What To Do, What To Do.........

After spending a bunch of money to comply with an incorrect order, exceptionally poor communication, and a seven hour round trip to my current drill location to participate in two hours of "welcome home" activities, I can honestly say that while I truly enjoy having worked with many, many soldiers during active-duty deployments and weekend field exercises, I also have developed a deep desire to strangle a number of people who supposedly organize and plan activities.

Practical Creativity

Reading this simply reinforces the pride in my tribe. Hooah Iowa Guard!

Ugly Gun Sunday

It doesn't seem like a week since I posted something on here. Probably due to moving from Bagram to Kyrgyzstan to Germany to Wisconsin. There's nothing like spending the better part of 19 hours on a plane to put you in a homicidal frame of mind, especially when the last crew rotation gets you several stewardesses who obviously feel their job is a pain in the ass. Thankfully that was the shortest leg of the trip, with the others having outstanding crews. Now to make it through a series of briefings on PTSD, and how to "adjust to the civilian world". Guns, bikes, and beer, duh. What's hard about that?

Plus, a big thank you to the volunteers who do the deployment "welcome home line" coming off the plane in Bangor, Maine. That group was there at 0300 in the AM when I came back from Iraq in 2004, and they're still at it, making sure troops are getting access to cell phones to call home, coffee, and small oddly dressed dogs as soon as they get off the plane in the US. They're good people.

Tools

The army will provide you with tool kits. It just has a hard time keeping up with the knuckleheads who keep breaking or losing parts. Here we a very nice DeWalt battery powered set. Unfortunately, we don’t have:

Spare driver bits
Drill bits
Saw Blades
Screws
Hammers

Wait, the last one is wrong. We do have a Mark I Afghan hammer, AKA, a big rock. Not worth a damn for pulling nails, but you can really slam them in once you’ve got your technique down.

Have you ever wondered.....

what Jalalabad looks like from a helicopter? Neither have I, but here are some images anyway.


Looks rather average;

other than all the roofs being flat ( live in the northern US, and you'll understand why that seems odd to some of us);

not much activity down there at two in the afternoon, but I guess being 120 degrees will slow things down a bit;

Jackpot! The one and only open -air pool in eastern Afghanistan. No pools for the troops, but the chlorine content in the showers simulates it fairly well.

Neat, and No Thanks

If I could find a way to lug this back to my reloading room.....Reminds of the 7.62x54R; I'd love to put a wooden dummy round in it.



Tomorrow, Soylent Green Soup made from the leftovers.

A Brief look at the Office

Reception desk. When you enter our clinic, you know it's top grade! Or you might think you're in the Home Depot lumber yard. Whichever.

The soothing enclosure of rounded plastic. It's sort of like being inside a giant garbage bag when the wind picks up. But it does actually stay cooler than the last plywood Aid Station I was in.

Only the finest Made In Pakistan exam tables for us. Seriously. Watch out the for razor sharp edges on several spots.

A locally made trauma table- pt comes in on a litter, litter goes on frame, start treating. One of the best ideas I've seen while in theater, and they've been used. Wall O' Medical Stuff seen behind.

The other trauma table. Sadly, they've both been used for a mass casualty event shortly before I arrived here.

Aside from sarcasm, this has been an excellent Aid Station set up, and it's provided good service to the soldier, interpreters, and contractors. I just handed over the keys to my replacements today, and I'll getting ready to ship out soon.

More Traveling

A series of images taken on a flight from Jalalabad to FOB Gamberi:


The sharp demarcation between desert and the cultivated areas around the river.



A family compound.



Shows again how close the agricultural areas are to rivers.



When you see these areas, you wouldn't know most of the country is rocks.

The Afghan Side of Bagram

Thankfully, the local Slurpee Mart is now totally safe from break-ins via the second floor:

Dried mud, the concrete of rural Afghanistan:

Scrounging; there's enough stuff thrown away by coalition forces that it's probably well worth the time:

It it goes up in flames, nobody's got the stuff to put it out:

Local village:

More Cowbell.........um, Kabul

Another, less developed part of Kabul:

A large traffic circle downtown:

The local version of Home Depot:



It’s the ice cream cart!



