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....