30 down, 266 to go ...

This probably won't be the longest post, I apologize, but I realize it's been a long time since I posted and I wanted to give a quick run-down of what's going on here.

I'm going to skip ahead to the present for a moment before recapping the past. I've realized that, though my pay reflects me being in a combat zone, FOB Sharana is not a combat zone. When they have enough time on their hands to strictly enforce their (at times inane) uniform restrictions[1], increase their on-base security personnel so they can crack down on speeding and not-coming-to-a-comPLETE-stop, etc. I recognize that driving safety is important, but this is rather annoying.

[1] Uniform standards are kind of funny. I understand that military standards are things to be followed, not questioned, but really ... the reflective belt at all times (regardless of time of day) is being enforced on the other side of the FOB, and I won't be surprised if they throw that BS our way as well. Heck, apparently some commanders (in the military sense, not Naval) feel they can change uniform regulations (more strict in some ways, just slightly different in others) on their whim. So, it's a bit off of what I perceive as "deal with the important stuff first".

Granted, Molly is likely happy to hear that things are not kinetic enough here for them to focus on that. I'm not upset, either. There are certainly other FOBs (with friends working on them) where they quite often get indirect fire (mortars and/or rockets). It's usually ineffective (in that injuries are minimal or non-existent), for which I'm thankful.

Okay, back to the past for a little bit. I've gone outside the wire a bit over a dozen times, which if you consider that I've been here 30 days, is running me about half the time on a trip. That seems high as I type it, but really isn't that bad compared with some others. Most of my trips have been rather short and into other protected compounds; I don't relish the fact that my job prevents me from really over-extending myself locale-wise, but again I'm not trying to put myself at risk, certainly.

I recently took a helo ride to a village district center where we aren't very happy with their support of anti-Afghan forces. They were holding a shura (and the provincial governor was there), and apparently they may be relaxing their opposition to our presence and may allow us to become productive in that area again. I'll believe it when I see it ... or, more appropriately, when we make several trips there and don't have IEDs and other "issues" with which to contend.

Anyway, while there and after my primary duty was complete, they asked me and a colleague to join them for chai. (My first invitation!) The chai took a bit of time to heat up, so we talked for a bit. About 10 minutes later they brought in lunch! Rice, beef (or lamb, not sure) in a spiced sauce, some kind of vegetable common to Afghan plates I've had here. Before the chai came, they gave me a Mello Yellow as well. I made three compromises during this meal:

1. I have had 1 soda since a few weeks before leaving Atterbury almost 2 months ago, and even then I think I've had 3 in the last 4+ months. I drank some of the (half-can) Mello Yellow.
2. There was a (long) hair in my meat dish.
3. There was what appeared to be an eyelash or eyebrow hair in my chai.

The first is manageable, and considering I've been trying to eat healthier since arriving here, not exactly a huge setback in my health management. The other two, however, probably have a few people losing their appetites. Oh, I pulled the hair out and continued eating, for fear of offending them. It's been a few days and I've had no "issues" so I think I got lucky.

On that, somebody else (not this team) was visiting a new school in his province. The principal showed him around, including the class room for the girls (where they were quite excited to show off their new books). Afterwards, he was invited to eat lunch with them, towards which he was escorted into the dining room where the food was covered in flies. Before starting that job, he made himself a promise to eat everything offered -- even when it looked such as this -- in order to not offend. He had predicted that, if he chose to eat it, he would likely pay for it later. He did, and he did.

I got lucky.

That colleague I was working with that day, btw, alleges that only two meals brought food poisoning since coming to Afghanistan: the dining facility in Sharan, and the dining facility in Bagram. Nice.

So my turnover is complete, and I must say that I've never had so much turnover (over 3 weeks) and yet had such a pathetic grasp on everything that was going on, and I don't think it's because of the complexity of things. My predecessor, though an intelligent person, certainly looks at everything so vastly differently than most others. His organizational skills are ... curious. His management of contracts and funds is ... creative, though lawyers don't often associate "creative" with recommended techniques. Every day he would tell me something about the job that he hadn't told me before. For a while, that's normal and expected. However, when on the last few days he tells me about projects that I need to handle since they're about to finish (and nobody else knows about them because of his slightly non-traditional communication and management skills), I get concerned about all that he isn't telling me. I won't get into the details; suffice it to say that the turnover has been very difficult. This is my second night with him gone, and today didn't introduce a lot of new things, but one project's timeline is vastly different than he originally let on. Awesome.

