7thsonmort

For the past 4 days, the Taliban in Afghanistan have been on holiday, celebrating their national holiday - the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan some 23 years ago. At that time - they called themselves the mujaheddin - or holy warriors. Tomorrow - officially begins what is known as the Fighting Season in Afghanistan.

That being said, the Commander - Kandahar Airfield (COMKAF) has raised the threat level on base to Level 3- which means body armor and helmet must be worn at all times - indoor and out. Oh joy!

So - with that introduction - I'd like to take you on a pictorial tour of Kandahar Air Field.

The "TLS" Building - which is the passenger terminal for all arriving Military and "civilian military" passengers. TLS is an acronym for "Taliban's Last Stand" When NATO came to Afghanistan and took Kandahar Air Field (KAF), this building which has 6 feet thick walls, was the last hold out of the Taliban. Two bunker buster bombs later - and the Taliban had their last stand. The inside of this old building still bears the bullet holes - and blackened walls of that action. You might say - it's a bit of a "fixer upper"....oddly enough - this is the building that COMKAF has chosen as their headquarters.

Danger - Danger Will Robinson - The ever existing danger on KAF - the remnants of the Soviets.....Mine Fields Everywhere...

I have a 16 year old son, who just recently got his learners permit to drive.....I wish - for his sake, and everyone on the road with him, he were driving one of these...:

My heart is always a bit softened when I see the sweet words written by childrent to the men and women of our Military:

Tomorrow.....I'll write some more.....but below is a video.....I think you'll like it...

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Master Chief

I was very surprised the other day when I got an email from a gentleman I work with. I was flattered, as well as a little bit mystefied, because I don't look at myself this way. However, below is the email received.

Dave –
It is with deep respect and affection that I felt I should call you “Master Chief” because here, for this operation, you are functioning for all intents and purposes in the role of a “Master Chief”

I thought you would appreciate the enclosed info as it is a good overview of what the Chief Petty Officers of the US Navy do and how they demonstrate leadership to all they encounter. I appreciate your leadership, professionalism and friendship. It is your signs of being a good leader.

Kevin

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Easter in a Strange Land

April 8, 2007 was somewhat of a monumental day for me - not only was it my son's 2nd birthday, it was Easter Sunday, and it was the first day I set foot in the middle east - as I headed into Baghdad to assist in the reconstruction effort of Iraq.

Three years later, I find myself in similar, but different circumstances. I'm back in Kandahar, Afghanistan after returning from an emergency/R&R Leave. It's Easter Sunday, and I'm away from my family. All of which leaves me with a sense of Melancholy.

Sunrise services were held here on base at 0630 this morning. It's unfortunately no different today than it was yesterday from a work standpoint, albeit, I'm trying to make it so in my own way.

One of the major differences between these two dates, is that when I served in Baghdad, Iraq, the focus was on reconstructing the Water Infrastructure of that country on behalf of the Iraqi people. In this assignment, my focus is in serving the American Military forces. Two very different missions in similar environments and circumstances. Working in a war zone is very frustrating at best. Frustrating because of all of the constraints under which you have to accomplish your mission - not the least of which is working under a Federal Contract, which by its very nature causes the work to be 10 times harder than it should be.

Obviously working in a War zone carries with it the difficulty associated with the dangerous conditions - almost goes without saying. And lastly, the customer - when your customer is an institution, like the United States Government - the difficulties are magnified 10 fold. They are magnified because the customer is an "entity", however, the face of that customer is the person you serve every day - 2 entirely different things - and what the person on the ground wants and directs is not at all what the "government" wants or directs. It's a situation of being able to distinguish between the "customer" wich is the might of the United States Government, and the "customers people" which are the soldiers on the ground. In between these two conflicting areas are "liason" officers - who typically have entirely "different" takes on it as well.

I have sat in on 3 meetings this week with the US Army, Airforce, Marine officers and enlisted men, along with United States Government employees and contractors, and have seen all of the differing points of views and behaviors poorly spoken to above played out in these meetings. Just yesterday, during a meeting I watched a Col in the United States Army make what I would call fairly bush league attempts to throw our team off balance or under the bus per say based on bits of information for which he didn't have the capacity to dig a little deeper on.

