Taking a little trip

[LittleRedFlatBack]

We just can't say it enough for you guys Ryan...............thanks for what you do. Also, I saw that you had a birthday a few days ago (thanks to JaneAnn). Happy belated birthday. I hope you had a good one.

[XLR8]

Ryan - good to hear from you!

In case you missed his earlier post - here's Post #5 from a new member bigxhawks1 (Rob) who's also in your area and invited you to contact him.

Post#5-Click

Just a thought... do you have a friend or family member that you can invite to join the CAC and post notes for you when you can't? That way, when your time is limited to a quick email, someone can still keep us informed how you're doing and if you need anything.

Take care soldier and let us hear from you.
Jane Ann

[Bioscache2]

Hey folks, here is my latest newsletter. I also attached some pics in a slideshow with the email. I sent it to Mac so hopefully he can figure out how to post the pics from the slideshow as they are too big to send as actual pictures and I dunno if I can post a slideshow to this.

Well the list grows everyday. Once again I hope I got everyone but if not forward it to them and then give me their email address. I still need Matt's address too.

About 5 and a half weeks in now. The whole time we were with the guys we replaced they told us, yea you don't see much rain here but it has been clousy and rainy for over a week now. Most of the base is gravel but where its not has become a mud bath. Not too much recent events since last email. We've done more patrols and had various other military groups come and stay here for a while and then leave. One group, that was led by an Air Force Major, and about 50/50 Army and Air Force inquired as to the conditions under which we live in order to decide whether they would live up here permanently or be based elsewhere and come up here when necessary. They asked about all these ammenities and I must have been angry that day because I responded, we live like soldiers and do just fine. Well that answer didn't win me any points and while they came and stayed to conduct their assesments of the area they left saying they'd be back in a month or so. The whole time they complained about the conditions (we've had some power and heating issues and the showers lack hot water sometimes, but we get by) I apologized and told them next time I'll ensure the mariot down the road is available to accomodate their every need. Luckly the major had a good sense of humor and told his boys to stop complaining (he's been in the military longer then I've been alive so even though he's Air Force, he's an 'old soldier').

Other events coming up for me will be a patrol tomorrow to go to the District Center to pay the locals working on the road improvement project. They go around filling up pot holes and smoothing it out (this is a dirt road).

Operations around here, especially on the FOB are very much, get it done, however possible, situations. We had some 7 ft hesco's come in. (Hescos are these giant metal grated containers, lined with a cloth like material, that we fill up with dirt, basically hard shelled snad bags that are open on the top. We use them to create walls.) Now the dimensions on a 7ft hesco is 7ft tall and a square of roughly 3 by 3 feet. So a lot of dirt and one hesco contains 4 of these 'boxes' linked together. As you can imagine, with all this metal and material each one complete hesco weighs well over 100 lbs. Now I ordered 30 of these things but they gave me 30 pallets with each pallet contained 3 full hescos. Making each pallet, if I had to guess, around 500 lbs. These things show up in jingle trucks (local container trucks that we contract out. They're called jingle trucks because the locals like to hang, what I can only describe as, metal versions of beads that people might hang in a doorway if they were from the 70's. The locals put these things everywhere and decorate their trucks in a 'pimp my truck fashion.........different strokes I guess') So these trucks show up with 8 pallets each and there is no way they are making it up the hill to our FOB (we're on a big hill). So the first OSHA violation is I send the locally contracted back hoe/front loader to go and push these things up the hill. Now all jingle trucks are flat beds with 20 ft shipping containers put on them. They are secured by wratchet straps....thats it. Sometimes they use 4, sometimes 2 so dynamics come into play with these things. As they come up the hill we have them turn off into what we call the red yard where they 'cool off' for a time of our choosing for security purposes. Now this yard is about 3/4 of the way up the hill and as you turn off the road and into it your still on an incline for a little bit until the yard opens and flattens. Well two of the truck drivers, probably nervous about making it up all the way turn a little too sharply and turn before they've made it up the hill. Now the trucks are narrow to make it through the passes in the mountains but the height is comprable to our big rigs. Think the full height, with the weight I described above of the loaded hescos, about 2/3 the width of american big rigs, with the containers just loose enough that dynamics start to come into play all trying to turn on what is probably a 30-35 degree hill and you quickly realize why I thought for sure that these two trucks were going to tip and tumble down the hill. One soldier caught it on camera and I will try to get those pictures, but yea OSHA violation #1 (actually thats probably like 4 but we'll count it as one).

