For Chief Mondloch's birthday, we had a pirate party.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Afghanistan Update
Well, its been awhile since I provided an update and I’m sure everyone’s excited to see how the war on terror is going. So, here’s a hodgepodge of happenings since my last update.
Anyone who’s ever looked at pics of old airplanes is familiar with the old nose art once popular on our warbirds. Well, aside from an occasional shark mouth or the warthog paint on the A-10, this practice has become somewhat taboo. You’ll no longer see a girl in a bathing suit emblazoned on the nose of a bomber or anything like that. One thing that has become popular is the painting of barricades. Here at Kandahar, we have these concrete slabs all over the place to help protect us from enemy fire. Some units have left these awesome paintings to be remembered by.
Barricade art left by the 175th Fighter Wing out of Baltimore, Maryland.
Barricade art left by the 188th Fighter Wing out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. 
I spent another Saturday with the boys at the Bazaar School. This time, I brought some Explosives Ordinance Disposal guys along. We started out with some crafts…
And then broke out the cool stuff!
For a robot that’s designed to take explosive blasts, I was surprised it made it through the abuse of these Afghan boys. This poor thing took a barrage of kicks, steps, and twists as the boys interacted with something that was clearly alien to them.
This is my good buddy, Mark Allen. Mark Allen is with the Fort Smith, Arkansas Air National Guard “Flying Razorbacks”. That’s a bottle of nonalcoholic Beck’s in front of him.
One of the highlights of my tour here was the opportunity to work with two different Air National Guard outfits. The thing I liked the most about them was their sense of identity. Being an active-duty guy, I’ve been assigned to about 10 different outfits. Most of us active-duty guys don’t get too excited about any particular unit. Its really not that big of a deal. With the Air National Guard guys, it’s a REAL BIG DEAL. There are guys that will stay with the same ANG unit for 30 or 40 years. For some, it’s a family tradition with fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters all serving generation after generation in the same outfit. While deployed, they advertise their presence everywhere….paintings on barricades, stickers on the General’s car, and, of course, the flag of the great state of Arkansas flying over some of our compounds.
I’ve recently had a few opportunities to hang out with the folks out at the Afghan National Army Air Corps outfit here on Kandahar. One of the big pushes with the war effort is getting these guys prepared to eventually take over the defense of the country. This seems like an awesome task. They’re basically trying to stand up a semi-modern military from the ground up. Some of these guys went from having no military experience to being in charge of an entire unit. Many of them sign on at great risk to themselves or their families. They are really great guys to hang out with and I really wish them the best of luck. This is some of us in front of the MI-17 helicopter, an old Russian helicopter they maintain and fly.
Last week, the ANAAC folks invited us out to a BBQ. It was a fun and interesting experience. One interesting thing was that they had the same Michael Jackson song playing over and over….guess old Jacko was just as popular in Afghanistan. The food was awesome. I asked to take a picture of the spread and this guy thought I wanted a picture of him…not sure who he was.
A picture of the spread…
And, my plate…goat on a skewer, rice with a subtle, sweet raisin flavor, spicy meatballs, honeydew, and some Afghan peaches? The only thing that didn’t taste all that great was the hamburger patty.
We recently had our own BBQ as well. I got to organize a cookout for well over 500 folks. This here is Captain Brighton cooking up a shit ton of brats and chicken breasts. My coworkers and I have had lengthy discussions over what exactly a “shit ton” is. We’ve decided that it is military term of measurement which is slightly larger than a “shit load” and somewhat less than an “ass ton”. In this case, it was precisely enough to feed over 500 Airmen. And yes, that is an Arkansas Razorback carved out of the side of that grill. Remember what I said about advertising their presence?
Mmmmm….battered and fried calamari rings……
To close out my update, I’ll showcase our famous AMMO goat. This little guy hangs out at the bomb dump and pretty much keeps the place tidy by eating absolutely everything in sight. He’s a friendly fella and was quick to nuzzle up to me. Around the time I took this photo, I was reading a book called “The Snow Leopard” about a man’s trek into the Himalaya to study the behavior of the mountain goats up there. In the book, the author goes into great detail about the mating habits of Himalayan mountain goats. Did you know that certain goats actually urinate into their own mouths during mating season? My AMMO Lieutenant was nice enough to inform me that this guy does the same thing. Nice…
Anyone who’s ever looked at pics of old airplanes is familiar with the old nose art once popular on our warbirds. Well, aside from an occasional shark mouth or the warthog paint on the A-10, this practice has become somewhat taboo. You’ll no longer see a girl in a bathing suit emblazoned on the nose of a bomber or anything like that. One thing that has become popular is the painting of barricades. Here at Kandahar, we have these concrete slabs all over the place to help protect us from enemy fire. Some units have left these awesome paintings to be remembered by.
