It's Only a Year

It's only a year. Carrie Lou and I have been telling ourselves that for quite some time now, both before the deployment and now during it.  I am in my 40s now and it seems like yesterday that I was riding my bike to the ice cream shoppe in Millbury, playing soccer and hiking real mountains for the first time in Albuquerque, playing football in Grafton, singing in Miami, marrying Carrie Lou, welcoming Marianne and Caitlin, traveling to Europe, South America and now southwest Asia, singing so often in Boston, and moving who knows how times in between all of that.  If that much of my life can pass as quickly as my mind perceives, hopefully this year will as well.

This was the first deployment where all the pieces fell into place.  There were occasional questions about whether I would actually go, dates that constantly changed and commitments that had to be adjusted.  But now that I'm here, it's time to both realize that the time will pass quickly, and yet try to not miss the value of the experience along the way.

I left Fort Benning in Georgia to fly overseas on a hot, muggy day.  The air seemed as tense as my nerves not knowing how soon it would be until I could talk to Carrie Lou and the girls, family or friends.  An overnight flight, I tried as best I could to sleep but it was a futile effort.  Maybe I should have taken those sleeping pills.  When I arrived at our stop over in Shannon, Ireland, the green grass had a soft, silvery glow to it in the early morning sun and the wisps of small clouds over the ocean cliffs were traveling in the same direction as we were.  It felt for a moment as though I were heading on vacation, not a deployment.

We left the plane, passed through customs quickly because it was so early, and I stopped at a coffee shop.  I open up my Mac and tried to get on the wireless.  I was thrilled that it was working, it was free and it was fast!  I had the opportunity to talk to Carrie Lou for quite a while that morning as our layover was nearly four hours.  Unfortunately, after about an hour, everyone else on the flight realized where the coffee shop was and that it had free wireless.  The video chat eventually ended because the connection became too slow and we reverted to chat.

Leaving Shannon, the sky was bright and the flight path took us over some beautiful pastoral land that reminded me of the vacation Carrie Lou and I took to Ireland in the summer of 2004.  We had a wonderful time in Dublin and the surrounding mountains.  Having missed setting foot on that beautiful, kelly green grass in Shannon on such a beautiful day I've resolved to try and make that a family vacation soon after I return.

The flight to Kuwait was about as long as the flight to Shannon.  We landed late in the evening and it wasn't until about 2am Kuwait time that we had the opportunity to finally get some sleep.  It was warm, but it's a dry heat, right?  But the time I woke up the next morning, it was 110 degrees, and by the afternoon I stopped looking at the thermometer when it passed 125 degrees.  Dry heat or no, it was as hot as building the fence on the Arizona border with my first engineer company back in 2007.  It didn't matter then either that it was a "dry" heat.

The land in that area of Kuwait is completely desolate.  The light tan sand, soft as powder, permeates everything.  The slightest breeze whips the sand into a frenzy as it seems to have a consciousness that directs it in to every crack and gap it can find.  I was only there for a day, but it seems everything on myself and my gear had sand in or on it.  The land is flat as if it was purposely laid that way, you can see virtually no elevation for as far as the visibility extends.  I can't imagine how even the traveling desert families of the area survived such desolation.

There are some nice amenities on the base, but it's essentially a no-frills transfer station for troops and government contractors in and out of the the war zones.  Money transactions were interesting because they would accept cash, but they would give change in Pogs (remember those?).  Some fellow officers and I stopped for a bite at the outdoor restaurants and my change included a 10, 5 and 1 cent Pog.  By the end of the next day after they had been in my pocket, they were a soggy cardboard mess.

I was fortunate to get out of Kuwait that afternoon, I wanted to get to my destination quickly.  After all, it was finally time to do what I had trained to do and I was anxious now to get started.  The flight was uneventful save for the combat-style landing into Bagram Air Base, just north of Kabul.  For those that don't know what a combat landing is, imagine being on a roller coaster near the end when the ride suddenly seems like you're in a washbowl going down and down in circles when suddenly you level out and arrive back at the start of the ride.  That's about as close a description as I can provide.

