The Rest of The Trip

I last left off bringing everyone up to date regarding my travels and left off in Kuwait. While there we participated in some additional training which consisted of going to the pistol range and performing convoy operations in preparation for the mission in Afghanistan. I have pictures to post in the next blog entry.

From there the group I had been through all the training in South Carolina with began being sectioned off. Some went to the Horn of Africa, others to Iraq, Bahrain, other locations in Kuwait, and about a third to support military operations in Afghanistan.

Every group that was being pushed forward departed in the middle of the night. Maybe the average Kuwaiti does not like to think that there are thousands of armed and well trained American combatants in there country. I can say I can't blame them but we did save them from being subjugated to rule by Saddam in the early 90's.

We were bussed to the Kuwait Internation Airport, military area and boarded a military cargo plane called a C-17. An impressive piece of American ingenuity. We were packed in with our gear and after 4 hours of flight landed in Bagram Air Base in Northern Afghanistan. It is a sprawling compound in the mountains. Located at an elevation of about 8000 feet. The Soviets built it and the UN or coalition forces call it home now. There are forces from many countries as diverse as the Koreans to Macedonians, to Peruvians. The Egyptians runs a hospital for local Afghani's and the other Muslim nations include Turkey.

There is absolutely no chance that base will ever engage with the enemy. The biggest threat we have is to ourselves or maybe getting run over by a vehicle. Not exactly what the Marines are facing down in the South. I believe the ratio of actual trigger pullers to support personell is 1:10. That's incedible.

We berthed in a 100 man tent with many other transients coming and going. After three days we were on a convoy in armored vehicle from Bagram to Kabul, Camp Eggers.

I met me relief (the guy I am replacing) last night and met other members of the team. He explained the job to me and remains very upbeat about his time in Kabul. More to follow on this topic.

All in all it has been quite a trip. I am finally here and look forward to settling into a routine and getting home. Miss you all especially Nat and the boys.....

Love to all....

Fran