The Traveling Pine

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to St. Charles, MO (near St. Louis) for an entire weekend of roller derby fun! A group of 10 of us from Brewcity Bruisers and Brewcity Bootleggers made the 6 hour trek down to St. Charles on a Friday afternoon. I rode with Paminator and Anarchy. Pam and I are 301s in Bootleggers and Anarchy just got drafted to the Crazy 8's in October. (I'm excited to see her and everyone else play!) L to R: Anarchy, me, Paminator We were the last car to arrive, but we met up with everyone in the lobby of the hotel (which was also where the convention was happening) for the last 30 minutes of happy hour. Once the free drinks were gone, we all headed up to our two conjoined rooms. Me, Bus, Pousse, Face, Pam, Jedi, VaKilla, Cherry, Deathreaux, Anarchy So, there are 10 of us lightly packed into two rooms. Two in each of the beds and one on each of the pull out couches. I think we packed enough food for a three month excursion. No one was goi...

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 branche...

A wise man once said that Afghanistan is “the crossroads of migration, conquest, and trade.” Why? The country itself is poor, with harsh lands incapable of most types of agriculture, and no other natural resources to draw anyone here. It must be its location - right between India, China, Northern Africa, and Europe. Smack dab in the center between numerous giant civilizations, and tons of history. The USA isn’t the first foreign military presence in this country, not by a long shot. You can look back to Alexander the great in 330BC, Genghis Kahn in 1220AD, Britain in the 1800s, and Russia in 1970… several millennia of foreign actors here for one reason or another. Bagram Air Base itself is built upon several generations of foreign occupation. Buried beneath the sand are remnants of the ancient city Alexandria on the Caucasus . Scattered across the surface, slowly being reclaimed by nature, are ruins from the Russian airbase that once sat here. I took a trip away from the Commpoun...

Beautiful mountains surround the base 360° (not recommended to take a hike up there though!) You can tell winter is coming, as the snow reaches lower on the peaks each day. The internet is a fantastic thing, especially when you're nearly 7,000 miles from home. Everyone on the installation - several thousand of us - rely on WiFi for entertainment, talking to loved ones back home, some of us even for ongoing college education. The entire WiFi system is managed by one man here in the comm squadron - arguably the most important man on the whole base - and it runs great. What else is the 'net great for? Expeditionary home improvement! It's highly recommended to pack lightly for deployments. You don't want to be lugging around several hundred pounds of stuff, especially when they add a sack full of body armor to the pile. So, I restricted myself to just the bare essentials, and ordered a "welcome kit" for myself prior to departing Milwaukee. Amazon Prime is ...

I've been here for just over a week, and am starting to get the lay of the land. It might be something they're putting in our kool-aid, but it's honestly pretty nice over here - especially considering it's a deployed location! I've only deployed once before, and compared to that location, this is like winning the lottery. We have our own dedicated comm compound (aka "The Commpound") where we spend the majority of our days and nights, away from the rest of the base. We sleep here, work here, and play here. Literally the only thing we need to leave our compound for is food, since we don't have a dedicated dining facility ... and I don't want to survive 6 months off pop-tarts and rip-its! We're actually working on an outdoor patio/kitchen setup in our free time, so we may be totally self sufficient very soon! If nothing else, being able to grill our own grub now and again will be an awesome addition to the quality of life here. My room is o...

Once I landed in Baltimore, I rode the shuttle to my hotel for the night, checked in, then went wandering amongst the endless rows of hotels and restaurants in the area, eventually finding a tasty hibachi lunch – yum! I spent the rest of the night relaxing and triple-checking my luggage, making sure everything was ready for all the upcoming travel. The night wrapped up with an overpriced (but tasty!) falafel and portobello burger from the hotel restaurant, the Packers on the bar TV, and finally a luxurious night of sleep. I woke up at 6am for one last decent shower, and to do some more exploring around the hotel before it was time to go. I found myself in the National Electronics Museum, spent a few hours strolling amongst the vacuum tubes and gadgets. A bunch of hands-on exhibits, Jacob’s ladder, laptops with built-in printers (dubbed “typewriters,”) and some great military tech too. Imagine the tech that goes into a ship’s anti-missile defense system: all the sensors and calcu...

After a few months of recess, the pine is ready for adventure once again. This time, it's a six month quest to Afghanistan, so get ready to cross another country or two off the list! I signed up for this deployment what seems like forever ago, and the departure date had always seemed so far away - until now! I'm looking forward to some adventure, challenge, culture, and perhaps even some renewal. Thanks to everyone who showed up! I tried to keep the departure as low-key as possible, y'all didn't need to spend your Monday at the boring airport (especially after the long and exciting weekend) but it was nice to see you, I'll miss you, and be back before you know it. MKE airport was awesome as always - quiet, quick, and clean. The hop to Baltimore was easy and short, and now I wait 24 hours for my next jet. It's gray and rainy here, more rain than I'll probably see for the next six months. Tomorrow's travel promises to be a doozie, I'll g...