One of the side effects that I had after just returning from Afghanistan is similar to an effect that many people have after coming out of Afghanistan and Iraq. After spending the last year of driving tactically and on the offensive/defensive it is hard to stop that style of driving. One of the ways to counter IEDs, car bombs, suicide bombers and even ambushes is to drive what I call on “offensive/defensive”.

There are specific techniques we use when driving in combat that I don’t want to discuss for operational security reasons, but I can say that one thing we typically do it always keep an eye out for anything peculiar on, in, or next to the road. This could be anything from rocks stacked up, debris, wires sticking out, etc. Everyone in the truck has an assigned sector and everyone’s eyes are darting back and forth always on the lookout for any of the objects listed above or for something in particular based on intelligence.

I drove a lot during my year in Afghanistan, and when I was not driving I was usually in the gunner’s hatch. The driver always has to be paying attention so they know where to drive, and to look out for obstacles. Gunners have the best visibility in the truck (360 degrees), so they always have to be looking for short and long range threats. Since I spent a year of being in a vehicle and being on overdrive, it is not easy just to kick back and cruise down the road like nothing is happening.

For about the first two months after getting home, I noticed that I would catch myself looking for threats on the side of the road. This usually happened when I was by myself driving somewhere and was not distracted by talking to someone else in the vehicle. It did not matter if I was driving down a simple 2 lane road or a 4 lane highway, I would always be looking for weird things on the side of the road. I would also look at trucks vans, etc. and just stare at them to see if they looked like they may be carrying a car bomb. There are certain signs we are trained to look for and I would actually look for those signs when eyeballing these vehicles. Another thing I would always do is to look for a way out or try to predict where I would move my vehicle in case there was an explosion. See this is another tactic that I would always practice when driving in Afghanistan; always keeping an eye out as to where I could quickly move or ditch the vehicle in case an explosion happened in front or on us and we could still move forward. It is similar to sitting in an airplane and looking to identify where the closest emergency exit is. If you are in an airplane crash and you find yourself in a dark, smoky cabin then you need to know by feel how far up you have to move in order to find an exit during a panic evacuation. If an EID hits your Humvee, then it will usually be smoky and dark too, so you must move quick and by instinct when directing a 7-ton truck blinded.

So as I drove to get Hunter from Pre-School, or to pick up something from Best Buy or Lowe’s, or just going to visit someone I would always be on the lookout for weird stuff on the side of the road, at large trucks and for places I could ditch the mini-van if needed. Since I have pretty much gotten over this habit now, I think I can safely say that there are no IEDs, here in Amherst, NY. But I can tell you that if anything ever does blow up as I am driving by, I will probably never be the same again.

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I know this is not necessarily Afghanistan related, but my readership is so large here that I want to spread the word to as many as possible.

The people over at VAJoe are sponsoring a contest to give some cash to a military charity. Voting doesn’t begin until August 5th, but the nomination stage is well underway. They have quite a list of military related charities to vote for, but I think I personally will have to stick with my Favorite, The Fisher House after voting starts August 5th. Visit the Charity for Charities page on VAJoe to see the current nominees or nominate one of your own.

Just Remember to return after August 5th, but before August 21st to vote. SPREAD THE WORD, and get one of these great charities some much needed cash.

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I have written a new Blog Entry on the VA Mortgage Center.com website. You can read it at www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2007/07/24/why-i-am-staying/

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Yesterday I talked about the roughly 60 day mark on returning home. Yesterday was also a 30 day mark for me, as in 30 days after the day I hit the 20 year mark. Prior to leaving for Afghanistan, soldiers in my unit, families, friends and co-workers all asked me if I would retire when I returned. I told everyone then and ever since then that I would make that decision after I returned. I did not want to try and commit to that decision while I was there, because I knew I would let the environment and deployment sway my decision at the time. I knew I was going to have to return and see how things went before I made the choice whether to stay in or call it quits. In fact when I conducted the interview with WBFO last month I even stated I was not sure at that time what I would do.

Well it has been 30 days since I hit that retirement mark and I have decided to stick it out a little while longer. The one thing my State Sergeant Major told me that makes a lot of sense is that every year after 20 is easy, because at any point you can tell the Army or National Guard to stick it and retire. Now I am not sure how much longer I will stay in or if I will even re-enlist again when my current term is up, but what I do know is that my Brigade is allowing me to do what I love to do and that is stay a First Sergeant and stay in charge of troops. This year will mark the 5 year mark as a First Sergeant and I am truly blessed to still hold that position. Being a First Sergeant is all I have ever wanted to be and feel complete in my career holding this rank. I am not sure if I will be a Sergeant Major before I retire, but if I don’t I am fine with that. Being the Top is top to me.

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It has been a little over two months now since I have returned from Afghanistan and it is weird to see myself go through what I talked to other people (my soldiers) about and what the chaplains, VA counselors and others have talked to me about. The stats say the typical vet returning home from war does not really go through issues until the 60-90 day mark. I am not sure exactly why it is that timeframe for everyone except for the fact that it takes about that much time for it to settle in that we are home.

When I came home on leave for 15 days, I knew it was temporary and I eventually was going back. When I first came home, it is very much a honeymoon period and the thought of being back in this country with all that it has to offer it a lot to take in. It takes a while to settle in, and to get the mind and body to realize that I am not going to return to the land of IEDs, dirty kids, flies, heat and filth. I think the time period for that to settle in is about the 60 day mark for most, as it has definitely seemed that way for me. When my guys came home from Iraq I talked to a lot of them about that 60 day mark and I tried my best to check up with as many of them as possible around that time. Unfortunately there is no one thing that everyone experiences or issue they face at that timeframe so there is no silver bullet to determine the answer or right thing to say.

Since my team was so small and several of us were pretty tight I think the best answer to deal with the issues we face is to continue to talk to each other. We don’t even have to talk about Afghanistan, what we faced or anything like that. We just need to bond and fellowship together. We were a small team and on many occasions all we had to depend on, and all we had to keep each other alive was each other. As ETTs we did not have the full complement of people, support, etc. that a normal unit has. In addition to each other, we also developed good friendships with our terps (Interpreters), so it was very nice to get a call from one of my favorite terps, Jawed, today. He called me through his computer over the internet and we got to talk about 20 minutes today. I was also able to talk a few minutes to one of my other terps, Hadi. I talked about both of these guys in my blogs while I was deployed, but especially Jawed. He served downrange with me a lot on many missions and we spent many hours crammed in a Humvee together. I even let him talk to Hunter for a few minutes. My terps had seen a lot of pictures of my family, and I wanted him to be able to say Hi to at least one of my sons. The Muslim faith is very focused on family and the well-being on one’s family, so it was important for me to allow Jawed to talk to Hunter.

So as I get ready to go back to work and try to fit back into the “normal” civilian life I guess it will be time to move forward and start worrying about things that really aren’t worth worrying about.

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The folks at VA Mortgage Center have asked me to write blogs for them on a regular basis. I posted my first one for them tonight and you can get to it at www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2007/07/16/the-%e2%80%9cgolden%e2%80%9d-common-sense-thinking-on-sending-and-asking-for-care-packages/

I reviewed some top 10 lists about what to send and what not to send from my buddy JP over at milblogging.com and one of his readers. I reposted both lists in this blog and then wrote my opinion on the topic.

Enjoy…

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I just wrote a blog entry about The Army Birthday Ball Weekend. Since it is not Afghanistan specific, I placed this entry on my Military Blog. You can get to this by clicking the link on the left side of my website or by going to www.bouhammer.com/nucleus/Military.php

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