my Trip to Afghanistan

I'm currently Deployed to Afghanistan. Last week i made a big long post about it, and the internet went down right as i was trying to send it! so this will probably be the shorter version with more pictures and less words.

We left on the weekend, so Jakob and Sarah got to see me off. This was during the peak of our German summer, so it was a blazing 90 degree's and jakob wanted some cool water. Even though he has his sippy cup that is always fully stocked, it's much more fun to drink out of the big boy's water

Here are our bags all ready to go, now it was just a sit and wait game.

This was our mode of transportation. It was a pretty sweet ride and being able to stretch out was much nicer than being cooped up in a chair the whole time. We also got to fly straight into afghanistan instead of stopping off in qatar or Manas.

Like I said, way nice to move around and spread out! Here we are playing a game of spades on a Jammer.

And our in flight meel was classic PB&J made on the top of a Light-all.

This is our group's first glimpse of Kandahar Air Field.

We had to be in our IBA gear to get off the plane. We were all shuffled into the "welcome" building, which also happened to be the building Al-Queda used as their last stand when we were taking back the airport in 2003 or so. This building looked like it had been through hell.

Here is my room, or POD. Everybody throws up blankets to create a small hole of privacy, commonly called "spank tanks." My personal little space is the one on the right closest to the door. This is a rare oportunity with the lights on. 2 of us work 8pm-8am, one works midnight-noon, one works 8am-8pm, and 2 work noon-midnight, so there is never a time when it's polite to turn the lights on.

Here is my space with the lights on

And more normally with just my little lamp on

Here is where I work, looks exciting doesn't it?

Here is the HAMS, it's a pain in the ass to back trailers in this tight spot. Amazing how some people have been here for almost 4 months, working out of the HAMS every day, and still can't back a trailer! oh to be able to pull the girl card...

And this little guy is why we are here. It's pretty cool to load a plane, and it actually comes back with empty pilons. When Sarah was in Iraq, our F16's only dropped 4 bombs the whole time. 1 was a dud, 1 was dropped to blow up the dud, and 2 were dropped for "training." Out here were dropping more than that on a busy night!

Well that's all for now!