28 October

The Army Information Technology folks have decided that this Blogspot website constitutes a threat to National Security.  I did find a work around hope I don't get charged with espionage!

I finally got sick of waiting for my PT gear to arrive and started working out anyway.  I just end up filling up my laundry bags with work clothes faster!  There's a paved road all the way around the airfield and the loop is about 3.5 miles.  My goal is to work up to doing one of those a day in under 35 minutes.  I'm starting with every other day keeping my heart rate under 145.  That means alternating between a very slow jog and quick walk. It's gonna take a while by my reckoning.

The food is damned good.  That's a problem.  I figure if I'm good six days a week and go to town one day a week, I'll be doing well.

It's easy to work around 12 hours a day.  Right now, I'm learning my tools and doing some simple projects.  As time goes on, and I prove my value, I'll be doing more important and more complex work.

I'm working with some very smart and dedicated people.  They're all friendly and have a great sense of humor.  That makes it really nice.

The weather is still pretty good.  I can feel it starting to cool off.  It's been low 70s during the day and mid 50s at night.  Great for sleeping.

It's amazing how many local nationals work here on the base.  They handle a lot of the cleaning, maintenance and construction.  They're friendly and definitely appreciate having the work.  There are service members from every service.  My direct 'boss' is a Marine LCOL who's taken on my fitness as a special project of his!

20 October

In Bagram (just north of Kabul) for the week.  Amazing sea of humanity here.  Very diverse -- Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and tons of civilians in every size, shape, color and age.  This is one of the largest bases in Afgh.  Every kind of support and operation originates here.

The weather is beautiful but dusty.  The view of the snow-capped mountains in the distance is spectacular.

Received a lot of briefings and current updates.  We definitely have our work cut out for us but there some promising signs.

The Army runs the base and I'm continually amazed at the Army way of doing business.  Sleeping arrangements and toilets, showers are adequate.  I'm in a 5-man bunk room with just two others.  Very lumpy spring mattress!

As time goes on, I'll add some pictures I took.  Can't show everything but some snippets will give you an idea.

15 October

Well, it's my last night before going "over there".  My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...,

Had a terrific evening though.  Eric Vanhove, a company mate from USNA and I caught a Washington Capitals hockey game.  Home team one, had a good Chinese dinner, and got to catch up with Eric whom I hadn't seen since graduation in '82!  Thanks Eric for a great night.

This week has been good.  Last minute "new hire" things at Leonie's offices needed to get done, I got to learn more about the technical aspects of my job, talking to people at the government site.  The hotel accommodations were fantastic... hope they have a Sleep Number bed in Afghanistan?!

I'm ready to go.  Looking forward to doing a good job over there and getting over the pain of settling in.  The flight will be 12 hours from Washington, Dulles with an overnight in Dubai and a flight into Afghanistan the next morning.  I'll be spending a week or maybe two at my unit's division headquarters at Bagram airbase, northwest and a fairly short helo ride from my eventual home away from home.

To all of my family, friends and followers, don't worry about the safety issues.  The big bases, like the one I'll be at, are well protected, are not in danger of attacks and safeguards are in place to keep us out of danger in case they get indications of enemy activity.  I'm not worried about that issue.

I'll update this in a few days. Bye for now.

24 September - 05 October

I'm into my second week of "Pre-Deployment Training".  The first week at the Counter IED Operations Integration Center (COIC) was interesting.  It's very obvious that commanders in the field and their reachback support teams are drinking through about 15 fire hoses of intelligence data.  Prior to 9/11 the problem was that all agencies were collecting the data in stovepipes and not sharing it with anyone.  Now, data is pumped to those who need it but it's not integrated into anything useful until a request for services is issued. Literally 100s of reachback support personnel are involved in producing answers using some pretty innovative tools.  ArcGIS and Google Earth are key applications.

It looks as though my job will be to field requests for specifics to support operations.  Some of the questions I'll be able to answer directly with access to the fire hoses and the same tools used by the reachback support teams.  I will be getting  involved in the planning process and be proactive with providing support as I see opportunities.  This happens when perhaps commanders are not aware that specific types of data exist and can be integrated into actionable information to aid in the planning phase of operations.

This week is not fun.  I'm at Ft. Benning, GA going through the Army's CONUS Replacement Center (CRC).  CRC prepares ALL support personnel deploying to CENTCOM to include Active Duty, and DoD and Contractor Civilians.  Going through final medical evaluations, filling out reams of paper with repetitive information, getting issued protective data, and receiving dozens of orientation briefs.  All in 90 degree/90 percent humidity weather.

Next week I'm in Arlington, VA for more orientation and training with reach back folks.  I'm scheduled to fly downrange around the 16th.  I'll try to keep everyone updated!