End of Week 19

This week was an interesting week. We had some power issues that took out our computers and other services at the office on and off for a few days, we had a visit from the Group in Bagram that we entertained, we had our first rain shower, and we had Thanksgiving.

We dodged a bullet as far as the rain forecast goes this week. It did actually rain, but just enough to make the ground a little wet. It was actually nice afterwards - it added a kind of freshness to the air that I have not witnessed since I have been here. Below is a picture in the morning right after the shower.



I did run for an hour on the treadmill on Tuesday. I felt pretty good. I ran 11.7 kilometers - I'll let that sink in for a while, because I know most of you are thinking, Is that far? I will help you out later on.

The other part to the running story is that when I returned, there was no water. On some occasions I would have been ok without a morning shower - after all we are in a war zone. This morning was not one of them, I was soaking wet from the gym. I had work to get to, so I grabbed 3 bottles of water and went into the shower and made do - I can't complain because that is my first combat shower since I have been here. The water was quite cold, but it was effective.

On Wednesday, Gary Sinise was here with his Lt Dan Band. I knew he was coming to town and worked hard to leverage my connections to try to get a picture with him. After a few misses, my friend MAJ Schermerhorn called and said "get to the boardwalk" - I ran there - he called again and said "hurry and come to our office" - I did. I waited for about 20 minutes for them to finish eating and checking e-mail and then had a chance to get my picture. By this time it was close to show time, so they said we have to make this quick. As an added bonus, Bubba of Forrest Gump fame was also in the room. I walked up to Gary and he asked "How do you want to do this..?" - meaning single pics or just one. I said "no, no, just one" Just then Bubba came closer and heard me and said "oh, ok I see - just one" I laughed and said "no, no, I meant just one picture" Gary backed me up and said "he meant one picture" We are still laughing about it on the picture. As a parting comment, I did tell Gary that I have had some people ( Joel from home in particular ) tell me that I look like his character in the movie Ransom - he smiled and replied "You're a mean guy". I was also able to alert my roommates in time for them to get a picture as well. Another good time and diversion chasing photo ops...


We went to his concert for a little while on Wednesday night as well, it was a good time. Gary Sinise did not sing, but played the base. They played cover songs, but put on a show as well. He gave a very nice speech at the end and ended with "Proud to be an American" which was a crowd pleaser with the Americans, not sure about the NATO folks. A good time all around.


Now back to my run...with those of you with good metric skills- 11.7 km is 7.25 miles. Again, on a treadmill..but not too shabby.

On Thanksgiving Day, I slept in, went to the gym and ran 5K on the treadmill, went to work to briefly clean out my e-mail and we had a squadron lunch at the picnic tables. The Commander gave a nice speech and we had a very nice talk by one of the civilian engineers about the history of Thanksgiving as well as a nice prayer. We ate a little of the food there waiting for the traditional Thanksgiving meal at night. Checked in at the office a few times in the afternoon. We had traditional Thanksgiving food for dinner and it was very good. Back to the office to check the official e-mail and make some calls. A good day.


LtCol Dave Pollock, Maj Nick Lynch, Chief Alt and myself at dinner.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I am most thankful that my family has done well through this whole adventure so far thanks mostly to the strength and character of my amazing wife Rebekah. She has juggled mom, home, finances, business and pregnancy with amazing stamina. We are coming up on eight weeks to go and we are looking forward to being back together and back to normal.

Thanks for following along and thanks for your e-mails and support. Until next time......

End of Week 18

Week 18...moving along. The weather has cooled nicely durng the day and is pretty chilly at night and in the mornings (40's). That is good for me though.

In our jobs we interact with many contractors. Some are US citizen's but many are from other countries. We have many contractors from Turkey. I interact with Turkish contractors twice week discussing road in utilities construction in a part of the base called South Park. Another Turkish contractor put in the gate shown in the previous post. His name is Ali. He is very nice and has been inviting me to his compound for a bbq he has on Saturday nights. Most of the time I have meeting that goes pretty long on Saturdays. Last weekend, the meeting ended fairly early and Ali had finished the gate a few days before and said "Sir, you must come to the bbq". I convinced Lt Germany - my new office mate and team member if he would go and we decided to try it. When we showed up, the fire was going and Ali told us that the food would be ready in 40 minutes - we were a little reluctant to stay, but did. We asked him how many people come and he said 20-25, we said "really". Soon after his wife, both very hospitable, started bringing out food. There was humus, onion salad, a vegetable salad, a cucumber dish and flat bread. They cooked marinaded steaks on the fire that were soon ready. If turned out to be very good and sure enough the people started rolling in - US service members, other contractors, other NATO military members. He was proud to say after he got off his cell phone that the special forces guys got called out on a mission and wouldn't be there tonight - he said that he would have a special bbq for them in the middle of the week. It turned out to be a pretty good time with some very good food and we were glad we went. Below is a picture of Ali and his wife and some of the folks who showed up to eat. 1Lt Rob Germany is the man on the far right.


