Satanic Vehicle

I have come to the conclusion that the devil himself made the US Army vehicles. A few days ago we left to go on a pretty big, and as far as i know, important mission. So of course, seeing how I'm a driver I had to PMCS (Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services) the HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) to make sure it was in tip-top shape for the beating ahead, so I go down to the Motor Pool to get some help from the mechanics. Come to find out, there are all sorts of leaks and broken... things all over the place. I go back and tell my leaders about the HMMWV and they tell me to get it fixed as good as possible because we need all the vehicles we have. Considering the fact that I had about three hours before we got going, I didn't get a whole lot done. A few hours later we were rolling out the gate and onto Highway one, the only highway in Afghanistan, which wasn't bad on the truck at all, untill we had to get off the road that is. After about one hour of driving on the oh-so-charming dirt roads, the vehicle started acting up. It barely had any power, so going up a 3% incline was like climbing a rock wall, almost impossible. Reverse on the other hand didn't even need an incline to crap out on me. I could be sitting parked somewhere and the second I shifted to reverse the vehicle simply died on me, couldnt be more annoying. Let's just say maneuvering around the bumpy terrain got pretty difficult without much power and no reverse... At one point I was being towed and the "A-frame" (No idea what it is) broke completely and scraped along the ground. It was a HUGE piece of metal, I was pretty intrigued at the crappyness of it all. We ended up sitting in an open area for nine hours waiting for someone to come pick up the truck. All I can say is, luck must have been on our side since we didn't get attacked once the whole time, and we were pretty much sitting ducks.

Anyways, there's even more to be told, but I will hold off because I'm not too sure what all I am allowed to say on here, so keep your eyes open. Hope all is well with every one, and take care!

-Allen

Update

Just a quick hello to let you know I'm still alive. Way, way, way to tired to write anything too detailed so I'll leave it at this. Keep you updated as much as possible.

-Allen-

Taliban Needs A Bedtime!

I'm starting to get really sick and tired of these Taliban guys. Apparently they don't appreciate sleep like I do. Last week we were on QRF (Quick Reaction Force) for three days. Basically what that means is that, if anything happens around our base, we get called out to take care of whatever problem there is. It only lasts for three days, but those three days feel pretty long when you get called out 3 times during the night! Thankfully nothing too serious happened and we are all still in one piece. I still feel like someone needs to get a grip on these guys though, because I don't see any need in attacking anything at 2300, thats just far too late and they should know that we are trying to get some sleep down here! Anyways, I just wanted to express myself on the matter, because I'm loosing enough sleep as it is and those guys aren't helping in the least. Hope all is well with everyone and please take care.

-Allen-

The Guitar, The Meteor and The Wardrobe

Lately things have been going kinda slow around here, so I decided to make good time and learn a new skill, so I walked outside and saw a few of my buddies playing guitar and i thought, "Hey, I could do that." And so I did... or I'm working on it at least. I'm glad to report though, that I am picking up on it rather quickly and should be able to play at least some basic stuff when I go home on leave. Very exciting. I started learning about 3 days ago, and last night when I was sitting outside the tent with my two mentors Lee and Rathjen, the sky suddenly lit up as if a flare was just fired, so naturally we all kinda tensed up and waited for something to happen when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see a big light, so obviously i turn to investigate and, bam, there was a meteor the size of Chicago, then again I've never been there but I'm just guessing. It was by far the biggest comet I have ever seen and quite possibly the coolest thing I have seen in a while. Other then that, like I said, things have been quite uneventful. Hope everyone is in good health and enjoying life. Take care and stay safe.