Now the next problem is off loading these things. They are stacked to the top of this container and are stacked at a full sized loading dock with all proper equipment. I have at my disposal a forklift.......thats borken, and a bobcat with forklift atachment. Also for reference a bobcat can't even reach the first pallet due to the height of the truck and the prongs are too short to reach the set back pallets and the bobcat, due to the size, can only lift one hesco at a time, not even a full pallet and I have 2 stacks of 4 pallets each recessed in the truck. Well the boss says we need them so we get two operations going. The first involves a container crane, with lots of chains and we basically wrap up the hescos and then raise the crane, this works well but is painstakingly slow. So the faster method is we get the back hoe guy (whos nuts) up on a small drop off that the trucks back up to (efectively putting the back hoe at container level) and we wrap the hescos in chains and then wrap the chains around the bucket of the back hoe and he yanks them out. Between the free falling hescos as they come tumbling out or the swing hescos from the crane as the hescos finally pass the point of no return I'm pretty sure that qualifies as OSHA violation #2.

Thats just a small example of the things that go on here. Maybe next time I'll tell you how my truck mechanic (relying on just learned experience) and I (relying on my one EE class at the academy) are attempting to diagnosis our generator and power problems with a multi meter and lots of crossed fingers (hey is this supposed to have voltage.....I dunno, should these two wires be connected.......not sure, now what was it my professor said about 3 phase power and keeping the phases seperate? Was that important) All while my 1SG overwatches and interjects such helpful hints as (Hey sir we're all out of those double sized breakers but if we take out that single breaker and connect all the wires into this one then this triple will fit in there...........uhhhhh, thanks Top).

Well thats enough for me, I'll talk to everyone later.

PS. The attached slide show is my commander and I up on a hill inside the FOB. The locals with us are various interperters that work with us. We're sitting on an old Russian gun as this site used to be a Russian bunker. The mountain in the back is called Spena shagar (I think) but translated it means White Mountain. At its highest point its 4700 meters. The Pakistan border is just on the other side.

-Ryan

[Bioscache2]

Also thanks for the support and well wishes. I appreciate it.

[Patrick]

Ryan,
Keep these reports coming- when the opportunities allow it! We appreciate hearing from you, and hearing all about what you're doing over there. Take of business, my friend, and come back to us.

-Patrick

[Bioscache2]

Another update folks. Mac, please post those pictures for me, thanks

Hello again. As always the list has grown a little from people asking for it. It's interesting right after I send one out because I always get auto responses either from spelling emails wrong, or because someone's filter put me in the spam box (Thanks for that Megs, Moe, see if you can't square her away or something).

So lets see whats happened since last time. I've been deployed for just over 2 months now and for you math wiz's out there, thats almost 14% done. So still aways, but I will be home before then (more about that later).

The base is holding together and getting better everyday. We still have our share of problems (like a fuel pump that first wouldn't start, and then was a little overzealous. Apparently it pumped too much for our hoses to handle and was heating the fuel due to friction. Let's see heating fuel near our 40,000 gal diesel ........ nothing to worry about.) but we do ok. We've made more progress with the locals too. They especially like the radio station we have on the COP. It's called radio Jaji (Jaji being the district) and we've hired LN (local national) DJ's to run it. Now I know what you're all thinking and yes we do overwatch it a little and give them some messages to put out for us, but it is their radio station, and since we don't speak the language we have to just trust them. It's very useful to get our message out, but more then that, just getting information out to people. Much like folks back home, the people don't always have oversight about whats going on in these towns and the message that is being played is usually biased by the presenter (Geez, that sounds like you're comparing the Taliban to the media......no I would never do that). As you can imagine, the bad guys don't like it very much but thats a good sign that its working. We also invite the local leaders to come and be interviewed and get their message out, which they are only too happy to do.

