The Rain...

...it just doesn't seem to end. Going on 3 days/nights of off and on rain.  This place is muddy. There are giant puddles of muddy water everywhere. It's absolutely ridiculous. Luckily, I now have 2 more pairs of boots to wear because...

...our BOXES FINALLY ARRIVED.

 After being sent to the wrong destination, our containers we packed at home station finally arrived. Was very happy to get home after work and be able to go through them. I'm especially excited that I have proper bedding now and not the cheap stuff they sell at the PX.



Not much to look at outside. The area in the bottom center is all mud. Much worse after the recent rain!

 

View looks a lot like Colorado. Mountains in the distance.

Blankets! Finally! Dinger has done pretty well this far!


One of the few things that we have here that I really enjoy is the laundry service. No more taking time to wash it yourself. Just turn it in and pick it up 2 days later! They even fold it for you. Makes life a lot easier, especially when you work longer days like I do.


Fresh and clean. Too bad these uniforms look like crap after a few washes.

Why We're Here

Figured while I'm sitting here listen to the CC Tigers play (a game that seems to be riddled with terrible calls), I would update everyone on what I'm actually doing here.

You can find everything on Wikipedia. Including CMRE, the mission I'm involved with. It highlights the basics of what we are doing. From the looks of it, the outgoing units set this up, so I figured I would share it all with you.

CMRE on Wikipedia

And just for some entertainment, one of the most memorable moments since we've become Colorado College Tigers. A huge game winning penalty shot in overtime in World Arena against WCHA rival, against the University of Denver.

Krushelnyski Penalty Shot Game Winner

The Driver's Seat

So I'm finally trained up and ready (hopefully) to take on this mission. I think I've managed to get a hold on updating all the spreadsheets and pretty PowerPoint slides to make the bosses happy. Of course, once we take over complete responsibility, I'm sure things will change. But for now, it looks like a cakewalk, as far as my primary duties managing our teams through Afghanistan.

My secondary job on the other hand has the possibility of being the biggest headache of this tour. Shipping hazardous materials isn't necessarily a difficult process, but if you jack up the paperwork, your stuff isn't going to get moved. And if your inspector is a hardass, the process takes that much longer.

Luckily, my predecessor made a whole bunch of templates for the most common things he has shipped (mainly used cylinders for compressed gases). But it will be the odd ball items that will throw a wrench in the gears. Batteries, empty fuel tanks, and other things will require some research on my end.

All in all, I'd much rather have these two jobs than some others. My primary job may not tax me as much mentally, but shipping HAZMAT will give me the change of pace that's needed.

One Week

Made it through the first week. I'm not one for countdowns or anything like that, but just ask Jillian about her Miserable Donut App? Glad I got a chance to Skype with her tonight and my four-legged son.

Been a busy couple of days. Some of it has been enjoyable. Other parts of it, not so much.

Yesterday:

I love to shoot. It's the reason I have a few firearms at home. It's really a skill that's only perfected by doing it. And sadly, I don't think we do it enough in my profession, which is why people do so poorly at ranges when we have to go. One of the requirements when we get here is to confirm our zero on our assigned weapons. So that's what we did (or some of us did and others tried to do).

The weather was less than ideal. Overcast, windy, and a bit chilly, but I still managed to confirm my weapons zero with the 10 rounds allotted to me. As the unit Small Arms Master Gunner, I take lots of pride in my ability to consistently hit my targets.

By far not my best grouping, but I really didn't want to stay down on the cold ground longer than I had to. Overall, not bad though, considering all are touching or inside center mass.

 



That's where the fun ended yesterday. I went back to work and went to a meeting.
Then another meeting.
Then another meeting, only this time the dreaded online PowerPoint presentation.
And you guessed it, another meeting.

Yes. About SEVEN hours worth of meetings. I've had my fill of them already.

Today was slightly more productive. More mandatory training in the morning. Very informative stuff, but doesn't really apply much to a desk jockey such as myself. But I enjoyed it nonetheless, even if it did start at 6 a.m.

Thankfully, no more meetings today. But I did get a chance to sit down with my counterpart to start learning about my job a bit more. Mainly focusing on daily tasks and other things that need to be done weekly. Next week it'll be my turn to get in the driver's seat and take on these new things and have him watch over me. I don't feel like this will be overly taxing job, but I can tell the boss already has new things on the horizon for us...

I'm happy to have some down time tonight after working late last night. Feels good to be a lazy bum for a little while and having a chance to see Jillian on Skype. Once I'm in a routine, I'm looking forward to getting to the gym most days and get into better shape. I'm especially looking forward to not being at 6000+ feet in elevation like back home.

And as promised, some pictures of my living quarters. Not much I'm afraid but still a very comfortable living arrangement compared to what others have to deal with in other parts of this country.

PowerPoint

First of all, Happy Valentines Day!  Unfortunately, I'm unable to spend it with my lovely wife. But I'm sure she'll hardly notice with the two needy four-legged animals in the house. I wish I was home, but I love you lots darling!

