One of the coolest things about the continuing operations here in Afghanistan is the fact that they are both multi-national, and joint forces. We have Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, and multiple nations all working towards a common goal. In the Navy, when we go to boot camp, we are required to learn the rank structures of the other branches of the military, sort of a common courtesy sort of thing. Apparently this is not the case for the Air Force or the Army. As a First Class Petty Officer, my rank insignia consists of an eagle (which we affectionately refer to as a ‘crow’) perched atop three chevrons. The rank insignia for a Colonel just happens to be a spread eagle. I think I have collected more salutes since I have been on a FOB in this country than most of the actual officers in my unit. At first it was quite amusing, but it has gotten real old real quick. I keep explaining to people that I am an enlisted man and they do not need to salute me, but all to often the response is ‘YES SIR!’ followed by a snappy salute… Ughhh… Oh well.

On my way here I got rather sick. It actually happened on our flight leaving the U.S. By the time I had arrived in country I had a fever and felt very weak. I have long since gotten over that, but I fear that now I may be getting what folks here call ‘the crud’. There is a lot of dust here, it looms thick in the air, and for those who are not used to it it can cause a sore throat and some serious congestion. I am dealing with it fine and not allowing it to impact my day-to-day operations but it sure is a bother.

My unit has a very good Chain-of-Command, and for that I am very thankful. Our Colonel and our Sergeant Major really work hard to ensure that we have all we need, and that we are as well taken care of as can be. We are also lucky to have a truly outstanding supply sergeant who goes far above and beyond to ensure that all our needs are met. These are the sort of things that make life here a lot easier to deal with.

I have been getting lonely, and I do miss everyone at home very much. It’s funny because I find myself beginning to miss all the little things, like the smell of the sheets when Yasmeen makes the bed, and porcelain toilets. Most places here if you have to use the toilet you have to go to a port-a-potty, which is not so bad, it’s a lot better than shitting in a hole, or an out house. Another funny thing I have noticed is that I get a little sad when I hear Salsa or latin dance music, which I hear far more often than you’d imagine… But it reminds me of home, and how much I miss dancing with Yasmeen. I wish there was some way I could have my mother mail me some of her beef stew, or that Yasmeen could mail me a sweet potato pie, but there is no way such things would last in the mail system. I think most letters and packages take 7-14 days to arrive.

The weather here has not been so bad thus far. It’s actually been a bit cold. Believe it or not Afghanistan actually gets a real winter! It even snowed one morning here! We’ve been getting a lot of rain as of late. Compared to Pennsylvania the winter here is very mild, but I have a feeling that the summer will be far worse than I am accustomed to. I am not looking forward to the oppressive heat. Nor am I looking forward to the bugs, which have already started coming out a little at a time. I have purchased some bug spray to try to treat my sleeping area to help keep them away, and I have been issued like three types of bug repellent for my uniforms and for my skin. We were also issued ‘bug nets’ to sleep inside of to keep the bugs off of us at night. I think I shall have to sleep with my boots in the net also, I’d hate to wake up to a ‘surprise’.

I made it here to Afghanistan about a week ago. I was very surprised to find out what a truly beautiful country it really is. The landscape is absolutely breathtaking. We landed here late in the night, so when I first landed I did not get to see much of anything at all. In any case I was truly exhausted from some thirty odd hours of travel time that it took to get here. The next morning I awoke at 0500 (local time) and was absolutely stunned when I saw the enormous mountains that surround us here. Our base is at over 4800ft in altitude, and the mountains still rise far above us. It is stunning beyond the capacity for words to adequately describe. These are easily the largest mountains I have ever seen. The only rival I have ever seen for this view was in the Andes.

Quality of life here is also surprisingly good. We have two coffee shops, and there are two exchanges here. MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) has set up a number of nice facilities, including a large, very well equipped gym. So when we are ‘inside the wire’ (on base), life isn’t terrible. There are wood shacks for us to live in called ‘B-Huts’. And I have a cot. 3 hots and a cot, how can I complain?

I will try to post some photos of the mountains and the view when I can, I want to get everything cleared through the G2 before I post anything. That way no one can complain. (Though I am sure someone will!)

I don’t get a lot of time to access the internet, although there are connections regularly available, but the wait is usually long, so I have decided the best thing to do is to compose my posts and e-mails off line, in a text editor and then save the text files to my thumb-drive, and copy and paste, to maximize my thirty minute time limit on the MWR machines.

The locals here are mostly friendly, and they general consensus seems to be that the majority of them are pleased to have us here. It is the small minority which is unhappy with our presence. We are spending a lot of money to do a lot of good things here, and to vastly improve the infrastructure of the country. Our goal is to get them back on their feet and self sufficient again so that we can leave and they can continue to sustain themselves as a self-sufficient sovereign nation.



