promotion

So today, November 1st, was my promotion day. It was unique in a couple of ways. 1) We are in a war zone in the middle of Afghanistan. 2) I was promoted by the Marine colonel CO of MWSS-372 who happens to be the only officer higher rank than I (actually same rank now, but he is more time in service and my CO). 3) Everyone in the States will get promoted on Monday the 2nd since it is the first workday of the month. I got promoted on Sunday the 1st because we work every day in the field.

Really, all the promotion means is that I stuck around long enough and I have started to get gray. However, there are a couple of advantages I would like to point out. First advantage is that I will get some extra income each month. I am sure that if I do not find use for this that my family will :) Second, the higher the rank the fewer people I have to salute! I am also just one rank away from getting those prime 0-6 parking spots at the commissary and the golf course. Have a belated Happy Halloween.

Mark Tucker
CDR MC USN










Pinning.















Oath.















Handshake.

Officers of MWSS in front of BAS.

laundry

I was asked about how laundry is done here. Everyone has a net like laundry bag for which they put their dirty laundry. You bring your laundry to an Indian national working for a British contract through Russia, Sadish, in the morning. You then come back the next day to pick up your bag. What they do is tie up the bag and throw it in a big washing machine amongst similar bags. When done they pull the bag out and throw it in the dryer. Simple, right?

There are a few caveats that one learns about. 1) Do not overload your bag (meaning more than a few items) otherwise it comes back wet. 2) Do not buy a white laundry bag. Most Marines bought theirs here and they all look alike. I, thankfully, bought a black one and thus easy for Sadish to find my bag. 3) If you need something back the same day then tip the guy a couple bucks. This will get your items fully dried and folded. 4) Do not get upset if somehow women’s underwear/bras end up in your bag. There is no message here; it is just not a perfect science. I personally have not lost any garments or gained any garments, but others have. Usually it is the women finding that their underwear is missing!

The other service that the laundry guy offers is bracelets. He makes them out of different military cords and weaves in names or patterns. Pictures below.

Cheerio

p.s. you will find humor in that the chaplin tracked me down after mass today (that's right they do have mass on the weekdays too). Apparently he heard that I was learning the guitar and he wants me to strum along the hymms on Sundays. That should be wild. Only advantage is that everyone else will have their horrible singing drowned out by my grinding guitar sounds mimicking a cat being skinned. More news of this in future blogs.








Handicrafts of the laundry man. Making good use of that 550 cord.










Laundry complex.



















Laundry in a box.

Sadish.

water

I was asked about the prevalence of water at our establishment here in Afghanistan. There is no evidence of any water anywhere near here. There is not a green anything here except on Marines. Apparently one of the reasons that this base was built here is that it sits on a huge underground aquifer. The water we drink is actually ‘bottled in Camp Bastion’ which is scary enough. That being said, we have plenty of available water. There are wood huts situated throughout the base that has pallets of water that anyone can take. In the chow halls there are refrigerators full of water (which oddly enough always seems to be warm?). Our CO had a huge walk in refrigerator placed next to the BAS to store cold water for the Marines/Sailors. It was just placed in time for our oncoming winter.
Speaking of water, I should see plenty of it soon. There are a few months of the ‘rainy’ season. When it rains that water just sits on the ground as the ground is not porous at all. The BAS, and all other tents, will get flooded. We were told that there was a stream of water that flowed through the BAS in the past. The ground becomes a sticky mud (remember, all we have is dirt around here) that gets over everything. Should be tons of fun!

I am going to go get a cold one now. That would be water for me 







Typical water storage area.










Bottles actually tell you to keep out of direct sunlight! How about out of the sand!















The master of the water locker,

Is bottled in Bastion a good thing?