Barricade art left by the 175th Fighter Wing out of Baltimore, Maryland.
Barricade art left by the 188th Fighter Wing out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. 
I spent another Saturday with the boys at the Bazaar School. This time, I brought some Explosives Ordinance Disposal guys along. We started out with some crafts…
And then broke out the cool stuff!
For a robot that’s designed to take explosive blasts, I was surprised it made it through the abuse of these Afghan boys. This poor thing took a barrage of kicks, steps, and twists as the boys interacted with something that was clearly alien to them.
This is my good buddy, Mark Allen. Mark Allen is with the Fort Smith, Arkansas Air National Guard “Flying Razorbacks”. That’s a bottle of nonalcoholic Beck’s in front of him.
One of the highlights of my tour here was the opportunity to work with two different Air National Guard outfits. The thing I liked the most about them was their sense of identity. Being an active-duty guy, I’ve been assigned to about 10 different outfits. Most of us active-duty guys don’t get too excited about any particular unit. Its really not that big of a deal. With the Air National Guard guys, it’s a REAL BIG DEAL. There are guys that will stay with the same ANG unit for 30 or 40 years. For some, it’s a family tradition with fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters all serving generation after generation in the same outfit. While deployed, they advertise their presence everywhere….paintings on barricades, stickers on the General’s car, and, of course, the flag of the great state of Arkansas flying over some of our compounds.
I’ve recently had a few opportunities to hang out with the folks out at the Afghan National Army Air Corps outfit here on Kandahar. One of the big pushes with the war effort is getting these guys prepared to eventually take over the defense of the country. This seems like an awesome task. They’re basically trying to stand up a semi-modern military from the ground up. Some of these guys went from having no military experience to being in charge of an entire unit. Many of them sign on at great risk to themselves or their families. They are really great guys to hang out with and I really wish them the best of luck. This is some of us in front of the MI-17 helicopter, an old Russian helicopter they maintain and fly.
Last week, the ANAAC folks invited us out to a BBQ. It was a fun and interesting experience. One interesting thing was that they had the same Michael Jackson song playing over and over….guess old Jacko was just as popular in Afghanistan. The food was awesome. I asked to take a picture of the spread and this guy thought I wanted a picture of him…not sure who he was.
A picture of the spread…
And, my plate…goat on a skewer, rice with a subtle, sweet raisin flavor, spicy meatballs, honeydew, and some Afghan peaches? The only thing that didn’t taste all that great was the hamburger patty.
We recently had our own BBQ as well. I got to organize a cookout for well over 500 folks. This here is Captain Brighton cooking up a shit ton of brats and chicken breasts. My coworkers and I have had lengthy discussions over what exactly a “shit ton” is. We’ve decided that it is military term of measurement which is slightly larger than a “shit load” and somewhat less than an “ass ton”. In this case, it was precisely enough to feed over 500 Airmen. And yes, that is an Arkansas Razorback carved out of the side of that grill. Remember what I said about advertising their presence?
Mmmmm….battered and fried calamari rings……
To close out my update, I’ll showcase our famous AMMO goat. This little guy hangs out at the bomb dump and pretty much keeps the place tidy by eating absolutely everything in sight. He’s a friendly fella and was quick to nuzzle up to me. Around the time I took this photo, I was reading a book called “The Snow Leopard” about a man’s trek into the Himalaya to study the behavior of the mountain goats up there. In the book, the author goes into great detail about the mating habits of Himalayan mountain goats. Did you know that certain goats actually urinate into their own mouths during mating season? My AMMO Lieutenant was nice enough to inform me that this guy does the same thing. Nice… Monday, March 8, 2010
451st EMXS
My unit here at Kandahar, the 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron. I'm just left of center on the front row.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Kandahar Marathon
Well, we had the 1st ever Kandahar Air Field Full/Half Marathon Sunday. I was really excited about it when I first got here. I kind of feel that the best foot races are the ones that suck the most. Anyone who enjoys running those distances is just a loon. When I run long distances, I'm trying to see if I can push my body through another extremely sucky episode. While I do actually enjoy most of the race, the misery of the last few miles more than makes up for any joy I get out of the first 20 miles. So, after hearing about the Kandahar marathon I thought, "Wow, I just can't imagine too much that could be suckier than running 26.2 miles in southern Afghanistan." Its generally hot and dusty except for the few occasions where the monsoon turns the place into a huge mud pit. If the dust doesn't get to you, the exhaust fumes from the hundreds of humvees, MRAPs, and Pakistani jingle trucks is guaranteed to drive up the suck factor. On top of that, there's guaranteed to be no throngs of spectators cheering you through the finish as in the more popular marathons. You're guaranteed a considerable amount of time with just you and a dusty Afghan road. So, to cut a long story short, I started prepping for it.