Case in point: Have you ever had someone ask a "leading" question to get you to answer in one way or another simply because they couldn't wait to pounce on you and then pound their chest. This gentleman did just that - only he sucked at it so badly - that none of us would take the bait, so he had to answer both sides of the question himself to make the point - which point - when we knew what it was - and properly answered it, made him look pretty silly - not only because his lack of information was so glaringly obvious (except to him), but that when I answered him, his counterpart - another Col, supported my answer and further expounded.

In that same meeting, this same gentleman made a statement for all in the room to hear, as well as those on the video conference - which basically was a castigation of our team, without any details - and then said - we'll talk after the meeting. So - he put that out there for everyone in the room, yet wouldn't resolve it publically either. After the meeting, all the military and government civilians left the room, and he kept us in there alone - and proceeded to tell us that he had been approached by Military Police and Criminal Investigative Division about some circumstances occuring by our team. He detailed them in a very "proud" manner, and when he finished looked at us like...."well, what do you have to say about that"....like he was springing a surprise on us.

Our response....- "Yes sir, we know all about that - in fact, we are the ones who discovered this, took it to the Military Police, and started their investigation for them.....and oh, by the way - this happened over a month ago."

Long story short - honestly speaking I felt like the Iraqi people I worked for in Baghdad were grateful to us for our efforts on their behalf. I don't get that same sense here. In fact - because of how operations in this theater are I honestly feel like from day to day, I have to fight my own customer in order to serve him....

Our task is daunting. We have an enormous amount of people and material to move. Don't forget this is a war zone, so we have to provide as best we can for their safety and general well being, and know where they are at all times in case of emergency or otherwise.

Sounds like an awful lot of grousing on my part - It's not. Just needed a forum to vent for once I guess.

All's well. Happy Easter.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I've got a "REALLY SERIOUS PROBLEM"

For all of you who have chastised me in person for not having posted to my blog in over a month, my sincerest of appologies. Never figured I had anything that worthy of being read to cause the playful jibeing I've been getting for not having continued to proliferate my blatherings...

I've been home now for 3 weeks on a combination of an R&R and Emergency leave. My mother, who lives in Phoenix with her husband Burt had been experiencing heart issues that finally took her to the emergency room and subsquently to surgery to correct. With her advanced age - it was decided instantly to leave Afghanistan and get home, but not only to be there for her, but to be with my family as well. Mom's procedure went well, and she's now home with her doting husband, taking care of him as well. They are actually kind of cute to watch together. I'm really happy for them that they have each other to take care of.

Karen and the boys met me in Phoenix, and all 6 of my brothers were there as well - so this served as an impromptu family reunion of sorts. It was wonderful to see everyone and to get reacquainted.

After spending a week in Phoenix - I've been home in Denver for the past 2 weeks - having an R&R of sorts - not what we as a family planned - but making lemonade out of the lemons we were served. The past 3 nights - Karen and I spent downtown in a fancy hotel - having couple time, and last night the boys joined us in their own room - amidst a huge spring blizzard. It was a winter wonderland - downtown. Picture perfect.

Tonight we are spending our last evening at home together before I return to Afghanistan watching the movie "The Blind Side", for which Sandra Bullock earned an Oscar for her performance. Wonderful Movie....

During intermission - I took Jonah upstairs to get PJ's on, and get ready to go down when we were ready. After we had him all dressed - he stood up - and said - "Dad, I have a Serious Problem" after which he proptly swung around, dropped his pants bent over and started pointing at his behind......"this thing has got to go......" He was pointing at his right butt cheek at the time....and I couldn't see for the life of me what was bugging him. So I asked....and he responded - "that black dot....." I started laughing.... you see, Jonah has a birthmark on his left but cheek - an almost perfect little black dot, that you can't mistake anywhere. It was just one of those moments that I knew if I didn't write about immediately - it would be lost to the ethos forever.

We celebrated Jonah's fifth birthday last night at the Cheesecake Factory downtown - he thinks he's five now - and that's ok....even though it isn't for a few weeks.