Sooooo, anyway, I finally have my room and my department to myself. My room is closer to austere than anything else, though it is functional. I'm fortunate enough to not share it with anyone, an unexpected perk considering the Army doesn't consider anybody below O-6 important or of sufficient rank for recognition.

I'm taking some pictures, but because I spend most of my time on the Army's computers and networks, I'm unable to load those pictures. Of course, I'm also unable to view other peoples blogs, copy the pics to any computer, or even view most productive sites on the web. It's actually worse than NMCI with its two slightly different definitions: Navy and Marine Corps Intranet, and Non-Mission Capable Intranet. Oh, that reminds me: I have three computers on my desk. And I use all three frequently every day. If you look at just my military emails, I have 4 that I have immediate access to and another 2 that I should have access to but haven't been able to get work. That doesn't even count my personal email addresses (that they don't let me access from work).

I'd love to say that my job description was factually accurate or misleading, but truth be told there isn't a job description out there. I'd love to say that that's because every PRT operates a little differently, but that's not really the reason even if it is true. The reason? I often feel that the PRT mission is a hodge-podge of several beasts stuck together in a way that makes it the red-headed step child of all the services (simultaneously, quite an accomplishment) and yet at times immensely productive in trying to undermine sources of instability.

So, though I am the department head for the engineering department, my job doesn't really require me to be an engineer. It would help, but it isn't required. I gotta say, being married to Molly has helped in this regard, as well: all of her talk during her COR (Contracting Officer's Representative) course and work is coming back in spurts where I didn't really appreciate the considerations that go into contract law (and management).

BTW, here's a deep thought for you (though if you don't deal with contracts or contract law, it may not make sense or at least be at all funny to you): if "KO" is contracting officer, "KTR" is contractor, and "K" is contract, why don't they call contracting officer's representative "KOR"? It plagues me ...

So anyway, my department does a lot of engineering projects. I'd say that helping them manage our (over $40M worth of) projects is not even half of my job. I get to deal with so many other things that it keeps me hopping, guessing, and constantly wondering when things are going to start making sense. I get to work on smaller, agriculture-centric projects (I'm learning about animal health a little) as well as watershed considerations. I can discuss -- somewhat intelligently -- the use of checkdams, gabians (sp?), and other irrigation techniques to improve the quality and quantity of water reaching a community, as well as ways to maximize its effectiveness in their crops. I'm not good at any of these things, to be honest, but if I can keep my head above water, I can enable people who do know about these to teach the villagers. Today, I just picked up tasking for around 8 more projects for the next couple of months; projects that my assistant (an architect and very intelligent person despite that! ;-)) will likely never see.

I haven't gotten any guidance from my command officer, either. Though I have found this fact to be frustrating in the past, I actually find it liberating right now. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe he should be providing a little more guidance to me. But, in the absence of that, I've developed the goals I think somebody in his position would develop and give to my department; I've communicated those goals to some of my peers (for review and critique) and to my department (for understanding and execution). And I move forward with determination to get them done, keeping my CO apprised of my way-aheads, giving him the right of refusal, but really driving my own plans and destiny here. I hope he continues to let me guide myself here.

Our team in general is, not surprisingly, having many growing pains. Our missions are labored and not efficient; our meetings are a little long, clumsy, and inefficient; our inter-colleague collaboration is sometimes lacking, sometimes contrived and unnecessary; and realistically most people are slowly growing into their positions. I hope many of our current processes are adapted later, as they have taken a few steps back in technology and capability / efficiency. Ugh.

I'd love to keep chatting here, but I must bid you good night. I'll try to write more often. I will say, however, that I haven't gotten one picture from my brothers or sisters with children on Halloween. I'm just saying ...

