Warhammer in Afghanistan

So we are looking at 4 months out now.  Well, maybe 4 1/2, even 5, but lets be optomistic.  With a little luck, Afghanistan can be in the rearview in less than a football season (Pro, not High School!).  Everyone on the firebase have been looking forward to this part of the year.  As messed up as our sleep schedules are, they are about to get a little more difficult to manage.  There will definitely be some competition now for early morning TOC duty.  Rivalries have moved over to the Western Afghanistan desert, as Philly, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Atlanta and Chicago fans are made known.  If you think the NFL has some fans, the college and high school ranks are probably favored with this group.  We even have a good group of Ring Knockers that will cheer for their Black Knights as ardently as any others.  As for me, I just love football and have my strange hierarchy that I cheer for.  Check them out on the new addition to my lists.  Anyway, while things are going well, it will be good to get home again.  I will have to watch out when I do get home, as I have lost a lot of weight out here.  All the chow back at the house might cause me to balloon up a bit.  Guess that means more PT.   

It has been a long time, but her we go for some more.  Hope to be little better about updating this now that I am back at it.  The last month plus has seen me on the move all the time.  From the 3-5 day Bala-Morghab mission that turned into 15 days, onto Bagram Airbase (aka, Disneyland to me, HOLY COW!) and then onto the States and then back to the box, where I was greeted with a great surprise--back to Farah!!  So here I am, having been back in country for less than a week and already having gotten after it pretty hard with the other ETTs and the ANA.  Will put up some photos later today and more words too.  For now, it is great to be back here.   

We are still actively working humanitarian assistance out here.  While I was gone to Kwal-E-Now and Bala Moghrab the team did a couple of HA projects and from all accounts, they went well.  Will do my best to get some pics from that posted later.  Remember, we need your help to make this happen.  Email me for more info or post a note on this blog and I will get back to you as soon as possible—barring any more 15 day excursions.  I will be going on leave soon and can hardly wait for that to happen, although it does come with a price.  The travel involved is borderline insane and then there is the saying goodbye again, which I can hardly stand the thought of, let alone the actual experience.  I honestly hate it.  I love my wife and kids and the separation just straight up sucks.  I would classify January 22, 2007 as one of the top 5 hardest days in my life.  That was when I got out of our van at Fort Riley and said goodbye to my awesome wife and three equally awesome kids.  To remember that just moves me, and I don’t like the idea of having to do it again in August.  Speaking of them, Have I mentioned how great they are?   You know my wife has been super about taking everything and getting it done, as well as doing even more to add to the kids’ life.  She also makes sure that I get a package on a routine basis, which itself is really cool.  It will be great to be home soon, even if only to return later and wrap this thing up.  After this is over, I don’t know what next, but I hope it has us staying in the community we are in right now.  Family and friends there have been great, and appreciation for a few close ones (Doug, Randy and others) is at an all time high, let me tell you.  Of course, after being here, I definitely have a slew of new buddies.  Some are guys that I may not have hung out with before, but we are all we have, so a bond does develop.  When I was in Farah, I gained some friends that I am happy to say that I will see again, one of them will be moving in to the town I live in now, so we will be neighbors.  Crazy.  Down here in Adraskan, I have some cool cats to work with too, and definitely call them fiends as well.

Well…great to be back after being gone for awhile!  Had a post ready to go up and then got sent out for 5 to 7 days.  That turned into 15 days.  Got back to my fire base last night, and was glad to do so.  The post that was going to go up seems a little dated now, so I will pull some stuff from that and add to it.  Are you ready to read for awhile???  Before going on, I truly wish that I would have started this out when I first got the orders to come over here.  I think that it would be amazing to see the transformation in my thinking and the evolution of emotions.  More on all of that later, when I am sure to go off on a rant of some kind, such has been the last month or so.  For some sort of flow though, lets go back about 3 or so weeks…

