Getting to Afghanistan and First Days of Work

I left Des Moines on Jan 13, 2009 and met up with the rest of the team in Norfolk VA on the 14th. We left Norfolk that day and flew to Ft. Drum to pick up some 100 0r so Army personnel with the 10th Mountain Division. From there we flew to Leipzig, Germany for another stop, then on to Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan. We arrived on Jan 15. After 4 days in Manas, we finally showed up on the passenger list for a flight to Bagram AB, Afghanistan. After arriving at Bagram on Jan 20, where we had to wait a couple more days to make a flight to FOB Salerno, Afghanistan. We flew during the night and arrived at Salerno at 3 am on Friday, Jan 23. The base is under black out conditions, so no lights. The stars are super bright as there is very little light pollution in this area. However, they do not provide much light for finding your room at 3 in the morning or those late night trips to the bathroom which is across the street.

Because it took so long to get here, we only have a couple days of overlap with the team we are replacing, so after a couple hours of sleep we met up with them at 7 am. There is a lot to learn from them in two days and a lot of stories for them to tell us.

Today we saw what it is like when there is rain here, it's muddy. There is no grass and if there are no rocks to walk on, it's mud. One of our projects is to pave the main base roads, that should help. Also, with the rain we were able to look for drainage problems that need some attention, which is another project I'll be working on over the next six months.

Well that's enough for my first posting, this blog stuff is new to me. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I figure out how.

Tim