Road Trip to BAF

So... I went on a visit to Bagram Air Force Base.... not because I wanted to, because I was told. I had to go meet the Mortuary Affairs (MA) Team and our higher up MA people. Our higher ups, didn't even know I was going to show up... And well.. everything we went through only took about an hour. So... it was a worthless trip.

I did get to have some Green Bean Coffee, which we have at Camp Marmal. It was nice to just sit and enjoy it. There PX wasn't anything fancy, nor was there bazaar. So we (I was with another guy in my unit), ended up just hanging out at the MACP (mortuary affairs collection point). We actually spent the night there too.

I expeirenced my first IDF (Indirect Fire). It landed about a football field away from us. So we hung out in a bunker for about an hour. It hit a water buffalo (no one was hurt), and there was water all over that particular area.

I ended up sleeping on a couch... Well.. I didn't sleep much because the building was right by the flight line, so aircraft were constantly leaving.

The personnel at the airport are idiots too. I called at 10 pm, that night to see if there were any flights out in the morning... The guy said the only one was at 1015. Well I asked if it was show time or the actual flight left. He said show time was then. Which is just a time they tell you to show up before the plan comes in... Well it turned out 1015 was the flight time NOT the show time, AND another flight had gone out earlier that morning. So... we thought we were screwed, but another flight went out later that afternoon so we made it back.

I ended up sleeping 1130 hours that night and it was the greatest feeling ever!!

Well... that's all for now... :)

The Dust Bowl...

Well, my unit has made it to Afghanistan... Everyone is here, but we had to send someone home early because the death of his 4 year old son. Please keep him in your prayers. He's not coming back over here with us.

I'm living in a tent with 4 other females. We are all getting along very well. Myself and one other of the females work on Camp Pratt and the others work on Camp Marmal. Camp Marmal is the bigger base that houses all the other foreign nationals that are here. Camp Marmal is run mostly by Germans.. and I tell you what, those German men are pretty handsome!!! :)

Camp Pratt is still being built so there isn't much over here. But the journey to Camp Marmal is only about 20 minutes and we take shuttle buses to and from. The Mongolians are in charge of letting people in and out of Camp Marmal. They're all really nice and I always wave and they wave back. There are a lot of local Afghans that work all around Pratt. I've been told that most of them hate the Taliban because the Taliban killed their families. I think it's great the the Government is helping them get work. They are very hard workers and work 12+ hours a day.

It' gets dark around 530/6 pm and gets light around 6 am. It's starting to get chilly out there too. We have some mountains right outside our tents and they are so pretty to see. I'm hoping to post pictures sometime soon!

I will write more again soon... I am trying to have a skype date :)

Leaving on a jet plane....

Well... we don't have much more time here in "The Great Place".... but from what our advanced party, that is already over there, has told us... "The Great Place" is a lot greater then where we are heading... I mean, it's Afghanistan... what did they expect? I'm not expecting anything fancy... So far, where we are going, they have said is a HUGE dust bowl... If you walk to the showers, which is just a tent with water (No place to change clothes or anything) you walk back and it's just peer dust... And that's really it. We will just be sleeping there... But still... walk to the showers in dust... walk back in dust... Will I be dirty for a year? Yuck... Not excited about that.

Also, they said there is a really small gym, and one of the guys said it sucks, well its better then no gym at all. We also have a dining facility and I guess that's all that there is. So... YAY! I'm excited... I'm hoping for the best, because that's what I need to do, otherwise 9 months will go by way to slowly.

I think the hardest part about our deployment is that we are going to miss out on all the holidays. The unit were replacing left in January so they got lucky... But hopefully, like I said, it will fly by and we will be home before we know it. I still am not sure about the internet. The advanced party has also said its not the greatest. So.. .we will see. Whenever I find out what I will be doing, I should have internet for my job.

All prayers are welcome and I thank you all for them. This will be my last post for awhile, until I am all settled in.

Keep prayer :)