I've been here at Kandahar Air Field (KAF) for a few days now and in reality have very little new to share. Things here at KAF just aren't that exciting. Everything is crowded, with transients making up a great deal of the people here. The gym is busy, the USO is full, and the lines at the Dining Facilities (DFACs) are long. But it is extremely safe here. There have only been a few random rocket attacks all year, and only three small arms attacks. So no need to worry. We've been going through the standard training to finally get out to our units, and the first of us to head out leaves tomorrow.
I still have almost another week here and until Saturday I basically don't have anything to do. I'm not exactly sure what the course I have to take is all about, but they only do it once a week so I have to wait until it starts again. And I don't know how long it is either.
I'm probably going to get a platoon pretty quickly, and I'm really excited about it. I will more than likely be out on my own on a small base with little more than my platoon and some Afghan National Army guys with me. But, that could all change when I finally get up to my unit. We are based here on the western end of Kandahar province, near Helmand. Good news: I won't be going up and down mountains all the time.
When I find out more or have something new to write about I will do so.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Afghanistan
I've made it to Afghanistan safe and sound. It took several days of travel that seemed like a never-ending cycle of waiting and flying but we finally made it to Kandahar. It doesn't smell as bad as Manas did, but the dust is absolutely horrible! I couldn't believe just how bad the dust was until we got here. It gets everywhere, into everything, and just causes problems for both equipment and people. The drivers here on Kandahar AirField (KAF) are horrible too. At night you have to go around wearing a reflective belt, and you only have to be on the road for 5 minutes to understand exactly why.
Right now I'm doing some training to get ready to join my unit, and after we finish it up, I have to stay for about another week doing more training to get ready to take a platoon. Well, my time on the computer just ran out, so I'll be back to post more soon.
Right now I'm doing some training to get ready to join my unit, and after we finish it up, I have to stay for about another week doing more training to get ready to take a platoon. Well, my time on the computer just ran out, so I'll be back to post more soon.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
In Transit
I'm on my way to Afghanistan in one of the longest days of my life. It started with a nice stomach flu yesterday at 5 am and continued through the evening. We boarded a bus to Ramstein around midnight and it is now nearly 24 hours later and still have 2 more flights to get to Kandahar. I will post more later when I can.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Too Long without a Post
Sorry for not posting anything lately, I still don't have internet in my apartment so it is much more difficult to for me to update. I've been doing well, but I really don't like not being able to log on at will, especially when it is so expensive to call back home on my cell phone. I've watched a lot of movies, and taken a lot of online training, had numerous immunizations last week, and finished up my medical preparation for deployment. Other than that, I've been pretty bored here. I am supposed to leave at some point in the next two weeks, but I still haven't heard a firm date yet. I'll be sure to let everyone know when I do finally head out.
This past weekend I went to Prague. It was awesome! It's a beautiful city full of good times and people and food. I had sushi, traditional Czech food, and KFC all in the same weekend, so I definitely went to different extremes as my stomach started to rumble. I saw a lot of the city, went on two tours on Saturday and a pub crawl on Friday, although I did get lost from the pub crawl when they left one club...oh well, I still had a great night anyway. Saturday I was up and about from around 9 am until 5 am the next morning, so I was pretty tired when I had to check out at 10 am. There was no rest for the wicked, though, so I kept going and walked around the city for a few final hours before heading back to Sulzbach.
I'm not sure exactly where I'll end up this weekend, but right now my plans are for Luxembourg, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but we'll see what happens.
This past weekend I went to Prague. It was awesome! It's a beautiful city full of good times and people and food. I had sushi, traditional Czech food, and KFC all in the same weekend, so I definitely went to different extremes as my stomach started to rumble. I saw a lot of the city, went on two tours on Saturday and a pub crawl on Friday, although I did get lost from the pub crawl when they left one club...oh well, I still had a great night anyway. Saturday I was up and about from around 9 am until 5 am the next morning, so I was pretty tired when I had to check out at 10 am. There was no rest for the wicked, though, so I kept going and walked around the city for a few final hours before heading back to Sulzbach.
