October 31st, 2010 - Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!  Hopefully everyone is getting a lot of treats and not any tricks tonight.  It does not really feel like Halloween here.  There are no decorated houses.  No Halloween parties (well, there was one but I don’t think anyone went).  No excited kids in their costumes knocking on the door.  It’s not like we normally go out of the way for Halloween, but it’s enjoyable to sit with my wife on the porch and hand out treats to all the kids in the neighborhood.  Granted this is probably the least important holiday I’ll be missing, but the fact that I am missing it still sucks.

Another thing that I’m missing is football.  I had been waiting for this year.  My wife has become a huge Colts fan.  We finally moved off the season ticket waiting list and had tickets.  The Colts were going to get back and win the Super Bowl.  Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out that way.

I have hardly had the chance to watch any football this year.  I was able to watch the first game of the season since I was home on pass for it.  Since that game all that I’ve been able to watch was a single half of football a few weeks ago.  The time difference between home and here is just a killer.  The early 1pm games don’t come on until around 9:30am  and next week, if my math is correct, that will move to 10:30pm.  The 4:15 game comes on around 2am here, and the late games are on at like 5am.  

To rub salt on the wound, the Colts have been playing almost entirely the later games and that means that I can’t stay up late to watch them.  If I do want to catch a game it’s going to be in the middle of the night and that means that I’ll be short on sleep the next day.

The game tomorrow is Monday Night Football (here it’s Tuesday Morning Football).  I want to watch the game, so with the 5am kickoff, I’ll be getting up at 4:30am or so to watch as much as I can before the day starts.

October 27th 2010 - Combat Patch

Today marked an important day for my deployment to Afghanistan.  Today we were awarded our “combat patch”.  The combat patch or more appropriately called the shoulder sleeve insignia-former wartime service, but almost every Soldier calls it a combat patch. 

 

When I enlisted in 2000 only a spackling of Soldiers had combat patches from service in Panama or Desert Storm.  For obvious reasons since 2001 the number of Soldiers eligible for a combat patch has increased significantly, but it’s still something not everyone has.  

On the Army uniform, the patch on our left sleeve designates our current unit and our right sleeve is where you can wear your combat patch.  For almost eleven years, my right sleeve has sat empty, but after today I am able to wear a combat patch.

All smiles a few minutes after receiving my combat patch

Our unit patch (left sleeve) is not authorized to be worn as a combat patch and thus we are able to wear the patch of our next higher unit.  Our next higher unit is a Brigade from the 101^st Airborne Division, and thus we are able to wear the 101^st Airborne patch as our combat patch.

Personally, I could not be happier to wear the 101^st “Screaming Eagle” on my sleeve.  The history behind the 101^st is something that I’m proud to wear.  It’s the division that jumped into Normandy during D-Day.  It was the division featured in “Band of Brothers”.  The division has seen service in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

October 26th, 2010 - Something From Home

After being here of well over a month it’s became obvious that I am going to have to fall back on people at home to provide some necessities.  We do have a PX (Post Exchange) here that supposedly carries items that we might need such as hygiene products, snacks, music, movies, etc.  The thing about the PX is that with the exception of one four day period, it’s been out of almost everything.  The shelves are mostly empty on the things that people might want, such as hygiene products, snacks, music, movies, etc.  The real irony is that we just heard word that the PX is supposed to be expanded, so they will now be able to have a greater number of empty shelves.  

I’m not overly concerned about hygiene supplies since I have a good six months arriving any day now with the rest of my gear that still is not here.  Granted, I did run out of deodorant and body wash, but thankfully they had an acceptable type of body wash when I needed to restock, but as for deodorant, they had a completely empty shelf with the exception of one type.  Of course, after coming from the world of Wal-Marts, CVS, and every type of retail store imaginable it was a little disheartening to have so little in the way of options.  With no choice in the matter, I just had to suck it up and go with what they had on the shelf.

