FMF

Last night I was in a tent with 2 other Navy officers sitting across the table from 3 FMF board members getting drilled for nearly 2 hours on all aspects of the Marine Corps. Why you ask? It was the final step for me to get my Fleet Marine Force (FMF) designator pin. You want to know who the first Marine Corps pilot was, I got your answer. You need to know the date and birthplace of the Marine Corps, no problem. Who is the 13th commandant of the Marine Corps, lets just say there is a camp on the East Coast named after him. You having trouble with your SALUTE reports or or SMEAC orders, I got your back. Maybe you need to know the distance the M16 is accurate to for a point target, 550 meters, that was easy!

Anyhow, I had already done the physical fitness test and the hump with a loaded ruck sack so this was the acme of the program and.............I passed. Yeah me! Three of us entered, but only two survived. Now the commanding general signs the order and I get to wear a shinny pin on my chest and have yet one more thing on my uniform that can catch on the seat belt.

The real reward is that I get to throw away all the notes and now concentrate on pleasure reading and videos. Maybe a little patient care.

I included a picture of the main hallway of a tent hospital behind the British hospital. This tent hospital seems to go on forever. At each junction between the subsequent tents in series (in line) there are 2 tents that jut out to each side to form different wards (lab, radiology, surgical, ICU....). It occupies a good piece of realestate. It serves two purposes. If something happened to the current hospital the they could theoretically move resorces into the tent hospital. It also serves as an overflow in case business picks up with operational tempo.

Tired of pictures of me yet? Or maybe you do not see me, I am camouflaged.

one of those days

Last night I decided to put away my all too efficient sleeping bag. It has been very warm in our tent with the heater on all night and I was getting a little baked in the sleeping bag. So I got under my sheets and blanket and went to sleep. Only to awaken in the wee hours freezing. I tried to get comfortable, but kept waking up due to the chill on my head and feet. I then realized that I did not hear any sounds from the heater. It broke. The one night I decide to go without the sleeping and that is the night the heater breaks. So here is the dilemma; I had another hour before I had to awaken. Do I get in a fetal position and pull blanket over my head or do I get out of what little warmth I have, get sleeping bag, and get back into the rack in the dark without waking anyone? I pulled the wool over my eyes.

So then I am getting ready to go to mass and I am asked if I wanted to go across base to breakfast. The breakfast is a lot better where they were going and so I was tempted to put my oatmeal aside, ditch mass and go for the good chow. Alas, I decided to stay and go to mass....only to find out it was canceled 5 minutes prior. Arrgghhhh!

So I go back to the BAS and get on my e-mail. Well, I need to open up a file, but for some unknown reason my Adobe does not work anymore. So I have to forward the e-mail to another account so I can look up that separate e-mail on a completely different computer. I was able to thus open up the document, but for some other unknown reason the printer is no longer recognized on that computer. I just cannot win. I seem to recall a book I use to read to the kids about a kid that had a very weird day on a Wednesday. Well it is Wednesday today and that is the only explanation I have.

I guess I should stop blogging and get back to studying. I have my oral board for my FMF (fleet Marine force) pin tomorrow. I therefore have been doing eveything I can to procrastinate and avoid studying.

Hey thanks to the Custodio family for the 2 board games they sent to the BAS for us to play.

Despite my bad day, the sun still came up.

another day in another week

I am starting to run out of topics to write about. I mean there is only so much life in the middle of an Afghanistan desert to talk about. I don't (and you wouldn't want) me to get too philisophical and I know there is only so much medicine I can write about without boring you to death.

We do get brillant stars at night out here since there is not much big city (actually no city) lights to obscure one's view. I have a star chart that I reference. You know you have been here too long when you can start to name the stars (Rigel, Betelgeuse, Sirius....). We also get some good sunsets and sunrises. Nature has a way of coming out beautiful no matter where you are.

We had 5 corpsmen with birthdays this month and 3 of them are here at the main BAS. We had a little birthday celebration for them. MWSS supports the MAG (Marine Air Group) with messing (cooking). We have befriended the cooks and they hooked us up with a cake made from scratch as well as some quesadillas. They will spot us in the chow line and give us some extra food (sometimes good food not necessarily on the menu that night). I am finding out more and more that it is who you know and what you have to trade that gets you places while deployed.