I'm sure going to miss my wonderful kids and beautiful wife. This has been wonderful, though unexpected and unplanned.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"Unexpected Passenger"

The following post is actually written by a colleague of mine who wishes to remain "anonymous", but what he wrote was so profound and moving to me, that I asked his permission to post it.

"The recent excitement over the rocket attack and the flooding in the admin building are reminders that what we are doing here is very serious. We are in perilous and austere conditions. We feel for the injured and wish him well. Some (including myself) complain about difficulties and inconveniences while others simply did their best to get a job done in bad conditions. I’ll admit that I only picked up pushing water by following the example of a certain someone of a much higher pay grade pushing water out of the building. But as bad as we may see things, we need to remember what the military puts up with.

I was returning to KAF on a plane full of passengers. Our luggage was on a pallet towards the rear, blocking our view to the cargo hatch. We were experiencing an unusually long delay. Many had fallen asleep already. Others were trying. Some were reading books. No one was really paying attention. As I was growing impatient, I had to wonder what was keeping us so long. I got my answer.

A truck backed up to our cargo entrance. Four marines gathered in a square formation behind it. They began performing a ceremony as they opened the back of the truck to reveal a casket with a flag draped over it. I believe I was the only one who saw this due to the sleeping, and the pallet blocking our view. Partially stunned and unfamiliar with military protocol as I was, I didn’t know whether it would be appropriate to stand up. Furthermore, this engineer was restrained by an odd seatbelt mechanism to which he hadn’t taken time to figure out the release. (bad idea). So I remained seated as the body was brought aboard the aircraft and placed behind the pallet.

I then had a flashback to earlier that day. A marine NCO was chewing out a private for misbehavior. I’ll have to edit his military speech for content (just insert the appropriate epithets at will). YELLING two inches away from the private’s face: “This is the real thing! My buddy just got killed yesterday! You’ve got to get it through your head how serious this is! This is your call to duty! No more time for screwing around!”

As far as I knew, there was only one recently reported death in the vicinity of this base. I couldn’t help but entertain the notion that this casket contained the body of this NCO’s friend. I say “friend” because I could tell from his words that it was not just a faceless “fallen comrade”. This was someone he knew. A buddy.

When we landed at Kandahar we experienced a similar delay. This time I knew what it was about, so I had a lot more patience despite my overflowing bladder. Finally the cargo door opened and a truck appeared a few minutes later. This time, we all rose as the troops came marching up the ramp. We awaited their departure with some reverence. I can’t describe the mix of emotions I had since I was so tired (it was almost midnight after I only had four hours of sleep the night before) and because I’m not sure if I have the words to describe it (uncharacteristic considering my traditional loquaciousness, loquacity, loquaciosityesness… I talk a lot). What I can say is: I will probably never forget it.

We often tend to think about the fallen soldier as just another number. This is what they signed up for. We forget they are real people who have just died. They matter to people who knew them. Maybe they should matter more to us. Maybe it took one of our own getting injured to remind us that the troops put themselves in harm’s way all the time. This is a real war regardless of what the politicians think. Just remember the saying attributed to Osterkamp.

"All gave some. Some gave all."

My thanks to my colleague for sharing his experience. I think he captures precisely what gets lost every day here and at home. I would submit that not only these brave young men - the pick and flower of America, NATO and other nations of the world who are here risk all - but also those who support them in their efforts.

Filling in the Details

I find that at night before I go to bed, my posts ...if I make a post....are so brief as to leave the reader wondering about the details. Last week when we had the rocket attack, due to operational security and just relative closeness to the event, I didn't feel it appropriate to be very detailed at all.

The night of the rocket attack was a particularly long night - because we had 3 separate attacks - each of which require us to get to the bunkers. Additionally for me, being the Operations Manager, I'm responsible for 100% accountability of our staff on site after each attack. There are roughly 1200 of us on Kandahar Airfield - give or take a standard deviaiton. So my night was totally hosed simply with gaining accountability of people and making sure they were all accounted for. On top of that I was on a staffing call with the Recruiting team in the US, which had already gone on for 2 and a half hours because of the detail we were going through and the previous attacks.

