Room with a View

One of our B-Huts - 8 people live in one structure

Well, we made it to Bagram with no problems.  We flew in on a C-17 from Manas, took about an hour and a half.  The flight was fine, the pilot did a combat landing into Bagram, which basically means we made a faster and steeper descent into Bagram.  But the C-17 is a large aircraft and it didn't feel much different than a typical landing, compared to doing one in a C-130.  We offloaded right next to the runway, and were treated to seeing an unmanned Globalhawk aircraft taxiing to the runway, followed 30 seconds later by two Chinooks taking off, followed 30 seconds later by two F-15s.  I read somewhere that Bagram is the busiest single-strip runway in the world, and now I believe it.

It was very, very hot when we got in, and we had to wear our vests and helmet and carry our weapons (although we had no ammo issued to us yet, so I just considered it a 'show of force'...or the fact that someone who makes the decisions has no common sense.  It took a few hours to in-process, and we sat there sweating in a tent that had no A/C, and lots of people crammed in.  Welcome to Afghanistan.

Bagram's Room with a View

My job is to provide design and engineering support to the FOBs that are within our regional area around Bagram.  It sounds like it will be challenging but not too bad.  We have had a few days of overlap with the team that we're replacing, and quite frankly we are ready for them to go.  They all seem to have a much different personality than our group, and I think things will run much more smoothly once we're on our own.  We have already sent some of our guys out to the FOBs, and they'll be there for the duration of the deployment.  The rest of us will travel once in a while if the job requires it.

Other than that, Bagram is crowded, dirty, dusty, and the smells that are encountered on a daily basis would make walking though a landfill seem like a field of roses.  There are sooo many contractors here, the ratio is 1:1 from contractor to military.  It is easy to see first hand why this war is so costly.  I am looking forward to the winter, enemy activity seems to calm down considerably during that time, and once Ramadan ends (today) and a few days pass, things are expected to sette down.  I never really thought I'd care about when Ramadan starts and ends!  But all things considered, its pretty safe here and we're just down to counting the days.. 176.  :)