Camp Leatherneck Resort and Spa

I just got sent this. If you to see something really funny and get a taste of what are daily lives are like, then go to following site at youtube for a laugh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ro9zLSb2s

Mark

blackouts

Hello,
In case you are wondering why I am not always consistent in my blogging, it is really three reasons. 1) I am lazy 2) It is a lot of pressure to think of new interesting topics coming from a very uninteresting individual and 3) Blackouts.
We have communication blackouts when there is an U.S. casualty. This is so no news of the event gets out before the family members can be appropriately notified. Sometimes this is within hours, sometimes days. Therefore, there are times I just plain cannot get on the computer to blog.
Today I am going to write about the Gurkhas from Nepal. They are part of the 'Queen's Gurkha force' which is part of the British forces here in Afghanistan. They are known as fierce warriors in the past. I will refer you to a wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha. I was able to purchase one of their traditional knives that are handmade. I also got some replica letter openers. The money raised by the sale of these items and shirts and such goes to a charity fund for those who have served in the Gurkha forces serving Britain pre-1997. They apparently do not get any pension and thus need added assitance. So below are some pictures for you to peruse. Cheers!









Knife has layer of oil on it to preserve. There are 2 smaller knives in the hilt that are used for skinning game.













Letter openers and signature patches.

Me outside Gurkha headquarters.

smok'n

Hello again,
So I have had some requests on topics to talk about in the future...is there enough water there?....how do you do your laundry?.....what happens to all the trash? I will get to work on these questions.
For today, I will talk about the smoke pit. It is conveniently located just feet from the BAS door. Who in their right mind would put the smoking area next to a medical clinic is a mystery to me. Of course we also have the port-a-potties and the haircut shed next to us as well. Now my corpsmen claim that it is a benefit as they go and socialize with the Marine and British smokers to, you know, make sure that they are feeling okay. Are they dispensing advice about quitting smoking...no! No, they actually are smoking themselves (about 5 of them). Not exactly the message I want to be sending.
I thought that I would take a shot at the smoke pit for your enjoyment.

We have continued to get lots of packages from AnySailor.com. We have truely felt blessed at the supplies and support they have sent. I have decided to post a package of the week. This week's winner is a tie. I received 3 boxes (one shown below) from a federal credit union in Florida of pure M&Ms. We also received about 40 boxes of Girlscout cookies from a troop of 18 girls in Misssissippi (I had to sing that to spell it).









I could play James Dean or maybe John Wayne.













We have been bartering with our Girlscout cookies.

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm.

hideout

Today I thought that I would talk a little about privacy or better yet the lack thereof. Here in the field there really is no such thing as privacy. I am constantly around people at work, play, chow, and even sleep. It is not that I do not like social interaction (most of you would probably state that I need attention), it is just that sometimes you like to have a little peace and quiet. About the only place you can have that quality time to yourself for reflection is when you go to the head (bathroom for non-Navy types). The problem is you do not want that much time in that situation because you are either sitting in a space that is smaller than an airplane bathroom (previous blog) or your olfactory system is insulted while you steam away in a port-a-potty
My original living quarters was with the younger, more hip, Marine lieutenants and captains. When it was realized that I am actually a field grade (04 or above) officer I was told that I must move to the hooch (tent) where the CO, the XO, the operations officer and now the Chaplin all reside. The Chaplin and I share the front third of the tent; I call it the parlor or ante-room if you will. The nice thing is that there is somewhat of a plywood partition that separates us from the other officers, but the negative is that everyone must walk through my space to get to theirs and the door opens right into sight of my rack (bed). Therefore, I had to find a way for a little, that’s right, privacy. I have included some pictures to give you an idea of how I can engage myself with different layers of privacy.










Open air.














Is he sleeping?

The man wants to be left alone!

technical difficulties

I waited in line for use of a computer and excitedly sat down to update my blog, but there seems to be some technical difficulties today. Thus, no pictures today. Felt like I should at least say hello. I will continue to bring you the news of the day here at Camp Barber in the middle of nowhere errrrr.....Afghanistan.

I was told by multiple sources that my 'feeling sorry for Mark' stock took a hit when I published the pictures with the celebs on last blog. Well at the risk of having my stock further plummet, I have new news. Apparently, we will have our evening meal provided by Outback Steakhouse. That being said, I would trade a steak for a good carne asada burrito anyday!

Yesterday we played a basketball game with the British engineers. They built this rec area with sand volleyball and a basketball court with a wood-like matting. It was fun hanging out with them, but their version of basketball is more towards rugby. I am a bit sore today. Maybe volleyball next time as there will at least be a net between us.


