Carter's Fuersts

I'm writing this 5 days before Carter will turn 3 months!  When you have a baby you always hear, enjoy them because they grow so fast.  Well, it's hit me!  He's not our little infant anymore.  At 13 lbs. he has almost doubled his birth weight!  Carter has been a busy boy growing, learning and experiencing all his firsts. We thought we would share some with you!

1st day in the real world.

1st car ride.

1st day home from the hospital.

1st photo shoot (3 days old).

1st thumb suck.

1st month picture.

1st real smile.

And the latest... 1st grab at toys.

We are counting the days till we see Daddy in July!  Thank you for your prayers surrounding all of us.  We feel them and know that we are loved and blessed.

All our love,

Christine & Carter

Inventory = Headache

So this past week has been pretty busy. Before the guy I replaced left, like 3 days before, he showed me the extremely large inventory of equipment he was signed (responsible) for. It included a couple million dollars worth of IT equipment (rack servers, switches, UPS, etc...) that our organization would never use. All of which was just sitting in our storage unit collecting dust. He was somewhat of a hoarder and told me he had it to barter with other units. He acquired the equipment from a large brigade size element that was re-deploying back to the states. They just wanted to sign it over to someone quick so he took it... ALL!

For the past month I have been working to redistribute this equipment to other units that actually need it and figure out if everything I am responsible for is actually here. A few Saturdays ago, I had a sort of fire sale where a few units came buy to see what they could use and offloaded about 80%, which was great. Now that the equipment is down to a manageable size, I am finding that some of it is not accounted for, meaning we cannot find it. This is a serious issue as one of the most important things in the military is equipment accountability. Computers, monitors, radios and other items are tracked by serial numbers. If you don't have it, you need to prove you transferred it to someone else to relieve you of financial responsibility. If you cannot then you can be found liable and have to pay for it out of your own pocket.

Normally an individual cannot leave a unit and move on until they have cleared their property book and shown that they have not lost anything. Somehow my guy left without doing this. This is partly to blame do to the fact that when a soldier is on 365 day orders to be here, there is a drop dead date by which they have to be out of the country or there is a red flag that goes up to the Secretary of the Army, then generals get involved and someone gets a butt chewing. Because of this, he was able to escape without completing a 100% inventory. This however does not remove him from responsibility he is found liable though... it does follow you.

My current commander is leaving in a few months and needs to complete a 100% inventory to transfer the command to the incoming commander. Because of this I raised the issues of the missing items to him to make him aware and get the attention it deserves. I now have the visibility and attention I need to reconcile the property. We are such a big organization that the equipment is out there in Afghanistan somewhere, we just need folks to raise their hand to say the have it. I have found a little bit each day by doing some serious investigative work. I have been staring at my spreadsheet just thinking of things I can do to get some kind of lead on where to look. We are missing some computers, so I called our Computer Help Desk to see if they had any record of them as we have been handing machines to them for Windows 7 upgrades. They responded with dates and names of personnel that dropped them off and picked them up. This allowed me to find all but 2 so far and I at least now know who to go to. I have also found notes from his previous inventories showing that some of the equipment was not really accounted either which is not good, for those previously responsible as I see it.

All in all, if some equipment is not found an officer will be appointed to investigate the situation and ultimately determine if there is a financial liabilityy and who it should go to. I am working to make sure it is not myself at this point and find as much as possible so it does not come down to this. Our supply guys is also running down leads as well.

That's all for now, will keep you posted.

TTFN,
Travis

2 Months In

2 Months in and gong strong. As you noticed I did not blog last week. Not really much to report. This past week was pretty busy since I was a one man show in my section for a bit. My NCO came back 2 days ago and things are starting to slow down again. I am very thankful to have such a hard worker and we get along great.

I will give you some insight on how the military office environment works though. This is one reason I could never be active duty military. The general military population, has no concept of civilian industry practices that save money and time (LEAN, Six Sigma, Project Mangement), which drives me nuts knowing these are tax payer dollars and they are wasted due to lack of knowledge, education and the prevailing culture. For example, this is one thing I am dealing with right now. We have a bank of printers that people use here in our office that I am responsible to keep up and running being the IT guy. No one will send documents electronically for review, they have to print full page, full color, single sided copies for others to look at.

So this is where I come in and bring things out of the 1980's to keep my insanity. I plan to put all the printers on a print server, so I can control how things are printed from my computer by controlling the default settings. Meaning, all prints will default to black and white, and double sided. This will save on color toner costs and paper consumptions. And I will also be able to delete stuff that is backlogged in the printer queue. I am becoming the IT natzy and I understand why others do as well. They all know this is coming very soon, and the commander is 100% behind it, I am sure of that. I am trying to convert folks to use the network that is available to them to share files electronically and show them the benefits. A similar thing was implemented at my work back home, and was estimated it would save us millions on paper costs. The savings won't be that big here, but it will make a dent in my sanity. Imagine what the tax payer dollar savings would be if we could implement this across the Army? Problem is each Army unit is like a different company in the civilian world. They all do things differently.

