End of week 24- New Year's

This week I decided to try a run outside and run in one of the 5K's that they have here periodically - there have been more of them recently now that the weather is more temperate. This race had two main draws. First, it was at 0800 and not 0600 like most Sunday morning races. Second, it had a cool t-shirt. I ran pretty cautiously because I didn't want to have the bad air get to my lungs too much and still ran better than 8 minute mile pace...so that is ok for me. There was a pretty good crowd. There was 350 on the results sheet. Below is a picture I snapped on the way to the starting line. The next picture is of me and Lt Rob Germany - my fellow planner - after the race. I'm glad I did it and I got a nice souvenir to boot..



I also had a subway sub from the boardwalk for the first time this week. In honor of my daughter Madi, I decided to have her favorite sub - an Italian BMT. The bread was ok - it was soft. The meat wasn't quite the same and the veggies were sparse and not great....overall is was ok, but different. Below is a picture of me eating my first and last sandwich from the Kandahar Subway..


This week's weather was very pleasant for the most part, but on Tuesday we had a new weather event...a thunderstorm and hail. It had rained a little in the morning and then the sun was out most of the mid day. We went to pick up my friend Pete Keegan from Whiskey ramp and I saw dark clouds. The wind was blowing away from us, but the clouds kept getting closer. There was a boom - it was hard to imagine that it was thunder because there are many loud aircraft, construction and explosion noises around - but sure enough it was. Then it hailed pea sized hail for about 10 minutes. In Lt Germany's words, "it was wild". It stopped and was more damp and cold than we are used to. I snapped the pictures below to record the event. Unfortunately, the picture of Lt Germany making a hail ball turned out blurry...



We did recognize the New Year. We had a bbq for dinner on New Year's Eve. We spent some time together as a squadron for part of the afternoon, though there was still meetings and the like. The rest of the day was a work day and so was Friday. Here is a funny picture of my friend Pete Keegan at the squadron gathering.


This week continued to be busy and therefore it passed fairly quickly again. It is good to be in January. Now I can say, I go home this month!....Looking forward to finishing up, finalizing plans and getting home. Thanks for following along. Happy New Year to you and your family. Until next time.....

End of Week 23 Post - Christmas

This week was full of challenges, but it went fast. We did have our second significant rain. It was about half of what we got last week and, luckily, the ground still took it pretty well. We did install our first set of culverts this week, so I feel better about the potential for us to take significant rains in Jan and Feb. The weather was really nice this week though, mid to high 60's during the day and high 30's at night.

We did recognize Christmas here. We had a squadron get together at noon on Christmas Eve. We had short slide show of pictures and then had pizza. I stayed around and played horseshoes for a while. I checked in to work and went through e-mails for the rest of the afternoon. Below are pictures of the the gathering and a short speech by LtCol Dudjak. The next picture is of LtCol Dave Pollock, Maj Nick Lynch and I eating our pizza...from Pizza Hut on the boardwalk incidentally. It was the second time I have had pizza in many months. Not your traditional Christmas meal, but it was a nice change and pretty good.



I attended the Christmas Eve service at 1900 at night. The service was ok and the songs were a nice reminder of home. I slept in Christmas day. I did go in to work to check e-mail, but it was pretty much a down day which was nice. Unlike Thanksgiving where we, the US, were the only country taking a down day, nearly all of the NATO countries celebrate Christmas. They did serve a Christmas lunch meal that consisted of roast turkey, stuffing and candied yams - very similar to the Thanksgiving meal, but still pretty good.

We recorded holiday greetings for home in October. They are finally ready to be released for Christmas. I am including an upload of the greeting from a military website we found and also a link to ABC27's website where my greeting is available. I do mess up in the beginning a bit, I had just been promoted at this point and have trouble getting out Lieutenant Colonel Todd Hirneisen. Actually, I think I say Lieutenant TodColonel Todd Hirneisen. Anyway, the rest of it is ok...

Link: http://cfc.whtm.com/videoondemand.cfm?id=54934&category=vlt


We made our flight arrangements this week as well. The dates could float a little bit, but it is good to be on the lists for leaving. I hope you all had a good Christmas. Thanks for following along. Keep the e-mails coming...Until next time.

End of Week 22

This week went fairly fast. The weather was mostly cloudy with highs in the low 60's and lows in the high 30's. I found that if I wear the thin underarmor like shirt given to us by the Army at CST, I was good to go. I have many other layers to move up to as it gets colder. This weather suits me alot better than the heat when we arrived.

I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the Commander of KAF's Dinner on Wednesday. It came with a very nice printed invitation that will serve as a nice souvenir. I posted it below for posterity sake.