Other interactions we have with the locals is pay day. We had a road improvement project where we (The US) hired a local contractor to come and improve the road (still just gravel but better gravel now, with less pot holes......we're sending them to NYC next). Well every two weeks we pay them 3000 Afghani for the work (they work 6 days a week over here, wouldn't that suck. Still, its better then working 7 days a week, in a country far a...........um I digress). The conversion rate is roughly 50 Afghani for 1 USD, making there 2 week salary 60 USD. Huge huh. Well we just completed this project and have already submitted the next one. At the end of the project we took some extra money and gave gifts to the workers a new pair of clothes for them (we affectionately call them Man pajamas or man jams for short, the interpreters have adopted this as well which is comical to hear them say). So we went down for the ceremony and it turned into a shura (a meeting for locals to air complaints and discuss things within the village). This is kind of how any meetings go, but such is life. Well we packed about 35 people into what is roughly the size of a college dorm room (don't worry, the pictures are attached) on a getting to be summer day and of course the CO and I are in battle gear which doesn't breathe very well (something about air holes defeat the whole bullet proof idea......I dunno). On top of that, the day before I was running around trying to get 10 vehicles prepped for transfer that had never been looked in before and fielding questions that go with that (hey sir, are we supposed to be giving them batteries with the trucks, because this truck is missing them) and never changed out of PT's (short for PT uniform, with PT = physical training). Now pt's are shorts and a T-shirt as opposed to a full pants and jacket uniform (If you see where this is going, bravo). So I get sunburned, pretty well. Now fast forward back to the hot room, in battle gear, with 35+ other dudes and every time I get bumped (which is often, since it was crowded, 3.......I think you get the point) and you can see I probably wasn't in the best mood. Well luckily they had something in store for the CO and I, brand new turbans.

Now the turban over here is a sign of respect and maturity (no laughing, I hear it) so its a pretty big deal for them to give us them. Also these turbans cost about 50 USD (keeping in mind that the avg workers 2 week salary is 60 USD) so this is no consolation prize. Well they brought them out and wrapped them for us and put them on and they were ecstatic about us wearing them. We kept them on (until we went outside again, then back to brain buckets, for security) and the locals loved it. Yes, I got pics of that too. So that was a pretty big event and pretty cool. The CO and I will be bringing them and wearing them again for the next local meeting. Much to everyone's liking.

The other cool event was an internal, US Army, event. We got a visit from the DCG (Deputy Commanding General). He's a one star general and is the deputy commander for the division. (For those of you scratching your heads, heres the quick break down, all of these numbers are estimates. Start with one soldier; 4 soldiers make up a fire team, headed by a specialist or sergeant; 2 fire teams make a squad, headed by a sergeant or staff sergeant; four of these make up a platoon, headed by 2nd or 1st LT; 3 of these make up a company headed by a CPT (this is my level, I'm an XO, or the number 2 guy for a company); 4 of these make up a battalion, headed by a Lt. Col; 4-6 of these make up a brigade, headed by a Col; and finally 4-6 of these make up a division, headed by a two star general. So this guy is second in command of roughly 30,000+ troops.........he's kind of important). So anyway, he has come to award us our combat patch. Again, for those militarily challenged, the unit patch is worn on your left shoulder, it represents the unit you are assigned to. After being in a combat zone for a set time (usually 30 days) you are awarded your combat patch, which goes on the right shoulder and displays the unit you went to combat with. Now for all it is the same on each, but once we move to a new unit, the combat patch stays until we deploy again, and then we update. But once you get a combat patch once, you'll always have at least one to war. Many use it as the litmus test for whether a soldier is experienced or not and like my CO said, we all became 'combat veterans' that day, and its something that can never be taken from us. Pretty cool. After that the general walked around the COP a little and then got back on the helicopter and left, along with his contingent (various officers and protection detail and even some fox news guys so keep your eyes peeled for the next few days). We got some pictures from that too, notice the long hair on me (well long by Army standards) whoops, CO and SCO didn't like that too much in front of the general, but I said I was too busy for a haircut.........they'll get over it.

