Haha ... all of the ODA teams had beards so, naturally, since we supported them, we thought we could have beards too. I was working a nice one until my commander walked up to me one day and told me, "you don't kick in doors ... shave that stupid shit off."
I feel like that should be an in-theater perk. Beards for all. Or maybe even "do as the Romans do," and grow a nice Arab beard.
How hot was in there? I dunno if I'd want one. (I basically picture every country east of Israel as 120 degree desert even though I know it's wrong.)
It can get incredibly cold in the mountainous regions in and around Afghanistan. You can be roasting in the valley but be a 15 or 20 minute helicopter ride from freezing conditions. Ditto with wet/dry effects.
Oman and Bahrain were both in the 120's. It wasn't dry heat either... A big difference for me was that I was in the cool confines of the ship unless I was out in town. Taking that first step outside was akin to preheating the oven to 450 degrees and then letting your face catch the initial blast when you first open it up.
It depends on where you are in Afghanistan. Kandahar is 105-115 in the summer ... probably like Arizona but I've never spent any time in Arizona during the summer. Bagram, Shank, Salerno, Kabul, all the northern FOBs were pretty hot in the summer but not much different than, say, Florida. The dust storms are annoying. They have what they call the 120 day wind (I think that's what it translates to) where the wind blows between 10-20 mph all the damn time. It's not hot in Afghanistan like it is in Kuwait. That's the hottest place I've ever been in my life. I remember flying into Ali Al Saleem during the height of summer and it was like 127 degrees. You could barely breathe.
I don't know why I never realized that the mountains through there were so bad, but I never did until we invaded.
The first winter I spent in Bagram we had a foot and half of snow on the ground for 2 months and it didn't get above 35 degrees during the day and usually dipped below zero at night. It was cold.
I don't get why we can't get a comprehensive national health plan: http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/health/september-11-cancer/index.html?hpt=he_c1 This stuff is just disgusting.
Yes it is. It is akin to the Marines that came through basic at Camp Lejuene and developed cancer from heavy metals like benzene in the water supply. There are Marines that have stage 4 cancer that the VA has acknowledged was contracted due to their time spent at Lejeune but still won't award disability benefits. It's criminal.
The long term effects of those anthrax shots is something I fear. I know quite a few guys that all have similar issues with their heart right now. Thank goodness I'm not one of them.
But giving thanks is well deserved. You guys that serve or have served our nation are the real heroes in this country.
I do appreciate it ... really. I'm always at a loss for words when someone thanks me so I try to deflect. But thank you guys for acknowledging tje service of all of us. It means a lot.
If you have twitter and haven't read Ari Fleischer's account of what he experienced that day, I would encourage you to, very interesting.
Well just go **** yourself then you selfish Arab murderer. That better? (Just kidding, couldn't resist. That you for your service and your humility.)
I was once tasked with being the QA inspector on a weapons move for a 688 submarine, where we were swapping their armament up with MK-48 ADCAP torpedoes. We were standing in a roped off area at the head of the pier, which served as a secure handling area that we were basically using to stage weapons coming off and on, to and fro. Meaning, there was a shit ton of weapons, all around. I don't remember what the explosive arc was calculated to be, but it was huge. The MK-48's were moved around via a weight-bearing sling, wrapped around the middle of the torpedo, and with the other end of the sling being attached (so as to be lifted) on the forks of a forklift. The driver tilted his forks forward, and didn't have the full load (so that the sling wasn't properly cinched tight)...and the sling slid off of the forks, the torpedo hit the ground, rolled a foot or so and started making a ticking noise which we all assumed (mistakenly) that it had jarred some kind of timing mechanism, and it was about to detonate. I once saw Green Peace "attack" the 688 submarines in the other side of our pier, running circles around Norfolk / Navy Police boats in their little fast-speed rubber rafts. They said that they were going to be "attacking" the next day, as well. And they did. Unfortunately for them, COMSUBLANT had arranged to have some SEALS from Little Creek Amphib Base on stand-by, both in the subs and beside the pier (on our side) in zodiacs. So, I had the divine pleasure of watching small boat loads of hippies being surprised by, and then "fighting" Navy SeALS.
