Today started around 0600…got up and cleaned myself up for the trip to J-Bad…I was a gunner on a hummer, rockin the MK-19…it’s a pain in the ass gun to mount and load and clear and all that, but just one time of firing that bad boy makes it all worth it—unfortunately we never get the chance to use it—or you could make the argument that it a fortunate thing, since it means we don’t get attacked…either way, I would just love to fire that thing off and blow some shit up with it…so, as usual, I had to wake up the armory room guy to get in and sign out my weapon…loaded up the truck and stage it in the convoy pre-departure area…hit the briefing, which was pretty much same ol stuff—bad guys here and there, historic ambush sites, what to do in case of IEDs, breakdown procedures, current intel on suicide bombers and planned attacks against Coalition Forces…none of that stuff happened on our trip—it was just another road trip for us…it was a little chilly this morning on the way out, but it’s definitely spring time weather around here…we made it to the main road thru town and again there were kids waving and giving us the “thumbs up” and yelling for pens and water and candy, the roads were filled with donkey carts, herds of sheep/goats, a couple camels here and there, and the normal stench of trash and food and manure…it was really really dusty today—a clear sign that winter is over and the dry heat is upon us…and so we waved people out of our path, honked horns, blared sirens, waved weapons, pointed to cars and held up hands to imply “HALT!”…we made it thru town with no problem and hit the open road…we were running a little late so the lead truck picked up the pace…not sure how hast we were going, but it was windy as hell up in the gun turret…I could barely hear my music rockin over the wind almost blowing my headset off…it was a good fast trip…we hit a tunnel and once on the other side, it immediately jumped about 10 degrees warmer…still not hot enough for sweating, but a clear difference…it is usually a little warmer in the J-Bad area than what we have here on the FOB…one of the bridges we usually cross is currently under construction, so the detour route is to drive directly down the valley and cross thru the river—yes, the main road—Highway 1—goes thru a river…I love how the logistics work around here …well, let’s not build a temporary service bridge, we’ll just let people drive thru the river instead—AWESOME…we got to the destination and cleared our weapons—I lit up a smoke and began to relax…we got to our designation rally spot—or parking area, and everyone headed to the chow hall for some good breakfast…I had 4 eggs over easy, some bacon, sausage, grits, biscuit with gravy, cottage cheese, and some milk…it is always nice to get breakfast there as they have many more options than our chow hall…and we were the last ones allowed in—we made it just in time…so everyone ate and kinda hung out for a bit because we all knew once we were outside, there is absolutely nothing to do…the reason for this trip was so someone could attend a meeting, a couple people were catching fixed-wing flights to Bagram, some people had to hit finance, and others needed ID card updates—two civilians needed the ID card office, and like many times before, they were turned away…not sure of the reason, but it seems like that place never provides the services they are supposed to handle…most of us just sat around outside the BX/PX and smoked and joked the whole time…we got some Pizza Hut and others got some necessities from the BX/PXI got two pizzas to take back to my guys…we sat around doing pretty much nothing for about 5 hours and finally everyone was finished with their business…we loaded up the trucks and headed out …as we hit the gate we all locked and loaded all our weapons…hit the road and made it thru the bustling metropolis that is Jalalabad…it was busy…lots of traffic and people everywhere…again, moving all the people out of the way with a little help here and there from the local police or ANA(Afghan National Army)…as we got to the detour we left the main road and went thru what has become beggar’s ally…the side of the dirt road is littered with people on crutches and in wheelchairs—people missing limbs, or having some other major disability…they stand on the side of the road asking for money or whatever people will give them—they pick this area because it is a very rocky, bumpy road, so people have to drive pretty slow and it is easy for them to hand something out the window to the beggars…it’s really quite sad, but like I mentioned before, it’s just the nature of living in Afghanistan—everyone is poor…so we got back on the main road and pushed the speedometer to the max…we must have been going about 60-65mph most of the way back…we got back into our little town and wound our way thru the traffic of the mid-day business and commerce being conducted in the bazaar…we got back to the FOB and hit the clearing barrels, then filled up with fuel…we got back to the barracks and I unloaded all my crap, gave the pizzas to my guys and sat down for a break and a couple bottles of water…it was quite obvious that I had been out gunning—my face was covered with the baby-powder fine dust from the road…after a couple smokes and rehydration I went to the bathroom to clean up…I hung out for a little bit doing nothing and went to bed around 7pm…those trips are pretty draining…so, it is a new day and we have some new people coming in—this is an advance party to get here and be situated to assist the rest of the new PRT coming in…this is the first big step towards us leaving here…these faces are the sign on hope and promise that lets us know our time here has come to a close…of course, there will be a few of us still here for another couple weeks or so, but it’s still a very welcome sign…I went and laid out in the sun for a couple hours and studied a little bit…well, that’s about all for now…love you and miss you all
OOL
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