Road Trip

Wow!! Two posts in one day - "when it rains it pours" I guess. Don't forget the one below this one ...

Was that "Who-ah!" or "Hoo-ah!?" Well, leave it to the Army - the guys spent a good half hour this morning talking about the origins of this phrase. C said that the phrase came from the infantry and now they were pissed because everyone seems to be using the infantry's fight phrase. H joked and said that the infantry was actually happy to influence others. H seems to be a treasure trove of all-things military - songs (this Army Lt Col can sing the Air Force song), sayings, jokes, history, and trivia (meaningless or otherwise). H said that the term "Who-ah!" came from WWII when a commanding officer ordered his men to "take the hill." The soldiers responded, "Who, us?" C explained that the official spelling is now "Hoo-ah!" No, really, these guys discussed this for about 30 minutes. Anyway, if you want to know the background behind this trivia (of the meaningless variety), then check out this site: Origins of Hooah

And on the democratic primary race ...:
H: "I think "Billary" should be our next president. At least then, nobody would dare to mess with the U.S. for 7-10 days out of every month!"

I guess you could call that form of foreign policy - "Menstrual Assured Destruction!"

This morning I played Army man. The Army guys needed to go to the Forward Operating Base (FOB) to check out accommodations for when all our new cadets headed there for basic training. So, we got our body armor (IAB) and convoyed out from NMAA. We had gone a couple of clicks when our tail vehicle hit a massive pothole and got a flat tire. So, we had to change the tire "outside the wire" just off the busy road. You can see the end of the gun I was holding in this picture. A couple of guys handled getting the flat fixed and a couple of us (including yours' truly) handled security. This meant, holding an M-16 and looking like a "bad ass" on the side of the road. It was very cold and it took about 30 minutes for the guys to get the tire changed and then we were off again. I have to admit, that I had a tad bit of anxiety standing there watching all the vehicles and people going by watching us. Around here it is believed that about 1/3 of the populace are happy about a democratic change and back the current government, 1/3 support and want the Taliban back, and the last 1/3 don't really care and just want to live. Yeah, I had anxiety for about 2 seconds, then I realized that I had that big gun in my hands (and I was too cold to worry about anything else.)

The FOB is located at the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC) - it's where the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) is trained. When we arrived, there were groups of ANA soldiers doing trench tactics, physical exercise, marching, throwing grenades (they were rocks), taking hills, eating, and peeing on the side of the road. It was amazing to see all these soldiers being trained and the flurry of activity happening on the range. We parked and a couple of the guys went to talk to whoever it was they needed to and I headed to the porta-john. There was a row of about 30, and these were squatter porta-johns (no seats, just a hole) and were for the entire group of personnel training on the range. And, let's just say, they were practically overflowing and the most disgusting things I've ever seen (and smelled).

A short time later, the Army guys took me to the "bone-yard" where a bunch of old military vehicles were rusting away. It was pretty cool to see all that power (at one time) wasting away. H commented that KMTC was located on the Soviets' old training grounds. He said it's a good training area, but the Soviets' approach to conquering the Afghans was all wrong. After invading and conquering Afghanistan, the Soviets didn't train the Afghans or even try to educate them - Afghanistan was just a strategic stronghold for them. Their subjugation of the Afghans including feeding/paying the Afghans just enough to get by. The Taliban's approach was similar. I asked H if he thought our efforts in Afghanistan would meet the same fate as the Soviets' and Talibans'. He said, "maybe, but at least we're training them, educating them, improving infrastructure, and we have an exit plan where they take all that over from us at some point."

On our way out, we headed to Camp Alamo to eat lunch and Camp Phoenix to stop at the post exchange to pick up some supplies and get gas. After that, we headed to the "No-Lemon" lot. No-Lemon takes care of all the commercial verhicles that are used by the coalition forces. Get it, their vehicles aren't lemons. Anyway, they got started during the Kosovo crisis and here's a site you can check out for more information on No-Lemon. We had completely destroyed the rim, but No-Lemon gave us a brand new spare and we were on our way along the busy and crowded streets of Kabul. Here are the NMAA gate guards greeting us upon our return.









Here are some pics along the streets of Kabul. Check out the kids playing soccer, the makeshift vending booths (selling everything from meat, fruits, car parts, and phone cards), the "chain-gang" (in orange jump suits) cleaning the streets, and of course the burka-clad women.

Thanks for reading.