Good night.

So what would you say you DO here?

Sooooo ... unfortunately I'm going to be rather vague about many aspects of my job. This is unfortunate in many ways, not the least of which being you may not be able to appreciate some of these posts without that perspective. Just keep in mind a few things: though the Navy has certainly put me in positions were I didn't quite know how to do that facet of my job, the environment was always aviation-related among like-minded people, so it was familiar. Now I'm in an engineering job for which I've received zero training in a service that is so drastically foreign from the Navy to be classified as requiring language and cultural desensitization training.

So, as part of my job so far (meaning, very early here in Sharana), I went to a seminar our PRT was putting on for locals over at the Governor's compound. Again, no details on that portion (yet, though "CERP As A Budget" on google may reveal some interesting things), but while there I saw a cute kitten up in the rafters of a picnic area:

What you don't see in that picture will be revealed when I step back ...

Both animals seemed tame enough (the dog had a collar). The does was showing such intense focus, unlike anything I've ever seen in our dogs (except when we're holding food ...).

On another mission I had quite a lot of exposure with locals. In fact, the local school just let out and we were quickly swamped with kids walking by us. We were certainly the oddity. Of course, I was *really* trying to practice my Pashto so not only did I look weird, I sounded different than all the other weird-looking dudes! I did realize, however, that my accent is nearly incomprehensible. I can understand a little bit of what they say, but I'm still rusty as heck ...

Good times!

Okay, I'm out. It's been three (loooooooooong) posts and I'm pretty tired. Tomorrow's schedule is busy (though it changed -- again -- an hour or two ago), and I need some sleep. I'll try to keep this up in whatever facet I can. Thanks for keeping up!

He he ... not much air up here ...

Okay, the air up here doesn't seem that thin until you try to DO anything. It's comical, but a couple of us often walk to the PRT together and we feel slightly winded when we get there. Really ?!?

Molly has been doing a lot of training recently, ramping up for her 10K runs. If you're reading this, you probably read her posts or heard otherwise, but if you didn't then realize that I'm PROUD AS HELL OF HER! She's beaten her goals for every race until this very last one where I finally convinced her to set a very competitive one (60 minute 10K run). She just barely missed it which means by the time she runs another one, I think she'll be smoking the hour mark. Too cool!

Well, in addition to providing moral support, I'm also trying to keep up in the miles. I've been keeping up somewhat, and my 5K time has dropped incredibly: 22:30! Until Paktika, that is. The first day (when I woke up at 2:30am and couldn't sleep), I decided to go run. And run I did, for 1 mile. And then I stopped.

The next day, I slept in all the way until 3am. Awesome. So I tried running again, and this time made it 1.5 before crashing. Ouch.

Well, long-story-short, three days ago I finally was able to run a 5K, albeit in just under 28 minutes. I'm not upset, honestly, because I know it takes time to adjust, but it'll be nice when I can get my time back to where it was a few weeks ago.

Back to my fitness goals. I haven't been able to participate in any crossfit routine for a couple of months now due to my shoulder. Well, after Cherryl gave me that sports massage before I left and found knots I didn't know I had (thanks, Cherryl!), I'm finally able to move my arm all the way around with no pain. So, it's time to get back going again. Very slowly, though.

I think I injured it by jerking on a lot of the barbell exercises. So, I'll mitigate that by lowering the weight (initially), moving slowly until full tension is achieved, and watching for the tell-tale signs. It's not like I'll be able to do too much damage though, I'm still out of breath way too early ;-)

So far, these have been my workouts:

October 8: 5 sets of 10@: pull-ups, push-ups, knees-to-elbows, and 24" box-jumps; followed up with 8 tabata sprints at 8% incline. OUCH.

October 9: 5K run, 22:26 (in Bagram).

October 10: 1mi run, 9-ish pace.

October 11: 1.5mi run, 9-ish pace.

October 13: 5K run, 27+45.

October 15: Annie from 40 (40,30,20,10 of double-jumps and situps); 3 sets of 10@: pull-ups, sliding push-ups, GHD back extensions; 25,20,15,10,5 of shoulder presses with 10# interspaced with 10x 25# lunges. Oh yeah, this is gonna hurt.

