The Bazaar

Ok, before I tell you about the fun stuff, I need to fill you in on the somber first. Last night I attended my first Fallen Comrade Ceremony on the flight line. Each time a U.S. Soldier is killed they fly them through Bagram to Germany. We all form up on the flight line a couple hundred yard behind the C-130 they are loading it up on. A HUMMV carries the body to the pallbearers who then carry the casket to the plane. This is all done very ceremoniously with a band and honor guard. It was a very surreal experience.

Today, Sunday, I woke around 8:30am and rolled out of bed and hit the gym for some light stretching. Have to work out all the soreness from working out everyday. A group of us the Army run Aviation dining facility for brunch. They do this on Sundays for those that get up late. I had a good helping of french toast, smoked sausage and scrambled eggs and did it ever hit the spot. After that we walked down to Entry Control Point 1, about 1 mile,  to a bazaar that is just inside the gate to check things out. They have some really nice things, you just have to be careful of what you are buying as much of it is made in China. Nope you cannot get away from it. However, going with those that have been there before and knowing who to talk to you can get some good deals. I did end up picking up a few things and posted some pictures of the different shops below. If anyone is interested in something, let me know. We can always do a paypal deal and I can ship it home. The prices are pretty reasonable and you barter.

Enjoy the pics.

This is at a little antique type shop. They had all kinds of vintage firearms, knives and helmets.

Different hats scarves and other local attire.

This guys shop was very nice and our guys do a lot of business with him. These were stacks of real silk scarves. They only run about $25 apiece.

Same shop as the silk scarves. These were pashmina, which is a grade above kashmir. These were only $7 each.

Marble cup and bowl sets. About $45 for a set. The ones below look like wood, but were marble.

These bowls are marble, but look like wood.

Well, that is it for now

TTFN,
Travis

Life on Bagram...

Hello again from Afghanistan. It is now Sunday, March 18^th 2012 and I have been in country for 3 weeks now. The weather is pretty nice today, feels like about 65 degrees outside and sunny. I actually slept in until about 10:30 this morning. No, don't have the day off, but we don't go in until 2pm on Sunday. 

I have been watching the Showtime Series Homeland at night, which is pretty good. Oh, let me tell you real quick about movies here. They have little bazars here on post that are run by the Afghans where they have dvd stores. But they don’t sell the real dvd, they sell bootleg copies of dvds for $3, I here that is expensive as on other FOBs they sell for $1. Now these are not always the best quality, you know, you see somebodies head in the picture or the screen is crooked, but some are pretty good, dvd quality. They have new releases and some that are still in theaters. I know what you are thinking, that is illegal right? My thoughts exactly, but I guess it is over looked here in country; you just cannot take or mail them home. It is kind of nice because you can buy a whole season of say, Dexter, for a few bucks and watch it. I plan to pick up a few ShowTime and HBO series to watch myself. Some stuff you can just copy from another guys hard drive.

Time is moving pretty swiftly for me as I am keeping busy. SFC Fowler, my NCOIC, is leaving in one week, which is going to suck for two reasons. One, he is the brains of the operation, and two because I really like hanging out with him. He is really good people. He heads back to his home in Hawaii. At least we have someone to visit in Hawaii now when we go, which will be awesome. The good thing is that he does have a replacement coming, so I won’t be a one man operation. She arrives this Tuesday so there will be time for cross-training with him as well. She is also a SFC, which is nice, because you almost have to be at least a SFC around here so you don’t get blown off by people. I am told she is a former Drill Sergeant, so I am hoping for a high quality soldier. As many of you know I was once a drill sergeant myself and also commanded a basic training company of drill sergeants at Fort Knox for a year. I have my expectations, this is for sure.

I have been snapping some pictures when I get a chance. Here is what I have from this past week.

This is a poster we say in the rotary terminal (helicopters) that I thought was pretty telling. I fall in more on the left. Here is a good article I found that goes with it. Article

A typical dinner at the dinning facility. Trying to stick to meat and veggies, cutting out the large portions of mashed potatoes and rice they like to feed you.

This is Friday night, which is surf & turf night. They only had crab legs and fried shrimp this past week and I skipped the steak Those are yams in the far back.