I do not know what it is with Filipinos and duct tape. I have a few Filipino corpsmen in out BAS and one of them did a fine fix it with duct tape. The picture is below and it is in honor of my father-in-law.

My mom wanted to know what they did with recycling and my daughter is a huge environmental citizen so I thought I would submit a picture of the local nationals picking up cardboard. The downside is to the best of my knowledge they are picking out all the cardboard because they burn that in a separate burn pit form the rest of the trash.





Me up close.












That is a rice cooker with the electrical duct taped to the side.
Notice the New Orleans spice next to it.















Recycling?

Tasty cake.

more interesting cases

So we have had a couple of interesting cases this week. We had a military fire truck crash into a drainage ditch (I am working on getting pictures) when trying to avoid a local cutting them off. This resulted in one of the Marines smashing his left orbit into the dashboard. He was seen at the hospital and sutured up, but followed up to me the next day. His left eye was swollen shut except for a slit and was a deep purple. That was not the interesting part. He had hypesthesia (decreased or lack of sensation) of his left cheek, left upper lip and left gum. He also had a ptosis (drooping) of left upper lip. This was worrisome for a possible orbital fracture with infrorbital nerve entrapment. So I sent him to the hospital for an orbital CT and sure enough he has 3 orbital fractures.

The second case was a female Marine complaining of constipation and feeling of gurgling in stomach. She had also had some nausea some weeks prior. She has been working out like crazy out here and had been on a supplement allowing her to lose 35 pounds. She was convinced that she had worms. She does have a parasite of sorts…..a baby! When I palpated her belly the belly started to palpate me back. She has a fundal height (way of measuring the pregnant uterus) of 20cm. I figure her to be about 20+ weeks pregnant. Oh, she had a positive pregnancy test too. In case you are wondering, we have been gone about 18 weeks, so her pregnancy is legit.

I also had a pediatric consult today. I got a call from a satellite base about a local national 3 day infant boy who has not yet urinated. Feeding fine, no jaundice, consolable, but no pee-pee. I am worried about kidney problems (not making pee-pee) or posterior urethral valves (blocking pee-pee). Anyhow, we arranged for a helicopter to transport the kiddo to an Afghanistan referral hospital. I was about to instruct the GMO over the phone on how to do a suprapubic tap (sticking a needle through the lower belly into the bladder) had we not been able to get the transport.


Transport vehicle for the squadron. Yes, it is an old school bus.

My swing is looking good. I found 3 golf clubs. My mom and Liz sent out a peice of carpet and practice balls.

I was happy to see this small patch of greenery. This is the first green I have seen out here besides the color of uniforms.

helicopter support team

So yesterday I got to participate on an HST (helicopter support team). Basically, we netted up some water bladders filled with drinking water (1000’s of pounds each) to be flown to another forward operating base. After you net them up and put on a huge D ring, a helicopter comes down to have it latched to its underside and then fly away with the goods.

In this case, it was 2 53s that flew in. So when they approach you have to brace yourself due to the immense winds they generate. I literally had to be in a crouch position leaning into the wind with my hands over my face. Even in that position, I was being pushed back along the rocks. You then rush under the helicopter and one individual holds a grounding rod to the hook from the underbelly of the helicopter while another individual (me in this case) hooks the D ring on the hook. Then we all skeedattle to the periphery, brace ourselves once again as the helicopter increases its collective (power) to lift off. When it flies away you see a brilliant electrical current on the edges of the rotor blades (only 175,000 volts or so…). Very motivating experience, great leg work out! Pictures limited due to being night time.

I am shocked that Scott Brown won the election for senate seat for Mass. It is an amazing story. He is a republican running for a seat that was held by the most democratic family (Kennedy's) in probably the most democratic state after being behind 35 points in the polls weeks ago....and he wins! This is a warning sign to those in Congress that people are fed up. Maybe this will turn the tide. I think it is a foreshadowing of waht is to come in Nov elections.



Forklift lifts the heavy water bladders onto the net.














Marines secure the net around bladders.

Guy with grounding rod is on left and just released. I am far right backing up after I hook the load to the helicopter.

Go Chargers!