It's now the 17th, and my shoulder hasn't hurt at all since then, which is absolutely awesome. Can't say the same for my gluts ... those lunges made things difficult these last two days ...

So, if you look back to my goals for starting crossfit so long ago, one of the hard parts was going to be keeping it up in Afghanistan. Well, I'm trying hard. My work schedule is not really accommodating, but I can make something work.

Of course, I haven't worked out in a couple of days so I feel like a slug. But my work schedule now will eventually ease up a little as I become more acquainted with my job here.

I've arrived ...

I know I've been remiss ... but I'm just now getting less unreliable internet connectivity. I also just copied some pictures from my iPhone to my computer at a point when/where I can send/post away. Not a lot, mind you, but some. I may break this post up into a few ... try to keep up :-)

The trip out here was about as predicted: stuffy, crappy, long, sleepless, uncomfortable, and at times, dark. The one break in this tedium was actually only 2 hours into the 24+ hour trip, when we stopped in Portsmouth, NH, for about 40 minutes. (Chris and family: I didn't know we were going there until the last minute.) While there, a huge contingent of retirees and local supporters put together a fairly good spectacle. Coffee, sodas, ice cream sundaes, donuts, lots of candy (they handed us grocery bags full). Wow. They even gave us lots and lots of calling cards. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get them to work yet ... I really appreciate them, though. Nice send off!

After a few more legs, we ended up in Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Actually quite a livable place. Sorry, I don't have any pictures, but it was very livable. That is, compared to Bagram. The flight there was comical:

Yes, it's a bit dark (sorry for the quality), but the seats are among the worst I've ever seen and sat in. Well, actually, I wasn't sitting in these this time; I was sitting in a sideways-facing seat. Quite lucky, in fact.

Bagram's living conditions had the "cherry on top" of finding a dead rat when sweeping up. Awesome way to start a tortuous and stupid waiting period.

Yeah, pretty shitty. After a couple of days of stupid training (well, one was okay) and jamming 30 minutes of M-4 shooting into 5 hours of standing around, we were allowed to stay up all night waiting for a C-130 flight to our final destination, Sharana, Paktika. The C-130 was well packed with little room to spare.

When we finally landed, as I posted on FB, I was blessed with a moment (waiting for our ride) to watch the sun rise. Though there is certainly a lot of brown, this picture doesn't do justice to the purple mountains and spectacular serenity in this scene:

And yes, here's the obligatory picture of me in full "battle rattle":

Alright, that's all for this post. I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm working hard. My posts will be overly generic and very little information provided. This is primarily because of OPSEC, or OPerationsl SECurity. I won't provide timelines, details on locations, etc. But I'll try to include pictures that paint so much more. Until then ...

And finally, the important stuff

I'm certainly not going to say things are going well, nor have the snafus decreased in frequency or buffoonosity. Perhaps I'm just getting tired of complaining about this after-thought they call coordinated training. We'll see.

Today was the first time the security force and main body (engineers, civil affairs, etc) actually did a "full mission", together. Though the mission was relatively benign, keep in mind that we've been together since August 1st, many of us have been here for 7 weeks, and I've been training en toto for this for 5-1/2 months. And today was the first time we did something really mission-oriented and together, real-time.

As you might imagine, it had a few debrief points. I won't go into details, partly for OPSEC, partly for brevity, but many people were slapped in the face ("that's not what we've been told we're training for!"). Not surprising, really, and though certainly not completely unavoidable, for all practical purposes the previous training was not necessarily inconsistent with this new shift.

No, the quote was not mine. In fact, the "mission" went about like I thought it would, and those "slapped" were behaving like I thought they would, and arguably the way they should given the information they were provided.

Anyway, today was certainly productive, though a lot of people are perhaps not thrilled with the arrangement. We'll see.

Based on stories of other PRTs training in parallel, honestly, our problems seem smaller. Others (again, no names mentioned, non attributable) are already at odds within the staff (i.e. department heads) and they haven't even arrived in country yet.

