Sunset At FOB Shank.

THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING
It’s hard enough being away from family, but holidays are even tougher. The guys who cook for us every day from Supreme did a great job and prepared a great meal. We had a fantastic feast, too much food actually, then a big fire with our military friends from Camp Phoenix.

Christmas

DECEMBER 2010

Christmas was probably the toughest to be away from the family. We tried to make the best of it and the kitchen guys again did a great job with the Christmas dinner.
We had started doing a movie night, couple times a week, (helped make the time go faster). We tried to locate the appropriate movie for the holiday and came up with Die Hard (#1). You know, holiday theme………..”come out to the coast, have a few laughs”. Good flick.

Taliban Cave

One day while at the range, one of the guys showed us this old cave. Story goes that it was a Taliban cave until the ANA reclaimed the area and made it their base. When you think of a cave, you probably picture a small hole in the wall. Nope, this was huge. No doubt, you could fit numerous tanks in there. It was so big that we drove in behind one of our other trucks and lost sight of him.

Still no sign of Bin Laden.

Range

DECEMBER 2010

So, after being assigned the logistics guy for a while, I was asked if I wanted to go back to the range, but working the TTP side, (tactical training program). Of course I said yes and was again teamed up with Jason. Our job was to take the class that had, the week before, just qualified and teach them movement and turning while shooting. No easy feat considering the week before, most of them just learned how to shoot. Now they had four days to learn how to shoot on the move. Got to play around a little too. all in all, not a bad place to work, with the view and the opportunity to be around guns, which is always fun.

Guard Duty

DECEMBER 2009

We had a new class start up the other day and the Advisors were assigned different duties to help in process the several hundred or so Afghans who wanted to be Police. My pal Jason and I got the same shift which consisted of keeping order at the front gate. As usual we made a good time out of it. Due to our being so friggin intimidating, there were no problems. HA

Goats

NOVEMBER 2009

We decided we wanted to have a bar-b-q, so we bought a couple of goats on the local economy and picked two of our guys to do the job. They were given a quick lesson a larger than normal kukri’s and it was decided that one goat would be prepared the Nepalese way and the other would be cooked over an open fire. Jason, our resident Gurkha General, would go first. True to form for an honorary Gurkha, he did it in one stroke. Telly O went a little later and felt the pressure of going second, what if he didn’t get it in one hit? It went well and he got it in one swipe like Jason. A few guys took care of the bar-b-q while the Gurkha’s prepared the other one. Then it was dinner, beers, (non alcohol) and cigars by the fire. It was a good time.

NOTICE

Hello all.

First, my apologies for leaving you all hanging. There was too much interest in the blog from guys coming into the country. The company frowns on putting out to much information and I didn’t think it was worth my job. Although, I’ve heard from a lot of guys coming here that it put things in a positive light and answered a lot of questions that weren’t being answered anywhere else. Guess it was kind of like a Hitchhikers guide to Afghanistan. So without any further adue, the rest of the story.

I will be adding a lot more in the next few days.

Read on from where I left, if you want. (which was October 21, 2009)

CTC Cigar Club

So life here is good at CTC. Turns out, quite a few guys enjoy a cigar now and then, so the CTC Cigar Club was formed. We tried to make it like a real club, (for something to do). We had a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and a Sgt at Arms (me). We had members and prospects, dues and club activities. Sending flowers to members families, raising money for a local LA’s sick mother, ect... Every four conex’s, (living quarters) has a deck. So outside of our rooms, we made a club. In the fall, the wind was pretty strong and could get cold in the evening, so we had a wall built to keep the breeze from coming in. We decorated it and added an outdoor light and power outlet for a IPod docking station and every evening we had a little crowd enjoying some fine smokes, tunes and good conversation. Occasionally, it was packed with up 14 guys. When winter arrived, the wall kept the cold in and made the club a walk in freezer. After that we started building fires in a homemade fire pit.

I guess being married to an artist, you can't help but pick up some tips. We had some Adirondack chairs made. I took some maps that I had acquired and applied them to one of the chairs using a process called decoupage. It took a while, but I liked the results.

Call me a contractor, a mercenary, a war profiteer or call me an action figure. Weird.

The National Anthem...by Jerry Vale

Hello all,

Steve asked me to upload this here for him.

It is a beautiful, patriotic slide show set to my dad singing The National Anthem. A friend of my parent's put it together and it makes me smile.

For those of you that don't know my dad...he is the biggest baseball fanatic and I think his favorite professional accomplishment is probably having his recording of The National Anthem inducted into The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

It's really cool...we actually got to go see it hanging in the museum!

Enjoy!

