Sunburnt...oh so sunburnt

Ok...It has been a while since I last wrote, like almost two weeks.  I apologize for the delay things have been kind of nuts.  I don't really know where to begin here. So, its currently Sunday night (May 20th) and today was an extremely long day and I am sunburnt a lot...and I never sunburn really.  Apparently desert sun is slightly different.  Intense! Ok so let me travel backwards a few days here.

The unit we are replacing, the 1484th is preparing to leave country and head back stateside within a few days here.  I reccommend you attend their welcome home ceremony on June 2 at the JAR at UAkron.  It'd be a cool thing to see and you may get to see and hear some of the things we are doing currently in Kandahar.  Anyway, I digress.  Since the beginning on this week the 84th has been training us up on some of their convoy operations and what all goes into it.  Its a lot of work but it is all pretty important.  Once you get the notice that you have an upcoming mission, it kind of sets into motion a bunch of different things.  First you have to inspect all your equipment.  Everything from your IOTV (body armor) to your MRAP or whatever vehicle you happen to be driving on that particular mission.  We as 1st platoon have been designated as a majority guntruck platoon, but we do have some commodities trucks (pretty much anything that is not convoy security related).  I have been reassigned from a gunner to a driver in the scout vehicle for the convoy.  Although by the end of the tour I am sure I will be doing a little bit of everything.  The scout vehicle is out in front of the convoy and is a very uparmored truck with dual mounted weapons in the turret and mine rollers on the front.  I know it sounds dangerous but I promise you it isnt as bad as it sounds.  I cant get into any of the tactics and battle drills we go into for obvious reasons but we do a lot of those and pretty much have them memorized by now. 

I have not yet gone on any missions but our company has been getting a lot more now that the 84th is done and hopefully by June we will be a self sufficient unit and won't have to attach onto other companies convoys.  Things are going well over all I think.  I am starting to get used to the heat and such, the dust however I dont think I will ever get used to.  It plain sucks, it blows all over the place and gets on EVERYTHING and in your mouth.  This place is completely desolate, KAF is the only thing around except for Kandahar City which I hear is a madhouse. Its the birthplace of the Taliban so take that for what its worth.

We are all safe and no one has been hurt or anything like that.  Things are as good as they can be and I think I just want to go out and do some missions and see what Afghanistan is REALLY like as opposed to KAF only.  I am going to try and post some pictures from around base and I will label them accordingly.  I am cutting out a lot of things and I apologize for that but its a mix of me being really tired and some of it being borderline classified.  So I will answer questions the best I can.  Aaaand heres some pictures!

outside of our CHUs

inside our CHU...and yes, that is a pink TV.  It rules

CHU alley, leads into the DFAC at the far end.  Rocket attack bunkers at the end with sandbags around it

Our motorpool, all of our trucks and such are here.  We spend a lot of time here.

Walking back from the motorpool.  Pretty much all the roads look similar to this, this one is in the process of being paved.

What the cities/villages look like on mission.  MRAP Maxxpro ahead.