Rocket Attack - Safety. The reality is that by the time the alarm sounds, there are probably 3-10 seconds (ere on the 3 side) before impact of the rockets. Most of the time, there are not "follow-on" rockets. Unlike Iraq when I was there in 2007, most of the buildings here are NOT hardened structures - mainly metal shipping containers, providing little or no protection from indirect fire. So the best thing to do when you hear the alarm is to hit the dirt, wait 2 minutes time, then get up and move to the bunkers. Not everybody follows that procedure, but that's is the"best" advice. Running outside immediately could be bad because you don't have the time to make it to the bunker before impact.

The 3rd attack of the night occurred at about 2145 hours, and like most other attacks you don't necessarily always hear any impact. This time I heard an impact, but being inside a building - I couldn't tell where it was. I remember shouting to the people in the room to stay put until after a few minutes - which they and I did. When we emerged from the building toward the bunkers I heard someone yell that someone was hit. So I sprinted toward where they were pointing to find a man covered in blood being attended to by our medics. It appeared his hand was wrapped up and he was clearly in shock. I could see also a hole in the side of the metal container which contained a shower unit. Clearly he had been in that unit when the rocket struck. There were also people saying that there was another impact out in the road adjacen to the camp.

I made my way up the stairs behind where the man was sitting, and began going from room to room banking on doors trying to determine if anyone else was injured. I opened the door of the shower unit to see if anyone else was and could see the damage inside, including the blood and mess from the man who was injured. Our project manager also went inside the shower unit, and reported that the rocket motor was visible inside. It didn't appear that the rocket detonated, but simply impacted striking the individual. What are the odds of that?

It wasn't long before the base ambulance arrived to take the gentleman to the Combat Surgical Hospital or CSH (prounounced CASH). In the meantime the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team or EOD showed up to survey the area, and look for any unexploded ordinance. It wasn't long before they determined that in fact the rocket did not detonate, and had in fact split into two pieces - the warhead and the motor. Apparently the rocket landing in the road outside our compound, split into two separate projectiles, punched through the fence - through a vehicle and the motor entered the shower unit, while the warhead continued on over the building landing a good quarter mile away, unexploded. Frankly, if it had detonated in the street - there probably would have been less human damage, as the line of vehicles along that fence would likely have absorbed the blast. But it didn't, and in a 1 in a million shot, the motor of the rocket bounced up through a fence, a vehicle and into the shower unit precisely where a man stood brushing his teeth. In another 1 in a million of chance the rocket motor entered the building at an angle moving left to right in front of the mans face striking his hand which was holding his toothbrush to his mouth, causing significant damage to his hand (amputating his thumb), but missing his head by mere inches. Unbelieveable - in so many ways. How lucky this man was that the rocket didn't have a warhead at the time, that it passed within inches of his head, and he is alive. Reality check! This is real - and that combat first aid training we all received before we arrived.....time to bone up on it.

The post script here is that this gentleman is now back in the United States receiving the care he needs from a Level 1 Trauma Hospital - and with the Lords blessing will have a wonderful life knowing how precious that life is. We all can sense how precious that is .... we saw it with our own eyes.

On the downside - once EOD cleared our compound - which was about 2230 hours, it was back into the office - back on the call with the US - back at work until it was done. Still not sure how I feel about that.

When it rains ...... it Pours

Southern Afghanistan is predominantly a series of rocky, jagged mountains plopped in the middle of barren desert floor. Range after range these mountains and desert floors on and on in succession. The soil is such that it barely absorbs water if at all. When it does rain, it has to run off - and these rocky mountain tops run water straight down the wadi's onto the open desert floor. Just so happens, that one of these drainages runs right through Kandahar Airport. Consequently - it runs right through the airbase that surrounds the airport.

Sunday evening in Kandahar it started raining, and throughout the evening it got progressively harder - to include lightning and thunder. It was a muddy mess when I went to bed that night around midnight. I was fast asleep when the phone rang at 1am. It was one of our staff calling to tell me that a flood had begun running through our camp and our administration building (2 months old) was inundated with water on the ground floor. I turned on the lights, got my clothes on and headed out into the rain to see for myself.