Bagram was an experience I was wholly unprepared for.  After being in Afghanistan for so many years, I would have thought the American presence there would have been a bit better planned and managed.  The sheer mess of the place was appalling, building and containers strewn wherever they landed, trash every where, and one main road that seemed to service the entire base yet wasn't big enough for traffic and people.  I was very surprised how unkept the base was, there seemed to be little if any pride in the base except for a few areas.

I survived five days in Bagram waiting for my flight to FOB Shank, south of Kabul in the Logar Province.  We finally secured a flight reservation and at 2 am went to wait to board the C-130 to Shank.  The 6am flight was a very short flight but I was in the jump seat and had a great view.  The desolation of the mountains and the sheer difficulty in the terrain was more than I had expected.  Knowing I'd likely be in those mountains soon, I suddenly wished I'd spent more time on the StairMaster than running up and down the Charles! 

FOB Shank allowed me to get some in-theater training I needed, zero my weapon that had been brought by my unit, and get acclimated to the 6,000 foot altitude.  A five-mile morning run the first day nearly brought me to my knees, the runs on subsequent mornings were a little easier each day.  We experienced a mortar attack near our tent, but it was far enough away that we weren't in any real danger.  We witnessed a road side IED attack a few miles away while running one morning on a hill on the edge of the base which put the reality of the mission into a much keener focus.  It wouldn't be long before I'd be traveling on that road.

I arrived at my more permanent location at FOB Airborne after those first few days at Shank.  Airborne is even higher, but the base is a bit more compact and is less "garrison" like Shank and Bagram were.  The flight from Shank to Airborne gave me an even better view of the land and I've posted some pictures from that flight.  There are parts of this country that appear idyllic and serene, seemingly quiet neighborhoods of extended families working hard to survive in a difficult climate with little arable land and few water resources.  The swaths of green trees and gardens along the rivers where apples and apricots are grown lull you for a moment into a sense of ease.  I felt myself longing to wander down to the local fruit market and with a smile and hand to my heart, buy some fresh apples and make a new friend.  The reality that my movements in the area would very limited and only with a fully armed team of soldiers replaced my thoughts of a simple stroll to the local market.

My time here at Airborne has been different than what I expected.  I had planned to be remote in the mountains working with small villages and rucking every day.  What I have actually been doing is working at the Provincial level with the governor and his ministers.  My work is a broader stroke rather than a finer point that seems to have a far reaching impact on the area as a whole.  It's interesting and I feel fulfilled in the work I am doing, but it's a much bigger job to do.

One of the most interesting aspects of what I am doing is trying to help facilitate the huge number of non-government and US government entities in this area and their programs that are designed to help the Afghan people.  There are agricultural programs, banking programs, leadership programs, women's programs, medical programs - and the governor is tasked with trying to find ways to improve the lives of his people amidst a climate of terror and a thousand years of traditional life.  He seems to be a good person, albeit a true politician, who is genuinely trying to improve the lives of the people he serves.  Fluent in English, he is an easy communicator and works tirelessly.

What seems to be most difficult is finding ways to mentor, assist, educate the sub governmental level workers.  For many of them, working at this level is new for them and for their village.  Many are still not literate and much business that transpires is oral and not written.  The governor is often frustrated that he cannot communicate both the sense of urgency and the importance of finding ways to improve the lives of the people of Afghanistan with the people that report to him directly. 

There's a quote from "The American President" where Michael Douglas is chastising an opponent when he says, "Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it, Bob's problem is that he can't sell it!"  That is how I see things here in my short time.  There are a lot of people here trying to do good work and trying to help make this a better, safer place.  But it's a very hard sell to the people that matter, the villagers, the religious leaders of the remote areas, the people that need to understand the message most clearly.

It's only been a short time yet, there's still much to do and certainly much to learn, and before I know it I'll be home wondering where all the time went.  It's only a year. 

Thank you again to everyone for your support to me and to Carrie Lou, I hope you know how much it's appreciated.  My best to everyone and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.