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!

Some Pictures

We took some pictures of our class today in our new uniforms. This is the uniform being worn in Afghanistan. It is referred to as Multicam. It looks a lot better than the standard Army uniform and is much more comfortable, this is for sure.

This is obviously me in my uniform.




This is the group I have been training with over the past month. Once we reach Afghanistan, we will all split up into different missions. I am in the upper right hand corner.

 

Here we go...

Hello again from Fort Dix. Yes, I am back. I have been back since last Tuesday evening. I did get to spend 6 days at home with Christine and Carter which was very nice. Since I have been back we have been Skyping, so that really helps seeing the little guy. I just want to reach out and touch him.

We completed all of our training this past week and were validated by 1st Army. They are the Army Division that certifies each individual is trained up to go overseas. We have been here about 6 weeks now and are ready to get the mission started. The last 48 hours has been spent packing our gear for the trip over. The packing is a bit stressful as we get issued about 500lbs of gear, and get a total of 5 bags that cannot exceed 70lbs each. If a bag goes over 70lbs it counts as 2 bags. You do the math. These are chartered flights, so it is just like going to the airport. We have to go through TSA and the whole 9 yards. You probably thought we went over on a military transport, nope, it is all contracted out, to the lowest bidder of course. Once I get to the other side of the pond I will let you know how it was.

All this talk about packing and getting ready to go, you are probably wondering when I am leaving. Well, I cannot really tell you that, but I will just say very soon. I will probably be off the net for awhile once we do leave

Biggest thing on most of the guys mind is getting a drink tonight. Our command is going to let everyone throw back a couple tonight. Since we have been here, we have not been permitted to drink alcohol. I just hope everyone moderates themselves and knows their limits. This can always be a double edged sword.

Well, that is about it for now. Going to Skype with Christine and Carter now.

TTFN,
Travis

It's a...

Baby! Just kidding, it’s BOY! Carter Albert Fuerst was born at 1:48am, February 10^th 2012. He is 7lbs 2.6oz and 21.5in. For those that don’t know he was the best birthday present ever because I just turned 35 today! I was able to make it home from Fort Dix and will be home at least through Sunday the 12th.

Christine and Carter are doing awesome. We’ve had some good quality time already where I have been able to explain everything he needed to know to make it in this world, at least for the next 9 months any way.

Her are the pictures of the little guy, enjoy!

3 Weeks In

Some time has passed since my last post. This is because my computer screen crapped out on me about 2 weeks ago. The LCD screen seemed to crack somehow so I had to send it into Samsung to get it replaced. Pretty quick turnaround, so I cannot really complain too much.

First things first, pregnancy update: Christine is doing great! Her scheduled due date is Monday, February 6^th.  Her body is progressing well. I will be flying home on a 4 day pass on Thursday, February 9^th, so if she has not gone by then, we will be inducing. Not the most ideal situation, but it is what it is and after baby is here, it really won’t matter that much.

The week before last, we actually had some very good mission specific training. I will be preforming the role of a military advisor to an Afghan counterpart in the way of communications (radios, computer networks, etc…).  We had a week long training session with Afghan military role players running through various scenarios. They were contractors that were actually once in the Afghan National Army (ANA). We worked through an interpreter negotiating with them as well as conducing small talk, which they are very big on. You have to build a rapport with them and trust before they will even begin to do business. They are also big on chi tea. From what we have learned they have it at every meeting. They are very easily offended so you really have to stay professional and watch your Ps and Qs. I personally look forward to the job since it will be a bit of a challenge. They say your patience is really tested because they work on an entirely different schedule then we do. When you say let’s meet at 8am, they might show up by 8:45am. You cannot be direct with them either, you have to plant the seed and let it grow over time. Very different to our culture. I am really looking forward to it.

I am sitting in the middle on the left. Our interpreter is sitting between us and the Afghan role players. During this session we just talked about our families to build rapport.

This was another class that we had on the military radio. Not the most exciting bit of training for sure.

Last week we did some vehicle training. You will remember in a previous post I discussed the new family of vehicles called MRAPs. These are Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that protect us from the IED threat and have replaced the very well know Hummer.  We actually got to drive a few of them and man are they nice. I was really impressed with what we have been able to product. The first vehicle we drove was called the M-ATV and is made by Oshkosh out of Wisconsin. It is the direct replacement to the Hummer and is about 2.5 times the size. Below is a picture of me standing in from of it. This is like the ultimate off-road vehicle. Surprisingly very easy to drive too!  Later that same day we did a night driving exercise with a MaxPro, which is made by International build on a dump truck frame. It was a beast, but again, very easy to drive. The night driving was done with a infrared camera and a drop down screen. It was like driving a video game. Again, very impressed.

Me with M-ATV to give it some scale. This is one that we drove. Notice the turret on top it is remote contolled by the gunner seateed behind the driver using a large display screen and a joysick.

This gives you and idea of the protection is affords the passengers. Looks like just another day at work.

This is the MaxPro, which is more of a personnel carrier. It is built on an International dump truck chassis.

The day after the vehicle training we had a short class on weapon transition. This is the act of moving from our primary weapon, the M4 (M16), to our secondary weapon, M9 (9mm pistol) in the most efficient manner possible. The goal is to setup the equipment on your body armor to allow this to happen and develop the muscle memory making it a natural movement. It is all about repetition.

This week we sat through 5 days of Dari training. This is the official language of the ANA. The training left much to be desired and not many were able to get a lot out of it. It was way too much information in such a short amount of time. Being as how we will have interpreters it is not that critical and we will pick up the basics one we are on the ground and thrust into the environment.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and we have the day off.  Most everyone will be going to a sports bar on post to watch the game. Being on deployment orders, we are not permitted to drink alcohol, but our commander managed to get a 2 beer exception for everyone while watching the game. I myself will be going to a buddies place here on post to watch the game with a few other people. Will probably just order a pizza and chill on the couch.

Monday we have more briefings and we hit the ranges for the rest of the week. We finally get to through some lead down range!

My next post may come with some big news, so stay tuned, we are getting very close to finding our if Baby will be a boy or a girl. We are really getting antsy now.