of highway and ended up out in the desert. The desert pics are only about 300 meters to the north of the pics of the mountains and foliage in front of my Humvee.
Later

Chinook shots

Here are the only two shots I have out of a Chinook. One is just passed the Red Desert and the other is about a 80 degree bank shot coming into Lash. You're actually looking straight down. Thank God for G forces.

Viewing pleasure

Here are some pics of part of our team at some check points. This was one of our first outings and it felt great to get outside the "wire." It's easy to feel like a rat in a cage on these FOBs. One is me looking over the horizon. Sekula caught me thinking about how much it looks like Kansas albeit a little less green. Corrigan, an avid golfer, found a patch of grass and finally, a frickin' monkey!? We still don't know where it came from but it sure looked depressed. The guards were pretty proud of there little friend. I think the monkey was telling me to leave a weapon behind so he could end his misery. I may be wrong but damn he looked rough. Don't ask me what the red, white and blue tassle is.

PC?

Alright people, get on board. I have my own quote. So, you all know KAF is a big place mainly inhabited by US, British and Australians and little pockets of other smaller players in the coalition effort. Smaller in the size not heart, most of these countries are fairly endowed with manly marbles if you get my drift. Anyway, there is a company of Portuguese Commandos getting ready to deploy back to Portugal and they are all over the place. Over the last week, I’ve noticed the cultural diversity in there ranks and tonight I realized how damned politically correct I’ve become. Well, more like stupid. Anyway, I was at dinner with Partamian and I said “There sure are a lot of African Americans in the Portuguese Army.” Partamian and I looked at each other at the same time and started to snicker. It was a humorous moment
Last week we reconned our future home. It’s about a 45 min Chinook flight from here. Seems like a nice, small place. “Lash” Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) is a British run FOB and they seemed welcoming to our team. Everyone seems to have plenty of time to work out because it’s so damn hot after 1200 not much happens. I left KAF with a mere temp of 106 degrees and landed in Lash to 125 degrees. The next day it was 130 and the day I flew out….136. Note to self…”don’t reincarnate as cookie dough; I’ve already been in the oven.” Of course, you all know I don’t believe in reincarnation, but that thought did cross my mind. You think about weird stuff around here. I’ve come to find out that the average temp in the summer months gets to about 150. Yeah! Skin cancer anyone? So, seems like most work is done in the morning and the afternoons are more sedate. One thing I did notice was how cool 95 degrees and no humidity felt after a day in hell, plus when I got off the helicopter in KAF I felt like I was in vacation in the Alps. They say it gets to about 0 in the winter.
So, let’s discuss the pastry chef et al. Most of the bases have contract (KBR) employees that do the cooking of mediocre food at best. This place has a platoon size (30) element of British soldiers that do the cooking. Among them is a pastry chef et al. Oh my Lord! I didn’t believe it until I saw it. In the midst of the desert was dessert. With the dinner meal every night there’s about a 12 top table full of nothing but fresh pastries and desserts. OK, not good for the gut. The Brits do a 6 month tour. I told a Brit Captain that we’d hold the chef by gun point until May. It took a while for him to realize I was joking. I guess the whole “Tea Party” thing is still deep seeded in there roots. At any rate, I’ll probably need to fast lunch and keep insulin handy for the overeaters in the bunch.

Happy Father's Day

This is an official notice: Happy Father's Day to you all. Wish I could be there to celebrate with each and every one of you, specifically those of you that are father figures to me: dad, Ralph (godfather) and Lamar(father-in-law). Thanks to my dad, Tom, for being a wonderful man. A man who loves God, his family and his country as much as any man could. He and my mother have been married for almost 40 years!!! (Holy smokes) He has selflessy devoted his life to my mother, as well as my brother, myself and our families. He was a pilot in the Air Force for 21/22 years and continues to train pilots that serve and protect our country. Dad, I'm proud to be your son and carry on your name. I love you and appreciate your true example of Fatherhood.
To my wife and daughter: I love you and miss you both so much. I wish I could be with you but I keep hope in how sweet Father's Day will be next year. Thanks for your sacrifices. I know this isn't easy on you and yet you still carry on.
Lamar, you have been through more than I can imagine this year. Know that we love you and appreciate all your hard work. You have always been supportive to Amanda, Leah and me and I'm so very grateful to you. I'm proud to have you as my father-in-law.
Alright, enough is enough. No tearing up in the computer lab!!
I have pics and will post them later. Took a trip to our next location, Lashkar Gah. Its a British PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) base. SMALL, but there's a real Brit pastry chef. More details later.