Afghan Fashion TV

We don’t get a whole bunch of channels here in the “Stan”. AFN, (armed forces network), which bring us sports, a couple movie channels, including HBO, which, over here, has commercials and is censored. CNN, BBC and Fox, which I have grown to really enjoy, a Polish music video station (quirky) and the Fashion TV Channel. Now, I had never seen FTV before and the first time was when I first got here and went to the gym one early morning. There were five of us, five guys on treadmills, all watching the catwalk. It was pretty funny.
So, in honor of fashion, I bring you….

The Fall Line, Afghanistan 2009

In the first shot Steve is sporting the Blackhawk Warrior Wear Desert Ops Boots, Vertx Tactical Pants, Wilderness Tactical belt, Vertx Action Polo, the Suunto Advisor and two handmade parachute cord wrist bands Stevieb.

The next shot features Steve in the Vertx pants, but with the Ultra Club, Cool and Dry Polo, adorned with the logo of and made famous by WPD SWAT. He’s also carrying the Bushmaster M-4 with the Eotech Holographic sights and the Inforce 6V LED light system,(from Inova) using their MIL-STD-1913 mount.

In the last shot, (from an earlier post), Steve’s stylin in the traditional Afghan pakul, perahan tuban and the dastmal. (read as hat, man-jams and blanket). He’s also sporting an AKMS , borrowed from the local Taliban.

Enjoy

Dasara

Last weekend our Nepalese Gurkhas celebrated Dasara, the Indian holiday of the triumph of good over evil. Starting on Friday, we were witness to an animal sacrifice. This is done by means of taking the Gurkha knife (Kukri), and with one stroke, well, you get the picture. Now, it’s said to be bad luck not to do it with one stroke. Not sure if the dude on Friday was new, but it took two to complete the sacrifice. An audible groan could be heard by those present.
Saturday the ceremony was repeated, but none on Sunday. On the last day, Monday, the holiday culminated with a ceremony of putting crushed flowers on the forehead, during which prayers of long life and happiness are spoken by the leader. They let us participate, which was an honor. Then three goats were lined up and three strokes later they were preparing kabobs.

Video available upon request when I get home.

I started this post after someone emailed me a story about Senate Bill SB-2099, which would require us to put on our 2010 1040 federal tax Form all guns that you have or own. It may require fingerprints and a tax of $50 per gun. Checked it out and it's false, but I'll post something a friend emailed anyway...

FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
~Thomas Jefferson

“Those who trade liberty for security have neither.”
~John Adams

Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.

An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject

Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.

Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.

Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.

Assault is a behavior, not a device.

64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.

The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.

Guns have only two enemies; rust and politicians.

When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

This is just a little kid, enjoying a frozen pop and a picture of me trying a hookah pipe. Apple, I think.

Living in the conex, like we do in our little neighborhood, is like living in a trailer park. Except ours are stacked and made of steel. I just hope they can take a hit, just in case. Activity has picked up again since the election results are out. Seems half the population here is not happy with the President. Kinda like back home, I guess. Just that we’re more civilized about the actions of our politicians. Or in-action. Whatever, it’s not polite to talk about religion, politics or money at dinner, right?
Anyway, I used to live in a mobile home back when I was in the Army…uh oh, it’s that time again…wavy lines…smoke…flashback….
It was 1980 or 81 and we were living in trailer park outside Ft. Bragg, I think it was on Yadkin Rd. Me, Dave and my sister, (that’s another story, and not mine to tell), shared a two bedroom bungalow in beautiful Fayetteville, NC. One night we were relaxing watching TV, and I think I was polishing my boots, like a good paratrooper does. Through the window over the television we saw the explosion at the same time that we heard it. Dave and I rushed out of the trailer to find the one next to ours in flames. We rushed to their door to make sure everyone was out and about the time we confirmed it was clear, we heard a car racing towards us. Then the sound of pop, pop, pop. As the car raced past, we saw the muzzle flashes coming from inside the car and we yelled for my sister to get down, because the homes were close together and the shots seemed to be wild. I picked up a stick and ran after the car,(what was I thinking), Dave went to check on my sister. The car took off and after making sure everyone was ok, we started spraying our trailer with the hose till the fire guys got there. We found several holes that went through our kitchen and one that went right over the pillow on my bed. Ended up creasing my helmet liner. We later learned that it was a custody dispute and the estranged father had thrown a Molotov cocktail through his family’s front window, then drove back by, firing numerous rounds from a .22 cal rifle. He then drove north to the Washington DC area, checked into a hotel and ended it with that same rifle. My sister moved back home and Dave and I moved back to the barracks.
Anyway, I hope this box I’m in can take a hit.