I was absolutely stunned to find a literal river running in between our billeting area and the administration building. It was obvious the water was up against the building - and looking into the night - I could see that the current actually hit straight into the back of the building and wrapped around both sides - clearly entering the outside doors on both the North and South sides of the building. So I stepped headlong into the torrent and waded across the newly formed river. At it's deepest part it it was about 2 and a half feet deep as I walked through it to the building. I went up the outside stairs so as to not open the outside door, to find several people inside saying the downstairs was flooding.

Sure enough, as I descended the stairs, water was rushing under the doors, around the doors, under the aluminum siding of the building, and in some cases, bubbling up through the concrete floor. It continued to rain - the water continued to rise, and by 3am, containers in the yard adjacent to our camp were floating down the road. Two of the billeting blocks on the back side of our camp were also under water, so I spent a half hour knocking on doors, waking people up to ge them to unplug their electric cords, etc. until we could get the power turned off.

We resolved that there was no way to stop the water coming in the main building, but if we could keep it from getting deeper than the base boards or kicker boards in the building, we might save the dry wall. We discovered that the 3rd entrance on the ground floor - on the west side of the building was about 1/2 inch higher than the waterline on this back side of the building, so we opened that door, and began trying to create a current to move the water out of the building. All night long we did this. A security officer, myself, a Bosnian named Jisenko - who will do anything for you, and a few volunteers - who were flooded out of their rooms.

We were armed with 2 push brooms. Not much to battle mother nature with - until - Jisenko decided we could use the metal doors off of storage cabinets as giant squeegee's. With no sleep to speak of, and utterly exhausted - by 3am we were bending over and using these metal doors to push the water out of the building.

One of our happy group was getting regular Super Bowl updates as we worked through the night. By 6am the water had begun to recede, and we were finally able to open all the doors and begin pushing water out in all directions. By the time the rest of the camp was up and awake, we were well into "recovery" phase, having kep the water from rising above the baseboards. We were beat. I made it to my room at about 9:30 in the morning, and utterly crashed into my rack for a few hours of sleep - and by the time I got back to the building a little after noon, it didn't look half bad in there.

After the Rockets, and floods - I'm afraid to ask what next.......locusts maybe?

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Good Day / Bad Day

It's my oldest son - Jake's 16th birthday today. I'm 8,000 miles away. I'm melancholy and wishing I were there. But it's a great day for Jake - Happy Birthday - I'm so pround of you!

I haven't written much or anything since I've been back, mainly because I have been so busy, but also because things have been pretty crazy. In the past 3 years, there have been no insurgent rocket attacks against Kandahar Airfield in the month of January. The last week in January we were rocketed 6 out of 7 days. We did end up having to wear Body armor and helmets for several of those days after dark. The rockets always come after dark.

Our billeting area on Kandahar Air Base is known as Camp Hicks, named after a DynCorp employee who passed away early on in this program. Tonight - the Taliban found us at Camp Hicks. We had a rocket hit one of our billeting blocks, penetrating a bathroom wall and inuring a man (one of our staff) who was in the bathroom at the time. It was the 3rd Rocket attack of the night against KAF, and unfortunately it found its mark in our camp. I happened to be working in the main office building at the time, and was immediately thrown into the absolute confusion of trying to asses the damage, inuries and accountabilities of all of our staff.

Adrenaline is starting to wear off, and it's approaching 1am. I'm tired, somewhat disappointed in how post incident the work we were doing went right back on. I know things have to move forward, but it bothered me in this event. I'm not sure if I'll write more about this or not.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Back in the Saddle

It's quite obvious that I'm just not very good about the consistency thing with writing in this blog. I'll try and make up for quantity with quality......oh, who am I kidding...

I'm back in Kandahar after a 11 day R&R at home - travel back and forth eats up about 3 days total. I can tell you this, traveling in Coach on 14 hour flights is certainly not something I would recommend.

Being home was awesome, Karen picked me up at the airport, and we had one of those awesome airport moments. Denver was cold and snowy. When we got home, the boys met us in the driveway - and the look on Jonah's face was just amazing. I love my family - and miss them something awful. Even the cat and dog got in on the action. Within 2 hours of being in my living room, the boys and I headed down to the closest sledding hill to our house, and spent an hour riding down the hill on a sled. Jonah was so funny - when we got to the bottom on the second run down the hill he turned to me and said, "that was totally awesome daddy...." A moment to be remembered forever.