Thanks everyone for your continued encouragement. I enjoy hearing from you all. Nanette, you get bonus points for your use of the word shenanigans (and spelling it correctly at that).

celebs

So, today we had our first celebrities at our compound. I was a bit cynical when first hearing about this event. The celebs that were to come were Kelly Carlson (The Marine), DW Moffett (theater), DeAnna Pappas (Bachelor / Bachelorette), Greg Germann (Ally McBeal) and Vanessa Branch (Orbit gum girl). Since none of them were going to be performing for our entertainment, I figured that they were getting the most benefit from the appearance. Well, overall, I believe they were sincere in their intent. The Marines and Sailors seemed happy to see them and they stayed back to take pictures with the troops. So I give the experience a B+.
I did get a picture with the crew. When I went up and introduced myself, the women asked ‘sir, can we put our arms around you for the picture?’. My response…….’make my wife jealous’.
I also got a picture with DeAnna for two reasons. One, she was the only woman who did not look anorexic. Second, she knew my rank by my insignia because her father is a LCDR in the Navy.

I signed our BAS up on a site called AnySailor.com when we arrived. I received a box of goodies 2 weeks ago from a family in Northern CA. Today I received 9 boxes from 2 families in FL. Nice to know that there are people out there that try to do their part in making military members lives more bearable while away.








Really, who is the real star of this picture?

Probably broke her heart when I told her that I am not a bachelor!

haircut

So what happens when you start to cut your hair in view of motivated Marines? You get plenty of volunteers willing to cut your hair for you. The negative is that you have little control over how short your hair becomes. Such was my experience yesterday. A Master Sergeant decided that he needed to cut my hair and now I am quit bald as you can see below. The good news is that I now have no gray hair showing. The negative is that it is starting to get chilly around here and now I have no hair buffer to warm my noggin.
For the kids I am attaching a picture of a Finland infantry troop carrier. I also put in a picture of a trench digger that was outside our BAS digging a trench to lay telephone wire for our phone.

I finished my book on the history of Afghanistan. It was a dry read. Cliffnote version is that they have a long history of hardships and war. Now I am in the middle of watching Band of Brothers. I have owned this series for the longest time, but just now watching for the first time. I highly recommend.






Who is that sexy man?














Sides smooth as a baby's butt!














Finland troop carriers.

Can you dig it?

say what?

Hello all once again. So it is hard to get all the recent news over here since we get limited time on the computers and when we do get on them they take about 5 minutes to load a page. I did see one headline that I wanted to comment on….
What does Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and Mother Theresa have in common with Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and Barak Obama? They are all Nobel peace prize winners. That would be the only common thing they share! It is my opinion that the Nobel prize has lost a lot of its merit over the years and now serves more a political agenda than an honored award going to an exceptional human being.
Lets look at the latter three I listed. Jimmy Carter has does more harm every time he opens his mouth the past five years than he every did good to warrant the prize in the first place. Al Gore took questionable science (if you can call it that) on global warming and made a movie to earn his award. BTW, did I read that Colorado snowed out their baseball game this week….in early October! Now Obama is being applauded for his outreach to the Middle East….based on one speech?......or was it based on his bowing to the Saudi king?

Okay, okay, I know that at times I can get political, sorry. So for your picture of the day I have an image of one of the more popular Pringle flavors sold at the British exchange. Enjoy!
I will also include a picture of my trivia team, ‘The Bloody Yanks’. We participated in a charity trivia game with the British and Dane medical support. We were the only Americans there which was interesting on many fronts. First of all, not all the questions fully translate into terms an American may understand. Second, we were jested in a friendly fashion all night long. When we would verbalize a good score on a section, we were uniformly booed. When we did poorly we were cheered. I think that we would have been in serious danger had we won, but instead we finished in the middle of the pack. Cheers!









Yummy!

Yankees representing.

what to do with the sand

So lets talk about sand today. Not the sand you make sand castles at the beach with (that would require water silly). Not the sand you put in the back yard for the kids to play with (that is too fine and comfortable on your feet. No we will talk about Afghanistan sand. When one first tries to establish a base here he/she realized that the dust is horrible. Walking in the sand is like walking in moon dust with billows of dust clouds forming about your knees as if you were walking about in powdered sugar. So what is the solution? Scrap off top layer and then put down different sand with small to large rocks in it to keep the dust down. This works to an extent, but my lungs are probably caked at this point as if I were a 30 year smoker. Also, any piece of equipment anywhere on base has a layer of dust upon it.
There is however, one ingenious use of the sand and that is for walls. HESCO (do not know what acronym stands for) is the way they build walls around here. Basically you take a wire shape and stick a fibrous board material bucket inside and then fill with what the primary resource of the land happens to be......sand! Pictures below. Cheers :)

I finished Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin. Really enjoyed the history lessons in the book and it scared me to death of what we may be led to expect to occur in this country (U.S.) if we do not wake up.

