|
Sunday, 12 June 2005
First entry
Hey everyone!
I hope you all are safe and healthy, and doing well!
First off, kudos to CPT Robertson for that excellent newsletter he wrote! Thank you!!
There has been some concern about the lack of FRG information and support, so hopefully this blog will help address some of those problems. I thought I’d start off the blog letting you all know about places other than Bagram, especially Salerno and the outlying FOB’s.
This is an UNOFFICIAL blog, which means that this blog is for the soldiers and their wives, girlfriends, friends, and family, by the soldiers and their wives, girlfriends, friends and family. This is not an official blog of the 254th Med Det. Information about what’s going on down here and back home can be passed, but we need always maintain OPSEC!!!
It’s been about 3 months now (or is it 10 years?) since we arrived, and I thought I’d add a little to what CPT Robertson wrote to let you folks back home know whats going on.
As you all know, we got here via Kyrgyzstan, where we stayed for 5 days, to kind of ease into the region. The main language of that country is Russian, as it was a soviet satellite. Curiously, while we were there, a major rebellion happened, and the government changed. We knew nothing of this--business as usual.
We got to Afghanistan, and split up into 4 teams; 1LT Clark and SGT Rodriguez to K2, CPT Schaeffer, CPT Parish, SGT Castillo and SPC Cantor to Kandahar, MAJ Sawyer, CPT Douglas, SGTs’ Montgomery and Richardson to Salerno, and everyone else went to Bagram. At this time, we are all pretty much in the same places, however, it looks like someone will probably need to support Kabul in addition to the other camps. And, as everyone knows, CPT Parish left Kandahar, but we are hoping he will be more successful at his next placement.
I was in Kandahar, and it was great to see CPT Shaeffer, SGT Castillo and SPC Cantor. There is a 173rd psychologist working with them, and they are doing an awesome job. While I was there, it was quite busy-I even saw a few clients! The team has done a fantastic job integrating with the 249th and the 173rd.
I cannot speak to K2; that’s the one place where I haven’t visited yet.
We at Salerno travel around quite a bit. So far, the record for the 254th in days away from camp goes to SGT Montgomery who has been away from home camp 37 days. CPT Douglas has been to more places—7—since arriving in-country. Of course, MAJ Sawyer and SGT Richardson have been out almost as much!
This has been great for us—we’ve been able to see a LOT of Afghanistan. The countryside is richly varied, and much greener than you’d think it would be. In fact many parts are quite beautiful. Thus far I the only method of travel I’ve used have been helicopter. I flew one night when there was only a sliver of moon, and the helicopter lights were off--the pilots were wearing night vision goggles. We flew about 1500 feet off the ground for about 90 minutes, and it was awesome seeing the camp fires and lights, and the softly lit terrain.
About half the country is mountainous. Many of the ranges are really high. In fact, several are snow capped all year, and difficult to fly over most of the time. We stick to the valleys and passes. The elevation is quite high all over the country, and there are some beautiful sunsets and sunrises. It has rained about 1 out of 4 days since we’ve been here, and there are the occasional heavy dust storms. We’ve even had hailstorms!
As CPT Robertson wrote, both Kandahar and Bagram have fast food places, and even a day spa where you can get a massage. Rough, eh? Salerno has a coffee house. At all FOBs and camps, our laundry is done for us, so we will need to be retrained when we return.
The food here is very good. Quite varied, but a little heavy on the beef and pork. There are good salad bars at BAF, KAF and all the FOB’s I’ve been to. Fridays are crab/lobster and steak night at KAF and BAF. Another great thing about the food here is that there are all types of ice cream!
We all appreciate your support, letters and packages. There is a rumor going around that what the soldiers want most is DVD’s and books. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!! These are the 2 things we DO NOT need! We can purchase DVD’s at our local bazaars with 1-5 movies on each disk, we borrow from each other, and the MRW’s have thousands of DVD’s at each camp. Additionally, there are many thousands of books at each camp.
What we would like is:
Good microwave popcorn, and plenty of it!
Cheese-its, and plenty of them!
Sugar free gum
Black licorice
Cup O noodles
Home made cookies
Stuff that reminds us of home
Some things of note:
PICTURES OF US ARE AVAILABLE AT: http://dldouglasss.tripod.com/254th_photos/
Congrats to CPT Robertson- selected for MAJ!!!
Congrats to SPC Kennebeck and Melanie- to be married in July.
Mid-tour leaves are about to start!!
Thanks again for your support, and keep those cards, letters, and good thoughts coming!
Newer | Latest | Older
|