I am writing this post from a StarBucks coffee shop, in a Barnes & Noble Bookstore. While I am still here in Fayetteville, which we have taken a liking to calling ‘FayetteNam’, I like coming here to enjoy some decent coffee and some civilized conversation. Sadly, this is the closest thing to home I can find. Plus it is a luxury which I will miss greatly once I have deployed. My departure date is hurdling towards me at a very alarming rate. I am ready, actually I am anxious, but I am also a bit nervous. I worry about Yasmeen and my Mother. I worry about my friends, including all those at Defending the Truth, and I hope all goes well for them. I feel bad in a lot of ways because I know that life back here at home will not be ‘on pause’ while I am gone. I know that life will go on without me, and that there will be a lot of things that I miss.

Such is the nature of my job though.

There are a lot of rumors about what they are going to do with us when we return. Some people seem to think that all of the Sailors here are going to be whisked off to stand-up some new Navy Special Warfare Unit, others think we will just be sent back to our parent commands and allowed to continue on with our previous lives… I don’t pretend to be wise to any of it. I know for a fact that the only thing that is certain, is the fact that our futures are uncertain.

One good part of all of this, is that it is bound to be fantastic for my evaluation. How could it not be? I am officially a SOF Operator, and I am heading to the front-lines. I will likely get a medal or two while I am there. I know I am bound to do many great things. If this doesn’t help me on the chiefs board, I don’t know what will.

But still, I am forced to wonder at what cost… What will the ultimate cost of this experience be? I am hoping that I come back a better, more experienced SpecOps Sailor, and can rush right back into the loving arms of my family, friends and Yasmeen, but the fact is that I really will be lucky just to make it home. I had another conversation with Yasmeen last night about what will happen if I get killed while I am over there, and what she can expect. I think she hates having such conversations as much as I do. I hate it because it makes me face my own mortality, and that is hard to do. Especially for me, because after all, I am invincible… Death is failure, and I simply don’t fail. I never have, and I don’t intend to start.

Semper Fortis!

Well it is official, I have graduated the U.S. Army ‘Combat Life Saver’ course. I learned a lot of valuable information, and a lot of stuff to help keep wounded soldiers alive on a battlefield. I certainly hope I never have to use any of the skills I have developed. I am not really sure how I can describe exactly what a ‘Combat Life Saver’ is, other than to say that it is a very rudimentary emergency field medic.

My goal as a ‘Combat Life Saver’ would be to keep a wounded soldier or sailor alive and stable until a medic can assist them, and/or until a MEDEVAC can be brought in to get that wounded person to the rear as quickly as possible. It is very empowering to know that I now have the minimum skills required to be able to help save a persons life on the field of battle.

Yasmeen laughed at me because I called her and was very excited about the fact that I had successfully given my first IV ever. She’s a nurse, so to her giving an IV is about as difficult as tying her shoe, but for me a was a pretty cool experience, and I feel fortunate that I had comrades brave enough, and patient enough to allow me to practice on them.

My first few attempts were on an infantry Major, good thing he was a ‘tough guy’ because I had to stick him four times to get it right… But then my Yeoman let me stick him and I got it right the first time. It was awesome. Of course, turn about is f airplay, so since I stuck others, I also had to allow myself to be stuck, which surprisingly was substantially easier than it was to do the sticking.

In any case, all of this stuff would be much more difficult to do in a combat stressed situation and I hope that I never have to try. Mission number one is making sure that I and all of my comrades-in-arms come home, alive and well.

Sorry I don’t have any good pictures to share of the training… I should be getting some more pictures up real soon. I have been exceptionally busy lately. I actually can not wait to get over there, so that we can get this mission started. The sooner we get there and get started, the sooner we get home, and the sooner I can get on with my normal life. I have a lot to look forward to.

It feels like a warm summer night here. It’s really beautiful. The only thing that makes this night really odd, is that it is the middle of January, and we should all be freezing…

There is a storm front rolling in from the southeast, and it is being carried in on a warm Caribbean breeze. As I stand on the second floor fire escape and stare out into the night sky I can not help but think about how much this feels like a night underway on a Caribbean sea. It is one of those moments that would be absolutely beautiful if I were sharing it with Yasmeen. But instead the air carries an eerie feeling of solitude, and I am feeling very lonely. I’d give anything for just another night with the woman I love.

I have not written an update in a bit because I have been busy making my final preparations for my departure. I bought a new laptop and some other much needed gear this weekend (ammo punches, flashlights, a knife, some pens, notepads, a tactical back pack, a large travel trunk, etceteras). I spent a good bit of money.

