Seem insignificant?
Well this represents the first cloud I have seen since I have been here. This picture was from Wednesday – that day turned out to be windy and very overcast all day. Unfortunately, it was still in the mid 90’s. Hopefully, it is a sign of cooler weather ahead.
Work is ok. One of my most time consuming jobs is taking complaints about someone parking vehicles, containers and, yes, even tents and buildings where someone else is about to build on. That should tell you how full we are. One day last week when I was headed out on one of these missions with SMSgt Sund, we came across these camels along the perimeter fence. There was a young boy near there herding them. I snapped a few pictures through the fence. SMSgt Sund joked that no one would believe us because we had to take the picture through the fence just like at the zoo. We were close enough to smell them – I don’t really remember any clichés or jokes about smelly camels, but they would be true.
This week we had a visit from BG Byers. He is the head of all of Air Force Civil Engineers. Here is a picture of him addressing the RED HORSE Squadron - RED HORSE is an acronym believe it or not - Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron, hence the red hats.
We had a ceremonial ground breaking ceremony for the new Prime Beef Squadron which I am a part of - another acronym believe it or not - Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force.
For team 4, this will be up and probably your office when you arrive. I had the opportunity to brief him during the ride to the site about the projects at KAF. I always appreciate those opportunities.
At the Officers call, he gave a very good speech on what our job means to the overall fight and how much of an impact we are having. He also addressed the fact that the Air Force Civil Engineer career field is narrow enough that it is almost a family. I am amazed at how many of the active duty folks know everyone from one place or another. I actually met Col Brian Yolitz who I had worked for previously at my Pentagon Joint Staff tours I would do regularly a few years ago - it was nice to have someone show up and know your name. BG Byers also mentioned that the whole point is about building relationships - this struck me because I have used that same thought process when I explain to people why I have stayed in so long - it is because of the quality people that I am able to meet and interact with that I would normally not have access to. It was a good visit. It served as a nice reminder of what we're doing here and provided some encouragement - always a good thing.
Well, that's it for now. Until next time.....