I requested at the last minute that Liz send me some Charger gear to wear for the playoffs. Amazingly she sent this jersey of mine just 7 days ago and it is here. I have to wake up at 2AM Monday morning to watch the game, but that is what being a fan is all about. If the Chargers lose you may next see a picture of this jersey being burned.

I took some motivating pictures of a couple of British troops about to go on patrol. They follow below.

Here is the brillant quote of the day by a wonderful liberal voice from Hollywood. Actor Danny Glover says the following about Haiti earthquake...“When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?” Absolute idiot! I think he is officially worse than Sean Penn on my list of ignorant Hollywood types.

bucket list

So I got a copy of the movie The Bucket List. I have not yet watched it, but understand it to be a list of things one wants to do during their lifetime. I was in a particularly mundane meeting the other day and decided to make my own bucket list. Here are some things I would like to accomplish before I am too grey and arthritic. Top ten are:

1) Run a marathon – Planning on trying to do the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in 2010. Anyone want to join me?
2) Jump out of a perfectly good plane – I was going to do this on my 40th, but since I will be in Afghanistan I will push back a little bit. Again, if you want someone to jump out of a plane with, I am your man. As a side note, I actually had orders to jump school during medical school but they got pulled at the last minute for another group that was more in need. Bummer.
3) Bungee jump off bridge – Preferable in Australia.
4) Go to Australia – a) to accomplish #3 b) my dad always wanted to go to Australia and never had the chance c) it would be great trip for family
5) Go to Manchu Picchu – This is probably what I want to do most and would want to go within next 2-3 years. Anyone game?
6) Visit the Vatican – Of course would have to explore Italy at same time.
7) Go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro – I just don’t know if Madis Gras in New Orleans would be enough.
8) See Christ the Redeemer statue – Hoping to parlay this with Carnival.
9) See the Pyramids of Egypt – Who wouldn’t?
10)I am leaving this slot open for now. There are some other places I would like to go (like Alaska and many places in Europe), there are other sites to see (like Mt Rushmore, Niagra Falls) or possibly trekking down to the bottom of Grand Canyon. Maybe I go wild and get a tattoo, I just don’t know yet. Any ideas?

My favorite quote of the week is from Vladamir Putin when he said ... “In addition to the global warming challenges, we need to address'global cooling' effects and to do so promptly,”. You got to wonder about some of the world's leaders.

Dug this picture up from my Okinawa days. I made this halloween costume from scratch. I spent entirely too much time and money in this project and this is the only picture I took of it.

kaboom

We had another extended blackout of computers and phones. We get these when bad news needs to be relayed to families in the U.S. Even though it is frustrating not having access to communications to talk to our friends and families, everyone understands why the blackouts must occur and that we are lucky to be on a secure base and not fighting on the front lines. I imagine that there will be many more times for the remainder of the deployment where communications will be down for varying periods of time.

So, the other day I was in my room talking to the chaplain (my roomie) when all of a sudden there was a loud BOOM and the ground literally shook. Chaplain nearly dove under his bunk much like we were taught in elementary school for earthquakes. We ran outside and saw this big plumb of smoke arising from just outside the perimeter wall.

About 2 minutes later, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker system stating it was a controlled explosion. Usually, they will make the announcement before the controlled explosion such that we will be prepared and not freak out. Anyhow, the ground has not shook like that for me since….ah better stop there since the kids may be reading, and my mother-in-law, and my mom….

Speaking of loudspeaker announcements, you may remember that my squadron is pretty much the only Americans actually residing on a British base. Therefore, we get British announcements. Now, when I am sitting right next to some of these chaps I often cannot make out a darn thing they say due to their thick accents (it would interesting to know if they have the same problem listening to us, then again, English is getting pretty hard to understand in America even for me). So imagine what this same chap must sound like on a loudspeaker that is 50 feet in the air and about 100 yards away. A message like “There will be a controlled explosion at 1100” might sound like “Aerial bye uh enralled splashin aught oven and red”. It is sort of a game making it out.





Presto!

Typical bunkers around camp in case of need.

my friend

Nice to be back on the computer. The power to the computer tent has been out for a couple of days.

