Got to Love the Engineers

Well, it’s been a few days, and the only reason that I haven’t written is that I haven’t written. Kind of funny how that works out. Anyway, for those of you who haven’t seen, I’ve created a facebook profile for myself, which has been fun. You can read my blog entries there, now, as well as here. The weather here has started to change. Most mornings are sunny and warm, but we’ve had rain (and even some hail) in the afternoon. I have been reunited with Team Bronco (we even got an email from Bronco Mendenhall a week or two ago), however, due to leave rotations and other things, I will soon be the only member of Team Bronco on Team Bronco, at least until Scott gets back from leave in a couple weeks. Life here at Zerok is very different! The army brought in a platoon of engineers, who have been busy improving our humble abode. They’ve added more rooms, more amenities (we have hot running water for showers), 2 large fridge/freezer units and more Hesco barriers (large metal boxes that are filled with dirt used as bunkers). Anyway, it’s amazing at how much things have improved (Some how the Pentagon got word of what life at Zerok was like, and suddenly we had generals and colonels tripping over themselves to get some improvements made). Morale of the infantry troops has also improved, for obvious reasons. We’ve gotten to fire tons of weapons systems, as well. The new First Sergeant believes in test firing the weapons often, and so we’ve fired the .50 cal machine gun (still my favorite weapon in the Army’s arsenal), the Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher, 120mm mortars, the M14 sniper rifle, the M203 grenade launcher and more. Things here are going well- I’ve read a couple more books, which has been good. I just finished “Not a Good Day to Die”, about Operation Anaconda, which took place not too far from where I’m at. It was a semi successful operation that took place in March of 2002. It was an ill-conceived operation, which could have ended in tragedy without the audacity of a few individuals. Of course, for the individuals who were killed because of bad decisions, it was a complete tragedy. Now I’m reading “Relavtivy- the Special and General Theories” by Albert Einstein. The intro says that anyone with a high school education should be able to understand it, but I’m not sure I buy that. I've also been reading some of the Army's doctrinal manuals, learning more about the way things are "supposed" to happen (SUPPOSED is the key word of this sentence). I've reviewed some of the briefings that we received when we were preparing to deploy, in the hopes of improving the next group's training. Anyway, I’ll stop now, and just say that things are going well. By the beginning of November my team should be done with our leave cycle, and we will most likely spend the rest of the deployment as a team, which will be nice.

Ramadan and other news

Well, it's been a boring week, as I've been mostly just sitting around here at Salerno. I should be leaving soon. I've read 3 books, including Strike Force, which my dad gave me before I left (thanks dad). Other than that, I've done almost nothing. Of note is that it is currently Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset. Some of the interpreters here at Salerno invited us (SSG Johnson and my interpreter) to break their fast with them a few nights ago. We had some delicious food, which included rice, beans, stew like soup, Afghan flat bread, Afghan cinnamon bread, and, of course, some green tea. It was a nice cultural experience, although SSG Johnson found the food to be way too spicy. Now I'm packed up and ready to head to Orgun-e, although we've been waiting all week, so hopefully it happens soon. I did send some letters to Melanie, Tommy, Justin, and Dasha, so they should be getting some mail in a couple weeks. I've heard from the people who have access to mail that it takes 10-14 days to get home. At Zerok we didn't have a chance to send any mail, and now, because of the newly enforced mail polilcy, we probably won't get mail anymore. (We used to get mail whenever someone went on leave and came back, but now, in order to deliver mail, you have to attend a "Mail Handler's Course", so we won't get mail unless one of the few people in our company decides to hand deliver it to us...I'm not holding my breath) I can still count the number of times I've received mail on 1 hand...although each time I've received several items, so thanks to everyone for the things they've sent. It's hard to believe how time moves. I've been back from leave almost a month! 1o more days until dad's birthday, then mine in October, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Tommy's birthday and then home a couple week's after Valentine's...not that I'm counting days yet (months and major events, maybe, but not days).

Still doing nothing...

