New Office

I have begun to occupy a new office that has a better view and is farther from the flag pole.

Settling In

I think I am now into a routine of sorts. Up, shower, and to office by 7am. Normally off between 8-9pm. Fridays or Sundays are sleep in days which last Sunday I slept till 8am when I got a work related phone call.

I have obtained a wall locker which it is nice to be able to hang stuff up and store things. Unfortunately it is outside the building as they don't have enough space inside due to the overcrowded conditions.

I thought having a top bunk and have to climb up into it and down out of it was a pain. But I think the bigger pain is having to use bottled water to brush your teeth. Ah, we Americans are so spoiled.

I prefer Chow Hall 2 over Chow Hall 1. 2 is newer and I think the food is better. Weather is still nasty here. Rainy and cold today.

Staying Put

Well I found out I would be staying here at the airport at a fairly new command to work. My section is in the process of moving to a new building and so far I am the only one in the new office. I have been going in around 0630 and we end around 8-9pm. Right now they have me working on something I’ve never done before and would not have expected to have to do from reading the contract…HQ Security Officer. It is a position that hasn’t been filled and I am supposed to build the program from scratch. NATO countries have people trained for this and Army CI doesn’t teach it. Anyways my job will be like trying to stop a sucking chest wound with the smallest Band-Aid you can find.

The base has about 3-4 times as many people on it as it was originally designed for. Hence I sleep in a “bay” that is about 16’ x 12’ and has four bunk beds in it. The only locker I have is a High School size locker. I live out of my two bags for my clothes. The bags are in the walkway in our section along with everyone else’s. Due to shift workers, most bays keep their lights out 24 hours a day and you need to use a flashlight. Internet, when it is up and running, is free in the barracks and we do have inside plumbing with real porcelain thrones.

My 7 “bunk mates” are all day workers so we turn our light on at night for a while.
There are two chow halls run by KBR (England) and the food is ok most of the time. I think breakfast is the best. We are allowed three bags (small issued mesh ones) of laundry each week. I have found that at least a few shirts that were XL now fit like a Medium or small Large. “PXs” are geared more for Europeans and there is only a trailer sized American one on this base.

Thankfully there is a coffee shop near my building which serves a good European espresso…normally I have the small but there has been occasion where I opted for the grande.

I sometimes go over to another base and that is where I met up with Terry Clyburn again. We worked together in Kandahar in ’07 and he filled me in on the guys we sent to Gitmo and a few others that are finally doing time courtesy of our joint investigation with the Bureau.

Kandahar to Kabul

So we get into Kandahar early in the morning and find out there is a new rule. If you are just transiting the base you can only go between the inbound and outbound terminals. And you have to have this special pass revalidated every four hours. The terminals are about a quarter mile apart and when you add carrying all your bags and equipment that ain’t fun.
We found a Marine whose job it was to drive travelers to the transient tent, even though you aren’t supposed to leave the terminals, and decided we would ignore the ridiculous rule. Well for six days we were in the tent. The tent consists of about a hundred or so tightly packed bunk beds with mattresses that you could feel the springs (or what was left of them) in.
Due to weather, VIPs, and other issues the only way we could get out was to have the people in Kabul actually book us on a NATO flight (instead of continuously signing up for Space-A). We made it into Kabul about 0430, just in time for a few days of snow showers.

CRC to Kuwait

We left Fort Benning about 4 ½ hours late due to weather and mechanical difficulties. It was a chartered MD-11 and had the amenities you’d have on any airline flight. I watched one movie, “Killers,” and fell asleep during “Inception.” I don’t remember the third movie but I don’t think I missed much sleeping through it. Food was typical for airline food.
We landed in Leipzig, Germany after about 8 hours to refuel and were on the ground for all of 45 minutes before heading onto Kuwait. Four and a half hours later we landed in Kuwait. Naturally we got in way too late to get a flight out that night so it was off to the transient tents to wait for a late night flight out the following day into Kandahar.
At the air base in Kuwait you have Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, and Subway. Of course they are not exactly like what we are use to (taste wise) but it is a good thing they are there. The military recently decided to have contractors pay for their food in the mess hall in Kuwait. Ok, but the problem is they make you use an “Eagle Cash Card.” Think prepaid cash card that the government wants you to use for shopping at AAFES in theater (can’t be used back home). Well for one I couldn’t just go get one and second why get one when I was headed for Afghanistan anyways. So I got my last taste of fine “American” cuisine before leaving Kuwait.