189th still has issues.

Though today was certainly not a "success" mission-wise, it was certainly a very productive training session, and that's ultimately what we're doing here. I just wish this point had been intentionally derived (other teams did not quite get this response). Okay, I'll turn my complaining back on. ;-)

In other news, my shoulder is nearing the point where I can move it around without feeling pangs of pain. Though it was rarely full-up "searing pain", it was truly annoying and unavoidable. Now, though I think I can trigger it if I try, it's getting better. Why is this relevant? Well, I haven't been doing any workouts or exercises that work the shoulders, now going on almost 2 weeks. This includes pull-ups, push-ups, any barbell work, any dumbbell work, etc. This has severely limited the work-out combinations and WODs I've been able to do. It's been getting boring.

I'm giving it until the weekend, and then I'll try it again. I'll probably go light again for a couple of weeks to warm it back up. We'll see.

So, I ran 4-1/2-ish miles yesterday. I haven't done that in a while. Probably won't do it again for a while.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Often I feel like Dorothy must have felt, often for similar reasons. The inhabitants of her new world were often culturally very different from, well, Kansas. That and the Wicked Witch, the flying monkeys, and the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, to name a few. Well, I have equivalents of them here.

Wicked Witch: very much the 189th and 1st Army. There are numerous rules put in place (many valid, some seemingly trivial and arguably parochial) whose intent appears to be nothing more than suppression of morale. This character is more an embodiment of the process here than anything else.

Flying Monkeys: just as the Wicked Witch is the 189th as a whole, the henchmen (Sergeants, Captains, etc) who deliver the edicts, FRAGOs, and other suppression tools are all the Flying Monkeys. I'm sure that when the flying monkeys from the movie were done with their raids, they went home to families and had a relatively normal life. Like this, I'm certain all those individuals are fine workers. However, together as one body, they bring nothing good.

Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion: well, I'll hold off on announcing these for now. (I have specific people in mind but as we shift out of our culture shock and get acclimated, some of these relationships are becoming less strained.)

To Dorothy, everything in the movie was just a little foreign. Here, many decisions and (apparent if not actual) justifications all seems rather odd and (to me) missing the point. Some examples:

• Today's class had an unstated prerequisite of having certified HMMWV drivers in the class (or at least available). Unfortunately this word never made it to us, so it didn't happen. Tomorrow's going to be a long (and hot) day. (It's not "possible" for anybody to drive one.) (Edit: they flexed and provided their own drivers, which in this case worked out better anyway.)
• Last night, our night shoot of the M4 carbine was (as we were told) intended to also give us an intro and familiarization to using NODs (night vision devices) along with our IR illuminators (lasers used for night shooting). As we get to the range, the NODs we were told would be available, were not. In fact, I learned afterwards that our unit had IR lasers and no NODs; and another unit had NODs and no lasers. (Sounds like JHMCS and AIM-9X ...)
• The dining facility we use for breakfast and dinner (we must not eat lunch there ... they'd rather pay for MREs): well, this facility is apparently so temporary that they have no facilities to handle cleaning dishes, so they don't. Every meal utilizes styrofoam plates, plastic silverware, and paper cups. I can only imagine how much trash we generate daily.
• Over the last week at the firing range, we (all PRTs) have had numerous "heat casualties" (dehydration and worse conditions that required some form of assistance by medical personnel). We're often in "heat condition 5", meaning all strenuous activities should be stopped ("moderate" activity should be limited to 20 minutes per hour). Should be. Right. Why not start weapons training earlier in the day (sunrise is ~6am) and get more time in the day. (Edit: they are now stopping training at 3pm; as you can see in the graph here, the heat index is already above 105 degrees, and that's not adding the 5-10 degrees that the (required) body armor adds.)
• And they have repeatedly tried to schedule us for night shoots at 10pm and later followed by "combatives" (similar to jiu jitsu and grappling) at 5am the next morning. Oh, and remember we should clean our weapons after a shoot.
• Nope, the Sane Man did not get the memo.