Well thats about it for the major items. I'm doing well here and enjoy the items and emails you all have sent. Also I put in my request for leave from 7 September - 24 September. No promises, but thats the plan for now (I centered the wedding date, to protect it..............NOT MINE, for those who don't know what I'm talking about). I'll update that when I hear more. As always, let me know if I left anyone out and feel free to send this to whoever. Talk to you all later.

Ryan

[Patrick]

Ryan,
It's always great to hear from you! Thank you for including us in your updates.

A radio station? Interesting. What kind of music do they listen to over there?

I'll eagerly await Mac getting online and posting those pictures- I want to see your turban.

Take care, young man, and please do keep us updated.

-Patrick

[Gry Ghst]

One for me Two for you.Looking forward to the pics.

[XLR8]

Good to hear from you, Ryan! Thanks for the update and we'll be looking forward to the photos.

Jane Ann

[SPANISHVETTS]

Hi Ryan,

Just back from being AWOL. Sorry I missed your deployment party. Maybe I can make your hail and farewell.

Thanks for your news letters. My #1 question is how well did your training prepare you for the reality of being there?

There is a retired SEAL named Johnny Walker doing security work somewhere in country. If you bump into him make him buy you a drink. Tell him it is pay back from me. Johnny is one of the best men I have ever known!

We get C5s, 141s, 130s & E3s through Rota everyday. If you get a chance to hop on one Thunder and I would be honored to whisk you away to the nearest bars and restaurants.

You can contact me through the speedkarts website or easier ask one of the guys in the tower to call me. This is a small town and everybody knows everybody else.

Take care and stay safe,

Igeaux

[Mac]

Here's a few pictures from Ryan. I have to resize a few more before I can post them.

I also have a Powerpoint from Ryan I was going to disassemble and post up the individual pictures but my computer time has been restricted of late. Anyone who wants to see the PPT, send me a PM with an email address and I will forward it to you.

-Mac

[Mac]

Here's the resized ones... including the turban shots!

-Mac

[Bioscache2]

A radio station? Interesting. What kind of music do they listen to over there?

I'll eagerly await Mac getting online and posting those pictures- I want to see your pictures

Music is a mixture from the local countries around here, none of which I understand but its the most effective thing we have for getting info out since there are no tv's, most can't read and if they could there are no newspapers, etc. This is just a very loud loud speaker. Our Dj's even get requests from Pakistan about 15 km's away.

My #1 question is how well did your training prepare you for the reality of being there?

There is a retired SEAL named Johnny Walker doing security work somewhere in country. If you bump into him make him buy you a drink. Tell him it is pay back from me. Johnny is one of the best men I have ever known!

Training prepped us pretty well but there will always be unknowns. I'll have to answer that question again when I am a PL.

As for your friend I'll keep an eye out but we're too remote for civilians on our base and theres no alcohol over here for me .

Also I will definitly look you up should I be traveling, perhaps on my way to mid tour, but that won't be for a while

Also the pictures are fairly self explanatory with the newsletter but feel free to ask anyway. Notice the long hair in the combat patch pic....whoops.

Mac, thanks for posting the pics for me.

[Mac]

Mac, thanks for posting the pics for me.

My pleasure.

-Mac

[Bioscache2]

Another email update. I think I figured out the pics this time.

Hello again, we've grown again, which is great. Its been about a month since the last email which bring my total time to just shy of 3 months. I'm a 1/5 of the way done so I just have to repeat this time period 4 more times. Not too bad when you think of it that way.