I'm not sure exactly where I'll end up this weekend, but right now my plans are for Luxembourg, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but we'll see what happens.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Munich and Training and England and Apartment
I had a great weekend...but I have no pictures to show for it. I forgot my camera again, I don't know what it is, but it seems to be the one item that continually escapes me as I pack for my weekend trips. I hung out with two classmates of mine on Friday night, we went to Weiden, a bigger town nearby, and wandered around until we found a Gasthaus (Guesthouse) that looked good. It was nice to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a while, and good to know that I have more friends here than I thought. Most of the guys that I know that are stationed here I thought were in Afghanistan, so we will all deploy at pretty much the same time.
Saturday morning I woke up and caught the train to Munich and got there sometime shortly after noon. I walked around the downtown area and visited several ancient churches and the old palace (Residenz) of the Bavarian Kings. All of the old cathedrals and large churches are decorated with so many beautiful pieces of art and gold and silver that it gives easy understanding to just how powerful the Catholic Church used to be. The Palace was enormous, old, and absolutely stunning. Room after room and hall after hall of more and more opulance. I couldn't help but wonder at how quickly the old royalty and nobility must have lost sight of the grandness of their surroundings. I noticed a similar experience while still at West Point. Without stepping back and really looking at how beautiful the Hudson Valley truly was, I could have easily gone weeks stuck in a dream of endless class, homework, and the countless other minutae that occupied my time at the Point. I finished up Saturday evening going on a beer tour of Munich and making several new friends, so maybe some photos will surface of me eventually.
Sunday was a much more sombre day for me. I chose to visit the Holocaust memorial site of Dachau, only a short distance from Munich. In a weird twist that shows just how small the world truly is, when I went to Starbucks before meeting up with the tour group, I ran into some people I had met the night before, and they were headed to Dachau as well, so it was nice to have several people to talk to when the mood struck me to do so. The whole visit really made me think about what it means to be a warrior and the nature of mankind. Michael Shaara in his book The Killer Angels described how in every soul lay the seeds of both a devil and an angel, and it is up to us to decide the aspect that guides our actions and behavior. I will leave it at that with one final thought: never again.
I'll go into my training briefly, because although it was surprisingly good, less is more in describing it. We had a very busy week and I only made it home before dark one day. Our time was not wasted at all and much of the training served as a good refresher for things that I have done in the past. We went into greater depth about how to combat IEDs and deal with the population and did a good review of heavy weapons and personal firearms.
Last weekend I went to visit a friend that lives in Lakenheath, England. We had a really great time and I was able to see two castles and a huge cathedral in the short time that I was there. Driving on the left side of the road made for an interesting experience, even if I wasn't the one driving. I did remember my camera this time, so I'll eventually get pictures posted on facebook. We even found good food while we were there, so it was a nice change from a typical British experience!
This week I've been getting settled into my new apartment in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. It's a really nice apartment, and downtown Sulzbach is only a ten minute walk away, so there is really no need to drive in the evenings. Additionally, I signed up for an internet plan, although it is going to take at least 12 days for it to get set up. For now, I am using the internet wherever I can, currently at the store where I signed the internet contract. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do this long weekend, but I'll go somewhere fun and have a great weekend.
Saturday morning I woke up and caught the train to Munich and got there sometime shortly after noon. I walked around the downtown area and visited several ancient churches and the old palace (Residenz) of the Bavarian Kings. All of the old cathedrals and large churches are decorated with so many beautiful pieces of art and gold and silver that it gives easy understanding to just how powerful the Catholic Church used to be. The Palace was enormous, old, and absolutely stunning. Room after room and hall after hall of more and more opulance. I couldn't help but wonder at how quickly the old royalty and nobility must have lost sight of the grandness of their surroundings. I noticed a similar experience while still at West Point. Without stepping back and really looking at how beautiful the Hudson Valley truly was, I could have easily gone weeks stuck in a dream of endless class, homework, and the countless other minutae that occupied my time at the Point. I finished up Saturday evening going on a beer tour of Munich and making several new friends, so maybe some photos will surface of me eventually.
