Venturing to Camp Eggers

I guess all the lack of sleep, jet lag, etc. have caught up with me. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache and body aches. Probably all the dust didn't help either and plus my roommate, Lem, has had a cold too. Hmm, maybe I forgot to use that hand santizer after a trip to one of the bathrooms at NMAA? Anyway, did not feel very good at all and today was the day we had to go to Camp Eggers to inprocess. Camp Eggers is the hosting base for us and we have to check in with them so they know we are actually in theater like we're supposed to be. NMAA is part of a team consisting of personnel from the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan (CSTC-A, pronounced "C-sticka") Joint Manning Document (JMD) and an Embedded Training Team (ETT) from the 104th Division of the US Army. Although not located at Camp Eggers, NMAA falls under the authority of Camp Eggers. In addition, you have the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) which conduct missions in accordance with their national capabilities and restrictions. It too is headquartered at Camp Eggers. The Kabul Afghanistan International Airport (KAIA) complex of burroughs where we live falls under the ISAF. Did I mention before that NMAA is actually located on the other side of KAIA - about 2 miles away? Anyway, some of the ISAF forces perform offensive combat operations (Brits, Canadians, Dutch, and US); others patrol (Germans, French); and some do reconstruction projects (Koreans). In fact, the Japanese are building the new international terminal of KAIA. There are about 25 provincial recontruction teams building such infrstructure as schools, roads, radio towers, windmills, and clinics. The US Embasssy is also located at Camp Eggers. So, we had to venture to Camp Eggers which meant we had to wear our heavy kevlar vests and helmets, and gloves, and eye protection, and weapons, and convoy over in our up-armored Toyota landcruisers. They have thick glass and body armor which make the doors very heavy. Here's a picture of part of the group just before we headed out today, without their individual body armor (IAB) on yet. Camp Eggers is "outside the wire" of KAIA, on the western edge of Kabul - hence the need for all the gear. Lem, Brian, and I were a little anxious about going out to Camp Eggers. Before we got here, we had joked back in Colorado Springs, that we would never leave KAIA, but that really was non-realistice. We were in good hands with the army guys that would be driving us (the same ones I discussed previously). They briefed us just before heading out, showing us the map of where we would be going and telling us that all we had to remember was to listen to them. We geared up at NMAA and headed out. We had two vehicles and 9 people with gear on going - it made for crowded quarters inside the vehicles. The trip was uneventful except for the crazy drivers. Here are a few pics along the way. The obilisk is at a traffic circle just outside the first gate into Camp Eggers. About 6 weeks ago, our NMAA group was in a suicide driver incident where a car veered into the lead vehicle of the convoy - an uparmored Suburban - and blew up. The suburban withstood the blast and no one was hurt inside, but the suburban could not be driven (we saw pics of it, mainly just some dents and burned paint), so the tail vehicle pushed the suburban back to NMAA. Probably not what some of you want to hear, but that's just the way it is. Note the man and his donkey and the people getting water from one of the many public wells.

At Camp Eggers we dropped our IABs off at a room and then went and got ID cards, filled out some paperwork, ate lunch, and went to the base exchange where I picked up some Nyquil. By this time, I was feeling quite weak and was running a pretty good fever - I just wanted to go sleep it off. Which is what I did when I got back - about 7 hours straight. When I woke up, not too long ago, I felt pretty good but I took some more Nyquil so I can go back to sleep now - good night!