It was a hell of a trip, but I am home...pt. 1...

Well, as you can see, we had about a 14 hour flight home, just from Germany, after a 23 hour layover and 8 hour flight before that. But thankfully, we were on a C-17 and had a good amount of leg room. The flight crew was from the Alaska Air National Guard, and they let us come up in the cockpit and check out all the cool toys and views. I went up there just as we went "feet wet" over the Atlantic ocean. The last piece of land that we crossed was England, as you can see from the pic of our flight path. As you can see, the accommodations are not like your typical civilian air craft. We do get to sprawl out in the back and where ever we can to sleep. Headphones are a must on these flights as well. But the C-17 also has outlets so we could continually recharge our toys for the flight. It was a smooth flight, and I don't think any of us would have complained because we were on our way home. We were originally scheduled for a mid-air refuel, but that got canceled at the last minute, so we had to make a stop in Canada. My camera died about half way thorough the flight, so I will be getting some more pics from my buddies to up date some more. I will also try do do a "year" in summary of pictures as well. Thanks to all who have and are supporting us and all the rest of our troops. I some more pics on here soon. SSG Russell Miller.

On my way home

Ok, well I am really excited!! I know I have not put any pics on lately, but some of my camera stuff has been packed up. I will get a bunch of pics on here when I get home, which should be in the next 24-48 hours. I am so happy and can not wait to see my family. We are in transit right now, so I have been jumping on wi-fi hot spots here and there. I look forward to getting home and I will give you all some good updates and pics. Later for now,

Russ

Almost done!!!

Well, first of all, sorry for the long gap in between my posts. I have been kinda busy around here getting things ready for our relief to show up so we can come home. I know, I thought this day could not come soon enough either. We have still been working with our Afghan counterparts, and are trying to ease the transition for them. They are kinda sad to see us go, which makes me feel good in a way. I guess we have made a difference over here and left our marks. In a small way, I too am kinda sad to be leaving the ANP, after having made such good progress so far, but the bigger part of me wants to go home and be with my wife and kids. They need me more, and I sure have been missing them too much.

For my Dad....

Well, I know that this is not quite as nice as your garden Dad, but some of my ANP have begun building a new garden to grow some trees, flowers, and vegetables. They already have a citrus grove, and they have been planting around 200 trees all around the compound. When I went to the station, they were all excited to show me their garden that they had been working on. One of the ANP officers even offered to come to the U.S. with me and help me work on my yard at home. They said that they were going to grow cauliflower, onions, and some spices of some kind. I will let you know if it starts growing before I come home. Just thought you would like to see a garden in Afghanistan. Well, take care, and I will see you all soon. SSG Russell Miller.

I really didn't do it officer.....

So, it is not what it looks like from the pictures above. I promise. You will not see me on some news report somewhere about being mistreated in prison or something. This was just training for some of our ANP. My partner and I got "stopped" at a checkpoint and they searched our vehicle and found some illegal weapons. We tried to bribe our way out of it, but they refused. Probably the only time that will happen. If it makes you all at home feel any better, we ended up "killing" 3 of the ANP that were apprehending us. They forgot to search us when they pulled us out of the car, and when they began, I jumped one and my partner "shot" the others. They learned from their mistakes though. During the next scenario they were sure to search everyone. Well, we are still doing good here. Starting to get excited because time is getting short for us. But it seems to get busier as we get closer to going home, but I am not complaining. Thanks to everyone who has been reading this and giving the support. I will let those who have been sending packages know when to stop, to allow time for it to get here before we leave. Talk to you all soon. SSG Miller (Russ)

War is Hell.....but we make the most of it....with help

So, as you may or may not know, being deployed is tough. But, once in a while we get to treat ourselves with some goodies. There is an actual Pizza Hut at one of the bigger FOB's that we get to go to every so often, and we do enjoy the tasty treats. As you can see, I was busy stuffing some peperoni in my face when one of my guys snapped a photo of me. It was some very delicious pizza though. Oh, the dog, she is a new K-9 with us, and the handler went to eat, so we had a little fun. We didn't get to many offers, I don't think people thought she was a working dog. Well, it is getting hot again here, already sneaking into the 80's some days. I will be home soon though, so not to worry. Take care, and see you all soon. Russ

Graduation

So, we finally ended this interation of training with our ANP. It was a lot of fun, but I am glad it is over. I think that we accomplished some really good things during this training. We handed out certificates on the last day, (the hat look familiar?) and as you can see from the new video, some of my soldiers and I got interviewed. This story played on AFN in Europe a couple of times, so we were pretty excited to see it here. I got told that the Army press guys would be out at my station, so we just carried on like any other day. It was pretty cool to be on T.V. like this again. So on graduation day, we had a nice ceremony and handed out the nice certificates to all of my ANP that are at the station. It was a good day, and now it is time to check on my other stations. The ANP at this station took really good care of us, and they were always motivated to do training. I hope that they continue to work hard and implement the tools and lessons that we have taught them. Well, without reveling too much information, we are getting short on time here, which is a good thing. I can not wait to get back home to my family and spend some good quality time with the wife and kids. My little ones are growing up fast. I am working on some things that will keep me home for a few years, so that will be very enjoyable. Well, I will let you all know when to stop sending packages and letters and such. We all appreciate all the support that has been sent over here, and I am glad to know so many people are reading my blog and getting a new perspective on our lives and missions over here. Take care for now.....SSG Russell Miller

Welcome to the gun show!!

These are some of the weapons turned in as talked about in my entry following this one. As you can see, there was a wide assortment, some British, some Russian, some Chinese, and some from where ever. Man, I really wanted to take some of these home, but that wasn't going to happen. We all had fun checking out the goods, and wishing we had some rounds for them to conduct a test fire or two. It was good to see the people willing to turn in the weapons to help their community, through the programs that have been set up like DIAG. Well, check out my other post from today for more info on the fun. Take care for now, SSG Miller....