My training went very well for the first 6 weeks or so and then it started falling apart. Late night responses, homework, and work issues were pretty much taking up the little training time I had available. So, I signed up for the half marathon instead and stopped training. I was set on this option all the way up through the night before the race when I started wondering if I could finish the full marathon. The morning of the race, I decided that I would pace myself and see how I was holding up during the half. About a mile before reaching the half marathon finish line, I decided to go with the full marathon. Everyone who knew I had signed up for the half marathon looked at me kind of funny when I continued past the finish line. I was actually pretty happy about my 4:24 finish time considering the lack of training and the last minute decision to run the whole race.
Me and a few of the guys before the race. #33, Mike Bunting is a marathon maniac. He finished in a blazing 2:51 even having taken a half-mile detour during the race. He's set to run Boston when he gets home this month.
Despite the challenges, I'll have to say that this turned out to be one of the more interesting races I've run. While running, I was entertained by the rattle of Blackhawks and Chinooks, the rumble of Tornadoes taking off with full afterburner, and even a couple Russion-era heavy cargo planes landing. I nearly got ran over by a British convoy driver who apparently felt that his task at hand was more important than my little race. This little Explosives Ordinance Disposal robot was even handing out water bottles to the runners. In the end, I was just thankful that no rocket attacks forced us to take cover during the race.
My training went very well for the first 6 weeks or so and then it started falling apart. Late night responses, homework, and work issues were pretty much taking up the little training time I had available. So, I signed up for the half marathon instead and stopped training. I was set on this option all the way up through the night before the race when I started wondering if I could finish the full marathon. The morning of the race, I decided that I would pace myself and see how I was holding up during the half. About a mile before reaching the half marathon finish line, I decided to go with the full marathon. Everyone who knew I had signed up for the half marathon looked at me kind of funny when I continued past the finish line. I was actually pretty happy about my 4:24 finish time considering the lack of training and the last minute decision to run the whole race.
Me and a few of the guys before the race. #33, Mike Bunting is a marathon maniac. He finished in a blazing 2:51 even having taken a half-mile detour during the race. He's set to run Boston when he gets home this month.
Despite the challenges, I'll have to say that this turned out to be one of the more interesting races I've run. While running, I was entertained by the rattle of Blackhawks and Chinooks, the rumble of Tornadoes taking off with full afterburner, and even a couple Russion-era heavy cargo planes landing. I nearly got ran over by a British convoy driver who apparently felt that his task at hand was more important than my little race. This little Explosives Ordinance Disposal robot was even handing out water bottles to the runners. In the end, I was just thankful that no rocket attacks forced us to take cover during the race.Tuesday, February 23, 2010
No matter where you live in the world, fire trucks are the coolest
The highlight of each week here at the KAF is each Saturday when I volunteer at the "Bazaar School". At the school, we host about 30 Afghan boys for 3 hours of education and activities. This week was particularly fun as I was able to coordinate a fire truck exhibition.
As one can imagine, these boys had never seen a real, modern fire truck. Fires in Afghanistan are still fought with archaic equipment or even buckets of water.
Sitting in the cab...
Wearing a real fireman hat...
And the highlight of the show....the fire hose!!! 
Worried we would have kids flying around on the end of the hose, I did my best to keep it under control. It got particularly difficult when 3 or 4 of the boys would hang on the valve with it in the "on" position making it hard for me to turn it back off.
When the boys are good, we get to hand out goodies. They each received a bag full of school supplies and a baseball cap.
As one can imagine, these boys had never seen a real, modern fire truck. Fires in Afghanistan are still fought with archaic equipment or even buckets of water.
Sitting in the cab...
Wearing a real fireman hat...
And the highlight of the show....the fire hose!!! 
Worried we would have kids flying around on the end of the hose, I did my best to keep it under control. It got particularly difficult when 3 or 4 of the boys would hang on the valve with it in the "on" position making it hard for me to turn it back off.
When the boys are good, we get to hand out goodies. They each received a bag full of school supplies and a baseball cap.
Monday, February 1, 2010
4 More Years
Well, this enlistment will put me out to 19 and a half years...so I'm not officially a lifer yet...
My reenlistments have all been pretty boring events. But, I have to say...that is one badass plane.
My reenlistments have all been pretty boring events. But, I have to say...that is one badass plane.
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