Afghanistan

So I'm here in Afghanistan. I've been counting down days from one place to another over and over again. Sometimes it was better that the days went slowly, then others I would prefer it to be much faster. Now that I'm here I'm counting the days for the last time until I'm able to go back home. I hope these days go the fastest because there are so many more than any of the other countdowns. For anyone that is worrying about me, I'm extremely safe. I'm an electronic technician and I'm on the largest base in Afghanistan. I won't leave the base the whole time I'm here, and rocket/mortar/artillery doesn't hit our base very often. I've heard that it's only been attempted two times in the last year, and neither attempts even reached the base. I've also heard about a military system called C-RAM (Counter - rocket artillery mortar). I'm not sure that Bagram has one of those systems, and even if I could confirm it, I wouldn't be allowed to say so, but I know if I was in charge of the army every major base would have one. Realistically I'm probably safer here than back in the states. Statistically the biggest killer of soldiers is automobile accidents, and every where I go is within walking distance. There are cars, but the max speed limit on base is 25 mph, and there are sidewalks or walking paths everywhere. I only cross one road to go eat, and don't cross any roads to get to where I work. So please don't worry, the worst part of being here is being away from my family.

Here is a video of C-RAM if you've never seen one. Pretty cool. I haven't heard one firing, but that could be because no rounds are coming in, or we don't have one. Not sure.

40+ hours on a plane

I'm in Afghanistan now, more on that later, but first I have a story about the flight over. We flew from McChord Air force base in Washington (the state) to some small air base in Germany. I'd tell the name, but I don't remember and it's not important to the story in any way. I was lucky enough that I got to sit in first class on a 747. It was very impressive, with a video screen for each seat. You could play whatever movie you wanted. The chair turned into a bed. There was ample space for my feet, and all the random junk I was carrying. It was a really enjoyable flight. We left in the late evening, so I just watched a movie and then slept. When I woke up we were in Germany to refuel and change crews. We were only supposed to be on the ground for about an hour and a half, but of course everything up till that point had gone right, so it was inevitable that the plan would have to change.

As we were taxiing to the runway to take off the pilot came over the intercom to announce that our flight was going to be delayed at least 18 hours due to weather. Our next stop on our journey to Afghanistan was Manas, Kyrkistan, and Manas was at zero visibility and not expecting a change. In a more developed country zero visibility isn't as much of a hindrance, but in a third world country it most definitely is. Eighteen hours on a plane is a little long, especially after a ten hour flight from the states, so our chain of command did the sensible thing and got us rooms at a hotel. Here is were the catch came in. The only hotel that could take nearly 300 people on short notice was roughly 2 hours away in Frankfurt. We had a plane full of soldiers, and each soldier was carrying weapons. Customs frowns on taking weapons into the country, even if it is soldiers. We can't just leave the weapons on the plane, there are going to be crews coming on the plane to change out the food that will be expired 18 hours from now, etc. Germany won't let us through customs with our weapons, and staying on the plane with that many people is out of the question, so we had to send everyone to the hotel, leave the weapons on the plane, and leave guards. Since I was in first class, I volunteered to stay on the plane with three other soldiers from first class.

Everyone left, including all of the crew. The only people that stayed on board with us were a few of the maintenance guys. One of the Germans from the airport brought us over a case of beer and the maintenance guys gave us full privileges on the plane. I basically did everything on the plane that you always want to do, but never actually do when on a plane. Every switch, every button, every little cabinet, I flipped it, pushed it, or opened it. I also got an in depth tour of the cockpit. All the food on the plane was going to be thrown away, so we could eat whatever we wanted. I ate the crew meals because their food was much better than the first class meals even. I actually had a blast. When we finally got cleared for take off I had spent over 25 extra hours on the plane. When we landed in Manas it was about 41 hours after taking off in the states. It was quite the adventure.

Here is the beer. Bitburger is what it was called. I'm not much of a beer drinker, I prefer mixed drinks, but this beer was pretty good. I figured that since I was in Germany, and alcohol won't be accessible for awhile that I may as well have a few. Thanks to whom ever it was from the airport that "accidently" left them on the plane.

Heres two of the other guys enjoying the food and movies.

Radio silence...

Well we're almost ready to go to Afghanistan. We'll be in the field with out internet for about a week, and then shortly afterward I'll be catching a long airplane ride. I may post before then, but I don't expect too. Don't worry though, I'll be plenty bored once I'm over with lots of crazy people talks to write about. Until then, enjoy yourself with a video from CDK007.

Raised that way...

People tend do a lot of things because thats how they were raised. They never specifically made a decision to do it a particular way, that's just how their parents did it. I speak English, eat Americanized food, and I use the American Standard for all of my measuring. I think its a confusing system, I still have problems with it, and yet I still use it. At one point I had no choice, but now that I do it's so ingrained that I drag my feet. I was looking for a good way to fully use the metric system exclusively when XKCD posted the above comic, Converting to Metric. It seems like a good way to start converting, and it's got Firefly references. I wonder if I can find metric measuring spoons to make my yummy cookies with my daughter.

Cuttlefish VS AIG

Apparently Digital Cuttlefish and AIG are having a battle of epic proportions. Err, well, not really a battle, DC is just negotiating a realignment of the celestial Google ratings, but with the way creationists blow things out of proportion, (like the "war on christmas"), this will probably be seen as an act of war. So, if you like Digital Cuttlefish, then maybe throw up a link to him(?) on your blog to help spread the word. If you've never heard of the Digital Cuttlefish, then go over and check it out. You'll enjoy it. There are lots of cuttlefish over there.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a cool wintery picture I took out the window of the plane. I'm pretty sure it's Mt. Rainier that is sticking through the clouds, but there are so many mountains in the area, and I don't really know how long we had been flying when I snapped it. The clouds look like white waves lapping against an island. I got to come home for 10 days for the holidays. It is so good to be at home with the family. I hope everyone is having as good of a time as I am.

It's uncomfortably cold here.

I don't like the cold. I've always heard that at least in the cold you can always add more layers to get warm, while in the heat you can only take off so many layers. That sounds like a great idea, but when it comes to putting it in practice I find it less than effective. The main problem has more to do with the army though. The army doesn't pay any of the soldiers by the hour. We get a salary whether we work 23 hours a day, or not at all. As a result of this, it's much easier to have everyone hurry up and get in line, and then wait as long as it takes. In the civilian world it would be more efficient to set up schedules or appointments and manage employee's time. In the army, time is free, so we do a lot of "hurry up and wait". So my main problem with the cold, is balancing between to much cold weather gear, and not enough. If I have to much gear on, I'm comfortable while we are waiting around, but then I'm overheated and sweaty when we start running around playing army games. The exact opposite problem happens if I wear too little cold gear; I end up freezing while we stand around and I'm just right while we are busy. I chose the wrong day to go light on layers. The training that we did ended up being less physical than I had anticipated, and the weather was much colder than I expected. The picture was taken today right after we got back to the barracks. I was standing on the stairs leading up to said barracks when I took both of those pictures.