-Allen-

That was not fun! I just got back from a 5 day mission in the middle of the Afghanistan desert. It was neither fun nor was it pleasant. We got dropped off by a huge convoy, then we had to walk 15 kilometers to our first staging point, and since we started the mission 2 hours late we ended up doing a lot of the walking during the day. Now, I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Afghanistan area... it's VERY hot! Needless to say, we were all very very tired towards the end of our little walk. By the way, we were carrying rucksacks that weighed 40+ pounds during this whole thing. So there we were, baking out in the sun for 5 days of straight walking and laying in the sand. I'll have to admit, the third day we were there was the first time I have been really worried about what would happen. We were told that there were 32 or more Taliban in the surrounding area that knew of our presence and were setting up ambushes all along our route and they also said that they had mined the area, which, I don't know about you, but I myself am not too excited about getting blown up. The fact that we were the lead element through the route is the thing that tightened the knot in my stomach to a full on choke hold. Obviously though I am fine, so don't worry too much. Very good things came from what we did that night. and so we did quite a bit of great things , so it feels pretty good now that it is over. That's all for now and take care everyone.
-Allen-

Odd Time To Do Regular Things

Heres a little story for you all to enjoy. While we were at the firebase we went on a few dismounted patrols around the area. This story takes place during the first one my squad went on. Our mission was to follow a group of ANP (Afghan National Police) to a "busy" road about 4 kilometers south of our base, there they would set up a traffic check point to try and catch some of the taliban thought to be moving through the area. So we set off walking right as the sun is going down and things seem to be going great. The only hick up is that the ANP doesn't have night vision goggles and they rely on talking to each other as they walk to know where each other are. So of course, about 3 kilometers out we walk over a ridge and realize when we get over it that most of the ANP are no where to be found. So there we were, in the middle of the desert overlooking a small village with only two ANP still with us and no idea where to go. We check our map and figure out a better route and better place to set up the TCP so we begin to move out. The terrain gets pretty rough after a while, and moving around gets really annoying. On our way there we walk through a lot of wheat fields and I get pretty used to walking in them. Then all of a sudden we see a light about 500 meters to our right, so we halt and put together a team to go check it out. The team starts moving up to the light and all of a sudden I start hearing a lot of yelling. Apparently it was just an old man and he was almost scared to death when four heavily armed and well armored troops come walking out of the darkness. The fact that he didn't see them until they were about 5 feet away from him made me laugh. We got the signal and we all moved up there so my squad leader could figure out what this guy was up too. We automatically set up 360 security and I quickly realized that I was standing in a field with water that reached up to my knees. We found out that the village he lived in had a schedule for when certain people got to use the local stream and apparently it was the old mans turn to use it... thats a pretty crappy time to clean your clothes if you ask me. So now, the combo of wet feet, cold weather and having to walk 5 kilometers back made for a pretty miserable time, but thats what I get for being infantry I guess. All in all a pretty uneventful patrol but makes for a good memory. So there it is, the glory of the infantry :P

-Allen-

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Alright, so here it is, the mother of all blog entries. It's going to be a long one since i have about 2 months worth of incidents to fill you all in on. Last post I posted I said I was going to a platoon size firebase, which i did. We went out there not really knowing how long it would be until we would be coming back here to Warrior, but we invited the notion with open arms and pushed on. The firebase was an old veterinarian clinic and it was one of the only compounds with "hard" buildings in the district, meaning the buildings were made out of something other then mud. When we first got there we just spent a lot of time repairing and cleaning the compound up a bit. The previous occupants didn't exactly take good care of the place to say the least. The first week or two we spent repairing vehicles and building guard towers. Finally when the place started looking presentable we began our movement around the district . We were in the biggest district with the smallest force... ya, figure that one out. Most of our early missions were just HA missions, or Humanitarian Aid if you will. In other words we drove to the nearby villages and handed out food and medical supplies, and even some soccer balls. The people loved us of course since we were handing out free stuff, who wouldn't love that? The bad thing about doing this is that there is usually an appointed leader in all the villages, and sometimes the people choosing didn't exactly make a great choice so there's a lot of missing food and medicine. it really is sad when the wrong people get their hands on what the people need the most. On a little side note, I decided to make this my random subject post and instead write a bunch of smaller posts about certain incidents. There are a lot of good people here but most of them are to scared of the Taliban to speak up. Hopefully we can change that.