And the Army goes rolling along...

Hey everyone, I have been slacking pretty hard on updaing this so I apologize for that. 

So what has been going on here in Kandahar? Well pretty much the same as the first two months really.  Missions and details can really sum it up. 

We just returned from a 3 day mission last night at about 5pm.  The mission itself went by pretty smoothly with no issues except for on the way back to KAF.  Our convoy was about an hour from the front gate of KAF when we received a BFT (blue force tracker, kind of like a super GPS wit the ability to locate and message any friendly forces in the area) from an engineering unit, the 296th.  The message was that one of their vehicles had rolled over off a small bridge and needed help recovering it and controlling traffic. 

The funny thing is that the 296th is a unit that was trying to take missions from us and rumor was that they didn't like answering to a National Guard unit as they are active duty and thought they were better than us.  So of course we felt pretty obligated to play hero for them.  So we got there and everyone was ok, a few concussions and scrapes but nothing major. 

                                                     The flipped MAXPRO, silly engineers

At the time I was the TC (truck commander) of the scout vehicle so when the traffic was backed up in both lanes I had to dismount and try to tal kto some of nationals to move their trucks so we could get through to the scene.  I got out with our interpreter Matt and walked up and down the traffic trying to tell people to move and they would but they only stack up again for some weird reason.  At this point these people had apparently been sitting in this traffic for 3 hours so they were very agitated.  It is Ramadan right now so they cannot eat or drink until nightfall so that adds into their irritability. 

At some point while me and Matt were making our way towards the convoy a bus pulled up and it was full of people who were very angry and they began yelling at Matt and not listening to me.  At one point they started to get into Matt's face so I had to push them back and then they began to come at me.  At this point I charged my weapon (put a round into the rifle chamber) and told them to step back, get on their bus and move or stay put and wait.  That time they listened and me and Matt kept walking.  Something about an annoyed American soldier 8000 miles from home with a locked and loaded M4 makes them hear much clearer than trying to talk to them normally. 


SGT Reese, myself, Matt and SSG Casler trying to sort out the traffic.

We ended up getting back to KAF about 3 hours later than we should have but it was alright because we were actually doing things and helping out instead of just sitting there waiting for something to happen.

Overall things here are good, we are almost at the halfway mark which is kind of crazy to think of.  It feels like about a month ago that we left Ohio.  Im sure it doesn't feel like that back home.  Not much has changed here, some injuries and such has forced some people to go home, nothing combat related just stupid things.  I really wish they would let us have leave so I could come home for only a few days but unfortunately that isn't the case.  Especially with Jaime's wedding coming up it would be an AWESOME break but maybe it will be easier to just finish straight through.

I have kind of hit my stride in this deployment, I have a routine going for the most part and take it day by day.  Can't wait to come home but I dont think I am really homesick, I miss home and everyone back home but it isn't to the point where I am sad or depressed, thigns are going ok and I am really happy that it should be cooling down here soon. 

Thats about it for now, take care everyone!