Date Night

I succumbed to the pressure today. I called a mandatory date night for our team. I demanded, as any good medical officer would, that pizza be the evening meal. I hadn’t had good pizza since “Old Chicago’s” in Manhattan (Ft Riley). Mind you our only choices for pizza are the DFAC (dining facility) or Pizza Hut on the boardwalk. Yes, I said Pizza Hut on the boardwalk. This base isn’t anywhere as bad as it could be. Don’t be fooled though, this isn’t frickin’ Dave and Busters around here. Anyway, you’d think that’d be a hard decision, eh. Well, after a nanosecond of thought, Pizza Hut won the battle of my wits and after 4 games of mind boggling Scrabble, 4 bottles of Gatorade and one Cuban cigar we progressed to the boardwalk. It was like watching the guys board the space shuttle in slow motion. Pizza Hut was ours. We’d worked up a warrior’s appetite with all that mental stress Scrabble had laid on us. Damned if there weren’t about 15 people in line at that trailer. About one hour later with one cup of coffee on board to sober me from the Gatorade and restore my blown momentum, our pizza came. Then it happened. What would you like to drink? We have Pepsi products. It was a statement I didn’t want to hear. What? No Bass Pale Ale. No Flying Dog. Not even (gulp) Budweiser products for God’s sake. I seriously need to have a chat with Allah. This has gone too far! These people are as bad as Southern Baptists are rumored to be. Not in public please but please check under the sink.

The Poop Pond

It came to me that I haven't explained the "poop pond" concept after writing yesterday's notes. You see, when KAF was built, obviously the prevailing winds were not taken into effect. The sewage treatment plant is no more than 150 meters away from the MWR, Gym, Computer/phone room and the start of the common permanent quarters area. So, when you get up to go to chow or get coffee in the morning, the first thing you smell on normal days is excrement. Yeah! This is affectionately known as the "s..t pond." I will refer to it from now on as the "scat pond" for the clean at heart and mind. Literally, as you drive or walk by to the firing range you see bellows of scat water spewing up the middle of the pond. So, when that nice warm breeze is evaporating the sweat off your body, more often than not you are wafting the smell of yesterday's mystery meat. Yeah! This may seem like a crass post for some weak stomached individuals, but it sets the seen for many of our precarious activities.
Love you all. Now, sniff those pine trees and Azaleas like never before.

There I was, speechless

You know, soldiers talk about wierd stuff. We talk about things that most people, out side of health professionals and police type officials joke about. Yesterday, after a vigorous leg workout, Goddard, Partamian and I were walking back to our dust infested tent discussing the finer things in life, like life insurance. We were comparing what our wives would get if something happened to us and what they'd do with the money. There was a moment of silence, reflection if you will, with the warm, easterly winds blowing softly off the "s*%t pond." Goddard piped up and said "Dying would be gay." After a brief moment of reflection and laughter we all agreed another quote had been cast in the e-world.
The above quote is not necessarily the view of the author. Please do not take offense to the above comments. I have no money.

Damn

Damn.

Sorry

People, its bad. I determined that if there was nothing worth taking pictures of that talking about anything may be babble.
I do have some medical info to pass. For providers, bring your credential packet with you with a letter of recommendation. As I have found out the Army is fairly retarded in that you have to be credentialed in different theaters. Its not good enough to be credentialed in the US. So, come prepared to recredential here or better yet start the process at your mob station.
Boredom is the order of the day. Chess is a big passtime. It's about the only thing you can use your brain on around here.