1Lt Rob Germany is an active duty Air Force Officer originally from Atlanta, GA and now stationed in California. Rob is now my only team member after Sr Chief Shea and the rest of the Navy members have moved on. He has a great personality and sense of humor that is not only a huge advantage for the job we do - primarily interacting with people - but is great to have in the office. He is able to make me laugh and have been a pretty good team of 2 so far. I reserve the right to bring him back in later posts as well...

Recently, I received notes from my daughter's 5th grade class ( Mrs Kluck ) at Lincoln Elementary school. The notes took almost a month to get here - incidentally, I found out that letters and envelopes can take up to a month, but boxes arrive in 1-2 weeks. Every student wrote me a note. I read them all. Most had an attempt to draw a picture of my daughter. It was a very nice gesture and I appreciate them taking time to write. Below is a picture of me in my office holding the letter from my daughter.


In another package that arrived much quicker, my daughter's class wrote me poems about fall. Fall is my favorite season, so the teacher wrote that since I was not there for fall, they would bring fall to me. The poems were great and they add to the decor of my office. Here is a pic of me with the poems.

If you are wondering about my attire...on Sundays, if we do not have meetings - which isn't very often, we try to dress down and wear our PT's ( that is short for Physical Training Clothes). The Air Force clothes aren't the most comfortable, but they are more comfortable than the uniform and boots. If you notice, I chose to wear long sleeves because the weather is cool enough to....good for me.

I did receive a nice care package from the nice people at UTZ in Hanover, PA thanks to Joni in the administrative office at my school. UTZ is a big snack manufacturer near where I live. They sent two huge boxes of snacks. They were a big hit. Some of the folks here had never had them. It was also a nice talking point about home. Here is some of the crew digging in...


Time continues to move along. With the addition of more folks in the Garrison Command office and our efforts to define our mission, the pace of work was less hectic this week. Hopefully, we can continue to work more efficiently and effectively which will make life better for all of us...and team 4.

Hope this e-mail finds you well. Thanks for following along and for the e-mails - I am never too busy for them...Until next time....v

End of Week 17

Real close to 4 months now. The weather warmed up significantly this week - mid to high 80's again but cooled to the mid to low 70's by the end of the week. We did have a few sprinkles end of last week, but it made but a few small marks in the dust.

As the master planner, I don't get involved with many individual projects. One that I did do - because it was supposed to be easy - was plan for the placement of a gate to what we call Deep South. Even an easy project - ain't so easy. It took nearly four months, but we finally got the approvals, money and construction completed - may not look like much, but at least it is finally something that is complete!


As a group we are continually trying to find ways to mix things up a little to keep going. One day last week my friend LtCol Dave Pollock came up with the idea to get a some stuff to go at the "Lux" (short for the Luxembourg DFAC - the closest but worst DFAC on KAF) and eat it out in the Drost Pavilion. The area between our offices has some chairs, a table and a parachute cover due primarily to the efforts of SMSgt Kevin Drost from team 2 and for whom the space is named. The weather was a little warm but bearable. It was actually a good idea. The man in the middle is Major Nick Lynch. He is an active duty Major who came in with the last group. He is a great officer, workmate and roommate - we are fortunate to have him around for all three. I reserve the right to bring him back in later posts.... Here is a picture of us at our little "picnic".

