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 ...