Now I am reading a history of Afghanistan. In a nutshell, lots of war, lots of betrayal, lots of brothers killing each other and/or blinding each other and lots of kids with many wives. Favorite quote so far is from one of the monarchs of the past who was forced into exile into British India. He said in autobiography 'I would rather tend to a blade of grass at British camp rather than rule all of Afghanistan'. Wonder why with all the sand and all?

church

We have a chapel that sits next to the BAS. It looks remarkably similar to the BAS from the outside. The pews are benches that are made from old pallets, it too is dusty, but still serves its purpose. I am lucky that our Chaplin is a Catholic priest since I am also Catholic. He is from Philly and is number 5 of 9 kids and has 46 nephews and nieces. The chapel service on Sunday reminds me of Little House on the Prarie because we are never more than 15 and we have to sing without music which does not bring out the best in me.
I have started to go to daily mass when he is around and not visiting the Marines and Sailors out at the outlying operating bases. The disadvantage of going to daily mass is that I am often the only one there and thus have the responsibility of doing the first reading and responsorial. I also need to independantly remember when to stand, sit, kneel and what prayer or response is next. The pressure is starting to get to me! The positives of daily mass is that it is never longer than 15 minutes, the homily is never longer than 1 minute and it is the only place out here to get a drink :) Here are some pictures to enjoy.

injury report

Well hello again. Did not know what to talk about today, so decided to showcase some typical injuries that we see during the course of the week.





This guy was playing with his new knife. It works!



















This guy had his sutures removed at appropriate time, but it reopened like a zipper 2 hours later.













This guy had secondary cellulitis of a lesion on his knee.




















This guy dislocated his PIP joint of 5th finger. I have great picture of him giving an hang ten sign, but it shows his face so I cannot publish here.












Trauma to ear from wrestling caused this seroma to develop. I lanced it and pulled out serosanguinous yellow fluid.

I want to give congrats to my son Kyle who accomplished after four lesions what I have yet to accomplish in four decades. He got a hole-in-one on his 3rd ever played par 3 hole. Way to show up your old man Kyle. I hope that you continue to show me up in many avenues in life.

Today's readings in church were about matrimony. It reminds me of the importance of a strong loving marriage for the rearing of our children (I sure could use many aspects of that 'love' in our marriage right about now ;). I think that one of the great fractures of our society is that marriage has been trivialized and redefined to the point that it has led to many broken homes and a troubled youth.

battalion aid station (BAS)

Today I thought that I would write about my beloved BAS. We have two tents that are back to back that form our BAS. We have a few make shift treatment rooms, a decent formulary, no running water and no bathroom. We do have an air conditioning system that is a big tube that hangs from the ceiling that has multiple holes that you can velcro open or shut. The air con usually works, but we anticipate a power outage about once a day from our generator. There is a good layer of dust on the floor, computer, desk, phone, me.....
We have corpsmen from different walks of life and different areas of medicine which makes for an interesting crew. We wear our battle dress uniform every day as well as our weapons. Conveniently the smoking pit is just across the gravel from us (who made that decision). Luckily I have a chief and a few corpsmen that are addicted and can sit there and disseminate useful information to the smoking troops about preventative medicine :)
I have gone from an office with a phone, internet, e-mail, scanner, desk space, file cabinets and a window to a three foot carved out area on a picnic bench that serves as our admin space. We have a computer that could compete with the best machines ever produced .... in the 80's. We have one phone that serves 20 people.
Most of what I see is very general medicine and my pediatric and allergy talents are not going to be adequately used, but my mission is to serve the Marines and I am willing and able to provide that service. Though the BAS is primitive, it is actually better than I envisioned and the corpsmen I work with are great.





<-----Our crew


BAS

Welcome to my world!

BAS cont...