As part of the farewell tour, two of my best comrades from COMKAF (the NATO side of things) departed this week. They are both Brits. Squadron Leader Robin Nash was the real estate officer for COMKAF. I worked very closely with him as I played a role as the defacto real estate officer for the US. Robin was one of the first people I met when I arrived and was a friendly face. He took time with me in the beginning and was a reassuring force when I needed it in the beginning. He turned out to be a great friend and confidant throughout my time here so far. He has a great sense of humor and wit that mixed with the uniqueness of his accent (to me) made him really fun to be around. I will miss his personality around the camp. LtCol Frank Green was the COMKAF Chief Engineer. He served as the master of everything from infrastructure (water, sewer, power, drainage etc) to land development. He chaired the land allocation board which I was very much involved in from the US side. He was very smart with everything civil engineering, but what made him a great leader here was his personality, leadership, and management abilities. Frank was a master collaborative leader. He was able to give very sound and direct assessments and directives without being condescending, emotional or even offensive. His direction and leadership was directly responsible for the ability of KAF to meet the very vast and challenging needs of multiple surges and changes in mission. He was a great friend and mentor to me - he even took time to encourage me when I needed it. I attribute my ability to have survived the first four months to my relationship with these two fine officers. I wish them luck..

In the picture below, it goes LtCol Frank Green, Myself, Sr Chief Shea (who left a few weeks ago) and Squadron Leader Robin Nash. This picture was from a few weeks ago so my hair was shorter than it is now...



In case you are interested, you should be able to click on any of the pictures to view them in a bigger scale.

On the workout front, I did run a 10K Tues morning. It was on the treadmill, so not quite as valid to real runners, but I'm still scared to run outside for risk that the dusty, nasty air will make me sick again. I don't know if I have the patience or energy to deal with getting sick again.

Hope this post finds you well. I appreciate you following along. Thanks for your e-mails and continued support. Until next time...

End of Week 16

This week started off with a brief to MG MacDonald. ( BTW the way to remember the stars on the Generals is “Be My Little General” which helps you remember that Brigadier General is a one-star, Major General is a two star, Lt General is a three star and a four star is just General). I think I mentioned this in a previous blog, but we had for a while a chain of Generals whose last names all began with M. McMahon, a one star, MacDonald, a two star and McCrystal a four star - it was easy to code them as M1, M2 and M4. My briefs to M1 were described in a previous blog, this was M2. He was coming down for a briefing on KAF projects and build out plan. I was told to dust off the KAF Build Out plan that I have been adjusting and briefing for a few weeks now and to add some additions due to some land acquisition that we just got approved. When you brief a two- star there is more preparation involved. I made the changes, met with my “boss” Commodore Schmader to review it and tweak it for about an hour. I met with COL Johnson, which is who told me to prepare the brief, as well. All the prep is to make sure that the “face” time you have is used most effectively to communicate your message – in this case we had an hour. It paid off and we were able communicate the challenges and also able to have some decisions made that give us a direction to go. As most briefs at this level, the direction given means some more work to iron out the details and make it happen. All in all, a good opportunity and experience. Below is a picture of MG MacDonald being briefed at Mustang Ramp. I was along primarily as a spectator but also in case the O-6’s who I work with had any questions that I may be able to answer. We travelled back to a conference room for my brief.


I have been feeling better. My ear is still bothering me after 10 weeks. I was told then that I had swimmers ear and that is would go away with a decongestant – no totally gone yet. I have been working out 4-5 mornings a week. I alternate lifting one day and running the next. My lifting is progressing slowly – I think I’m too old to make the progress I used to make when I was younger. I am up to about 4 miles (6.5K on the NATO treadmills) three times a week. I have been doing ok, hopefully I stay healthy and can keep bumping up the miles there. By the scale, I have lost about 3 pounds total – but I’m getting a little stronger too. The food here is still a little suspect, but for a war zone it is acceptable. I did go out to the DFAC in a tent called Harvest Falcon this week for lunch one day – we don’t go often because you have to drive and the lines are long because the food is better – and had a chicken salad sandwich on a roll with tomato and onion, a cup of new england clam chowder and chips…I actually said, that is the first meal that replicates something I would have had for lunch at home. The meals are usually not that great so I supplement with an item that is available every meal – french fries ( my daughter Madi would be jealous ). That may explain the lack of weight loss 

Otherwise, things are moving along – unfortunately, by this stage of the game, 16 weeks is not quite 4 months. I will have to wait a week for that. It will be a nice marker though – it will also put me under 10 weeks (single digits) if all goes to plan and no delays which are always a possibility.

I hope this finds you well. Thanks for following along and for your e-mails. Until next time….