Starting my travels...

So I fell behind. Well let me talk about some of the missions and stuff. I'm slowly but surely getting around to the other detachments where the rest of my team is. We are split into 4 different sections of Zabul Province.  So ever since I landed till yesterday I've been at FOB Smart in Qalat City. We run at least one mission a day there and we are super busy. There so many projects in that area and the people love us. By the people I mean the locals. It's very impressive how some speak English but they don't even have enough money for a pair of shoes. It shocks me. I can also say I've been to Alexander's Castle. Alexander "The Great" that is.

So at Fob Smart there is a delicious chow hall, pool, ping pong, MWR with like 12 computers, good gym and our rooms are made of concrete and not just wood all around us. FOB Smart is pretty well built. I won't speak of the negatives because certain people would not like reading this so I'll keep it to myself.

I am now at FOB Lane and there is alot less here. The team here is working hard to make it better. No complaining though and I love it. No-one cries about how small the rooms are, not having their own a/c, and or not having an uncomfortable mattress. This is what I consider an actual FOB. 

My room at FOB Smart [i got alot more stuff now]

My room at FOB Lane and my working station.

 

So about the last picture in my last post. I'll briefly explain the story. It was July 4th and we were flying in a UH-60 Blackhawk around the Zabul Province to visit the different districts of the province. About 3/4ths into the flight Lt. Gutzman says over the comms "guys I can't hold it any longer but I need to go" or something along those lines. It was pretty funny but it can happen to any of us. Well he pulled out an empty water bottle and he used the "restroom" while in mid-air. Pretty funny stuff. So after we landed at another FOB to re-fuel we took that picture so in the picture he was holding a water bottle with his own urine in it. haha but like I said it can happen to anyone. 

Im sure it was warm

 

So I told you all I went to Alexander's Castle right? Well I turn around and look at what I see. I see some locals working on a tower and they are way up high with no safety equipment, literally. The picture below will show you but if that happened in the states there would be a crowd around the tower with people yelling to him not to jump and fire truck sirens racing to the location. This is just normal for them. 

I think they are crazy

So when we do our missions we always have our security and then the personnel talking with locals and doing what they need to do [like me, I document]. Well below are some photos of our security personnel on the job.

FYI! In this blog you will see photos that I don't officially release. Of course I know what I can and cannot release for security reasons but some just don't get out for certain reasons. 

Bright morning gotta love it

Spc Fox doing his thing

Sgt Farrell, the worst ping pong player ever! Well I beat him alot!

Along the Tarnek River

Unexpected work always happens when deployed because we are on the job 24/7. Well one of the things we do here is help with local's medical needs in cases of emergency. We sometimes have to respond to those in need when the local hospital don't have the capabilities to help them.

On July 9, we had to respond to civilians injured from a vehicle bomb. There were 10 injured but we took the 2 most critical under our care. One had shrapnel to the eye and the other one had wounds all around his body.  During that time it became one critical injured civilian. If you're wondering why well it's because the other one didn't make it. It was a 15 year old boy that was possibly just playing in the streets and didn't know what was coming. Our team did the best that we could do. The boy was seriously hurt and lost lots of blood. 

Below are the photos released from this event.

Docs and Medics working on the boy

Detail shot. Not much words

PRT Zabul medics and docs doing what they do best

SSgt Biggs providing blood

The following day our commander officially took command. We had a change of command ceremony and about 80% into it our commander also promoted 5 of our members. It was a nice surprise to a few of them, and some of the others already knew. Pretty sweet either way. More rank  = more money.  Cant complain.

Our Commander

New Promotees

Col Holliday

SSgt Montjoy about to fallout

 

We also do get to have some fun though it's not all scary and dangerous. We get to shoot off some rounds whenever we want and of course who doesn't like shooting guns whenever you want. It's all training afterall. So we go to the range and just fire off some rounds and a few nights ago we got to fire some parachute flares from an M203 Grenade Launcher. We do have a limit of what we can and cannot shoot. The nice thing about FOB Lane [stole this from cpl wine] is that we get to shoot this thing that starts with "e" and ends with "verything"

Fox shooting the M203

 

Well guys this is the end of it for this time. I already wrote my next post but I don't want to post 2 in one day so I'll post it up tomorrow night. I hope you are all sharing this blog and enjoying it. If there is anything you'd like to know more about feel free to comment below and I'll get to you. =]

Tomorrow I'll be posting something I wrote about children along with some images. Stay Tuned!

Me and the coolest asian ever!