Reveille was at 0400. I slept in the turret the night before, alternately folding my feet under my legs and draping them out the front; metal screws poked into my back if I shifted wrong. No pillow, no pajamas, just take your boots off and go to sleep. Not the best sleep I’ve ever had, so when reveille sounded, I didn’t mind too much. When I woke up it was difficult to see; fifteen minutes later I could easily see the vehicles on the outside of the perimeter.
We did a brief for the personnel heading down to the river and left around 0500. By the time we got to the first site, the sun was up over the horizon, and the local population was up and moving around. We drove into town with our MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) and 7-ton vehicles; the security team pushed out to provide overwatch while the mineroller swept the approach to the river. A few minutes later, the overall mission commander informed me that the site was ready, and that we could dismount and perform our reconnaissance at the first site.
The river was a lot cleaner than we were expecting. When we briefed the mission, our CO and the Colonel above him that we briefed were very concerned about the Marines going in the water, worried about what diseases they would contract by going in the water. We got there, and it was just like looking at a river back in Oregon—cleaner, even. The rocks were growing algae and there was no trash on the river bank. The Marines waded in.
Immediately to the right of the approach were some cliffs overlooking the river. As the Marines waded around in the water, the local nationals gathered on the cliffs to watch. It was mostly men and children; I don’t remember seeing any women in the village. They were all dressed in traditional Afghan garb—long robes with trousers underneath and thick turbans swathed on their heads. The men all had bushy beards; some of the children had smaller caps on. They had no chairs but squatted comfortably as they watched us, sitting back on their heels. I don’t know how they do it—I know my legs would go numb if I tried for longer than a few seconds.
We completed our reconnaissance at the first site and made our way up to the second site. It looked much like the first with cliffs on either side of the approach to the water, except the closest compounds were a few hundred meters to the south. I did actually see a couple of women at this site, albeit from a distance. They are easy to recognize because they have veils instead of turbans and their clothes are more brightly colored. The veils I saw did not appear to resemble the heavy burqas I’ve seen in pictures that Saudi women are forced to wear; they were the same color as the women’s clothes. We also saw a flock of goats grazing near the base of the cliffs on the river.
The third site was the same—cool, clean water with few local nationals around. By mid-morning, the air was getting hot, so the cool air coming off the river felt nice. I did see one gentleman a few hundred meters north of the site. The overall mission commander had a translator speak with him, and learned that he was waiting for a ferry to take him to the other side of the river so he could go to the market.
It’s been pretty hot here lately. The past couple of days have been in the mid-110s during the day time, and no lower than low-80s at night. We’re all looking forward to September, when it should start cooling off around here.
Thanks for all the comments and e-mails! I always love hearing from everyone back at home. I’ve adjusted to life here, and don’t miss the states quite as much, but it’s still very stressful out here, and hearing from you makes my day that much brighter.
18 July 2010
15 July 2010
Welcome, Judah!
So, the big news of this week (as I’m sure you all know by now) is that Amy had her baby, and I am now a proud Aunt! I now have a picture of Judah posted by my desk here in my office, and my screensaver scrolls through what pictures I have of him. I wish I could be in Oregon right now, but I am getting by with pictures.
Probably the largest sacrifice that Marines (or anyone in the armed forces) makes is their time with their families. (The second-largest one is sleep…but sleep can be caught up on. At least in my job.) I know several Marines that are on their fifth deployment, each spanning at least 7 months. These Marines have spent more time away from their families than with their families in the past few years. One of my Marines’ wives will give birth to their first child while we are here, and I know there are more in our Battalion in that situation. Some Marines receive “Dear John” letters from their girlfriends (I hated that movie), others will come home to find their spouses have left them for someone else. (Very sad, but I personally know Marines this has happened to.) The old joke that if the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife it would issue one is just that—a joke—but there is that nugget of truth hidden in it. The Marine Corps is very hard on families and relationships.