On the plus side of all this, I’ll probably end up saving a lot of money while I’m here, on the negative I’ll have to use a brand and scent of deodorant that I do not like until the rest of my stuff arrives.

On an even brighter note, I received my first care package today.  In talking with family and friends, I knew that I had something on the way but nothing had shown up yet.  Every single day I would go by the mailroom and check the list to see if I had mail waiting.  A few weeks ago I had mail, but that was just a confirmation for my absentee voter ballot so that does not count.  Finally, after giving up on the daily disappointment of checking the mail list I skipped today.  Late in the afternoon, someone came into my office and told me that I had a package.  I anxiously left my office to see what I had waiting for me.  Was it going to be an absentee ballot?  A misaddressed package?  Or something from someone back home?

The package was from my mom.  I knew that she had sent something out but had no idea what was inside.  I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the package to find a Halloween blanket and pillow, candy, dried fruit, granola bars, water flavor packets, a magazine and other goodies.  The Halloween blanket is now on my bed and the snacks were dinner tonight since I didn’t feel like eating in the chow hall.  

When a care package arrives for someone here it’s almost like a mini Christmas morning.  When you open the box a few people may watch over your shoulder to see what you get.  The other thing that is neat is that with every package that I’ve seen opened, the recipient gladly shares with everyone else.  Even though the package is theirs, they know that everyone else is stuck in the place and in the same situation and being able to get something as small as a granola bar they like can make the day seem a little better.  

Before this deployment started, I foolishly thought that care packages wouldn’t be necessary, but I was sadly mistaken.  I’ve since realized that with the sporadic stock in the PX and the lack of a Wal-Mart for 8,000 miles, care packages really matter.  I’ve also decided that even if a care package has nothing that I NEED it sure feels good to get something from someone back in the real world.

October 22nd, 2010 - The Passing of Time

Things have been extremely busy lately and blogging has taken a back seat, but things have started to calm down a little bit now.  The last few evenings I’ve been able to have some resemblance of an evening and even had a little time to unwind.  Even two hours in the evening helps me recover from the day.

Time is thankfully moving fairly fast now and that’s good.  Today marks the 2 month mark for my active duty time, so that means that I’m over 15% done with the 400 days my orders for the deployment was cut for.  It also means that I’ve been out of the US for well over a month now, and have now been in Afghanistan right about a month.  

Since I’ve been on my FOB (Forward Operating Base) I’ve started to get into some little routines.  Little things help to mark the passage of time.  For example, every Friday for dinner we have surf and turf.  They usually will have steak and shrimp plus either lobster or crab legs.   

For the last two weeks we’ve had lobster tails.  The tails have been absolutely delicious and would fit right in at any nice restaurant.  That means for the last two weeks I’ve ate shrimp and two lobster tails. 

Also every Friday is haircut day.  I’ve kept the Friday haircuts up for over two months now and it’s definitely a part of my routine.  Granted at the one week mark my hair is still inside regulations, but by getting it cut every week my hair will not be out of regulations if I have to miss a haircut day.  My hair has been getting cut much shorter than I would back home, but at least if it’s cut short the gray hairs are hidden a little bit.

The weather here has started to cool down a little bit.  The days are still in the 80’s but the nights are getting cooler.  Where I am the weather will stay fairly mild during the winter but it’s still going to be a winter.  The winter will probably not cause any real issues here but at least we get seasons.

Not much of an update, but I have to get up early.

October 15th, 2010 - A Plywood Room of my Own

Tonight, after 30 days of living out of a rucksack and a duffel bag, I’m finally unpacked and in a room.  Not just any room but MY ROOM.  My own personal space that has four walls a door and my own bed.

It’s kind of amazing how much I missed sitting in someplace that has four walls and space that I can call my own.  Since I left the comforts of home and started my travels to Afghanistan all that I had was a bed in a grand total of one small 8 person tent, one large 400 person tent, and two 80 person barracks.  All this time my space consisted of a bed and a pile of luggage.  

