overnight at KIA

So, finally today we were bussed out to Kabul International Airport, after a few days of waiting, and more days spent at Camp Phoenix than we really wanted.

Lets see, what all sort of interesting things have happened.

I've beaten SSG Billingsley at Cribbage repeatedly over the past few days. He hasn't won a match since before we left KAF. Several nights here I completely blanked him, sometimes even coming back from a 20 point deficit late in the game to beat him by 2 or 3 points. Cribbage really is a lot of fun once you get to know what's going on.

Anderson sang at Karaoke night at Camp Phoenix and that was moderately fun, I guess. I'm not one for public embarrassment, so I didn't. I did, however, buy a couple of really bright yellow towels that have Operation Enduring Freedom embroidered on them, as well as some small helicopters. I also bought a Green Beans coffee mug that says Afghanistan on it. Oh, and a locally made bowie-style knife at the bazaar, which was neat, because it had a lot more variety than the one in Kandahar.

Right now I'm at Kabul International Airport, because I got bumped from the flight that left earlier today. Allegedly the flight didn't have enough seats for the 20 of us who were left behind. SSG Billingsley snuck onto the flight anyway, and I contemplated doing the same, but decided to stay with Anderson, and other guys from Bravo Company.

Lunch and dinner at the Supreme chow hall on KIA was pretty good, and the accommodations here are MUCH nicer than at Camp Phoenix, so overall it's a win. Plus I'm one step closer to going home!

YAHTZEE!!!

So, whiling away the hours on KAF, living in a big stupid tent with 300 other guys, the first priority gets to be killing time. Yesterday I played 3 games of cribbage with SSG Billingsley (I won all 3, which is very unusual), I played 3 games of Yahtzee with Anderson last night in the Green Beans coffee room in the MWR facility (I won 1 out of 3 games), I watched the second half of The Departed, having seen the 1st half at Camp Shelby (and I think the movie was much improved because I didn't have to tolerate the whole thing in one go), and I finished Monster, by Frank Peretti.

Plus I read some news articles in a Popular Science magazine (one in particular about a Plasma Gasification waste disposal unit was really impressive), used the internet for an hour (checking news stories mostly), and spent lots of time walking back and forth on the base.

Today, however, I'm scheduled to fly to Kabul. So here's hoping my flight isn't cancelled and by this time tomorrow I'm at Camp Phoenix, turning in sensitive items and sleeping through dull out-processing briefings. UGH. But at least I'm going home!

By the way, I don't recommend either the book Monster, or the movie The Departed. And I DEFINITELY don't recommend the movie that followed The Departed, which was called Ballistic, I believe. It was singularly stupid, pointless, poorly directed and in general abysmal.

Thanks for coming to Afghanistan

I got my Thanks for Coming to Afghanistan awards the other day. Here's a photo of them:











In addition, I have been moved over to KAF to out-process from ARSIC-S, and will fly to Kabul sometime soon. At first we were told it would be the 18th, then the 20th or 21st. Now we just don't know. But, that's life in the military. You're at the mercy of a nameless faceless bureaucrat who has higher rank than you, so you might as well just wait and see what happens.

Here's a picture of the transient quarters we're staying in on KAF:















Other than that, not much news to report. I watched Aliens vs. Predator 2 (Requiem?) and was not terribly impressed with it. The directors did a good job of killing lots of people, which is essential to making a believable Aliens movie, but something about it just left me cold. I'd give it a 3 out of 10. Definitely not something I'm going to get my wife to watch.

Stuck at KAF waiting on a plane

So, we've outprocessed (which involved me getting yet a THIRD anthrax shot), and there are no flights out until the 20th and the 21st. So I'll be here for at least one more bazaar day.

And, of course, my time on the computer is just now up. hahahaha...

Perhaps I will post more later.

My last day at UTS

Today was my last day at Universal Telecom Service (also known as Hajji-net). I have a picture of myself with Hamid and Jamal, sitting in the office.













Tonight we are having an awards ceremony where Col. McGrath will give out the End of Tour awards to each soldier. I hope I'll get my picture with him presenting my awards. I'll let you know.

In other news... nothing much has happened. I slept basically all day, and I think tomorrow we move over to KAF for outprocessing and flying out.

Pope says abuse crisis handled badly

Yes. The Pope says that the Church did a bad job of handling the issue of Catholic priests abusing altar boys. I would agree with that statement. He seems to have said some fairly critical things and been pretty much spot on.

Also in the news, allegedly the airline that flies us home from Kuwait has gone bankrupt as of April 3rd (due to losing a military contract (?)), and we might be "delayed in leaving theater." Which means... I might not be leaving Afghanistan for an extra week-ish. But if ATA lost a military contract (on April 3rd!), and subsequently went bankrupt why are we only now being impacted? If the military gave the contract to another airline, why isn't that airline handling our flights? Were our flights scheduled in advance and not subject to the contract with ATA?

Anyway, here's a picture of me with Captain Sevilla. She was one of the medics assigned to FOB Lindsey.

End of tour photos.

We took several end-of-tour photos today, with the full mortar section. We took one with most of us on top of the Gazebee, and another with everyone in the Soviet Graveyard in front, and on top of, a BMP-1. We also took a picture on a T-72.










Here also is a picture of my last wood-carving effort, a sort of scimitar.





















That's enough for right now. There will be more photos coming later.