Back in the "Zone"

Hi all and Happy October, it's been a little since I have had a really good update, so I have a few minutes, hopefully I can shed some light on what has been happening. We arrived in the safe zone very late last night to finish off the remaining couple of weeks in theater. Our Kandahar portion of this tour is complete and I am very happy for that, the last 19 days have been very intense, work and other. I would love to elaborate on the other on here but don't feel it to be appropriate, I will however have some stories to share back home. I will say again, that the "boys" out actually fighting the war on terrorism are doing a great job and my heart goes out to all of them, we shared the flight last night with over 100 of them that are completing there 6 month tour and are heading home soon, they looked very tired, but at the same time, within an hour of being on the ground, they were in their civilian clothing boarding a plane out of here, with the biggest smiles on their faces.
Prior to boarding last night out of KAF, I went up to the boardwalk to treat myself to one last Tim Hortons coffee, with that, I have a short story for you all. While on my first trip in KAF, I sat beside two ladies in their middle ages at lunch, during small talk conversation I discovered they were from Cape Breton, we chatted a bit longer during lunch and "Bobbi" asked me if I was interested in a CD of down home pictures backed to celtic music, I said sure...Little did I know that their tent was only a few away from ours, so, in the course of time, the Ladies wer insistingly trying to talk Blair and I into playing Tarbish, well, i'm not much of a card player and it never worked out, but to get to the Timmies part of the story, I was walking back from Timmies with a tray of Java for the boys, and "Bobbi" yelled at me with this very serious look and very heavy Caper accent saying "the next time you go to Timmies you better have a double double for me" and the reason for that was because she is a civilian, they were not allowed to leave their tents without having all the armourde protection on, which is very daunting and heavy. I said..No problem at all....i would do that with out a doubt, during my last Tim's drop at her tent, I asked her what brought her to Kandahar, she said she has been a barber back home for 40 years and felt that she needed to do something different in her life, a friend of hers was here and she thought it would be her way of giving back. She since has been here twice and plans on coming back a third time after her 6 month wait is up, all bearing in mind that she is a cleaner in HQ and she makes a mere $14 / hour, considering where she is, She is not doing it for the money. It is those feel good stories that I will cherish forever, I may not ever see her again, but the story will never be forgotten.
So, here we sit in the safe zone, 1:26pm and it is 45 degrees or so, you may have noticed in previous updates from Kandahar there was not much mention of the heat, well it was hot, but not humid, we were welcomed back here last night with a wall of humidity, but...not near as bad as it was when we left, Ahhhhh. After a few hours sleep, It's back to work, I must get ready and try and recover my room. Hope all is well with all back home, and I surely can't wait to return. Till next time,

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~M

Winding down in Kandahar

Well folks, I know its been a few days since the last update, so here
it goes. Work has been very steady here in KAF, lots of work making
sure these flying buses stay in the air. It becomes very challenging
at times, especially considering the conditions we have. When we talk
about conditions, it covers everything from the weather, dust, lack of
parts, not enough time in the day, bosses breathing down and even the
Taliban throw crooks into our everyday affairs. After being here this
trip, my personal views on the whole thing have changed, but I
certainly will reserve them for personal conversations, ask me and I
will tell you. But Lana hit it right on the head the other day ask
her, i'm sure she will tell you also!! My time for this trip in
Kandahar is coming to an end...Thank God! The first trip over here
was an adventure, this time it has been an extreme adventure, and I'm
too old for this S**t, LOL In all seriousness, I will always hold my
experiences close, and never forget why I am here. It is my job and I
take great pride in it.
I am eager to get home and spend some very quality time with family
and friends and especially the Thanksgiving dinner that Larraine has
so graciously postponed until I get home.
The freezes are continuing to be devoured, the candies are almost
gone, except for the peach gummies....yumm. Remind me all to tell you
about the "rockets". Well...tomorrow comes quick, and it is yet
another work day, seems like alot more work days then rest days, but I
guess that is the cost of being here. So I should sign off...Till next
time,

Support Our Troops
~M