Finally, after much anticipation I loaded up all my luggage and moved into my room.  My room is about six and a half feet wide and about ten feet long.  There’s a bed, a wall locker (basically a utilitarian armoire) and a large book case sized shelf.  Two walls are the exterior of the building and the other two are made of plywood.  The door slides open and it is also made of plywood.  The walls only go about eight feet high and then there is about 3 or 4 feet of open air before the roof of the building.  In our hallway we have six rooms, but only five of them will be occupied.  

The walls give you the feeling of privacy but the open air above the walls lets the sound from the adjoining rooms travel but that’s fine.  

This morning, when I was getting ready I had a moment of elation and it’s something so small but meant something to me.  I opened up my wall locker and opened a drawer and retrieved a clean pair of socks.  No longer did I have dig into a clean laundry bag or fish into my duffel bag.  

This evening, I opened up a tote that I had packed out before I left and that my wife had mailed out.  Inside was a real blanket, some real pillows, a TV, and my X-Box.  I setup the TV and X-Box and sat on my bed and played Madden with a member on the team.  For an hour or so I didn’t feel like I was in a combat zone.  I didn’t think about the pain it is to go to the bathroom.  I didn’t worry that the PX was out of nearly everything.  I just played, cheered, and yelled out in frustration like I was home.  

Some of the guys have spent time getting their room together.  They’ve built lofted beds or did some other sort of construction.  I’ve debated about lofting the bed to give me some more floor space but the thought of rigging my bed 6’ into the air with some 2x4’s and nails is just a little too iffy.  Not to mention, that a lofted bed also complicates the already complicated bathroom experience.  

So tonight, as I sit in my bed, in my room, with a light on that is operated by me, I finally have a temporary  home.

October 13th 2010 - Adaption

Things have been quite busy lately and putting together a blog post has been nearly impossible.  I’ve started a few entries only to delete them.  I get done with the work day, get to my bed and know that I only have a few minutes of juice left before I crash.  I’ll type out a quick e-mail to my wife, then lie down, and fall asleep before my first song finishes on my iPod.  

It’s strange how you adapt to things in a combat zone.  Things that would be absolutely alien in the ‘real world’.  Some of these things are just small changes but it never ceases to amaze me how the human psyche is able to adapt to new and strange situations.

In the ‘real’ world, it’s pretty easy to get something you want, from toothpaste to music to anything else under the sun.  If you want something you simply get in your car and drive to a Wal-Mart, a CVS, or order it online.  If you order something online, it shows up like magic a few days later on your doorstop.  Here everything is more difficult to get.  If you want a certain brand of deodorant you have one place to go and if you are lucky they may have your brand but they probably don’t have the particular scent that you want. 

Losing the wide gauntlet or retail options has had a positive influence on me though, in that I’m not buying (and spending) as much as I was back home.  When you’ve lost the options to spend money on something, you really lose the need (or necessity) to spend money on something.

 

I’ve also adapted to the dark nights here.   It feels normal now to walk around in the pitch black with a little red flashlight leading the way.  When I get back home, my subdivision will feel and look like Las Vegas to me.  I really don’t think that I’ll be able to go to Las Vegas for a while after I’m home.  The sheer brightness and intensity of the lights at night might make my eyes explode.

The internet here is painfully slow.  It makes AOL dial-up from 1998 seem like the fastest connection in the world.  Coming from the land of fast broadband it seemed like the connection here was terrible, but slowly it starts to feel normal.  I no longer sit frustrated at my computer waiting for pages to load up.  

The list continues to grow and I’m sure that it will continue to grow as time goes by here:

Carrying a weapon everywhere

Walking everywhere

100 meter walks to use the bathroom

Eating at the same place every day

Shredded cheddar cheese that is still frozen

Stale bread

No alcohol

No cable TV

Dust everywhere and on everything

No civilian clothes

Artillery firing during the night

Helicopters taking off and landing all the time

But some things will never feel normal like being away from loved ones or seeing green grass.