As for activities here it has quieted down some. We had a big op with a lot going on for the end of May and it meant many long long days but its over for now and we're starting to get our rhythm back. The CO is even thinking of making Sundays a half day, which would be nice. Now I know it won't really be a half day for me but maybe a 3/4 day. I was kind of dragging today and the CO says, you should go to bed early tonight, get a 8 hour sleep in. I looked at him and just laughed, I haven't had 8 hours of sleep continuously since I've been here, but its a nice thought. Maybe I'll get that on Sundays.

The big operation wasn't what most of you were thinking. It was mostly non-kinetic (kinetic being shooting and what not like you normally think of with the Army). The ANA (Afghan National Army) came up here (there are no bases of them in our area) and patrolled with our troops, going to various villages and asking how things were. The results were very positive, both with the locals and also with how well the ANA did. They still have a lot to learn but they were more helpful then they were a burden and definitely have the potential to do well on their own. Included during this operation was my first opportunity to go on a real patrol. Previous ones had been to the district center thats less then 1000m from the base, but this one took us to a temporary control center set up on a hill top. The drive there took a little over an hour going at roughly 8-10 mph. We drive slow due to road conditions and its safer. The patrol was uneventful but it felt good to finally go on a real one.

There wasn't too much exciting that happened outside and a lot of people have asked what a typical day is here so I'll try to explain. Everything is based off of Zulu time (which is Greenwich mean time). We do this since we have ops going everywhere we need to have everyone on the same time. Zulu time is 4 and a half hours. I wake up at 0230z (0700 local). Well thats when my alarm goes off. When I get up is usually about 15-20 min later. I come in and we have a BUB (Battle Update Brief). This is where we go over what was accomplished yesterday and what we have coming up for today and future stuff. This lasts about 45 min or so and then I grab some breakfast. Normally its a hot meal (meaning they cook stuff for it) but sometimes its a cold one (just pre-made stuff), so I'll grab a cereal box and a pop tart along with some juice.......breakfast of champions. From there its run around and check on various things. Are the cooks tracking the truck of supplies that came in, mechanics getting the fuel truck downloaded, and which vehicles are they working on today. I may also be trying to order things for here, checking on contracts on the COP, inspecting construction work on base or whatever else the CO can come up with. Thats all if the CO is here, if he's not then I have to still do the other stuff but take over CO duties, which means monitor patrols outside the wire and, if necessary and they can't reach the CO cause he's out, C2 (command and control) the patrols. You would think with todays technology its easy to keep track but the fog of war (a term for the lack of knowledge about whats going on everywhere) is still very much alive and well. From there I grab lunch (usually eaten inside the TOC, Tactical Operations Center, the brains of the base, and also my primary work place), try to watch jeopardy if its on then and I don't have to work and eat (or sit in on a 2 hour meeting over a computer via powerpoint......ugh), and then back to the new things that have appeared throughout the day or didn't get done in the morning. Dinner goes next, but I forget half the time and run in at the last minute to grab something. Sometimes I have to look real sad so the cooks take pity on me and make me something cause I missed dinner. This usually works. Then its back to work and bed time is intended for 1900z but almost always ends up being 2030z or 2100z. And then we start all over again, same way everyday, no weekends. What free time I get is usually spent writing or reading emails and I try to squeeze in gym time throughout the day. These two things are my salvation here. That and on a classified network there is a chat program, set up so bases can talk to each other but I've managed to find my friend Jen on there and we'll talk on there when possible. Given both of our schedules, the consistency is more messages left for each throughout the day then straight chatting, at least until nighttime when it calms down. So thats a great plus as well.