Learned quite a bit about my new job today. I guess when nobody actually grasps the concept of what you are going to be doing, you put yourself in the mindset for some labor intensive job that is going to force you to work long hours and just wear you out physically and emotionally.

Boy, was I wrong.

Seems what I will be doing will be more docile than I thought. I'll hesitate to call it administrative, but I'm not sure what else to call it. After previous deployments of being at the lowest level of a unit, I often forget that I'm now higher in the food chain. The change is nice, and I'm looking forward to a different kind of tour.  Along with tracking and updating the status of those underneath me, I'm sure I'll wear a couple additional titles while I'm here. Most notably, I'm qualified and able to do the proper documentation to ship and certify hazardous materials. AMMO-62 (Technical Transportation of Hazardous Material) is one of those classes I took mid-year in 2012. Never did I think I would ever use this qualification.  Guess I better brush up on my skills!

Up to this point, you may be wondering why this post title is 'PowerPoint.' Well, I've found my new least favorite thing.  For those of you not familiar, we receive a lot of training via PowerPoint slides. I understand it has to be done. I can deal with that.

But have you ever had to log in to an online PowerPoint presentation? As if getting one in person isn't bad enough, imagine doing it while wearing a headset and staring at a computer screen. But it gets worse. Someone asks questions. ABOUT EVERYTHING. All you can do is stare at the slides. And hope they shut the hell up and move on to the next slide (eventually making it last slide after almost 2 hours).

Well that's my rant for the day. Sure glad this is only a once a week ordeal.

On the up side, everything is going really well here. I'm looking forward to getting into a set routine, but most of all, getting my feet wet and learning the task at hand.

Halfway Around the Globe

The time finally came to pack up all of my crap and head off to the other side of the world. And by crap I mean all the random useless stuff they make me pack that I'll most likely never, ever use. I don't enjoy packing 200+ lbs of gear, clothing, and other items into 2 bags that I have to lug around for 4+ days before I get situated in my permanent living quarters.

Coming out of Colorado we flew to Anchorage, AK. I was very excited to stop in Alaska for a couple reasons: I've never been there and I've always thought about being stationed there. My first impressions are positive ones. It wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be for February and the view of the mountains are breathtaking. They certainly seem to dwarf the mountains on the Front Range.

Our next stop takes us to Kyrgyzstan, a not so pleasant country in Central Asia where we wait for a flight to our final destination. There's not a hell of a lot to say about this country. It's cold, it's miserable, the overall appearance is just grim. I guess as a part of the former Soviet Union you expect it to look this way.

Finally from Kyrgyzstan we go to our final destination: Afghanistan. This will be my home for the upcoming months along with my brothers and sisters of what basically becomes your extended family.

This will be my second trip to Afghanistan, but this time in a new location, with new people, a new job, and thankfully, for a shorter amount of time.

Unfortunately, all this traveling has some set backs. I still can't get on a proper sleep schedule for this time zone. I go to bed at a normal time and still wake up to early. Hopefully once in the swing of things this will sync up and I'll get back to normal.

All those bags full of crap I mentioned before? No more carrying those around! Once in Afghanistan, we went directly our permanent billeting and I've been able to arrange and unpack everything. I share this room with only one other roommate. Our area is roughly 20ft x 6ft, so it may not seem that luxurious, but it's much better than some billets I've had in the pasts. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I dig out my phone to take some (I unpacked everything but I don't remember unpacking that. Hmmm....) After a quick stop at the PX for some essentials (garbage bin, air fresheners, area rug, etc) the room is well set up to suit our needs.

So what is like where I'm at you ask yourself? Well, without divulging too much information I'll give you a brief description. Here's a few things that I think are important:
- It's noisy. Very noisy.
- It smells. I did not miss the burn pits. There's also a sewage pond. It's winter now, but I'm sure I'll have complaints about that in the summer...
- There's POLICE. Yes. They pull people over. You can hear them chirp the sirens.
- Everywhere I need to go I can walk to. No more than a 10-15 minute walk. That includes the PX, Troop Store, dining halls, work, etc.
- There are 3 dining halls in close proximity to my room. So far, the food hasn't been half bad.
- I have internet. In my room. Obviously this is what I'm using to post this. And if you aren't on it during peak hours, it actually works quite well.

That's about it for now. I'll get some pictures up of the room when I get a chance. This is only the beginning, but I'm looking forward to what lies ahead, including the challenges and the headaches. But most of all, I'm looking forward to the reward at the end: coming home!

The Basics

So I thought I would start my attempt at a blog to let everyone know how I'm doing and catalog some of my everyday aspects of living in a foreign country. Besides how hard can this be? (Unless of course your my wife and you have a blog and never post...)

I'll try to keep this as up to date as possible as I spend the better part of the year with my extended family in this foreign country. There may not be a lot of pictures (you never know who might be watching this and what they can take away from it), but I'll get some on here from time to time.

I hope you enjoy it and helps the time fly by, not only for me, but those expecting my safe return back home.