Taking the donkey out for a spin; the kids in this neighborhood a fully informed on a variety of hand gestures that would get them a swift kick in the ass from several ISAF contingents.



A vendor’s cart outside a living area.



A local neighborhood. Notice the open waste water ditch.



Individual gardening plots:

Transiting Kabul

A series of images taken from an MRAP in Kabul. Through a very dirty, thick window. These are the most modern buildings I’ve seen going through it.

Don’t know what this complex is, but it reminds me of some of the malls I’ve seen back in the US.

Apartments, I’d guess.

Wedding halls. According to one of the interpreters here, these are where the rich and stylish go.

Apparently there’s two parties: the engagement announcement, and the wedding. Several hundred guests are the bare minimum, although the ‘terp says 800 or more aren’t uncommon for wealthier families.

Road Trip

A series of photos taken in a pass in between Jalalabad and Kabul. Several factors made this an interesting ride:


The road is set for one direction of travel for a number of hours.


The guard rail is made of mortared stone at the edge of the road, and there isn’t a shoulder. Just a couple hundred meters of steep slope.

Occasionally people with AKs, DShKs, and RPGs enjoyed shooting down onto your vehicle. Watching for them keeps things interesting.

Sections of road and “guard rail” that have slid down the mountain.

Falling boulders.

Mini-MASH

Yesterday I finally got over to the ANA side of the post, which is a major pain if you don't have duties there. Went to help drop off a piece of office furniture at the medical company, ended up staying an hour drinking multiple small cups of tea while we discussed through an interpreter why the female medic hadn't had several children yet, how to manage equitable attention amongst four wives, how the whole ANA medical company doesn't have access to even basic hand tools, and kicking out the Soviet Army in the '80s.

This was followed by an emotional demand by another unit's Solder to disarm her roommate, as she's convinced she's a psych case. Which led to an extended conversation on what you can and can't do, the purpose of documentation, what the chain of command is for, and why doctors don't sneak up on people in the barracks to do mental evals by force without documented cause.

Followed by a Soldier with a bad shoulder, who is convinced all the muscles are torn, although he has full range of motion, even if it is crunchy when he moves it. But his wife is a massage therapist, and she says his shoulder is "not lined up right", so why can't the doctors fix it? So drugs and therapy it is. Except he returned half an hour later to report someone had gone into his room, and stolen all his documentation of his shoulder injuries, as well as his prescription orders. Man, those local contracters are getting sneaky just stealing the good parts of the medical records.

Followed by a 2230 surprise visit by an ANA soldier with three gunshot wounds. He'll live, but he won't be sitting in any chairs for a while.

Little Bits of Stupidity.

Things that got my attention today:

The sergeant who thought it would be really neat to push a dead scorpion into a bottle, until he found out it wasn't dead (near miss).

The local national translator who was baffled by the fact that I wouldn't hand over Cipro anti-biotic pills so that he could take them prophylactically before he goes out to eat in the local village. There's a reason why antibiotics become ineffective, and taking two whenever you feel like it is one of them.

The third-world contractor who has diabetes, but is convinced it's due to evil spirits.

Love this place.

Next!

Let’s see, on top of the usual aches and pains seen today: one case each of uncontrolled hypertension (180/120), facial wart cryoablation, week-old accidental self-inflicted stabbing that converted from a painful hematoma in the distal thigh at noon to a compartment syndrome helicopter medevac at 1700, extensive bilateral knee exam and documentation for persistent pain, grinding, and popping so the soldier can file a Line of Duty report for VA evaluation at home, lacerated finger care, and an interpreter with an eye infection, . With the last four patients all overlapping each other while my only other medic was unreachable and my sole provider having left the aid station to pack for a rapid redeployment home due to a family emergency. Got everybody out the door, and on the helo in the one case, to be followed by a phone call five minutes later from a warrant officer in Jalalabad wanting to know why I kept his helicopter on the landing pad for several minutes serving as an indirect fire target.

I think I earned my pay today.

And now, some images of the local version of Home Depot:

Who Says Death Has To Be Grim?

One of the MRAPs before heading out on the road. This one a CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station) on it, lessening gunner exposure. Not that everything is unexposed:



If you’re going to hose someone with bullets, at least you can bring a smile to their face first.