One of the missions we pull nightly is a Base Security Force mission that varies in time, place, and posture. The bottom line is that all members of the team rotate on this mission and we conduct this to prevent our FOB from getting attacked anymore. After the attack in June we have never been attacked again, and we think it is because we are much more aggressive now. This place used to get attacked twice a month. You know they say the best offense is a good defense. Anyway, one thing I am amazed about when I sit out in the gun truck at night is the sky. Besides the millions of stars that we can see out here in the desert sky, we can also actually see the Milky Way. Yes, THE Milky Way. That is how clear it is here. As the earth rotates it moves in the sky, and is quite amazing to see. The only thing that would be better would being able to see the Northern Lights like we used to watch all the time in Alaska. But hey, how often do you get to see your own galaxy.

On Sunday after our normal sync meeting with the ANA as we do 6 days a week, we started what we now consider a new tradition. We have decided that every Sunday after the sync meeting, we will have a team brunch. This Sunday it was somewhat impromptu, but was so well received it is now going to happen every Sunday (if missions permit). Thanks to a lot of great items sent by friends and family we have pancake mix, syrup, etc. That along with the eggs and bacon we get from the PRT makes for a nice breakfast. This last Sunday SFC C did most of the cooking as we had pancakes, bacon, and some guys had omelets. We found most of the team and all that showed up got to enjoy it. See we rotate cooking duties on this FOB only for dinner. Breakfast and lunch are on everyone to make their own. This means breakfast is usually nothing more than pop tarts or maybe cereal. To have a nice big breakfast at least one day a week will be a nice bonus. Of course we are about to get an Airforce and Army cook here within the next week, but I don’t think that will preclude us from still doing this every Sunday.

In an earlier post I talked about reading the blog through an RSS reader. Well you don’t even need to download and install an RSS reader if you have a free Yahoo account. If you have a Yahoo account and frequently access you’re personalized yahoo page at my.yahoo.com you can put in a content section that watches RSS feeds and it will let you know when there is a new blog entry.

To do this:
1. Look at the top of your personalized yahoo page and click the “Add Content” link.
2. The first box on the next page is the “Find Content” box. On the right side of this box is a small link titled “Add RSS by URL”. Click this link.
3. The next page has a text box to put in a RSS URL address. In this box type www.bouhammer.com/nucleus/afghanrss.php
4. Next, after typing in the address, click the ADD button.
5. You will then be taken to a Confirmation page telling you the RSS feed has been added. Click the “Go to My Yahoo” button to be taken back to your page and see the feed. It will show you the last time a entry was added. This is a good way to know when a new entry is posted.

Today is August 19th, and it is Afghanistan’s Independence Day celebrating their independence from Great Britain a very long time ago. This is ironic and I kind of wonder how they celebrated in Khandahar area where GB has many troops deployed as part of the NATO forces here in A-stan. Anyway, today is a big holiday just like our 4th of July in the US. What this means is good for them, and bad for us.

Holidays usually mean large groupings of people. Terrorists and insurgents like to attack with violent force on days like this. It helps them make a statement that the government cannot protect them, that they still have power and it drives panic into the populous. So are level of alertness is much higher during these times and has been the last few nights. Today however we had a mission with our ANA soldiers to establish vehicle control points (VCP) on the 4 main avenues of approach into downtown Sharana. We started at 0400 this morning with wake up, and to prepare for a 0500 departure time. By 0545 all 4 VCPs were established and operational. Then we just sit and wait. Wait, wait, wait, all day. Myself and Smoke were responsible for two points and we patrolled between them in addition to staying at each one and overseeing their checkpoint procedures. It was close to 100 today so we just baked in the sun, especially me since I was up in the gun hatch.

One of our points was grand central station, as every person coming into town was coming through there is seemed like. This one point was a 4 road intersection and was very busy. We spent most of our time there as there was a lot going on. Jingle trucks (picture of a good one in pics section), cabs, tractors, pedestrians, and lost of motorcycles. I guess they actually did have a parade today as several groups came through looking like they were walking in the parade. One group of boys all carrying Afghanistan flags is in the pics section. Of course like with everything else in the ANA, officers don’t think they have to work, so the platoon leader brought out chairs and his chair tea set and sat almost the entire 10 hours we were out drinking chai. Usually only moving to stay in the shade. This army does not understand one of the US Army’s basic principles of “Lead by Example” and we see that everyday. They are build around the class system like the soviets of when they become an officer, then they get catered to and don’t have to work. But that is a whole other story.