There are several other issues here. The lectures are often ill-prepared and/or ill-presented, with several instructors being downright unprofessional, though I must admit that the "combatives" instructors were awesome. Most of the guest instructors (different commands, flown in for our training only for a couple of days) were told we were another type of command (so they didn't tailor their discussion to the reconstruction role) and that they'd be speaking to about 1/3 to 1/2 of the people than what actually showed up (ergo not enough "products" or printouts available). This carries over immediately into room reservations: often no where near the available capacity. (When the schedule lists "ALL PRTs" with 13 teams here, and 6 positions listed per PRT, that's ... errr ... 6*13 = 78 people. In a room sized for 45 people. It don't work.)

In general, the training is frustratingly unorganized, reactive, and very difficult to just "swallow my pride and do it". They don't really know until the night prior the "solid" facts of what is happening the next day. Sure we have a rough daily schedule, but that's often just a point from which we can deviate. (I understand full well the requisite flexible of incomplete evolutions, etc. That doesn't appear to be the issue here.)

All in all, I'm learning. I'm not necessarily learning the method "forced" upon us, but I'm learning. I have not yet been beaten into using "check", "roger", "tracking", "too easy", or the dreaded "HUA". This will be an uphill battle for somebody. I fully fear that that "somebody" will be me.

Lastly, don't confuse the Wizard of Oz analogy with a literal overlay. Emerald City and the heel-clicking trip home aren't transferable. The closest thing we have is that they are systematically trying to make us look forward to getting to AFG so we can get out of the 1st Army's grip. It's working.

BTW: "HUAW" stands for "hurry up and wait". It's often mistakenly spelled "HUA". Trust me, it's more prevalent here than anywhere I've had before.

I'm not dead yet ...

Though I certainly haven't been blogging it (nor logging it, bad on me), I have been exercising this last month. Admittedly a bit limited (in scope more than frequency), for several reason: the gym is good for a gym but not for crossfit, so modifications have been necessary (e.g. they frown on dropping barbells); though admittedly I've had plenty of "white space" dead time, it's mostly been inconveniently out on the range or otherwise challenging to get a workout and clean up; and my shoulder is acting up again.

It's #3 that's now making me curtail most weight lifting. After some research (I'm specifically not involving formalized medicine right now for several reasons, one or two of them legit and healthy), I think I've got rotator cuff tendonitis. Best case, just irritation; worst, a tear. Either way, I have too little information to form a conclusion.

My research (the internet never lies, right?) reveals that the tendonitis (very much so in the shoulder) may be triggered by a specific action (e.g. jerking, too much weight, repetitive over-user) but regardless gradually worsens over time when left otherwise untreated and/or unmitigated. For the last month or so I've been going "easy" on shoulder-related lifts, but I've still been doing them. Since the discomfort is getting worse, not better, I'm opting to go full-bore on treating it. Translation: no barbells for "a while" (until I notice a palpable improvement).

Unfortunately, the Army life here at Camp Atterbury doesn't really allow for this: 31-36 pounds for the unencumbered IOTV (kevlar vest), 7 pounds for the M4 carbine, and 35-45 pounds in the ruck sack. Not heavy, per se, but putting it all on, taking it off ... often exacerbates the shoulder pain. And the vest doesn't exactly fit smoothly on the shoulders (it's taking time to finesse it's fit).

Soooooo, in the meantime, I'm doing lots of metcon and core. Pull-ups? Nope. Squats? Perhaps back squats soon but none for now. Perhaps I'll do some isolated arm exercises (e.g. curls) to keep from completely atrophying what little improvement I've attained. Does anybody know of CF-workouts that work arms without straining the shoulders? Yeah, that's a tough one.

Regardless, I'm still exercising. I ran another 5K a few days ago (treadmill, 1.5% up) in 23+28, so my time is consistent. Of my goals, my diet has taken some hard hits (food here is really not that great ... technically health-minded but not what I'd term healthy) and my exercise is modified, but I'm keeping my weight down and exertion up.

BTW: Chad, thanks for the encouraging words. Now that I know you're reading this, you'll keep me honest on continuing with WODs.