Depressed enough yet? Makes my whining about not being there for the first days of my nephew seem paltry. Overall I’m doing well, though. I’ve gotten plenty of pictures e-mailed, just got a letter in the mail, and am anticipating a couple of packages in the next few days.
Our pace has slowed down slightly since the first month and a half that we were here, but we still have missions here and there. Last weekend the news of the weekend was the river reconnaissance we did. I took a couple of Marines that are familiar with military bridging (from a different platoon in my company), and we went to a few locations on the Helmand River to determine suitability for bridging. The river was actually fairly nice, if fairly and fast-flowing. Before we went out there we were worried about how clean it would be, but it looked as clean (possibly cleaner) than any river in the US. And certainly cleaner than some of the beaches in LA.
Once I got back, I got to sit down and fill out all of the river and ford reconnaissance forms, and put together a brief for the unit that requested the recon. It was actually kind of fun, once I got started, figuring out the way to best brief it. Most of the briefs I do follow a pretty standard format and are designed to brief what will happen, not what has happened. This was just different enough to be fun, and by the time I delivered the brief I had gotten comfortable enough with the people I was briefing so as not to be nervous.
A logistics officer recently mentioned to me his observation that engineer school seemed to prepare its students well for briefing. I would have to agree; we did at least four formal briefs, and a couple of other informal briefs. When I got here, I actually went back to some of those briefs I did at school to figure out how best to brief my actual missions.
I hope that’s a random enough collection of thoughts for tonight. I do actually think about posting more often, but nothing I do seems interesting enough to talk about. And I can never say much about the things that are interesting.
Until next time.
Probably the largest sacrifice that Marines (or anyone in the armed forces) makes is their time with their families. (The second-largest one is sleep…but sleep can be caught up on. At least in my job.) I know several Marines that are on their fifth deployment, each spanning at least 7 months. These Marines have spent more time away from their families than with their families in the past few years. One of my Marines’ wives will give birth to their first child while we are here, and I know there are more in our Battalion in that situation. Some Marines receive “Dear John” letters from their girlfriends (I hated that movie), others will come home to find their spouses have left them for someone else. (Very sad, but I personally know Marines this has happened to.) The old joke that if the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife it would issue one is just that—a joke—but there is that nugget of truth hidden in it. The Marine Corps is very hard on families and relationships.
Depressed enough yet? Makes my whining about not being there for the first days of my nephew seem paltry. Overall I’m doing well, though. I’ve gotten plenty of pictures e-mailed, just got a letter in the mail, and am anticipating a couple of packages in the next few days.
Our pace has slowed down slightly since the first month and a half that we were here, but we still have missions here and there. Last weekend the news of the weekend was the river reconnaissance we did. I took a couple of Marines that are familiar with military bridging (from a different platoon in my company), and we went to a few locations on the Helmand River to determine suitability for bridging. The river was actually fairly nice, if fairly and fast-flowing. Before we went out there we were worried about how clean it would be, but it looked as clean (possibly cleaner) than any river in the US. And certainly cleaner than some of the beaches in LA.
Once I got back, I got to sit down and fill out all of the river and ford reconnaissance forms, and put together a brief for the unit that requested the recon. It was actually kind of fun, once I got started, figuring out the way to best brief it. Most of the briefs I do follow a pretty standard format and are designed to brief what will happen, not what has happened. This was just different enough to be fun, and by the time I delivered the brief I had gotten comfortable enough with the people I was briefing so as not to be nervous.
A logistics officer recently mentioned to me his observation that engineer school seemed to prepare its students well for briefing. I would have to agree; we did at least four formal briefs, and a couple of other informal briefs. When I got here, I actually went back to some of those briefs I did at school to figure out how best to brief my actual missions.
I hope that’s a random enough collection of thoughts for tonight. I do actually think about posting more often, but nothing I do seems interesting enough to talk about. And I can never say much about the things that are interesting.
Until next time.
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