 Our team has been doing some humanitarian assistance stuff.  One of the sides of that is working with local villages, on a limited scale, to improve some of their facilities, like the medical clinic in Adraskan.  Hey, guess what?  Afghanistan has the same kind of “well-heeled”, glory-seeking, bureaucratic morons that we do.  As a matter of fact, I got to meet one a couple of weeks ago, and let me tell you what my first thought was after he opened is mouth:  “Boy, I would like to cave this guy’s forehead in.”  Let me tell you why.  The US ETTs  in Adraskan were working with the village get some improvements to their medical facility (like a TB ward, a larger childrens and womens ward, etc.).  We came back with some additional medical personnel to get an even better look at some stuff and this, this bonehead just shows up from Herat, talking about how we need to go through them to do whatever and that they have a master plan for this and that.  Uh, yeah, whatever.  Master plan in Afghanistan??  I am sure there is no such animal.  Why?  Because planning is not even close to being a strong point for anyone in this country, and I am including all the foreign forces here in that (at least it sure seems.)  This jerk was just trying to get into the mix and move us to other places to improve what he wanted so that he got some credit or whatever.  You can see through the act a mile away, through cultures.  He was wanting us to go to some meetings in Herat, blah, blah, blah.  Shut it.  We had some possible access to some funds to get this done and on a very short timeline.   Then this guy comes out of the woodwork.   Where were you 2 weeks ago, Shleprock?  What about where have you been the last two years???   While projects in Herat continue to get done and the fat cats (Afghan contractors, politicians, etc) get fatter, the outer reaches are ignored, unless there is something in it for someone. This guy symbolized all that disgusts me with dirtbags that are supposed to be helping people.  Yeah, some may say that I should tone it down, but this was how I felt, and I will not apologize for it.  It wouldn’t have mattered what country he was from either.  I get the same nauseating feeling in my stomach and a twitch of raw, destructive anger coming up my back and into my shoulders when I deal with jerks like him in the States.  Of course I didn’t assault the man.  That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have liked to and then enjoyed it.  It ticks me off that there are so many of these clowns running around.  The military isn’t exempt.  They just conceal their movements differently until they get to a position where they can get away with their way being more observable.  Keep reading this and you are almost sure to get an example provided by me.  Maybe not now, but down the road.  

  Hey, I actually had a really good day.  We have gotten busier training Afghan National Security Forces soldiers, and that is always a good day with NCOs.  That is, working with troops.  Today’s training was definitely vanilla, but still good (just like the ice cream).  Throw a football into the mix and it was borderline great.  You can see in some of the pics that we got that out.  The troops thought it was great and it broke up the material nicely with something besides a strict military-type subject.  We even had them thinking about a game with the US ETTs sometime in the future (after Mac and I coach ‘em up).  Hey, it’s what we do.  Been going crazy getting after humanitarian assistance projects.   This stuff is no joke as far as the impact you can have.  The scope of what goes on here…holy cow.  I guess you will be able to get to know a little more about all that if you keep reading over the next couple of months!   We look to have some approval to assist on some wells, schools, mosques and a clinic…not sure yet.  As well as another project that I will surely discuss later, but I want to have everything right before I write about it.  This team is relative newcomers to the humanitarian assistance/civil affairs game, but we are making up for it by hitting it hard.  You can imagine how we felt today, after two of us had put some pretty good effort into this the last two weeks, to see that we just might have scored a couple of hits.  I can fill you in on those later, but they have to do with helping some people out that truly need it.   I will leave my ranting about some things off this page for the moment.   For all who know me, you know it will come soon enough.  Kinda like a tornado…just out of the blue, here it comes.  For now, just drivin’ on (no kidding!).

One of the things that I will attempt to do here on out is to involve everyone who wants to with our Humanitarian Assisitance projects here.  Our team is now working a couple of different things.  HA can come in a few forms.  Some of what we do is to help the community leadership determine exactly what they could use and would be of value.  These projects could be wells, building/repairing schools or clinics, or even assisting in the construction of a mosque or "town hall'.  Along with these, like to coordinate events where we are able to get families, specifically their children, clothing, shoes, glasses and school supplies.  This is where you back home can really help us out.  We work with churches and other groups to get this done the best.  If you would be interested in doing something like this, drop me a line.  One of the soldiers on this team was here a couple of years ago and did some stuff like this.  His mom coordinated over 4 TONS of humanitarian assistance.  Let me know.  I will be posting more pics on some of the process as well as those events as we go.  For now, you can check out my album and see the pics under "Adraskan_HA_1".  These show some of us meeting with village elders, with Afghan police and army, to start this process.