So whenever I go somewhere for a substantial amount of time, I like to get some nice momentos to remember my experience. We have decked out our home with interesting pieces of furniture from our time in Asia, my office has plaques and knick knacks for me to remember my past commands. Unfortunately, my choices here on a base in Afghanistan are limited. I can chose from copy infringed DVDs, knockoff sunglasses, hookahs, or carpets.

I bought a couple of nice carpets for Liz earlier in the deployment (Take into account that I am a military man with no fashion sense picking out carpets). You can buy wool, silk or a wool silk combo. In a nutshell, the wool ones are more wear resistant and are meant to be on the floor for use, the silk ones are for hanging on the wall (and are usually from Iran, not Afghanistan) and the wool/silk blend is somewhere in between. I have learned to look at the carpets closely to assure not machine made, to look for single versus double knots and approximately how many knots per square inch.

So, I guess that I did okay with the first batch of carpets, because Liz has requested a runner for the hallway. Problem is that she has been a bit tardy telling me what color or size to get. Today I came across a new bazaar and came across a vendor of carpets. I decided to go ahead and look at what carpets he had and ended up doing a impulsive buy of a runner. Anyone who has traveled has a story about haggling for a price. I thought that I would give you a rundown of how my encounter with this carpet vendor went.

Vendor (V) “Hello my friend (even though we just met), how I help you”
Mark (M) “uhm, I am looking for a carpet, a runner, you know what I mean”
V “I give you good price, just for you (we now have known each other for 90 seconds), come here, look, hah, good carpet”
M “I like this one, how much?”
V “You pick good carpet, very good, see, look, feel, see, very good carpet, last forever”
M “How much is good carpet?”
V “$320, is good price, just for you”
M “Sorry too expensive”
V “Wait, how much you want to spend?”
M “A lot less than that…….how about $100?”
V “Ahhh, ohhh (look of horror), ahhh, nooo, this good carpet, take one year to make, feel”
M “I can see it is good carpet. What is your best price?”
V “Since you good customer, I give you special price, $260”
M “I can stretch to $120, but that is still more than I want to pay”
V “I go down $60 and you just go up $20”
M “Maybe we are too far apart, I will think about it, thanks”
V “Wait, $250, good price, lets shake” He holds out his hand. I do not shake because I do not like the price and I cannot remember which hand is used for eating and which for the bathroom.
M “Still too much, thanks”
V “What is your best price?”
M “$140”
V More cacophonous sounds “ahhh, ohhh, nooo, this too good carpet, take one year to make, feel”

Anyhow, this keeps back and forth until we are like $150 versus $180 and making no ground. I pull out $150 cash and say he can take it or leave it. He accepts and everyone happy. “You come back and buy more carpets” are his last words. This carpet is from Herat which is along the Iranian border and is made of wool. Hopefully Liz likes the carpet as well.

One last bargain story. I needed some cheap sunglasses and I picked up a pair and asked how much. Vendor says “$15”, “how much???”, “$10”, I hold up 5 fingers and he says “yeh yeh okay”. Quickest negotiations I have ever had.





Shopping at Camp Leatherneck















Runner purchase



















Up close design












Previous buys

wearing thin

It is getting to that point of the deployment where I am like 'I am done already'. The fact is that I am only here for emergencies, which thankfully there have been few. Thus, I am not really challenged medically and I feel like my skills are dwindling. I have had plenty of time to read medical resources, but there is only so much of that one can tolerate.

You add the lack of professional stimulation to an environment that is cold, sandy and flat and then you mix in the fact that I have no privacy and you get one demotivated allergist. Of course, I could have gone to the Army as an augment as did one of my allergist colleagues. He is getting killed with patients because it is him and one Army medical tech to care for over 800 individuals. On top of that, a bunch of his unit are Army reservists who were not properly medically pre-screened. He has had to send home quite a few (incontinence, neuralgias, long history of GI bleed...). At least he has a pseudo office. I get a third of a picnic table as a desk and get to share a phone and computer with 14 corpsmen.

Let me pause for a second, because I am almost wishing that I was back at NMCSD seeing patients and that would cut into my workouts and my guitar practice that I do enjoy here.

Naahhhh, I am still going to complain. We get taskings to send corpsmen to different places and usually this requires that we send someone who is up to speed and motivated. Thus, we have sent off most of our good corpsmen. The ones we have left in the BAS are either anti-social (for instance you say hi shipmate and you get back a blank stare with no vocalization) or they move like a slug, or they are under investigation (can't divulge details).

