Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
After a frustrating week or so of back and forth and blah blah with everyone here, we have gotten word that 2 of our 5 get to go home, right now. So the two married fathers are OUT OF HERE!!! We are leaving 2 days shy of 12wks here, so no big deal there... Another 2 of our crew are staying an additional 2-3wks to help another group get finished, and our 5th is leaving for hunting season next week. 
It has been a profitable, informative trip. While nearly all of our time was spent working or sleeping, or eating inbetween, we did get to the other side of the gate a few times, where I learned quite a bit about the state of Afghanistan and its people vs. the Taliban. It is not quite like they say on the news, believe me. This isn't Vietnam.
Had a few fun times working nights, with rockets coming in, and on one occasion, GOING OUT... a fun time dodging negligent discharge from a Minigun one morning.... (we felt pretty bad for THAT guy-- but not too bad, he ripped off about 400rds in our direction... INSIDE our compound), camel spiders (most horrible thing EVER), wrestling inside the buildings, on top of them, and all around (my record? 2-4-2, against a giant, some MMA fighter, and a former state wrestling champ from PA-- I'll take it), paint fumes, NO ICE anywhere, traffic jams 2 miles long, missing the on-base flea market for 12 weeks in a row, ATMs that only dispense $100's, Dairy Queen smoothies, guards from Provo and Tooele, and the head guy went to BYU (so no ID checks for our crew, and lots of help greasing the many wheels we needed greased ), watching jets screaming out of here all night-- never got tired of the afterburner cones but MAN they're freakin' loud, the smoke from the incinerator across the runway..., lobster and crab legs every Friday, the ongoing and increasingly ridiculous war with the lazy electricians (note: don't mess with angry construction guys, we might string your tools along the rafters like ornaments if the radio disappears... and something seems to be wrong with all the lifts? How will you get them down? Hmmmm )
All that said, I'm glad to be leaving. If anyone reading this is stuck there, I honestly feel for you. It's not awful, but it's not Utah, either. Sometime this weekend we'll get on a plane to DC, where I'll be seeing a few people and going to the National Gallery and maybe the Smithsonian with my little brother, and then finally back home.... which means I might make NPLD!!!!! wooo hooooooooo
I am expecting to be out of contact for a few days maybe, see you all when I get back online.
It has been a profitable, informative trip. While nearly all of our time was spent working or sleeping, or eating inbetween, we did get to the other side of the gate a few times, where I learned quite a bit about the state of Afghanistan and its people vs. the Taliban. It is not quite like they say on the news, believe me. This isn't Vietnam.
Had a few fun times working nights, with rockets coming in, and on one occasion, GOING OUT... a fun time dodging negligent discharge from a Minigun one morning.... (we felt pretty bad for THAT guy-- but not too bad, he ripped off about 400rds in our direction... INSIDE our compound
), camel spiders (most horrible thing EVER), wrestling inside the buildings, on top of them, and all around (my record? 2-4-2, against a giant, some MMA fighter, and a former state wrestling champ from PA-- I'll take it), paint fumes, NO ICE anywhere, traffic jams 2 miles long, missing the on-base flea market for 12 weeks in a row, ATMs that only dispense $100's, Dairy Queen smoothies, guards from Provo and Tooele, and the head guy went to BYU (so no ID checks for our crew, and lots of help greasing the many wheels we needed greased ), watching jets screaming out of here all night-- never got tired of the afterburner cones but MAN they're freakin' loud, the smoke from the incinerator across the runway..., lobster and crab legs every Friday, the ongoing and increasingly ridiculous war with the lazy electricians (note: don't mess with angry construction guys, we might string your tools along the rafters like ornaments if the radio disappears... and something seems to be wrong with all the lifts? How will you get them down? Hmmmm )All that said, I'm glad to be leaving. If anyone reading this is stuck there, I honestly feel for you. It's not awful, but it's not Utah, either.
Sometime this weekend we'll get on a plane to DC, where I'll be seeing a few people and going to the National Gallery and maybe the Smithsonian with my little brother, and then finally back home.... which means I might make NPLD!!!!! wooo hooooooooo I am expecting to be out of contact for a few days maybe, see you all when I get back online.