Here is another tid bit. The division that has been running the show here for the past year has just left and turned the operations over to a new division. You would think this is no big deal, they just take over right, wrong. They have their own identity so signs have to be changed, computer naming conventions have to be changed, any and everything that had the old divisions stamp on it now has to have the new divisions identity. Instead of setting everything up to be generic to the unit that is running the show to again, save money, a lot of unnecessary time and money is spent making these changes to preserve the individual unit's identity. If this were a company they would be out of business by now. There is a saying out there, "We fight the same ware one year at a time." As this happens every year.

Just thought I might provide you with a little insight into my current situation. I am working at getting on "Aghan Time", I think it is kind of like "Island Time." Nothing moves very fast around here, that is for sure and I think I am dealing with a little bit of culture shock believe it or not.

Until next time, TTFN!

Afghanistan - The Unblogged (1)

By the time you read these posts, I am home safe and sound. This post is a collection of the things I would not tell anyone about, except a very select few, so no one would worry.

The Sunday after Easter was a busy day in the headquarters here at Bagram, as the insurgents launched a coordinated series of attacks against some of our remote sites. I was at one of those sites not 2 weeks prior. The guy I know there had a 107mm rocket land in his quarters. It did not detonate, which is the case most of the time, and he was not in it at the time thank goodness. We and our remote sites do periodically receive what is called Indirect Fire (IDF) at night. Usually happens between 0000 and 0200 in the morning. They fire 107mm rockets from the villages that surround us and hope they hit something. 9 times out of 10 they hit an open field or an empty building as this place is so big.

Just this past Sunday we had a pretty close call ourselves though. At around 0030 in the morning, there were at least 3 rockets that landed on Bagram. My buddies that live across the street said one exploded pretty close to them, between their B-Hut (Barracks Hut where they live), and the laundry facility. Here on the other side of the street, we had a rocket land 2 buildings down from mine. The round landed in them middle of the building, when through the roof, the 2nd floor bunk bed (no on was sleeping there thank God), through the 2nd floor, and berried itself more than 6 feet in the ground without exploding. The gal that lives in the room it went through didn't even wake up and it was not reported until morning. I never hear it when they go off if I am already asleep. One of my co-workers lived on the other side of the wall from where it hit. She says her head was about 2 meters from the impact ad it knocked a picture off the wall. Again thankfully it did not go off. The blast radius is about 12 meters. These munitions are so old most are no good, or they forget to arm them before the fire them.

Here are some pictures of that incident showing what it did. The reality of the situation is, in the United States you could be killed by a drunk driver. Here there are no drunk drivers and we are a cross-section of the populations. In essence, these are our drunk drivers as we are a sampling of the population and bad things happen. We just have different "bad things". Just like back home, there is a lot we can do to prevent stuff, but we cannot worry about things like this. When these things hit, there is not really much you can do other than hope it is not close to you.

Proximity of impact to me.

Ceiling of impact area.

The floor all dug up to try and retrieve the unexploded shell. They where not able to dig deep enough so they just poured concrete over it to seal it.

Bunk that thankfully no one was sleeping in. There was a gal sleeping on the other side of the room.

Looking from the second floor to the first floor through the impact hole.

 

Happy Easter! and Helocopter Rides

Wow, what a week! Let me start from today, Easter, then pick-up earlier in the week. As you know Sunday is the day we don't report to work until 1400hrs (2pm), but today was Easter. I got up around 0530 and headed to the gym to register for the "Run for Jesus 5-Miler" which was organized by the Chaplains here on Bagram. They did a very nice job with it, as once registration was over at 0600, they did a 30 minute sunrise service and actually incorporated the run into the story of the Resurrection. How did they do that you might ask? Well in John 20:1-18, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found that it was empty, she RAN back to tell the disciples about the news, and then Peter and the other disciple RAN back to the tomb and the other disciple out RAN Peter. The first 500 to reach the finish line received the T-shirt pictured below, so he told us at the end, every time you pass another runner say something along the lines of, "see you at the tomb Peter".

Here we are in our Easter best. LTC Meyer, LTC Head, LT Morales and myself before the service. Disregard the date, the camera must still be on East Coast Time.

Pretty good turnout, about 570 people.

The Chaplain conducting the service with the band just behind.

Runner Number

Back of runner number had the service printed on it for the Sunrise Service before we ran. Pretty good idea for this type of event.

The t-shirt that was given to the first 500 that finished. I did pretty good finishing in 41:37, just over an 8 minute mile pace. Not bad for running on a treadmill for the last six weeks. I will see if I can start to chip away at that time.

And here is my little man all dress for Easter himself at 8 weeks old.

Ok, so now the rest of this past week. Well, I had to make a trip out to one of our remote sites with one of my guys to troubleshoot a satellite up-link for computer network and VoIP phone access. When traveling, most of the time you take rotary (helicopter). For the trip out we took a UH-60 Blackhawk. I didn't get any pictures of the one we took, because you cannot take pictures of the flight-line. I did get a pic of myself on the bird, but that's about all you get, along with some of the scenery. By the time we landed it was dark.

Flight on UH-60 Blackhawk.

A view of the Kabul, Afghanistan suburbs from the air.