Sunday was a much more sombre day for me. I chose to visit the Holocaust memorial site of Dachau, only a short distance from Munich. In a weird twist that shows just how small the world truly is, when I went to Starbucks before meeting up with the tour group, I ran into some people I had met the night before, and they were headed to Dachau as well, so it was nice to have several people to talk to when the mood struck me to do so. The whole visit really made me think about what it means to be a warrior and the nature of mankind. Michael Shaara in his book The Killer Angels described how in every soul lay the seeds of both a devil and an angel, and it is up to us to decide the aspect that guides our actions and behavior. I will leave it at that with one final thought: never again.
I'll go into my training briefly, because although it was surprisingly good, less is more in describing it. We had a very busy week and I only made it home before dark one day. Our time was not wasted at all and much of the training served as a good refresher for things that I have done in the past. We went into greater depth about how to combat IEDs and deal with the population and did a good review of heavy weapons and personal firearms.
Last weekend I went to visit a friend that lives in Lakenheath, England. We had a really great time and I was able to see two castles and a huge cathedral in the short time that I was there. Driving on the left side of the road made for an interesting experience, even if I wasn't the one driving. I did remember my camera this time, so I'll eventually get pictures posted on facebook. We even found good food while we were there, so it was a nice change from a typical British experience!
This week I've been getting settled into my new apartment in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. It's a really nice apartment, and downtown Sulzbach is only a ten minute walk away, so there is really no need to drive in the evenings. Additionally, I signed up for an internet plan, although it is going to take at least 12 days for it to get set up. For now, I am using the internet wherever I can, currently at the store where I signed the internet contract. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do this long weekend, but I'll go somewhere fun and have a great weekend.
Friday, October 29, 2010
This week
Just a quick post today. I finished inprocessing this morning and really didn't do all that much this week. I went to a really good guesthouse last night, and watched some good movies. Exciting stuff, I know. Next week I am in training, which surprisingly I have heard is actually quite good. Go figure, an Army school where you learn something. What's next? Fall cleanup after all of the leaves have fallen off the trees? I think that one still makes too much sense for the Army right now though...I'm headed to Munich tomorrow and I'm going to spend the night. I want to go and see Dachau while I'm there, but I also want to get to see a lot of the city, so I'm sure I'll have a pretty busy weekend. I'll post some pictures if I get anything particularly awesome.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
First week in Germany
Guten Tag! I've just finished my first week here at Vilseck, and made it through most of my inprocessing. I still have a few things left to do, and on top of that I have other training to complete to allow me to deploy to Afghanistan in a few weeks. Just by looking at the checklist I can tell that it is going to make me want to poke my eyes out by the time I finish with all of the online training they want me to do. I've been through enough Army schooling at this point to be able to tell at a glance when something is worthwhile...and this just doesn't look like it is going to make the cut.
Oh well, on to better things! So far, Bavaria is very nice, and every town I've seen is picturesque. Neatly tucked into the landscape with very German houses that almost seem like a part of the land, each village seems to look similar but unique. With as long as some of these towns and villages have been here, they almost are one with the land. I looked at two apartments this week, both were nice, both were the second floor of a family's home, but one was nicer than the other. Not only was it larger, but it was newer and the rooms would be more adaptable than the other one. Plus the other one was right here in Vilseck, and the couple that lived there were very nice, but very old and they didn't speak any English at all. I'm going to go back to Housing on Monday to see if they have any other available units, if not, I'll take the one I liked better.
My sponsor said that he is going to show me around the area this weekend, and I've got a buddy who is stationed nearby, so even though I don't know exactly what I'm going to get into, I know I'll enjoy it. Today I went to Nuremburg, saw the castle and several churches, wandered through the old city for a couple of hours, and ate really great food. I decided not to stay later in the evening because I was by myself and don't really know the area. So movies for me tonight!
Oh well, on to better things! So far, Bavaria is very nice, and every town I've seen is picturesque. Neatly tucked into the landscape with very German houses that almost seem like a part of the land, each village seems to look similar but unique. With as long as some of these towns and villages have been here, they almost are one with the land. I looked at two apartments this week, both were nice, both were the second floor of a family's home, but one was nicer than the other. Not only was it larger, but it was newer and the rooms would be more adaptable than the other one. Plus the other one was right here in Vilseck, and the couple that lived there were very nice, but very old and they didn't speak any English at all. I'm going to go back to Housing on Monday to see if they have any other available units, if not, I'll take the one I liked better.