I spent the rest of the weekend preparing training on Digital Photography that I am to give on Friday to the battalion. I have been asked to compress an entire one semester course into a single four hour block of instruction. I am doing my best. The compression of the subject is made substantially easier by leaving out all the artistic stuff. Of course, that is also the most fun stuff.

Given the recent official inquiry made about my war blog, I have decided to work on hosting it in it’s own directory, that way it will not be included in my ‘All Blog Synopsis…‘, and whereas this may be inconvenient for those of you who subscribe to the RSS feed of the synopsis blog, I feel it will best protect my ‘All Blog Synopsis…‘ from any scrutiny by the DoD. This will keep my War Blog (http://www.armysailor.com) completely separate from my personal blogs. Although the DoD can set forth guidance related to my War Blog, because it is directly related to my military service, they can not censor my personal blogs so long as it is clear that they are my own opinion and in no way related to my military service. I have gotten a bit of correspondence from people concerned that I am being censored, or that I am being told what I can say. This is not the case. The rules only prohibit me from posting any potentially sensitive information. I also may not post any information on my War Blog that may be perceived as being disparaging to the administration. However, you can rest assured that I will continue to bring you accurate information from the front lines of the ‘War on Terror’, and as many pictures and updates on the good, the bad and the ugly of the war.

Lack of adequate equipment a national disgrace.

It is a disgrace that the Pentagon failed for three years to provide extra body armor to troops in Iraq, a protection that a secret Pentagon study said probably would have saved 80 percent of the Marines who died. That is to say, more than 400 of the 526 Marines killed in Iraq could likely have survived. This is an unconscionable policy and a terrible performance by the Pentagon and senior officials, enlisted and private.

The Pentagon knew troops were vulnerable to shrapnel and other material hitting their shoulders, sides and other parts of their torsos. Just enlarging the plastic armor would have helped, but the Pentagon did not do that.

In fact, the Marine Corps did not start buying additional plates to cover other exposed parts of the body until September 2005.

The decision ostensibly had to do with high-ranking officers and officials’
concerns that the extra armor might slow up the troops. In a scenario in which many troops are dying because their vehicles are fired upon by snipers or areas near them are blown up, why did the Pentagon stress speed rather than maximum protection?

The fact is, adequate protection for the soldiers has been woefully lacking from the beginning, as Congressman Rob Simmons pointed out in calling for a better armor for vehicles carrying troops.

Indeed, even after Rep. Simmons and others called for better protection on vehicles, the new trucks were slow in coming. That is because the Pentagon awarded the contract to a small South Carolina firm not accustomed to mass-producing vehicles, and there were delays.

There were shortages of plates used to protect the soldiers’ bodies from the beginning. Even more troubling is the Marine Corps’ explanation that the study did not start until December 2004 and no information about the protective gear came to the Corps until June 2005.

Sending American forces into combat in any situation is a time for concern. Asking Americans to risk their lives without adequate equipment to protect them is repulsive. How could the Pentagon treat American soldiers with such callousness?

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The military is a very unique experience. Anyone who has served for any appreciable period of time will tell you that it is not just a job, it’s a way of life.

One of the most unique things about life inside the military is the bond it creates. The camaraderie. I can think of no civilian circumstance where I could know someone for just a few weeks, and be willing to entrust my life to that person, and ask them to entrust their life to me.

We train together. We eat together. We sleep together. We shower, shit and shave together. We share almost everything. We are brothers. We learn each others strengths and weaknesses. We learn each others likes, and dislikes. We learn each others quirks.

But CA/PsyOps operates in small teams. Small teams to cover large amounts of territory. Half of us have trained to to deploy to Iraq, the other half have trained to deploy to Afghanistan. Our slow separation, and trickling deployment to our individual Areas of Responsibility (AOR) adds to the stress of waiting to go. Watching friends leave, wondering if I will ever see them again is tough. I hate to say goodbye, I rather say ‘Good luck, keep in touch’, although I know they likely will not. How can they? There is no time, we have jobs to do and when we are keeping in touch with people our first priority MUST be with our loved ones at home. It’s strange. To become attached to someone, but coldly accept that you may never see or hear from them again.

I have come to the point where I can not wait to get in country. It’s not that I am eager to go so much as I am eager to be there. Separation from my family, and my loved ones is easier when I am at sea or overseas. It’s harder when I know that they are only 700 miles away. Once I get there my primary focus will be on the task at hand and on survival. Our training here is basically done, we are getting more and more down time. Leaving more and more time to sit an think. To miss those I love. To wonder if my mom is ok, and what Yasmeen is up to. To think about the fact that I am going to miss Ashley’s graduation. I can’t wait to get there, because the sooner I get there the sooner I will get home. I am eager to go, to complete my mission, and to return home to those I love.

2007 seems a long way away.