Into the holidays

Afghan sunset in the Commpound

Three weeks have passed since my last post… I suppose it’s time for an update!

Thanksgiving feast:

Being away from friends and family is tough on many, especially during the holidays. To keep our spirits up, and foster some connections, we hosted a giant Thanksgiving feast for all contractors and military members in our squadron. It took the whole team to pull it off – we fired up our giant (8 foot tall) cooker/smoker for the meats, had a whole assembly line making pies, and droves of other folks whipping up everything from cranberry sauce, cornbread, greenbean casserole, greens, mashed potatoes, tomatoes – you name it! By the end of the night everyone was full on delish food and good company. It may not have had all the same comforts as home, but we did pretty dang good nonetheless!

Trump chat:

Also on Thanksgiving Day, a bunch of us were selected to attend a video chat with President Trump. It was a group chat with all branches of the military, each in a different part of the world – Kuwait, Japan, Bahrain, and of course us here in Bagram!

Regardless of political leanings, this was a unique opportunity, and a great experience to be part of! That being said, there were comical undertones to the whole thing. The “video” part of the video teleconference was not working for the president, so it was just the military members who could see one another. That’s a recipe for trouble – with members of the Navy holding up signs to razz the Army, and vice versa. The very first thing we heard President Trump say was asking if he needed make-up, not knowing the microphone was live :-D Some of what the president says, or how he says it, comes off as comical as well – but I’ll let you be the judge!

Here’s the video. The call lasts about 25 minutes, and our part begins around six minutes in.

Deck progress:

We’ve been making slow but steady progress on the outdoor kitchen/deck project here in the Commpound. We might be the only organization on base with the ability to make our own food, and it’s great! The kitchen itself is inside a shipping container, and lightly equipped right now – an electric stove/oven, a few tables, and plenty of kitchen gadgets like slow cookers and electric griddles. All around that shipping container, we’ve been working on a two-story deck for relaxing and hosting gatherings.

The construction is a group effort, especially lifting the heavy crossbeams and AM-2 flooring up to the second floor (lucky for me, I’m one of the tallest in the squadron, so I’m always on lift-to-second-floor duty!) This stuff is heavy duty: each 2’x12’ segment of AM-2 weighs 144lbs. It is multi-use interlocking metal flooring, and it’s been around military bases for a LONG TIME.

The bulk of the heavy lifting is now done, leaving just a few things left to do: Order and install a staircase, put in some safety railings, benches, tables, and other quality-of-life improvements. Unfortunately for us, it has been getting pretty cold here, so we’ll need to wait a few months to get out there and really enjoy it… but future summer rotations will have something awesome waiting for them when they arrive! I might just have to slap a pineapple sticker somewhere on this thing to remind them who built it :-)

Work:

Work has been very busy, and stressful. Some days, after twelve hours in the shop, I’m totally spent. A lot of the stress comes from low manning: when I started, my shop had five guys on days and three on nights. Now, we’re down to two on days and three on nights. We had to forward deploy one member to another base, one contractor took a job in a different country, and the third is on leave until next year.

There has been no reduction in assigned tasks to go along with the reduction in manning… the opposite in fact! Word that I can write programs has gotten out, and people have started coming out of the woodwork with new projects they want my help with. It’s hard to tell people “no” – but until I get more people, I have to focus on assigned tasks, and not these bonus projects.

There has been a mass exodus of contractors recently, not just from my shop, but around the whole base – moving to different jobs, often in different countries. It’s interesting to talk with them and hear their perspective. Military members often muse about quitting our jobs and getting hired on as a contractor for ten times the pay! But chatting with these guys, thir life isn’t as golden as our minds make it out to be – they shuffle from country to country, hopping from job to job as their contracts are re-written each year. Some have been doing this for 10+ years, and love it – while others can’t wait for their time to wrap up so they can head back home.

“The grass is greener where you water it” ~Neil Barringham

Mini fun stories:

One night while laying down falling asleep, something ran across my body. I immediately thought it was a camel spider, and was ready to call in an airstrike. What I found was much less horrifying – a tiny lizard, no doubt trying to find some place warm for its cold blood!

More and more people have been playing the VR system that I brought along. We even got our flight commander into it – and he had a blast! One of our favorites is “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” – in which the person in VR needs to disarm a virtual bomb with the assistance of other (non-VR) players who are reading a manual containing instructions. The game is purposely stressful, and tests the ability of people to communicate and work together… perfect for an “Expeditionary Communications Squadron!”

Add to the collection: I got some sweet pineapple socks in the mail the other day. This might be the first time someone is actually happy to get socks during the holidays! They’re great for staying warm as the temps drop in my room.

I’ve gotten some use out of the kitchen for my crazy veggie lifestyle. I’ve made TVP taco crumbles, veggie burritos, and red thai curry. It’s great being able to grab things from the dining facility, bring them back, and work them into improved version of themselves. My next challenge: Seitan!

November had more IDF attacks than any month in the past four years. Winter is supposedly the end of the “fighting season” since the weather in the mountains becomes unforgiving… though I have yet to see that trend become reality. Luckily, nobody has been hurt in any of the attacks since I’ve been here, and there’s been only trivial damage.

When I wake up tomorrow, we’ll be at 30%. That’s a mighty good chunk out of the way… but the remaining 130 days still seems long. Here’s to hoping I continue to stay as busy as I have, and the days continue to whip by!

Final thought: We've been getting a lot of Halloween candy via care packages, where I came across this. An individual sour patch kid, wrapped in plastic. It might be overly dramatic to say so, but this is how the world ends!