I think I just became Royality......

Well, this was quite a day. The ANP chief and the sub-governor of one of my districts had a Jurga, which is a meeting with tribal elders and government officals of the area on important issues. This particular Jurga was about a program to turn in weapons. It is called DIAG. The elders of the area have people turn in weapons, and they trun them into DIAG through the sub-governor and police, and the community gets money or projects for it. Some examples would be wells getting repaired, Mosques being fixed, schools, and other public places built or repaired. It is a great program for the people. There were guest speakers from the local area, as well as members from higher in the food chain. The turn out was great, and there were quite a few weapons turned in. Some of us would have liked to take some of the weapons turned in, if that was allowed. There were a few British Steins, a 9mm sub machine gun, Enfield's, AK-47's, and some other interesting stuff. The weapons are destroyed after they are turned in. As you can see, I got presented with a Lunguta, which is a traditional Afghan turben head wrap. The chief told me something about being a honarary member of parliment now. I asked how much it paid, and he just laughed. I don't know why..... Anyway, they fed us afterwards, and man what a spread. We had goat, lamb, beef kababs, and rice and bread. The meat was so tender and delicious. Well, I don't know if the Army will let me be in parliment while on active duty. Maybe I can come back in 20 years and when I retire and get the position again........

Time for some shooting....on the range

So, we have had some fun in the past few days. We got to teach our ANP how to shoot a little better then they have been taught before. It was alot of fun teaching these guys how to shoot properly. They really enjoyed it as well. It was fun because every time we caught a soldier with his weapon on fire, or holding it the wrong way, he had to do 10 push ups. It was a great motivator, partially because they can't do push ups, and also it taught them the right way of doing things. Most of the soldiers caught on after their first 10 push ups or so. As you can see from the photos, we let a few of them shoot our weapons, and we got to shoot theirs. Most of my soldiers have never fired a foreign weapon before, so it was a good experience for them as well. Even my terp got to shoot my rifle as well. He is a pretty good shot. Our training portion is getting closer to being done, and we all have had a great time. The ANP are very motivated every day to recieve new training. I made up a certificate of motivation to give out each day to one or two soldiers who do a great job during the training. It is a great tool, because now they all want one, including the sub governor. I told him he has to participate in the training....I will give him one anyway, as a good gesture. Well, duty calls, as does the chow hall, so I will update again soon. Keepin' it real, close to Pakistan that is....Russ.

Everybody loves a good magazine

So, during our immersion training with our ANP, we have been bringing the guys magazines and stuff to read. Some of them know english, and a couple can read it, but mostly they like the pictures. It is cool to see them get all excited about the pictures of places around the world, and especially from the states. We all try to show them pictures of areas that we are from, and they are just amazed. So, we are getting ready to have some ranges with the soldiers. We have been teaching them how to shoot better, instead of the "spray and pray" ways they have been using. We are all having fun teaching these guys some new and usefull tools to help them in thier jobs, and to also see the new confidence that we have instilled in them. I will keep you all informed of who the best shooters are. I have some special prizes for them. Well, it has been rainy here, but now the weather looks to be clearing up. It is still cool in the mornings and evenings. Well, gotta go for now, I have lots of paper work to do. Thanks for all the support from all of you out there, and keep reading as I will try to update as much a possible. Russ.

teach them, hurt them, fix them up....

So, we have been staying pretty busy lately. I and my guys have been teaching our ANP a whole lot of good useful info and such. Some of it, as you can tell, is a little rough on them. But don't worry, we teach them some good first aid as well. These particular guys have their own medic, who has some real good training, so we send them to him instead of to our medic. It teaches them to use their system and resources. I can't get into all the details of our training and such, for opsec reasons, but it is going good. The ANP are highly motivated, especially when I yell at them like new privates for clearing their weapons before they are instructed to. Have to instill the discipline and fear in them you know. But, even if they do not understand my words, the tone and volume gets across quite well. Usually after I "get in their ass" one of the officers comes over and starts yelling as well. I am trying to get my terp to learn how to yell like me, but he is a naturally quiet guy. Oh well, we can't all be as loud as the ol' SSG. It is a lot of fun, and I am even putting more names and faces of these guys together. It is hard when there is like 14 Mohammads and 6 Amin's and 4 Khans. The go by nicknames like some of us do, so that helps. We have not hurt them too bad, just the pride of a few when we did some hand to hand combatives. It is funny because one of my instructors for that is the smallest guy in the squad. Had them fooled. Well, we are doing good still, looking forward to the end of this deployment. Thanks to all for the support and packages. More to come.

Bob Villa in Afghanistan...not really....

So, we have begun some remodeling projects on one of my ANP stations. It is quite fun, as it gives us some new things to do besides just training them. We do love to train these guys, and they like the training, but it is fun to manual labor, and build some stuff. One of my guys is really involved in building a new wall for the compound. He has the concrete mixing down pretty good. I am working on a new room to put the weapons in. I am pretty sure that none of the people at the station have ever seen any cordless power tools. They were pretty amazed by them. One officer even filmed me while I was cutting some plexi glass. The chief was in awe of the set and asked where he could get one. I tried to explain to him about Home Depot, and he wanted to go. I told him that if he comes to the U.S. that I would take him there. It is still cold here, lows in the 20's at night and highs around 50 during the day. It has been sunny, which helps, but the wind comes off the mountains and chills us pretty good. Thankfully we have some good cold weather gear to help insulate us. Oh, the little girl is the stations cooks daughter. She is always running around and getting candy from everyone. Here name is Shanaz. Well, duty calls, so I need to keep it short. More updates to come soon. Russ.