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