Living the Dream

I've been here in Khost for over a month now. The perception of just how far I am from home comes and goes depending on what's going on. I feel the distance mostly when I have down time. I think of the things that friends and family are doing back home, and want to be there. When I want to find something new to read, or I'm out of some trivial thing that is taken for granted, but just can't be had here. Or when an Afghan is talking to me and I have no idea what he's talking about. Or when I'm immersed in a group of people who just doesn't seem to get my sense of humor. (For those of you who know me, I'm sure you can imagine that scenario to be rather frequent.)

On arrival here at Camp Clark, I inherited two hats: Supply and Facilities Engineering. If you're like me, you might wonder exactly what "facilities engineering" means. If you're wondering, don't ask me. I seem to have it wrong. As far as I can tell, it means I'm in charge of building projects and planning. Maybe.



Meetings with the ANA (Afghan National Army) folks that I mentor take up a fair amount of my time. There's "Logistique", a Lt. Colonel who is in charge of ANA Logistics. He pretty much hangs out at the ANA cafeteria all day and looks either amused or angry. There are about 5 other officers under him that I mentor as well. I try to meet with each of them with some regularity, but regularity is in short supply in this remote part of the country. In Afghanistan in general, for that matter. But it's not too hard to get the Afghans to laugh, and that makes it all pretty doable.



The photo above is me giving a new (to them) Ford Ranger to an ANA Garrison officer. The guy tried to be cool about it, but he couldn't help himself- he got all excited and kept telling me how no one had ever given him a truck before. He didn't know how to drive stick, but he assured me his driver did. When they got the truck, the driver kept trying to put it in gear using the 4WD/2WD shifter. So I got to mentor the driver, too.



Construction projects are a really fun part of my job. I really don't like meetings and paperwork and inter-office e-mail, so its a damn good thing I have this job for balance. This morning, I got a couple of bulldozers and bucket tractors to do dome demolition work to prep an area for me to build some new security walls. My list of projects has taken on a life of its own, and will give me a lot of chances to get off base and see the province I'm based in. Of course, it'll get me shot at more likely than not, too.



Every now and again, we get a little gift from the Taliban. Usually, this is what we get- an old 107mm rocket shot at us from some random riverbed. The Taliban can't shoot for shit, so they rarely get close enough to cause any damage. They tend to be fired at our base in the middle of the night, and are almost always set on a timer, so there's not usually anyone around to get caught. In our area, though, suicide bombers and IEDs are becomming increasingly common. The UXO (unexploded ordinance) in the photo above is a 107mm rocket that was found lying in a ditch a short distance from our camp. It was still live and unfired, but didn't look like anyone had tried to prep it to be shot at us or used as an IED. We find these and other ordinance all the time- mortars, anti-tank mines, artillery shells, you name it. Here's a photo of a 155mm artillery shell (probably the most commonly used IED device) that was found near our camp, too. It's currently stored in a ditch along with the above rocket, a dozen or so mortar and RPG rounds, and a bunch of other UXOs awaiting EOD demolition near our camp.





And, of course a care package or two shows up from time to time, like this one from "Santa Barbara Angels". This one was a godsend because I was running way low on socks, and there were 6 pairs inside. I've also been recieving boxes of clothes, shoes, and school supplies for Afghan kids donated by people- mostly strangers to me- back home. I should be going out on an HA (humanitarian assistance mission) in the next few weeks to pass this stuff out at local elementary schools and local medical clinics.

If you're not careful, it's easy to get looped into Groundhog Day around here- where day after day after day seems just like the day before. The trick is to get out. Volunteer to go on a mission, go on a convoy, or whatever. If you get out enough, something interesting (or terrifying) happens sooner or later to break the routine. More on that in my next post...