As we moved between the points the soldiers were always wanting something from us. Usually it was water, then it was candy or they want their pictures taken. They all love to have their pictures taken, and then they want us to print them out for them (wasting our paper and ink) and give them 8×10 pics of themselves so they can put the pictures up in the windshields of their trucks. Yes I said windshields, which are the things they should be looking out of to drive. I have yet to print one for them. Water was always the first thing asked for and every single time I would tell them to go to their commander. One platoon leader brought none for this men, and we made him go back to base to get some as they had been out there for over 5 hours in this heat. The other platoon leader brought some and his men were pleased with that. They thanked us because they said they would not have gotten any if we did not make the PL go get it. Hence why we force them to do things for themselves.

On out last trip to the furthest VCP we went through a road construction project where USAF engineers were improving the road between our FOB and the one of the road that the Engineers live at. On the way back, I saw them all around this one bridge. When we got there I saw why, they had a dozer stuck so deep you could not see the treads. I took a pic of this too. I have never seen a track vehicle so stuck in my life. I have seen some pretty stuck M1 tanks too.

So besides blazing hot sun, ANA officers that don’t do anything for their soldiers, soldiers who want everything given to them from the US, and lots of dust it was an ok day. The iPod was playing all day, switching from Nine Inch Nails to Johnny Cash half way through our 10 hour day. That is the only thing that made it bearable.

I know for those that follow my blog it seems like I have been absent recently. You may think that I have been real busy on missions and running all over. I have been busy but it has not been on missions. It has been on trying to motivate the ANA into getting this FOB cleaned up and getting them to manage their soldiers. See, we recently received a 3-star visit and he did not like the way their side of the FOB looked. We will soon receive a 2-star visit to follow up and see if they cleaned their areas or not. It is ironic because this is their army, and we are told that we are only mentors and can only try to encourage them to do things. Yet, when generals don’t like what they see, then we have to be the big bad Americans again and tell them what to do. 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

When I am not busy trying to teach NCOs how to make their soldiers pick up trash, I am in my room hooked on what I call digital crack. It has been a while since I was last hooked on this addictive substance. The last time was when I was home on leave at the end of March before shipping out to Afghanistan. See this “digital crack” I am talking about is the show 24. If you have ever watched more than one episode of 24 then I am sure you know what I am talking about. Since each episode of the show is one hour of a day that leads into the next hour it is hard to stop watching it. It is as addictive as what they say crack is. If you have ever watched it during the regular season, then you know how frustrating it is when the show ends and you have to wait until next week. If you have watched it in the box set, then the phrase digital crack fits. You can’t just walk away when one episode is done.

My wife is sending my first four seasons of 24 so we can start a marathon, however I could not wait. Someone from an earlier rotation left season one here, so the other day I thought I would watch the first episode during lunch. It has been so long since season one, and Jack Bauer has killed so many people since then I did not remember much about season one. Well one hour turned into 2, into 3, into 4, etc. I am now 8 hours into it over about 2 ½ days. I have to see what Jack does next, who is the real bad guy, and who is plotting to kill who. By the time I am done with this the other seasons should be here from home and then I go into those. By the time I get around to watching all 4 seasons, then hopefully Season5 will be out on DVD. I watched up until the first week of April when I was home. I am have not seen the last hours of 24, season 5 since then.

See, we have not been out a lot lately as we have had to cater to Generals and to an ANA that is not really that motivated to go outside the wire themselves. So in the meantime we will watch what Jack Bauer does, how CTU fares, and who is the latest bad guy.

Because of this I have shirked my duties on the blog. My apologies and I will do better to write about anything happening around here. Hey, maybe I can give a play by play of Bauer’s experiences, as they are sure more interesting than what is happening here.

On one last note, I have been putting up videos in the photos section. Due to their size and the limited bandwidth here I have to upload them at night while I am asleep. So I have been trying to put up one every evening.

Sorry, I had some HTML Coding mistakes and 3 of the 4 links were not working for some people. I have fixed them all now and they should download properly.

As we say in Afghanistan,,,,Enshala

Troy

This is a video shot from a guard tower at the neighboring Active Duty FOB. This is a video of our FOB being attacked on June 18th, 2006. This is only about 1 minute of an attack that lasted over 35 minutes. You can access it at www.bouhammer.com/download/fob_attack.wmv

BE ADVISED, depending on the media player you have installed, its version, your browser and your personal firewall settings; you may have to right-click on these links and click on “save as..” to download to your computer first before watching.