Karen went all out getting the house in just perfect shape for my arrival - Christmas decorations, holiday spirit, smelled wonderful - generally the picture perfect holiday home. Unfortunately for her - something about me and my manly destructive manners, it didn't last long. Don't know what it is - it's like magnetic forces - my sheer presence alone tends to cause house and home to immediately be thrown into utter chaos, clutter and general disarray. Not like I try to do it, but half of me things - when I leave - for that reason alone Karen breaths easier...... I love you honey. She made Christmas perfect, even when Dad didn't show up until 2 days late. We had a Hannukah style Christmas, opening presents for several nights after, just to drag it out and enjoy each other.

People have been asking me how it was to be home. You know - there is just something about being in your own home, with the people you love. You don't have to do anything grandiose or spectacular - just be where you want to be with the ones you love. In that respect it was perfect.

The boys and I did go to a Bronco's game at Mile High Stadium whiel I was home, and that was great fun. Just wish the Bronco's would have won the game, it would have been that much more fun!

Anyway - I'm back, and I have more to write, just not the time to write it now.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Do you know the way to ..... Denver...doesn't Rhyme does it?

R&R - finally - woohooo!! I'm going home for a blessed short time..

So - how does one get home from a place like Kandahar? Not many ways - but luckily - There is a twice weekly flight from KDH to Kuwait City - with a stop in Muscat, Oman for refueling. Then on to Kuwait - Washington D.C. - Denver.

I'm sitting in the Kuwait City Airport right now - waiting for a 12:40am Non-stop from her to Dulles in Washington. I left Kandahar at about 4pm Local time on Saturday the 26th, and will arrive home at 10:20am on Sunday the 27th. So - really only lose a half a day going home, even though it takes more than 24 hours to do it.

Anyway - I'm excited to be home - with my family. I hope they are as excited to see me.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Kristmas in Kandahar

Now - this is a Jolly Old Elf.....or almost a Jolly Old Yard Gnome...

Christmas Day in Kandahar - really not all that much different from any other day - only there's just that something about Christmas. It seems softer, slower, and oddly enough - except for the occasional interruption - somehow quieter. But all in all - another work day - so that's what the day consisted of. Although I must confess - I used the opportunity to work from my billet and try to work down some of the 850 emails in my inbox. I'm down to under 200 right now, so It's been a yeomans effort for sure.

I think this Santa was a little Over stuffed....!

I had 'brunch' as best as it could be described at the British restraunt called Heroes.....great atmosphere, but I gotta tell you, the food is somewhat less than desireable. But for a couple of bucks it's hard to complain. I've convinced myself that the American Revolution had less to do with political and economic issues than just wanting to have a decent tasting meal. They did have Elves though....

So all day long I've been waiting with baited breath for the Bar-B-Que we are having at our LSA - Camp Hicks. Our building is almost complete - and the project Management Office in Fort Worth sent us 200 pounds of brisket and 600 pounds of ribs for Christmas. All week long we've been scrounging up grills, paper and plastic ware, soft drinks, any kind of chip or condiment, etc.. and best of all, one of our staff found a bunch of guys on base that play in a band together, and they came to provide the music.

Haircut Day at the tent.....Christmas is A great day for a high and tight cut...

Talk about a way to salvage Christmas. It really made all the difference in the world. My extreme gratitude goes to the DynCorp leadership in Fort Worth for providing that Bar-B-Que, and for the staff here who went to extraordinary measures to pull Christmas together for all of us. If you've not watched the video above yet, you have to, because one of our staff, a Property Manager named Sam Stidwell sang a song that just brought Christmas home. What an incredible talent - and what a relief and spirit he brought with his voice.

I must say - that I firmly believe that the Christmas Spirit touches all - in all places - despite circumstance. It's like trying to describe how salt tastes.....I know what it tastes like - but couldn't put it in words if I wanted too...And that is how today ended -

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be tased , everyone into his own city.. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the City of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the City of David, which is called Bethlehem, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

Merry Christmas