A view of the countryside.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Stanley, and I hit the ground running once late evening, and worked until about 0230hrs in the morning. Since everything is 24hr operations, we had the guys on from the command center on the phone most of the night working the issues. We racked out bout 0300hrs and woke up at 0600hrs to see when our flight was coming in to take us home. We then hit up breakfast, pic below, as you can see it was very hearty. Then took care of some other business before out flight arrived mid morning. The Forward Operating Base (FOB) I was on butted up right next to the city. So they are right in the thick of the population. Much different from where I am at the larger air field. You definitely keep your good eye open there.  I have placed some pictures of the trip to give you an idea of what it looks like. There is some wildlife as well.

Yum, french toast, sausage and eggs over easy!

PO2 Stanley (Navy) and I in the concrete room where the equipment was until the wee hours of the morning.

Some of the local wildlife, dogs. They were on FOB, just hanging out. Cute to look at, but most all dogs here are rabid. Do not pet the wildlife. The dogs hate the Afghans. They do not treat them very well.

Just basking in the sun.

 

They guy in the middle is who we were there to help out with the communications issues.

This is when you know your not in all that friendly territory. Afghan sitting behind a machine gun pointed toward the city. Yes, that is an Afghan flag on the right. This is one of the Afghan training centers.

For our return trip, we took a CH-47 Chinook. They picked us up on the morning and we were on the bird for 5.5 hours because they had other missions to preform before they went back to Bagram. We did a sling load mission (carrying cargo slung below the helicopter via a cable), dropping off supplies to other location further south and picking other passengers up. Not to mention refueling 2 times. Fun ride, but man, after 3 hours sleep and being in an egg beater all day, I was pretty much out of it by the time we got back.

And there's our bird just prior to getting pelted with every piece of lose gravel and piece of sand as it landed.

Our chariot has arrived!

Look at all that leg room, this is like the military's version of 1st class. Remember, Stanley is a Navy guy, so please excuse the expression.

Here the two crew members from the Michigan National Guard are watching the sling load we are carrying below the helicopter to make sure it stays directly below us. The floor is opened up and we also have the back door open to allow air to flow through the cabin.

Somewhere over Afghanistan from a CH-47.

As usual, I ended the week with dinner at the Aviation Dining Facility on Friday. Had two lobster tails, fried shrimp, scallops and asparagus. While we were standing in line I snapped this picture of the moon hovering over the mountains that surround us and that ugly B-hut. 

Well, that is my last week in review. Hope every one has an awesome Easter and a great week. Until next time, TTFN!

New Address

CPT Fuerst, Travis

RSC-E/Task Force Defender

Apo Ae 09354

Or

CPT Fuerst, Travis

Task Force Defender

Attn: RSC-East

Apo Ae 09354

Week 5

Another week down. I have now been in country for 5 weeks. This past week SFC Fowler, the guy that has brought me up to speed on this job departed. He was supposed to leave on the 27th, but was around another couple of days waiting on a flight. Funny thing was he boarded a C-130, said the hit the runway where in the process of taking off, and he was feeling real good about that of course. But then the pilot hit the brakes and turned around. I guess there was some mechanical issue. In other words he was unable to reach the required velocity to escape the gravitational pull of Afghanistan. He did successfully make it out the next day. Don't feel too bad for him, as he is headed back to Hawaii where he is from and is currently stationed, for the past 9 years. I dropped some pictures of some of the guys I hang out with here we snapped before he left.

Left to right: MSgt Cisneros , Rudy, Me, SFC Ross, and in front, SFC Fowler.

 MSgt Cisneros (Air Force)  in is charge of a team that does network QC for Afghan Army and Police structures that we contract out. They verify that everything is to code. Not sure who's code, because they don't really have much of one here, that is for sure. He and I play poker together at different times during the week. Rudy, is one of my crossfit buddies. He is a civilian contractor that used to be in the Air Force. SFC Ross is our supply guy, he takes care of all the property and ordering.

Over the past two weeks I have connected with a few other Christians and we started a small Bible study. We are meeting twice a week right now primarily just to talk and learn. We started The Truth Project this past week and that has been good. It is just nice to sit down and discuss life. So much of the conversation in the military revolves around things I really cannot mention and listening to it all the time really wears on you.

This morning, I rolled out of bed around 0900 (Sunday), and went to brunch at the 82nd Aviation Dining Facility. They are the only Army run facility, so the food is much better and they have a Sunday Brunch. Met up with CPT Burns and 1LT Morales seen in the picture below. They are both part of the Bible Study I mentioned above. After brunch we headed over to the PX to pick up some essentials and grab a coffee/tea from the Green Bean (Army version of Starbucks) then just sat and chatted for a while. We were discussing how much you think the items pictured below were worth, as a guy had them for sale just in front of us. We were figuring $20 - $25.  We did hear him give an offer to some one at 3 for $50 though.

Left to right: CPT Burns, 1LT Morales, and Me.

Collapsible wood baskets. Look like they would be great candy dishes for holidays.

Here are some collapsed.

That's all for now, time to head in to the office. If anyone sees something I posted, please don't hesitate to hit me up. I can ship it back to the states, no problem.

TTFN,
Travis