Air Commodore Brecht is the equivalent to BG (1 star) in our service and he serves as Commander of KAF. He is a Brit. The command billet is NATO, so it rotates among the nations. I have only had the opportunity to meet him a few times, but I have worked extensively with his staff. The dinner was held in a room in the DFAC - unfortunately same food though we did eat it in three courses and on real plates and with real silverware. It was the first time I did not eat with plastic ware in a long time. After the meal, the Air Commodore did a brief introduction of the guests to the group and gave us a commander's coin. Giving of a coin is common practice as a token of appreciation for work done for the General or for his staff. He mentioned to me that the tradition is much more popular in US circles and less so among the other nations so he is almost apologetic to them but he knows the US folks really appreciate them. There were many nations represented and it was a nice time. I appreciated the invitation and event.


Also mid week we had a visit from some celebrities. Anna Kournikova (former tennis player), Nick Bolletierri (famous tennis coach), David Attel (comedian) and Billy Ray Cyrus (best known to my kids as Hanna Montana's Dad). They came a put on a show at the boardwalk. I was not able to attend but those who did said it was a good show. After the show I waited in line to get my picture. They were doing it in groups to save time. My usual contacts are home on leave so I had to settle for this picture. I tried to lean in toward Billy Ray with the hope I could photoshop it and make it look better - couldn't get it to work out so now it looks a little goofy, but...I did snap a picture of Billy Ray and Anna while I waited in line that turned out pretty good so I included it.



One of the people who arrived over the past few months and saved me was MAJ Bill Schermerhorn. He showed up as the S-4 (that is army code for the logistics officer) for the support group that showed up here to take the garrison command. He has become the land manager for KAF, something I used to be tasked with. He was sort of tasked, but I would like to call it chosen for the job due to his ability to get things done and the fact he seemed to take some joy in ordering people to move their stuff. Due to our hours and the fact that he would eat late dinners across the street from my office, he became a regular visitor during the middle of the tour. It served as a good time to discuss problems but also to be able to laugh at the situation we were in - it was very therapeutic and important for my sanity during those weeks. Bill is originally from Washington state and now lives in Florida. He was crazy enough to volunteer for his tour, which is the year long army tour - tough. I'm glad he did though, because I have appreciated all his hard work, support and friendship the past few months.


Christmas will next week's blog. That means we are getting close to the end. There will be little down time before we leave, but it is nice to think that we will be leaving in a month or so. By the way, I did take advantage of the opportunity to record a holiday message for release to my home town a few months ago - it should begin to run soon...so keep an eye out if you wish. Thanks for you continued support and e-mails. Until next time...

End of week 21

Well on Wednesday, it finally happened...the first significant rain. We were to get close to an inch, I guess I will never really know. We survived this one. The ground became very muddy but held some of the water. The experts tell me that as we get more storms while the ground is saturated, we will see much more runoff and flooding. I am learning some things about soils and drainage while I'm here. The "soil" is actually more like moon dust - a few inches of it. Under that is a hard clay. This creates the recipe for lots of mud and mess. The moon dust gets like cookie dough and the clay underneath doesn't allow the water to drain or percolate. Luckily we have big enough drainage ditches now that it held the water like a pool. Hopefully the culverts I have been working on - that were to be started today - will help the water to flow and not pool during the upcoming rainy winter season....we'll see. Below is a picture from outside where I live and the other picture is from the landing outside the can where we work. The nice things about the rain are that the air is much less dusty and that all of the cars, containers and equipment that have been collecting dust-and therefore a tan color-have regained their original color. The color change really is noticeable.



This week we also had a visit from LtGen Reno..if you have been paying attention, how many stars does he wear? He is the A4/7. That is code for A for Air, 4 for Logistics and 7 for Engineers. That means he is at the Pentagon and is head with both of the departments that I am associated with. For those of you playing along....he is indeed a 3 star general.

His visit was very quick. He shook hands getting out of the vehicle and then we took him to our new conference room. Pretty glamorous with the picnic tables in a tent, but it was to show him where we are at with the new Expeditionary Prime Beef Area. I have not moved down here yet and still reside in my little tan can, but we are to move soon and you will see a post on the move for sure later.


The brief went fine. At the conclusion of the brief, we commenced with a military tradition of offering a coin to the General. We chose a young airman who was worthy because we were hoping that the General would return the favor. It is considered a big honor to get a coin from a 3- star General. He, unfortunately, did not return the favor. Incidentally, he actually did not receive a coin, but a poker chip. Because we are the 777 EPBS, it was decided that our logo could have something to do with gaming. Our commander ordered poker chips with our logo on them. They are ceramic and turned out to be really nice and unique. We will use these as our coins until our metal coins arrive – well after I’m gone.


While he was visiting the troops, I was able to capture a rare moment. The General approached one of our troops and asked for his name. He said, Airman Bell – the General looked at his sleeve and said “Airman Bell?” To which Bell replied, “Oh, sorry Staff Sergeant Bell, I just got promoted this week”. The General said “I think that warrants 10 pushups, I’ll do them with you”. It is rare to see a LtGeneral doing pushups on rocks with a Staff Sergeant so a good picture. I also included the friendly handshake afterwards.