This was my plate after I laid waste to it. Yep, another application for the the handy dandy multi-tool

This is my office. I am in a server room with network switches. I cannot complain one bit as I have my own office where I can play my music and get some privacy.

Oh, did I mention I have a 42in TV with Armed Forces Network as well.

Some insight to what I do, here I am moving about 20 freshly imaged computers back to my office from the help desk. I am the SIGO, which is the Signal Officer in charge of all communication for the brigade to include radios, computers, cell phones, etc... I don't spend much time in the office, lets just say that.

This is the laundry drop off location I use. We get free laundry serve with about a 3-4 day turnaround. They even fold it for you.

We are headed to the other side of the air field here. Just a peak into what the main road looks like.

Until next time, TTFN,

Travis

My New Life in Afghanistan

Hey everyone, I hope this meets you well. I am doing well and finally getting settled into a routine. I get up around 6am, go to the gym for some cardio, come back, hit the shower, get dressed, make a morning protein shake for breakfast, read a bit and head to work where I fix my morning tea and start off with a daily 0830 stand up meeting with the brigade commander and rest of the staff. At that time we find out what going on around the country and get battle field updates. Not to much unlike my day back at home working at Boeing actually.In the afternoon, I head back the the gym for a mid day cross-fit session with some of the guys in the office.

The Post Exchange (store) here is pretty bare because the Pakistan border is closed. We have the basics and stuff that is flown directly into Bagram Airfield (BAF), but some stuff comes via the port in Pakistan. My understanding is that there are trucks waiting to cross that border. Remember we had coalition forces fire on a Pakistan outpost and kill about 24 Pakistan soldiers a few months back. I guess they still have not opened the border for supplies.

Christine has been sending me some items to make my room more comfortable, like a few lamps. This way I can turn my lights on and off independent of my 2 other roommates. We each have a part of the room which is partitioned with 2x4s and plywood. Not a bad setup. Here are a couple pictures of my living area. The last guy left the chair.

This is where I lay my head at night. Yep, that is a cordless hone on the wall. I hook up a Magic Jack to my computer to call home from my room. It works pretty well. Don't do much but sleep here other than that.

This is the outside of my billets. The buildings are made of con-exes (shipping containers) made constructed into buildings.

Last week as I mentioned we took a convoy (my first) to a remote location (for operational security, OPSEC, I will speak in generalities for some stuff). The ride was kind of cramped as you can see from the pics, pretty tight quarters. We were in an MRAP, remember I posted pictures of those previously. The trip was about 6 hours round trip. We had a gunner, so he snapped some photos of the countryside as we were driving along so you can get an idea of what it looks like here outside the base.

Getting in our MaxPro.

My NCOIC on the right, SFC Fowler and our vehicle dismount on the left. He is part of the PSD (Personnel Security Detail).

Picture with the guys we went to support. Beautiful view in the background.

This is the pre-convoy brief we receive each time we go out. All these guys are there to protect about 3 of us actually going out on a mission. Never felt so important. All these guys are from the Ohio National Guard.

View from inside the MaxPro

Hindu Kusch Mountains

Half built abandoned building. These are all over the place.

There is only one major highway in Afghanistan and trucks are everywhere.

Not Kentucky Fried Chicken, Halal Fried Chicken!

Any taker?

I am now carrying my camera on me at all times, so I will snap pics whenever I see a good opportunity. I will also try to post more frequently with smaller bites about life here.

Until next time, TTFN…

New Job and Address

After almost 4 months of training and time away from work, I finally started my new job about a week and half ago. I am working at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan with the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan (NTM-A) (www.ntm-a.com). We are the guys in charge of mentoring the Afghans to take over their own training of Army and National Police personnel. We have mentors at various training sites around the country working to transition the sites for our eventual withdraw. I am the communications officer for the eastern region, managing communications (computers, radios and satellite base stations) for our headquarters and remote sites. The job is right up my ally because I am always on the move and not really stuck in the office much.

I am falling in on an awesome NCO that is coming to the end of his tour the 1st of April. We have been cross-training since I hit the ground and it is going quite well. Here is an article that sort of describes what my section does. SFC Fowler, in the photo under the dish, is the NCO I am working with: http://ntm-a.com/wordpress2/archives/9783.

