Deeeeeeee-nie-duh

All,

  Big delay of game.  I'm not getting into San Diego at 2306 on 22 JAN.  Looks like a hotel stay in Baltimore is in my future.  Good times.  Now, I have to figure out how to cancel my Cloud9 shuttle.  From a 30 min only internet and a long line for DSN as everyone tries to call their significant others so they're not disappointed at the airports.

 

Lovely, but not unusual,

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

Sitting, waiting, anticipating

Hey All,

  We're in Kuwait still.  The return and reunion classes are done; the Health Assessments are done; Our classes on PTSD are done.  Our bags are packed; Our tents are swept;  the hajjis are hanging around outside our tents waiting to get anything we decide to throw away (can't blame them, I just gave away my running shoes).

 

  Our customs ordeal isn't going to be as bad as we thought: they'll go through our checked bags, let us go to chow, go through our carry-on and our pockets, then put us in lockdown.  A few hours later we'll go to the airport, stay in lockdown until the flight is loaded.  I'm still not going to say exactly when the flight is -- OPSEC -- but the hajjis sure seem to know.

 

  I've bought a lift ticket and an intermediate lesson at Big Bear, as well as a room at Motel 6 for 24-25 JAN.  I'm going to get my noggin together before heading to Birmingham to see KL and the boys.  The chaplain really stressed getting some time by yourself.  He pointed out that on deployment you can't even go to the bathroom without 2 or 3 other people being there.  After two deployments on NIMITZ followed almost immediately by this IA, I kinda forgot to notice, but he's right.

 

  We got the big caution about driving.  I AM worried about that.  Past deployments were about re-learning how to drive after not being in a car.  This time, I've been driving constantly, I've just been driving aggressively.  I swear to god if I see a Jangle Truck in San Diego I'm going to run him off the road :) (just kidding).

 

  I'd love to say I have to be somewhere soon, but I don't, but this email has been entirely too long.  Thanks for sticking with me over this whole deployment.  This should be the last one I send before stepping foot in CONUS -- okay, maybe ONE from Germany.

 

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

I'm in Kuwait!!

All,

  I have made it to Kuwait.  Last night's travel issues were a cluster, but we're finally at Arifjan!  Arifjan ROCKS!  There is a freakin' Starbucks here and, get this, you can brush your teeth with the tap water here!  That's right, no "aw shits" b/c you forgot to get the bottle water as you trudge through the gravel in your shower shoes to brush your teeth out in the conex box.  SCHWEET!

 

  We went through a preliminary weapons check today.  Man, they are STRICT on the carbon stuff.  The Q-Tip has to come back white from a pretty thorough wipe down on both my M9 and my M16.  Two hours later (after passing the check), my weapons is giving up carbon on the Q-Tip again.  ugh.

 

  We turn in gear and weapons tomorrow -- NO MORE ALBATROSS AROUND MY NECK (literally, around my neck for the M16).  I can go to the bathroom (head/latrine) or the gym or ANYWHERE without worrying about carrying my weapons or double-locking them or having someone "watch" them for me.  Dude, I'm psyched.

 

  My time is almost up on this computer, so I better go.

 

Love,

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

What are they going to do -- send me home??

All,

  It's been the perennial question since I got to Afghanistan: "What are they going to do -- send you home?"

 

  When the tie-rod on our up-armoured land cruiser got bent all the way to the ground, we couldn't turn right anymore.  We were on top of a freakin' mountain.  The trail was too narrow to get a deuce and a half up to tow us down.  Some folks were advocating that we abandon the vehicle.  "What are They going to do -- send you home?" was ring out all over the place.

  I (along with one justifiably concerned spotter) drove that stupid land cruiser down the mountain after using a jack and a clever special forces sergeant to make the tie-rod bend less.  I thought that with all my body armor, weapons, and the armor on the vehicle, falling off a mountain would be a dumb way to die.  We made it down.  Nobody sent me home.

 

  We ran into some trouble on Route xxxxx on a Friday.  We didn't know you should never use Route xxxxx on a Friday.  The Kabul mosques overflow into the streets; citizens erect makeshift roadblocks for a impromptu bazaar; police erect real roadblocks as thousands of Afghans flock to the bazaar.  We aren't well versed in the streets that branch off Route xxxx.  Some folks with our convoy talked about pushing through the crowds or just giving up and going home.  "What are They going to do -- send you home?" 

  We vectored off the route; we vectored off our vector.  We kept telling each other, as long as xxxxxx Hill is on our right and that blue domed mosque is on our left we're good.  The Kabul smog came on that afternoon with a vengeance.  We could barely see the vehicles in the convoy, much less xxxxx Hill and the blue mosque.  We kept vectoring.  We didn't P.O. the locals.  We eventually made it back to Camp Eggers.  Nobody sent me home.

 

  We got caught up on the edge of a riot.  Police blockades were all over the place.  Multiple convoys were mixing it up all over the place.  It got kind of ugly.  As our convoy got split into parts by a bunch of Phoenix Humvees, a jangle truck blocked my vehicle in.  My shotgun rider suggested "pushing" the jangle out of the way.  "What are They going to do -- send you home?" 

  Okay, this time, I did it.  Our Land Cruiser pushed that jangle quite nicely.  We mangled the right rear door handle, but we got out of the traffic jam, rejoined our convoy, and 'got the hell out of Dodge.'  Nobody sent me home.

 

  In the last 24 hours, I watched my crew convoy out into some cruddy weather without me -- felt like I'd abandoned them, but I have been turned over to my relief for several days; I've been given an award; farewelled at the Thai place; jumped on the Rhino and left a good friend behind at Camp Eggers for another six months -- seemed like I was abandoning my shipmate; and made it to Bagram. 

  The reality has sunk in.  After a month of training and six months of being a Sailor in a landlocked country, "They" are really doing it.  "They" are sending me home.

 

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

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