rainy nights...flash flooding...

So this is my little makeshift shelter that we made when we stayed outside the other night. It was raining really hard with lightning and thunder. It was crazy. We had some flash flooding back on our camp. It was like a river

rushing through the outside of our camp. It washed down some of our retaining walls. A lot of the roads got some heave damage and lots of debris across them. There was one car that got washed into the ditch. The people were OK though. Other then that, it has not been to bad here. It has still been hot when it is not raining.

Well if you all don't know, there are huge poppy crops here. The afghan poppy supplies 90% of the worlds heroin. It is being eradicated, but it is still a problem. We cannot do anything about it though, as it is dealt with at a higher level.

Well, that's about it for now, so take care and much love. Russ

all in a days work...

Well, it is really getting warm for March. It has been in the mid 90's the past few days. Nothing like sweating off the excess winter weight. We are staying busy as always and trying to keep hydrated now. Thankfully it is a dry heat. It cooled down to 91 in my truck today with the ac on. It was nice. I am starting to get mail more regularly now. That is a great morale booster for me and my Joe's. We are trying to see if we can acquire a swimming pool for the camp here. That would make these hot afternoons much more bearable. Well, we are usually out running around, so I guess it wouldn't matter much. We do get days "off" here, but those are usually spent doing maintenance on our equipment. That only takes about half of the day, so I give my guys the rest of the day off to relax and decompress. Everybody needs some alone time. I do love running missions though, as it makes the time go by faster and I like helping the local police and civilians.

Well let me explain the pics above. The one is of course at our camp of Old Glory and the Afghanistan flags. The second is of me and some of my guys and my 'terp' (interpreter) at a cave we found and cleared. No we didn't find Bin Laden. Sorry. But I still have some time and I will try to find that SOB. If I do I figure thats worth a few nights in the White House with the family. The caves that we found were pretty small and used by nomad herders for shelter during the rains. We know of some other large cave complexes, and I am very curious about those. The last pic is looking down from the caves to our trucks. Yes, it was a little hump up a hill. Doesn't sound too bad until it's 90+ degrees out, with well, I'll say 80 pounds of gear on. Some of my family tried on my IBA so they know how heavy that is. Well add in all my ammo, grenades, camera, knife (the one Jim gave me), and other assorted gear, and well my helmet and weapon, and it all adds up. Sound like fun? It is.

What else? Um, if you all have any questions, just post them on the comments and I will try to answer them as bet as possible. I can tell you that we are near Pakistan, can't say where, but we are close. Please give me feedback and questions, as it will help me write for everybody. So long for now. Russ

it's starting to get hot!!

Well, it's another great day here in Afghanistan. It has been up in the 90's during the day. HOT! And it is only getting hotter. Word on the street here is that it gets near 140 in the summer months. Can't wait for that. Anyway, we are staying busy as always. We are starting to get our mail more regularly and that is always a big morale booster for us all. We have to do a lot of maintenance on our trucks as you see, as this terrain is pretty rough on them. Well, when you drive through mostly river beds and unimproved trails it takes a toll on your gear, and your body as well. After 6 hours or so of that, we are all tired. But we continue to do our PT to stay in shape so it doesn't affect us as much. I enjoy getting mail from everybody, and what I don't use I give to my soldiers. Powder is always a good thing, especially for the heat. I will get more photos on here, sorry I haven't put them on my computer yet. It is nice that our company got us cameras for each squad to have two. So we take a lot of photos. I already have 4 gigs of photos so far. I figure when I get back I will make some cool DVDs for everyone. Well, I will keep this one short as I have to get up at 0400. It's a great job. Oh yeah, Ang and I bought a house!! It is in Eugene and it is nice. I will put some pics and more details in my next post. Love and miss you all. Russ

What a drive..

Well it’s the 18h of March. We are staying busy here as always. It has stopped raining and is getting warm again. Been in the 70’s during the day and mid 50’s at night. We have been driving through some pretty rough terrain. Most of the roads are just river beds and wadis that the locals use. Sometimes we lose the tracks after it rains or just in the couple of hours it takes us to cross an area. It gets kinda tricky sometimes, but our trucks were made for this type of place. Our drivers are good as well and can maneuver these big beasts like ballerinas when they need to. In the past two days, we have seen sheep and horses being born. It is insane. We will be driving along by some nomad herders and, POP, out comes a colt or a lamb. The only thing left now is to see a camel being born. If I see that, I will definitely take some pics. Thanks for all the love, support, and of course the packages. We are in an isolated area, so PX runs are limited. Each time we go out, we try to do what we call H-Aid drops. We get food, clothes, school supplies and what not and give it to little villages we come across. It is really nice to help out the people here. I can tell they are done with the 30+ years of war, and want to rebuild their country and make a decent living. Most people don’t like or want the Taliban or al-Qaeda here. The people have a different mentality then the Iraqi’s do.

The pictures above are of some of the areas that we go and patrol and try to do H-aid drops and do what we can to help some local schools. This school has over 2000 students and only 24 teachers. A lot of the rooms get water damage in them when it rains. They split the day into half and teach the little kids in the morning and older kids in the afternoon. Not much else to say except keep the love, support, and packages coming. Gold bond powder is great, as are q-tips, snacks, and magazines. Love and miss you all very much. Russ.

Pucker factor...

Well, I was in BFE today. Thats (bum f*ck egypt) to you civs. We were driving on these "roads" as I'll call them, that were almost as wide as our trucks. Not only were we bordered by a cliff on one side, but it was raining and the mud was so slippery that we were praying the truck would stop or turn when we needed it to. More then once I looked out my window on the passenger side and could not see the ground below me. Lets just be thankful our drivers are quite capable. These "roads" here are mostly donkey and camel trails for traders to use. The picture is of one of the trader villages that people use to take goods across the border. They take everything from tires, to food, to entire cars. Yes cars. They take cars apart and put them on camels and take it across the border and then put it back together. All to save a few bucks. Crazy isn't it. I will get a good pic from my buddy and show you all. The other pic is a few of my joes. Hrad core crew. Well, it was a long day, so I will talk later. Kamryn is making tea for me so I must go and join her. Love Russ.

took a little walk...

Well, we decided to go up to visit one of our OP's today. It was a good little walk. My squad and I went up to visit the guys and had some tea. They like drinking green tea here. It is not bad, always fresh and hot and everyone drinks it. Almost gets annoying. I can be in a hurry to get somewhere, and the locals will be like, hey stay and drink some tea. Even if you say no, they bring it anyway. It is kinda funny. It has been nice here, sunny and warm in the 70's. Sorry I don't have any pics, but I don't want to compromise security. I will post some pics of my room instead.

I share my room with another squad leader. It's not to bad, as I have a desk to do some work on and I have room to store all the crap I need here. I also got all creative and built a little shelf for my playstation 2 and my little tv. Yes, it is a little messy in this photo. I was still unpacking. I am enjoying some fresh ground coffee every morning thanks to a little help from my dad who gave me a cool hand grinder for the beans and a filter for my cup as well. Ang sent me some beans, so it is much better then army coffee. Keep the mail coming and snacks and hygene stuff is always good. Flushable wipes are a great item. Well, other than that things are good and we are staying busy, so time is starting to go fast here. Love and miss you all. Russ