Some of you might be wondering, what happened to mentoring Afghans? Well, with us transitioning sites to the Afghans, that position went away and they re-missioned me to the HQ where they were  short a communications officer, which is my job in the military. This job will keep me a little more busy as I work from 8AM to 8PM. Don't let that fool you, we take about 1 hour for lunch and dinner, work out in the middle of the day and take care of any other personal business we need to during that time as well. You pretty much just go to your room to sleep though. This position will allow me to travel more around the country to different sites via air (helicopter) and convoy.

As a matter of fact, I went on a convoy this past week to one of our sites to drop off some equipment. It was fun and enlightening. I will elaborate in another post with pictures, but for know, just know that Afghan life here is very different to what we are used to.

I don't really like to post without pictures, but wanted to let everyone know what I was up too before I got too far into my work. I promise my next post will have some pics of my road trip, room, and whatever else I can come up with.

For those that want it, here is my address:

CPT Travis Fuerst
RSC-East, CJTF-1
Bagram Air Field
APO, AE 09354
United States

If you want to send care packages, feel free to send whatever. We share stuff in the office, so not much goes to waste. I see granola bars, girl scout cookies, oreos, nutter butters, popcorn, tea, baby wipes,  candy, and all that good stuff. Trader Joe's goodies (like nuts, trail mix, salted peanut butter pretzels, etc...) would be cool.  Cannot go wrong with TJs. If you want to send a box and don't know what to send, just send what you would like to have. We are good on all the personal hygiene stuff, no real need for that.

I have to throw in that I am deeply disappointed in the Colts releasing Payton. If he ends up in Seattle, I might actually dawn a Seahawks jersey! Cross your fingers Hawk lovers!

Well, that is all for now. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I can really feel them.

Going to talk with Christine and Carter now. Until next time, TTFN.

And we are off...

We departed Fort Dix around 4:30pm on Monday, February 20th for the airport on a charter bus. It took us about 4 hours to get there due to heavy traffic, but once we arrived, we began to offload all of our bags onto the luggage carts. We checked in just like any other flight, but this is was an Air Force Air Mobility Command charter.

 They assigned seats as you check in, first come first serve. Thankfully I was able to get an aisle seat since they had been checking people in since around 4pm that day and we did not arrive until just before 9pm. Once through TSA we boarded the World Air MD-11. I have never flown on this model, but the size was somewhere between a 767 and 777, as it was a 3-4-3 seating configuration. There was plenty of leg room, probably since it is not a standard commercial flight.

The first leg of our flight was 7 hours to Germany where we deboarded the plane for about 1.5 hours in the terminal area. We then took off for our second layover in Turkey, which took another 4 hours in the air. We head about a 2 hour layover there before departing for and air base in Kyrgyzstan at 0700 in the morning. We pretty much took the equivalent of two back to back red eye flights to. We stayed there for  just under 3 days before traveling to Afghanistan on a military transport.

To give you an idea of our accommodations while in Kyrgyzstan, which is a transition center for Afghanistan, I took a few pictures of the amenities. The food was better than what we had at Fort Dix and the chow halls are open 24/7. They have all the candy, pop tarts and cliff bars you can eat. I plan to stay away from that stuff though. There is free wi-fi, video games, recreation centers and plenty of goodies for all the soldiers traveling through because all you do here is wait for the next flight into out. 

                                                                                                                    

At the airport with all my gear.

Our accommodations while in Kyrgyzstan awaiting a flight out.
This was a heated tent with 3 rows of bunk beds running the length head to foot.

This is the outside of the bunk tents. There are a lot of them!

Ahh yes, and here are the portable toilets. This is a step up from porta potties.
You actually feel like you are sitting on a throne.

I modeled one for you.

Here is the shower tent. There were about 8 showers inside, and the water was not all that warm.
There are sinks on either side.



This place even had a Beauty Shop with Spa. a 50 min massage was only $20.
I didn't get one here, but the place I am going has the same thing. I am thinking at least once a week.



Me sitting in the holding tent waiting to board our military transport to Afghanistan.

I have actually been in Afghanistan for a week now and am just getting settled in. On my next post I will bring you more up to date. Things are going well though. TTFN!