Update from Afghanistan

I received this email yesterday from my brother deployed in Afghanistan.  Its long, but he has some good stories.

So it has been three and a half months since leaving home, and I want to say that I am used to being out here, living the daily life, but the honest truth is, It's still a little weird.  I wake up every morning and when I go outside my tent I always look around at the amazing view of the mountains all around our camp out here.  They are Incredible!  The snow has melted off of their steep slopes that are as tall as the clouds.  It's always a jaw dropping site around us out here.

This month has been the cold month.  They say February is the coldest month in the year, and I was on Guard duty during the coldest week we had experienced yet.  The worst of that was that my electric heater in our wooden shelter we built in a few hours was broken the first three days.  I was frozen constantly and always looked forward to going back to my warm bed after a long frozen day of guard duty.  A nice part of guard duty was one post was guarded by the Afghan Army, we are only their to supervise that they do the job right, after all we don't want to just trust the local Afghan Army to supervise our back entrance.  Anyway.  One slow evening I was watching King Kong on my IPod with a local Afghan who spoke some English.  He asked me a question that made me want to laugh so hard.  Their was 4 of them around our fire we built, and he asked me if Dinosaurs were real?  I said they were real.  He looked at me and understood what I said, but then he said.  "How long have they been gone?.....1996?...97?....I wanted to laugh so hard when I heard this but maintained composure.  I didn't want to offend the local who was getting me some stuff from out in town...I wanted this stuff.  I explained that the Dinosaurs have been dead for a very long time now....like millions of years ago.  He couldn't understand and asked me how they made the movie then.  He was so confused.  I said computer animation, but he looked at me like I was the one on drugs.  He told the other three, and all of them started arguing about it.  I didn't realize how much these locals didn't know.

Another conversation I had with a local that was memorable.  A young Carpenter who was learning English to become and interpreter wanted to talk to me to practice his English.  He told me about him and a little about his life.  He then told me "I am so glad that the U.S. has come to Afghanistan, you don't know how bad it was before you guys came."  He started to get emotional with me and told me how the Taliban would force you to be one of them and if you said no then they would kill your family, they would take over their Villages and hide in the village and threaten the locals to take care of them and if the Military came by, to not give them up or they would kill them.  He told me how his friend was on a bus going home, and the Taliban stopped the bus and his friend had a Afghan Military badge on him...So they shot him.   I get the notion that this was a close friend to him because he did let a tear fall down his cheek.  He said Thank you to me for making it better for him to live here.  He said that he was so happy that it is safe for his town again, and he loves that we are here.

This is one small story among so many of the locals out here.  These people out here I have learned are just exactly like the rest of us...Some would disagree, but when you get passed the surface, and you interact with them and see that they all enjoy a dirty joke for a good laugh, they all desire to be loved, they want attention, they want something to believe in, they care for their family, they feel pain, they have souls.  This might sound obvious, but I never thought to put them on the same category as me...a person.  These people scared me in the beginning...All of them.  I am now friends with many of them and despite the different language, I still communicate with them.  I have taught a few what toothpaste is, shampoo, soap, deodorant...so many of them have never seen any of these things.  We have SOOO much of this stuff out here that we get for free, I decided to give the locals that work for us the extras that we don't take.  (also all of our hard candy...no one likes hard candy) but the locals think it's like Gold.  Now yes I do interact and care for these people...but my trust isn't in them, I have heard too many stories where a local is actually working for the Taliban...most likely by force or threat, and they get on base and blow themselves up.  This is a war zone, and complacency kills.  I have found it to be second nature to be always on alert...every corner I turn, every step I take, every word I say out here to them...It's that one moment you put your guard down that you will wish you didn't.

Something that happened just 2 days ago.  I was doing my walk around to make sure that information was being passed.  When I got to one of the buildings we built out here, we heard the alarm sound, and the words attack attack attack....This is not a drill....attack, attack attack....This is not a drill.  We all ran into the bunker closest to us.  During our drills I was always in another bunker close to my place of work.  I realized that they would be trying to figure out where I was, but It doesn't matter right now because I am not about to leave this bunker to go into the open just to let them know I'm alive.  We had one guy on each end of the bunker keeping guard with their weapon loaded and I will never forget the look in the officers eyes...He wasn't scared, he had a very strong bravery about him...His body was in what I call "the mode" the feeling you get when you are training...it doesn't matter who you are, during your training you find yourself in the mode, and fear disappears somehow and you do exactly what you were taught and your muscles remember from repetition.  Now the only part about this whole thing that sucks balls....My weapon and gear is right next to where I work....(This camp we don't carry our weapon around with us)  I couldn't believe how the one time we are getting attacked I don't have anything with me.  I remember reading Psalm 91.  An amazing bible verse of protection.  I tried repeating it in my head and said a prayer for safety and protection...And that's when I saw it.  a pick-ax right in front of me!  I grabbed it...I felt it...I felt myself go in the mode.  Amazing what a weapon can do for your courage even if it can't shoot.

Well min passed and we didn't here anything....no bombs...no gun fire...but the alarm was going...It was eerie.  Silent...while all of us Marines were in our battle positions waiting for attack to come from anywhere....About thirty min later we were given the "all clear"  I ran to my area I was originally supposed to be for our normal drills we have had.  I found my officer who was glad to see me.  I remember watching everyone moving around as if.....well not as if, but we were....we were confused.  I saw one of my good friends who sleeps during the day because he works at night.  It was like in a scene from a movie.  He was shirtless with his flack jacket and M-4 wearing sweatpants and flip flops.  I had to laugh.

So later that day, I was able to talk to an officer who put out the report on what happened...not really a false alarm, but local teenagers were caught going underneath our fence to get on base.  These kids were caught with syrup packets.  The surface story from the kids.  They were hungry and wanted food.  Last I heard they were detained and questioned....An excuse like food is a likely story coming from teenagers.  But that's what the enemy would want you to think....maybe these kids were forced to spy on us...I'm not sure, the rest isn't information given to me.

Life out here is good.  the weather is supposed to be getting hot next month.  They say it's above 110-130 in the summers...I'm just counting down the days to come back home to my wife.  I miss her so much, and I can handle being deployed, but my heart is breaking every second I'm without her.  This isn't easy when your in love the way we are.  But one day I will be back home again.  Until then, I am very proud to serve, very proud to be who I am.  We are doing awesome work out here.