sgtdub

26 June 2006, I made it to Afghanistan last Wednesday. Things are pretty hectic right now with more troops than you know what to do with. Camp Phoenix has changed immensely and yet not at all. I spent 9 months here the last time in 2003-2004. The day after I arrived I realized it doesnÂ’t feel like I have left, just everyone else changed. The Camp itself has made many improvements, some of which include a real chow hall, a Dairy Queen, a Subway sandwich shop and a pizza shop. Did all of that deal with food? Of course, thereÂ’s also an Orange Julius. Now with all of that it should be much harder than I expected to try to loose the weight I want to. (TrumpetÂ’s Sounding!!) I went to the gym tonight. First thing I did was weigh in. Now this was only a couple of hours after dinner so IÂ’m going to say that 5 pounds is a result of that. 245 lbs is my starting weight here, already subtracting those 5 lbs. I will keep you posted on my progress. I took it easy for many reasons but I did a mile and a half on the treadmill. Capt C and I have decided to work together to loose weight. Our motto: We are going to loose a soldier on this deployment. Now I know thatÂ’s not the kind of thing you want to say or hear while in a war zone, but, with my goal of 50-60 lbs and Capt CÂ’s goal of 60-70 lbs, thatÂ’s not too far off from being another soldier. I havenÂ’t made it out the wire yet, but from a distance I can see that Kabul itself has changed some too. I was here last with the Oklahoma National Guard in 2003. Our patch is an Indian symbol, the Thunderbird. This symbol is rumored to bring rain wherever we go. The Afghans at the time believed it as well, for with our arrival in 2003 the drought that had ravaged this country as much as the war was broken. Since then I have heard that they have gotten more precipitation and things are actually greening up. I remember my friends here showing me pictures of Kabul in the late 70Â’s and how very beautiful it was at the time.
One of the things I have always hated was getting up before the sun did. I always felt there was a reason for it being dark and who am I to argue with that. (Now for those that know me, you know I love to argue about everything, or at least debate). Well, sun down, me argumentarguement. I won't have that problem here. That dang sun is up at 0400 hrs (a.m.) here. Right now, my shift is from 0430 to whenever in the evening I get to call it quits. I should mention to my Senator the Army needs an overtime program in place.

I will work on getting some pictures posted here in the very near future. Stay safe and have a great day.