Guest Blogger: David F after Keating attack
Posted By Bouhammer on November 2, 2009
Bouhammer Note–The following short posting is the first of several guest postings from David F. who is deployed in Afghanistan. I am getting these postings from his wife, whom I know, with the full permission to re-post them.
This post was written right after FOB Keating was attacked.
Hi. Things have settled down a bit now. We were not as busy as I thought we would be – which is actually a bad thing. I don’t think there is any news agency here. Information goes pretty much by two way radio and IRC on the SIPR-net. So it is just slow information travel I think.
Over a hundred T’ban / tribals stormed FOB Keating and a little outpost nearby. The US and Afghans had to be extracted by Air Force SF. They couldn’t get to us for 16-24 hours so they were in just awful shape. Keating is completely demolished. Really terrible. It clearly shows how AQ is much better at the propaganda phase of all this. McCrystal’s plans had us pulling out anyways. We had already quit the northern province. But now they will credit themselves with conquering all of Nuristan.
It is quiet again today. ALL of my local patients are burn victims. Mostly children. They have lots of open fires here and they cook with propane and sometimes kerosene or worse so burn injuries rampant. But the kids are so cool. They smile and stand up straight when they see you. And they shake your hand and say something nice. Except the girl with the amputation learned how to say, “Give me a doll!” She is already engaged, can you believe it? She is actually really nice too.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 11/02/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.