Afghanistan????

Dec 25, 2008
Well it's official. I am in Afghanistan. I have to admit...I never thought that this time would come. First off I apologize for not writing anything until now. Things have been crazy around here. The last post I made was the day I flew out of Kyrgyzstan. The way the fog was coming back in I didn't think I was going to. We were the only one out of three flights that made it out. It was a 3 1/2 hr flight on a C-17. Pretty much everyone slept for the whole thing. It finally set in that I was going to Afghanistan when the pilot announced "prepare for landing". I don't know why but up until that moment it had not sunk in yet. I just kept blurting out at random times "holy crap...were going to Afghanistan". And now I'm here. A lot has happened since I got here. That was only ten days ago. I won't go through each day because that would just be too much. Little stories will pop up from blog to blog. Well I guess I could have started off by saying Merry Christmas. I didn't think it was going to be that depressing being away from home for Christmas. Oh but it was. All I could do was think of what I would be doing if I were home. I was able to go to the Christmas Eve service at the chapel here. It was both uplifting and a drag. It was nice listening to the choir sing songs and at the end having everyone sing silent night by candlelight. But at the same time...it isn't much fun doing that by yourself. I'm not going to lie. I have definitely taken my time with family and friends for granted. You think you have all the time in the world, but in all reality, it can be snatched away in a heartbeat. So for whoever is reading this be it family, friends, strangers, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter...whoever...cherish the time you have. I know I'm going to make more of it when I get back home. Enough of the serious sad stuff. My Christmas dinner was very nice. Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, and apple pie for dessert. Not to shabby for being overseas. I even had a present to open this morning. A package I received from my good friends the Pettyjohns arrived yesterday so I saved it for this morning. Made it feel a little more like the real thing. Let's see what else is there. Oh. Today I saw something the I know my little bro in-law would have loved to see. Two Marine Harrier jets were flying around Kandahar. For anyone who doesn't know, those are the ones that can lift off of the ground like a helicopter and then take off like a jet. Pretty cool. He would have been in heaven if he could have seen that. I really need to start taking pictures. When you work on a flight line you get to see all kinds of cool stuff. Today was definitely one of those days. Another cool thing is having two Autralian guys working with us. That has to be my favortie accent. I don't know why but I just like it. Their's are so strong that I actually have problems understanding them sometimes. I was talking to one the other day and he was using all of the common slang that you hear in movies and stuff. He was saying things like "bloak" "out in the bush" and the best of all was when he called someone a "whanker" HAHA. It was great. Well I think i'm going to end this for now. My work schedule is getting better so I should be able to update this more often. The picture is of the C-17 flight. Until next time......

The mountains

I think I mentioned in my first blog the mountains. This was the only good picture I was able to take.

Monday morning football

Mon Dec 15th
Well once again my body felt like it was a good idea to have to go to the bathroom at 3 in the morning. This may seem silly to be writing about but I mean come on. It's just getting a little bit ridiculous. Anyways. It was another early morning breakfast today but, i'm glad we ate when we did. Upon entering the chow hall my friend and I realized that the Ravens game was on. It was already the fourth quarter but that's OK. So here in Kyrgyzstan it's Monday Morning Football instead of Sunday Night Football and then Monday Night Football will be Tuesday Night Football here. Kinda neat. For anyone Ravens fans who watched the game I think they all would agree with me that the last Steelers touchdown call was a bunch of horse manure(try ro keep this PG). So once I saw the end of the game I had to call my wife because I knew she would be watching it. That's when I found out that my other team the Titans lost to the Texans by one point. One measly, no good, point. How does a nearly undefeated team lose to the Texans by one point. Come on. Oh well, they are still going to the SuperBowl. Oh and another thing about the Ravens game. Once the steelers scored there was still 40 seconds on the clock. In my opinion that is enought time to pull something off. I guess the airforce guy working in the chow hall didn't think so. He changed all the tv's to another channel. Neadless to say that place emptied out quick to go next door and catch the end of the game. Onto my next topic. If the day couldn't have been going bad enough I found out that our flight has been delayed. The picture above explains it all. So instead of leaving here at four like we were supposed to we don't get to leave until 645. That's just two hours and fourty five minutes more that I have to stay here. Nothing but a pain in the butt. Well that's all I really have for now. Until next time.....

Little things

So I realized on my previous post I said it was Sat Dec 12th. I was wrong. It was the 13th and today is Sun Dec 14th. I am finally on track of my days now. This may be off the wall but this morning I woke up at 3:30 am and had to use the restroom. It wouldn't be weird if I hadn't done the same thing the morning before. 3:30 on the dot two mornings in a row. It wouldn't be bad if I didn't have to put on my boots and my top and my fleece and my hat and my pt belt and blah blah blah. Like I said before it gets very cold here at night so you can't just hop up and go. You have to put on all of your stuff and walk three buildings over. Then after you step out in the frigid cold you get to try and go back to sleep. Yeah right. I think I slept another hour and a half before waking up and seeing my buddy next to me also awake and ready to go to breakfast. So once again another very early morning to sit around and do nothing all day. Gotta love it. Some of the guys are leaving today to go to Afghanistan. I am supposed to be leaving sometime tomorrow. As bad as it sounds I just want to get there. It goes with the common saying"the sooner you get started the sooner you get done"That's how I feel. I just want to get there, do my job and be done with it. I can't wait to come home and finally get to spend some real time with my lovely wife. Oh yeah, and go on our honeymoon. Until next time......

First one

All right..well I guess i'm going to get this blog stuff on the road. It's SAT Dec 12th and I am in Kyrgyzstan. The computer did the little red line thing and gave me that so im pretty sure that's how it's spelled. The other day I had to be at a hangar at one in the morning to spend the last few hours I had in the US with my family. Those were probably the longest and worst hours of my life. The whole time I had a huge lump in my stomach because all I could think about was"I'm getting ready to leave my family and worst of all my wife for a year...365 days....12 months..."Not fun at all. The time came where I had to say my final "see ya laters"I don't call them goodbyes because to me goodbye means you are leaving and never coming back. That was definitely not the case. It really sunk in when I was kissing my wife for the last time for about six to seven months. Talk about hurt. I tell you what...they were probably some of the best kisses ever. Before stepping on the bus my wife came to me in line to steal one more kiss....god I love her...and then I cramed on the bus with everyone else and all their stuff. From there we rode over to another building where we waited for a couple hours until we could get on the plane. Talk about being very tired and very bored. We took off at about eight o'clock central time and were off to shannon ireland. We landed at about six thirty pm whatever time zone their in. Got off the plane for a little bit while the plane got refueled and the crews changed out. When we were about ready to leave we found out there was a change in plans. Originally we were supposed to fly to romania, refuel again, and then to our destination. Instead they changed it to where we got more fuel in ireland so we could fly straight through. That was a very very long stretch of flying. I think eight hours or so later we landed here in Kyrgyzstan at about 2 in the afternoon. All that time changing will mess with your head. The weather here isnt bad. The days are about 45 to 50 degrees and the nights get pretty cold. But by morning...wow..very cold. There are some mountains in the distance that are very beautiful. When i'm able to snap a good picture ill post it. That's all I have for right now. Supposed to be leaving here on monday to head for afghanistan. Yippee. Until next time......