Back to the 'stan

Yep. It's cold here.

This is my Bhut after a night of wet snow.

So, in case you didn't already know, I'm back in Afghanistan fulfilling my service obligation. Leaving the family was pretty tough, but I felt a little better this time because of several reasons - primarily because I knew where I was going and I had a pretty good idea about the job I was going to perform as it was essentially the same thing I did for a year on the last tour. Additionally, I was definitely more excited about being on just a 6-monther vs the 365 our family endured from '09-10.

The only surprise awaiting me ended up being serendipitous. See, I was expecting to go to Kabul again and work out of a camp in the downtown area - one I had spent some time at before. After leaving Manas AB, Krygystan, my wingman and I arrived at Bagram AB and shuffled our hundreds of pounds of gear from the fixed (airplanes) terminal to the rotary (helicopters) terminal. Thankfully, we were able to sneak on to a couple of UH-60 Blackhawks that flew us straight to a compound not far from our new home. Upon arrival, we waited just a couple hours before our predecessors showed up to drive us to our new home for the next six months.

I spent the next day settling in to the office (I would be in temporary open-bay billeting until a room opened up in 4-6 weeks) and the next evening my boss' boss shook my world a little by advising me that he really needed me at Bagram instead. I was really enjoying the setting and getting comfortable with the turnover but that doesn't really matter much in the military - so I saluted smartly and found the first trip to Bagram.

A few days later, the office dropped me off at Kabul International Airport and I was able to make it to Bagram that day. Interestingly enough, whereas a room was at least 4 weeks out for me in Kabul, the new team I was joining already had an available private room open for me! That improved my situation greatly and so here I am, at Bagram Airfield, engineering the future for the Afghans once again.