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....

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….