The Tim Horton's on the boardwalk finally got ingredients for donuts again. I avoided it when I got here (when they had donuts) and then they ran out of ingredients a long while ago. Recently, I have been getting hungry for a donut. This week they finally are offering donuts again. You can get a medium cappuccino and a donut for 2 dollars - not bad. I took a picture of me eating my first donut here - it is a chocolate iced donut in honor of my son Andrew who loves chocolate donuts.


Getting close to mid December and we are starting to do administrative things to get ready to come home. Our replacements are currently at CST. The end is becoming a little more clear now. We certainly have alot of work to do still, but it is a nice feeling to begin to see/feel the end.

Thanks for following along...Until next time....

Fox News Clip

I am attempting to upload the Fox News Clip for posterity sake. It is a quick time file on my computer.

After viewing it, thanks to my friend Bob taking a video of it and sending it to me, there are some obvious errors. First, yes, my name is spelled wrong and second I am in the Air Force not the Army. The only reason it shocks me is that they spent time taking a video of my shirt to make sure they got it right...either way, I think you will agree that it is me.

Just for the record as well, my comments were very positive about the surge and the plan. I was commenting on the timeline during this clip where I was skeptical that we could surge and begin to withdraw in 18 months due to what I have observed from a logistical perspective. Open to comments on whether you were able to view it...Enjoy!



This week, there was an MSNBC report from here where they interviewed COL Oettinger (pronounced "aw-ten-jer"). He is the USFOR-A (S) Expansion Chief. Because I am the US KAF Master Planner we have worked very closely together on KAF planning issues. Below is a link to the interview. I am hoping that some of the statements and images sound and look familiar from what you have read in the blog...challenges all around.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34289318#34289318

End of Week 20

Well, its December. As 1Lt Saunders ( we call him D ) said the other day, we now can say that we leave next month! This week was busy but manageable. As far as work goes Lt Germany almost got the sewage solution funded and I almost got a drainage solution funded - notice I said almost...like everything around here just when you think you have it done, something comes up to make you jump through more hoops. We will hope for some closure next week. The weather was rather pleasant with clouds, but no rain - again a good thing until we can get the drainage solution funded.

The big news of the week was the speech by POTUS - one of my favorite military acronyms for President of the United States. I could not get my computer connections to stream any video, but I did read it. I thought it was good. I liked the link to history and the goals. I am also in favor of the timeline. It allows the Afghan government and our own military backward plan to 18 months to try to make things work. Speaking of the speech, I was in the lunch line and got interviewed by a correspondent from Fox News. He asked about the troop numbers, timeline and chance of success. I prefaced most of my comments with: well, that is not really up to me, but.... I just said I was supportive of the plan and the timeline though my observations tell me that 18 months will not be enough time to build up and begin withdrawing troops - it is a good goal, but probably not realistic. I doubt that I said anything that will get air time, but it was interesting.....

THIS JUST IN...Received a note from a friend from school that reads:

I'm on my exercise bike watching Glen Beck, and then, about 6pm EST a segment comes on NATIONAL NEWS, FOX NEWS, from Kandahar, asking for troop reactions to Obama's Afghanistan speech/plan to deploy troops, and wooooooooohooooooooooooo

.....on comes this handsome gent, and VOILA, next in line is another guy, hahahaha! YOU, indeed, can I have your autograph upon your return!!!!

Yep Todd, you were on NATIONAL TV HERE IN THE USA ON DEC. 2, 2009, ON FOX NEWS, AT ABOUT 6:10PM EST!!!!!!

Thanks to Brad for that....Doubt if any of you saw it, but I have a witness. I'm pretty sure I have at least 14.5 minutes of fame left :)

Gen McCrystal did visit and give a speech. Being the hound that I am, I conveniently went on an errand around the area of the speech to see if there was any possibility of getting in...to everyone's credit, the answer was no. I will have to read about it just like you.

As I have said before, one of the cool things about my job here is that I have been able to work with people from all over the world. One of the funniest is Warrant Officer (WO) Matt Daldry from Australia. The Australians have a small presence here and Matt is the engineer in charge of all the Australian construction projects. We got to know each other through the weekly Kandahar Infrastructure Meeting. At this meeting, the lead engineer planners of each nation meet to discuss the projects they have going on. I sit as the US Land planner. We sat next to each other. He is very funny. We hit it off in the beginning and this was meaningful to me because when I really didn't know what was going on and very overwhelmed (only slightly less so now ) he was a friendly face and I actually looked forward to the meeting and seeing his antics. We took the first picture below, and someone said - "that looks pretty staged." He said, "Oh, yeah, how about this, Crikey, Bloody Yankees" A goofy picture but funny so I figured I would share it.



Outside of our office the Navy SeaBees have been leveling a parking lot. They have to contend with alot of interference because people are used to parking here for work and for using the DFAC. I found this scene funny last week so I took a picture. Suggested captions are welcomed.


Time is moving along. Thanks for your continued thoughts, prayers and e-mails. Until next time....