Weird Days and Getting Used to The Suck

Hello All,

  I think I had my "capstone" convoy two days ago.  We had to go down Route xxxxx to get to a little-bitty outpost with a really huge attitude.  We don't go down this route often (I've done this once before during my first month here and it was kinda squirrelly) so we all pored over the maps.  It basically looked like a straight shot, no issues. 

 

  Yeah, well that is probably true on every day but Friday, which is the day we were convoying.  This route is chock FULL of mosques and, apparently, a really huge bazaar on Friday.  We hit our first roadblock (this was an honest-to-god roadblock put up by the police, more makeshift ones come later).  If I had seen this four months ago, we'd have called it quits and headed home.  There was no danger, just a big, people-laden roadblock.

 

  I had the convoy vector off one block, I figure we could drive around the block that had the roads blocked.  That didn't work out.  We ended up on a divided boulevard (going down the wrong side at first, Americans making a great first impression).  We got onto the correct side of the boulevard and kept travelling.  I figured, hey, as long as I can see xxxxxx Hill and that big Mosque with an-easily-identifiable dome, and keep in between them, I'm okay.

 

  The smoggy, nasty, Kabul air screwed that up for us.  As we kept zigzagging south and east to get back to our route, we couldn't see the towers in the middle of the roundabouts, much less xxxxxx Hill or our "special" mosque.  Four months ago, I'd have turned around at this point, too.

 

  It is better to be lucky than good.  We eventually zigzagged onto our route, after inadvertantly driving THROUGH the back corner of the bazaar (no roadblock back there) and suh-low-lee weaving through about 10,000 people.  Thank gawd the door locks were working.

 

  We got to our destination.  Conducted our official business, make a short detour on the way out to re-enlist SrA B at the Queens Palace (pictures to follow -- I never thought I'd do a re-enlistment in Battle Rattle, but now I have.)  Then we waded through all those roadblocks, crowds, and FRIDAY PRAYER TIME (mosques overflowed into the street).  We could have driven down the streets where they were praying, but we're not P.O.'ing the locals like that on my watch.  We have to do the same zigzag song-and-dance we did on the way down  times two on the way back up.  We dodge big crowds whether or not roadblocks were in place.  The visibility was even worse due to smog than on the way down.

 

  Anyhoo -- we got home safely.  I've now seen more of Kabul than I ever really wanted to.  There are some really nice houses out there and some promising construction sites away from our base.  I'd like to say that "Capstone Convoy" was my last one, but we just did another trip to Bagram yesterday for parts and repair jobs.

 

  It's amazing what you can get "used to" over here.

 

Cheers,

Jody

--
"...wrap your arms around your body armor, give it a big embrace, and LEARN TO LOVE THE SUCK!"
  -- Sergeant First Class Jenkins, 13 JUL 08

Letter of Appreciation

Hey, cool things do happen.  BG Wolters, the Deputy Commanding General for Political Military Affairs (US Embassy) presented SSG Commisso, IT1(SW/AW) Jurek, and I with Letters of Appreciation for completing the installation of ISAF-Secret in the US Embassy.  An LOA will help IT1 Jurek with promotion points and on her Chief's Board.  It will also help SSG Commisso on his SFC board.

 

This was a PAINFUL installation (rhetorically and physically, I managed to get my hand stuck in a cooling fan -- there wasn't a lot of blood, but when that little fan flung it on the wal...... yick).  The political and material hurdles were hor-ree-bull.

 

Anyhoo, it's nice to get kudos.  The general said the LOAs were for perserverance.  Apparently, we're the third group to try this install.  Others tried and quit.  The general said we had faced several hurdles that would have made most people quit, but we perservered.

 

He did relay a story that he came down to check on us and heard my looooooooooong string of four letter words after I cut my hand on the cooling fan.  He peeked in and saw SSG and I in our t-shirts, covered in ductwork dirt, and looking pretty sleep deprived.  As soon as we saw him, we briefed him that everything was under control, and we were making progress.  He said that kind of attitude wins wars.  While I appreciate the sentiment a bunch, from SSG, IT1, and my perspective, it just keeps us from getting clobbered by birds (colonels) and stars (generals).

 

Anyhoo, here's a couple of pix.

 

Cheers,

Jody

--
"...wrap your arms around your body armor, give it a big embrace, and LEARN TO LOVE THE SUCK!"
  -- Sergeant First Class Jenkins, 13 JUL 08

You can't make this stuff up....

All,

  I know this sounds weird being in a warzone and all, but here it is:

 

I'm fortunate enough to be allowed to be the sound guy for the local band CSTC-IT-2-YA (pronounce see-stick-it-to-ya -- it's a takeoff on our command name, CSTC-A pronounced see-stick-uh).  Any-hoo, normally the band just plays on base.  We got invited to play the British Embassy Christmas party.  That was going OFF!  There was 250 people crammed into a room for 150.  The band played really well.  The intoxicated Brit females in tight party dresses were dancing their butts off (rhetorically speaking).  We Americans aren't allowed to drink in the

 

The acoustics in there were awesome.  The decorating committee put sheets on the celing with Christmas tree lights for "mood lighting", but the sheets turned out to be the world's greatest dampers for the drums, which let us open up the mids on vocals.  BAM!  People could understand the band.

 

The band was out in the crowd playing, especially during (I know, these were Brits) Sweet Home Alabama.  Whodathunk that Brits dug Skynyrd?

 

Anyway, the other strange phenomenon was the crowd starting to sing along to "Far Away" which is a song that Al, the lead guitarist, wrote.  It's a catchy tune, but to get a crowd to sing along to the chorus of an original tune is pretty huge.

 

Since I'm the mixing board guy, I got to see the whole thing.

--
"...wrap your arms around your body armor, give it a big embrace, and LEARN TO LOVE THE SUCK!"
  -- Sergeant First Class Jenkins, 13 JUL 08