My sponsor said that he is going to show me around the area this weekend, and I've got a buddy who is stationed nearby, so even though I don't know exactly what I'm going to get into, I know I'll enjoy it. Today I went to Nuremburg, saw the castle and several churches, wandered through the old city for a couple of hours, and ate really great food. I decided not to stay later in the evening because I was by myself and don't really know the area. So movies for me tonight!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Last week in the States
I am writing this entry from the Atlanta airport waiting for my flight to leave in a couple of hours. I had a great week at home! I was able to see almost everyone I wanted to. It kept me busy, but who would want it any other way? I borrowed my pastor's motorcycle for the week, which was a lot of fun and really allowed me to see the Valley from a different perspective than in my truck. This time of year the Shenandoah Valley starts to come alive and show just how truly beautiful it is. There are so many colors that I am always dazzled at the sheer grandeur of it. Reds and yellows and oranges and greens of so many different shades and hues that it almost hurts the eyes to simply look upon it. The gently rolling country of the valley floor is a mixture of woods and fields that complement each other well.
I am very much ready to go to Germany, although I always find that I do not have enough time at home regardless of how long I have off. I had sixty days of leave last summer and it still felt way too short. Twelve days really doesn't even compare to that, but I feel like I had some pretty action packed days that allowed me to go and do a lot of things on my limited time off.
I can't really think of anything else to write about now so I'll go ahead and sign off and bid Auf Wiedersen! Next entry from Deutchland!
I am very much ready to go to Germany, although I always find that I do not have enough time at home regardless of how long I have off. I had sixty days of leave last summer and it still felt way too short. Twelve days really doesn't even compare to that, but I feel like I had some pretty action packed days that allowed me to go and do a lot of things on my limited time off.
I can't really think of anything else to write about now so I'll go ahead and sign off and bid Auf Wiedersen! Next entry from Deutchland!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Leaving Fort Benning
Today was my last day at Fort Benning! After four days of running around and almost 200 miles added to my truck, I was able to accomplish my goal and get out of here before the weekend. The whole process is unneccessarily difficult at times, but it is over and done with and I'll be able to enjoy the company of family and friends over the next week.
I'm really glad that I'm able to take this leave as I will soon be very busy in Afghanistan, and even after I get back I do not know when I will be able to make it back to the states. Or even if I want to. I had such a great time in Europe last summer that I don't know if I will want to leave at all! I was able to go to several places in Europe and I look forward to both revisiting familiar spaces and discovering new locales for further adventures.
I'll post again before I leave to fill you in on my last week at home, but I can't wait to see my family and friends again!
I'm really glad that I'm able to take this leave as I will soon be very busy in Afghanistan, and even after I get back I do not know when I will be able to make it back to the states. Or even if I want to. I had such a great time in Europe last summer that I don't know if I will want to leave at all! I was able to go to several places in Europe and I look forward to both revisiting familiar spaces and discovering new locales for further adventures.
I'll post again before I leave to fill you in on my last week at home, but I can't wait to see my family and friends again!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Introduction
Hey guys, my name is Michael and I'm writing this blog primarily to communicate with friends and family that might not otherwise be able to communicate with me during my deployment to Afghanistan and my stay in Europe with the Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment (2SCR).
A little more about me: I graduated from West Point in 2009, branched Infantry, and I am currently outprocessing at Fort Benning after completing the Infantry Basic Officer's Leader Course, Airborne School and Ranger School. I am headed home at the end of this week on leave before I head to Germany for a short time and then will be deployed to Afghanistan.
2SCR is already deployed to Afghanistan, so I will meet them downrange and take my platoon in theater. I feel as well prepared as I can be and look forward to performing the service I signed up for and trained for all these years. Look for more posts as I have more interesting stories to tell.
A little more about me: I graduated from West Point in 2009, branched Infantry, and I am currently outprocessing at Fort Benning after completing the Infantry Basic Officer's Leader Course, Airborne School and Ranger School. I am headed home at the end of this week on leave before I head to Germany for a short time and then will be deployed to Afghanistan.
2SCR is already deployed to Afghanistan, so I will meet them downrange and take my platoon in theater. I feel as well prepared as I can be and look forward to performing the service I signed up for and trained for all these years. Look for more posts as I have more interesting stories to tell.
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