 

I got a great package today from the Cyclones.  Jan, thanks a bunch.  The hat, t-shirt and bumper sticker were awesome, as well as the banana chips, homemade jerky and other items.  The whole team here will enjoy the magazines, Cheez-its and other snacks and items.  You know that mail is good, packages even better.  For those of you who don't know, I was a National Guard recruiter before this assignment and I had a great relationship with one of my high schools (even coached there).  I will be glad to get home and be a part of that again.  The people there are just awesome.

Farewells are always the pits.  A couple of good sides to this one though—they are going home and I am that much closer too!  Anyway, the Bulldog was the best, or “Zombie Pug”.  When I first volunteered to come here, this team, this mission is exactly what I sought.  Although the time was way too short to serve with these pros, I will forever savor the memories as well as enjoy continuing our friendship.  26—you were exactly the officer that I hoped to be hooked up with.  I wish you only the best, and I know it will be, because you make it happen.  You ever need a Platoon Sergeant or First Sergeant, call me.  I would be honored.  I will make that happen if I can.  Sam that goes for you too.   Let me know what the retainer is when you get the J.D.—wouldn’t want anyone else working on my behalf.  It will be awesome to chill over some beers when I get back.  07—even senior NCOs still need a model, and you are one for me.  Managing senior NCOs is no picnic, sometimes, yet you made it look pretty simple.  The Boundary Waters have called out for me for a couple of years—when I get up there, leave the light on.  I will be sure to bring a sixer.  Dirty D, only wish that you and I could have NCOed some more together out here—well, heck, you and I will be chillin, back at P-Dub shortly, neighbor.  It will be good to see you again.  Raj—dude, you and the LT still have the two funniest stories from that night in DeTuh.  Lee and CPT B., we didn’t roll much together, but once is enough.  B, you are the man after coming in from IRR.  Different kind of respect for you.  Lee, next time, INSIST on not using said route when you have an idiot in the front right seat. When I am in the turret, my size 10 right foot works well.  Chris, Ink, Fox, and E—a shout out to you’uns too.  Part of the team, right?  Good luck to all of you and your families.  Hope to see you sometime in the future, but lets get a better meeting place than the “ShootHouse” or Sultan’s Fly-Ridden Diner.  I can sum up my feelings for you guys in one word: RESPECT.  I am sure to reference back to you guys throughout the course of my remaining time.  For now, I will leave you with a song.

 

So some of you probably are wondering what is up with this "Warhammer 6814".  My team, while assigned to Fort Riley, had the call sign of Warhammer.  Also, there was a number associated with our team, 6814.  There you go.  Now ya know.  We had no idea when we got over her in January that we were going to be sent all over.  Most of our team is on two teams here, with a couple of ones and twos elsewhere.  Our job is to mentor and advise the Afghan National Security Forces (which include, Army, Police, Border Patrol, etc.) as they develop further.  This gig can be rewarding and frustrating--at the same time.  Our other website is still up and running (www.warhammer6814.com).  It will become more of a referral site as well as recognition to all of you that are helping out, specifically with our humanitarian assistance slice of this.  More on that to come.  If you do have questions about that now, just contact me via the blog or email.  Mail, email, packages--all of these things are a great boost when we see them. 

Most of this Warhammer team are National Guard infantryman that volunteered to come over and do this mission.  We have a group of Regular Army officers that were sent with us.  Since we are spread out, some of the goings on in one area may not make it onto here for sometime, but we will do our best to add some links to other blogs for a better picture.  Tomorrow, if possible I will talk about the Bulldog, with pics.  Who knows:if time allows, maybe I will revisit this tonight.

Here we are and it is already June!  Doing my best not to look to hard at the calendar, but when the first shows up, it means so much more than just payday now.  After working on the warhammer6814.com website for awhile, finally came to my senses and got this going instead.  It will be much more interactive to exchange information with people.  My intent was originally to utilize this  soley as a team site, but I think it will be mostly personal with a lot of team stuff.  The original website www.warhammer6814.com will stay up.   Exactly how we will use that will be figured out a little later.  As I write this, I am thinking of a few friends that I have made since being here that will soon be home.  Although very glad for them, I will miss them alot.  I will write about that later.