Well, it's been a few days since I wrote, so I thought I would write a brief update. As I already mentioned, we moved from FOB Tillman to Orgun-e. Once we arrived we got all our stuff moved into our rooms, which aren't quite as nice as the rooms on Tillman, but still worth the move, considering how much easier it will be to move around, now. Then, I got yanked off of Team Bronco to go on a 2 week mission at another location. However, do to poor planning, more management, poor coordination and infighting between the Battalion we support and their Brigade, the mission was cancelled. Of course, that was after I had already flown up here to FOB Salerno. Salerno is a nice base, though. But I've been rather bored. I did read a book about George Washington titled "His Excellency". It was very interesting to read about his life and his grasp of his place in history and how his actions would be viewed by subsequent generations. I also got to listen to the BYU-Washinton game, which should never have been so close. BYU still isn't good enough to make as many mistakes as they did. They got lucky last night, but they need to stop fumbling and need to get better in the defensive secondary. UW missed a few deep balls that were wide open. The good news is that I should soon be reunited with Team Bronco, and hopefully it will be for good, this time. There is something to say for stability, especially when it is with the guys that you trained with for several months.

I've been busy, and the internet was down for a while

Well, it’s hard to believe, but I am back at Tillman. Time flies when you don’t want it to! To give a brief summary of the last month (a little more than a month, actually) I left Tillman on the 24th of July (Deeanna’s birthday, if you remember) and arrived in Bagram that night. I then spent 9 days at Bagram, which was very nice. Then we flew to Kuwait to wait for a flight to the States. Kuwait was every bit as hot as I remembered it. I remember taking a shower around midnight, and then walking to the midnight chow, which is only a 200 meter walk, and being drenched with sweat by the time I got there. From Kuwait I flew home with a large group of service members going on leave. I arrived home on the 4th, and from there it was a whirlwind of fun! We went camping, swimming, fishing (I helped all 4 kids catch a fish), to a couple of movies, restaurants, my civilian job’s summer BBQ, shopping, lagoon, had a neighborhood BBQ, played Rockband many times (we started a band called Fireball, and went on world tour. Tommy and Melanie are both pretty good on the guitar and drums, and Dasha and Justin enjoyed singing). Deeanna and I even spent a night singing hymns at our piano. Deeanna started work at her school, where she is teaching Russian, band and orchestra. The kids also started school, which was exciting for them. The last 5 days honestly felt like 1 day. I just can’t believe how fast the time went. Actually, it is a little depressing to think of just how fast it went. About the only thing wrong with the trip is the amount of money we spent! I left Utah on the 20th at 6:00 in the morning. We flew back to Kuwait, which wasn’t as hot, this time, but still plenty hot. It was a very melancholy flight, as no one was very excited to be leaving home. It was much harder this time than any other time that I’ve left, but still well worth the awesome time I had. I spent 1 night in Kuwait, and then flew on to Bagram. I got to Bagram on 22nd, and was there for 5 days. Now I’m sitting here in Tillman waiting to meet up with the rest of my team. Presnell and Jones are both gone now. Jones should be on his way home, as his deployment is over, and Presnell goes home next month. They were both really good guys, and I’m glad that I got to work with them, but I am excited to be back with the guys I did all my training with. It’ll be good to be a part of my team again. It sounds like I won’t be back on the actual job for about another 8-10 days, which means my 15 days of leave is going to take 45 days off the “work” calendar. I don’t feel too guilty, though, considering that I went almost 80 days without a break. Some people in Bagram get a couple days a week off, and they get to enjoy all the simple things of life, such as showers, restaurants, shopping, church, seeing people they know every day, TV, BYU football, and more. However, I still wouldn’t want to be stationed in Bagram. I enjoy the work I am doing, and it’s what I wanted to do when we first got word of the deployment. Anyway, I just want to say again how great it was to see everyone. Also, I should point out that our deployment is more than ½ over now. In church mission terminology, we’ve hit our hump, and are on the way down! I also want to thank everyone who has been, and continue to help Deeanna and the kids. I think Deeanna has the much harder job in this situation, but she really is doing a great job, and I’m grateful to her for it. With that, I’ll close this entry and plan on writing again when I get back to “lovely” Zerok.

Well, things have changed, but I’ll have to write more about that later. I’ll try and add an update in a couple of weeks. I am now at FOB Orgun-e, which everyone just calls OE. It is great-stores, restaurants, food, plumbing etc. We have our own rooms here, and we will now be based out of OE instead of FOB Tillman. It has all worked out quite well. I hope everything is going well wherever you’re at.
Tom