Outside the Wire

I broke rule #1 of being a fobbette Monday, I left the base, went "outside the wire". I had the opportunity to go on a convoy to another nearby base. It was a twenty minute ride and I got to see something other than the confines of FOB Salerno. We provide concrete to the other base and they have been trying to get a concrete culvert constructed since we have been here. So, it's a convoy of 4 MRAPs and 2 concrete trucks.

Here I am before we left the base, looking tough, yes the gun is loaded, with more than one bullet. I rode in the MRAP directly behind me in the picture. I took the pictures below out the back window. You'll see from the video at the end of this blog, that it was a bumpy ride, the suspension in the vehicles is about like sitting over the back wheels on the school bus.

This picture is an Afghanistan Quik Trip. I saw three of these along the way.

Everyone's homes along the way are walled and gated. Some of the gates are pretty ornate. As we drive by the kids come running to the edge of the road. I guess the gunners will some times throw them candy, bottled water, etc. Kind of like a parade at home.

Everything is tight to the road, no clear zone (safety zone) along the road here.

Not sure what this is but I thought it looked kind of neat as we drove by, so I took the picture.

We had one bridge to cross along the route, it was a pretty deep canyon, with little or no water. Below is a video of part of the trip, it ends at the bridge crossing. Notice the guy in the sand bag tower along the road. His one and only job is to make sure no one plants a bomb under that bridge and tries to blow it up. Also, in the video you can see how all the vehicles along the road, cars, trucks, scooters, bikes, have to pull to the side of the road and stop until the convoy passes. Everyone seems to know the rules and complies, those who don't get stopped another way.

In my next blog, I'll put in some pictures and video of the base I visited and the concrete pour, it was entertaining.