Now various events will break this up such as higher ranking people visiting the COP (right now the only person on here who outranks me is the CO and since we work together, I get to operate with almost autonomy......until some important people show up) or something might happen that needs our attention, or a mini crisis needs to be solved, who knows. One the nicer things that makes the whole place react is getting mail. We don't have regular mail delivery being a little too remote so it goes to a bigger base and gets brought out here when we get resupplied, which was about every 10 days or so but recently it was almost 3 weeks since mail. This makes the packages buildup and it becomes Christmas Day when they finally arrive. All the soldiers, from the CO to the privates, eagerly look to see what came in and they take the boxes or letters to whatever corner of the COP and open them. Everyone looks to see what the others got and inevitably the food, snacks, etc come out and get passed around to everyone as they show off a new movie or magazine (as if to prove my point one of the night guys (some jobs have shifts to ensure they are always manned) came over and handed me half a giant rice krispy treat that was homemade). One of the more touching but at the same time harder to watch scenes is when soldier get pictures or video (on DVD) of their kids.

My CO is a long time Army vet, at 36 he has been in for 17 years and been in multiple deployments so he knows the deal. He is very easy going and outspoken, always joking. In mid January he and his wife had their second child and first son, Broady. When the CO left in March Broady was barely two months old. He'll be 6 months old shortly now and by the time we redeploy he'll be almost 18 months old. The CO gets a dvd and pops it into his computer. He laughs as he watches his baby boy make faces at the camera, as his wife encourages him. My Co is smiling but he gets a little quieter and his face saddens a little. I can only imagine what it must be like to have to watch your son grow up on DVD's sent to you and wonder when you come home if he'll recognize you. At least my CO was there for his birth where as another soldier here learned of his child's birth via email. His son will be over a year old when he gets to see him upon his return. Still the soldiers will show each other the pictures with a sense of pride, possibly to mask anything else, as they talk about their childrens accomplishments or developments since last time. I think they share because they know we all are affected in that way in some manner but still, as a young guy with no kids........I can only imagine.

I went back and forth about including that last piece about dvd's and pictures, but I put it in because it touched me today and I think it is an often overlooked casualty of the war. Everyone is all too aware of the normal casualties of war and there is no need to put them in this, so I don't. But in this day and age and this tempo; this casualty, the loss of family time, has become even more prevalent. Our acting 1st Sergeant (enlisted guy in charge, and I say acting because the original is temporarily away due to medical reasons) has been deployed for over 3 years now cumulative and he's only got 9 years in the Army. For those who started in this time they are looking at spending almost 7 years gone before they hit retirement eligibility at 20 years in. Thats a lot of time away from home...

Just to switch gears and end on a happier note, I continue to do well here and I've heard rumor that I'll be getting a platoon first. Platoon leader is the primary job of LT's so I'm excited to finally get it. As a platoon leader I'll be in charge of roughly 20 guys (we've had to slim down the platoons out here to make more of them) and I'll get the chance to interact more with the locals and patrol more, as well as lead, as opposed to doing admin things on the base. I like my current job a lot but I've been waiting for being a PL for a while.

Also I just want to thank all those who respond. Whether it be sending packages or letters or emails, it is all appreciated and offers a chance to return home, if only in my head, for a bit. I try to respond back to everything but sometimes I get overloaded and it gets pushed off, sometimes indefinitely. I apologize for this, but never think they are not appreciated it. Its a bigger help then you realize, even just emails about everyday stuff back at home (or where ever you may be). Thanks for reading and if I need to add anyone to this list or you want to forward it, go right ahead. I'll talk to you all later.

Ryan

PS, One pic is from a flag raising ceremony where the CO and the local district commissioner raised the Afghan flag next to the American Flag on the base here. The next one is me getting yelled at by our supply company's 1SG (all staged folks.....he knows better of course), the supply company's CO is the other guy. Finally the last two pictures are of one of the hail storms we get up here sometimes. The hail ranges from corn sized up to marble sometimes and it can be pretty intense. Enough to cover the ground or look like its snowing. Also notice all the antennas and satellite dishes. We're pretty sure walking around up there will give you an extra appendage, like one of the workers here (last picture). He got that after working here for a few months.......(not really) and in the picture he's giving a modified sho.........uh never mind.

PPS, I'll send the official newsletter when it comes out.