Military stories from past to present, both wars.

Finally home in Texas

October 31st, 2008 Posted in The SandGram v1.0
Hey Gang,
I’ve been home for a week now and apologize for not getting a post out sooner. The trip home is a long and painful process that included a four day visit at Bagram Airbase north of Kabul, then a four hour flight over to Kuwait and out from there. Now that I’m home, I guess I can let you in on some of my stuff and I will be posting stories about my time there that I just didn’t have time to write or didn’t feel it was appropriate to write about at the time.  I worked for the US Embassy in Kabul and drove by myself everyday to a base close by, so hence the need for OPSEC to preclude me from being another video on YouTube if the bad guys got frisky and tried to kidnap me or set up an ambush. 
 
Driving was interesting to say the least since 90% of the locals in Kabul don’t know how to drive and those that do, don’t do it very well.  It always cracked me up to be stuck behind a donkey cart with a young boy on the front begging his animal to move along.  There were bicycles everywhere and you had to dodge them constantly and also watch out for the possible suicide bomber sneaking up next to you using his bike or motorcycle as two wheeled death machine.  Putting on 70 pounds of gear has compressed my spine about a 1/2 inch I think, but I sure don’t miss that part of driving around. I loved the tunes that Natzo, a supporter from Iraq sent me, especially the Grateful Dead.  The guards who inspected your car before you could enter the base parking loved it too!  I would crack the door and crank the music as they looked all over your car for any bombs that might be lurking underneath.  I always wanted to put some playdo in a plastic bag attached to an old cell phone with a bunch of wires sticking out just to see what they would do.  There is a form of social welfare in Kabul where they give you a uniform and an AK 47 and declare you fit to guard the streets. You could count on there being one or two of these guys every twenty feet or so down the roads.  I didn’t feel safer because who was the guy in the uniform? You never really knew.
 
I have to go help out at my girls school today, but promise I will write more. I just needed some down time to decompress here at home and unpack.
S/F
Taco