Lastly, I want to give you an example of the types of people/situations that make my day entertaining. Yesterday I had an urgent message that a SSGT needed to know particular information about a Marine being flown out. I got back to him that I had already briefed the CO on the situation hours ago. He responded that he needed an e-mail telling him the information so he could brief the CO. I echoed again that I had already briefed the CO. However, he was going on protocol that he needed an e-mail and he intended to brief the CO on the matter. It did not matter that I verbally told the CO more info than I had e-mailed to the SSGT, he needed to brief the CO, it was his job. Kind of a small example of how government runs anything.

exchange

Today I am going to talk about the exchanges here in Afghanistan. There are 2 American exchanges that have either an American military or civilian at the head and with third country nationals (TCNs) running the shop. We have the basics, but shelves go bare quickly when a new shipment comes in or when it is payday. Prices are about the same as in the States. The smaller exchange is about a hundred yards down from my BAS. The larger is a 5 minute drive. The larger one is always packed since it is on the main American base. Basically, the soilders have nothing better to do with their free time and so go there to loiter about and buy anything of interest.

There are also Dannish and British exchanges which offer a different variety of goods, but often the prices are a bit steep. I like to look at the food items because the labels are often amusing. An example would be 'digestives' crackers.

All the exchanges use the U.S. dollar as currency. You do not get coins as change though. Instead, you get 'pogs' which are silver dollar size cardboard cutouts with denominations written on one side and some sort of motivating picture on the other. You can actually use the pogs in American excahnges back in the States. I have been sending them in letters to the kids for souvenirs.

I had mentioned prior that it was getting colder here, but really the weather has been better than expected for this time of year. We have not yet had snow and the rains have been tolerable. I can only hope that this pattern holds through the winter. In other news, the U.S. is on target for coldest winter in 25 years (tell that to Al Gore).



Getting tired of seeing me in pictures yet?

Welcome to Camp Barber exchange.

happy birthday Liz

Today (at least it is the 2nd here in Afghanistan) is Liz’s birthday. I will not disclose her age, but will remind everyone that she reached a milestone last year! I love this part of the year because for the next 2 months she is 2 years older than me. As we get older it is not as big of a deal. Now when she was 21 and I was 19, there was cause for a lot of ribbing that she was a cradle robber. The only thing I can rib her about now is that we are in two entirely different decades of life (oops did I give another hint about her age?).

This, I believe, is the first birthday of hers that I will have missed since 1990 (we met 1989). I have helped her to celebrate her birthday while she was in college, while studying in nursing school, on both sides of this continent and even overseas. This will be the first from a war zone.

My birthday present to Liz is that I will refrain from making another video on my blog. This will help stave off some of the embarrassment that I have caused her in the past and that which I am sure to cause in the future. Honey, I have nothing to toast you with except for orange-squash or black currant juices (actual drinks in the chow hall…yuck). So I raise my lemon lime Gatorade bottle up and toast you on your special day. I love you.

I do not have my drive with all my pictures on it, but was able to find a few pics of Liz over the years on my hard drive which are below. As opposed to the kids and I, she appears to remain ageless in her pictures.






Club Med, Ishikaki (spelling?) in Japan around 2003. I include this picture a) because the bunny ears and b) because Liz absolutely hated this shirt of mine.












Liz and Madeline at a 'tea' a few years ago.


















Liz and Kyle at Liz's BDay party last year.














Liz and Timmy in Okinawa circa 2003.











Maybe my all-time favorite Okinawa picture at peace park. Liz's wind blown hair, Timmy's look of terror, Kyle doing a superhero pose and Madeline giving her flower child peace sign. Classic!

funny headline

Snowstorm squelches climate change protest

By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 12/30/2009 06:36:58 PM MST

A downtown protest of the climate change talks in Copenhagen became a victim of Wednesday's snowstorm.
"Not many people showed up because of the blizzard conditions," said organizer Clea Major, an international studies student at the University of Utah.
It didn't take long for the six friends to pack up a bullhorn and posters they'd planned to use for their "scream-in," an outlet for their frustration about the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks earlier this month to curb the pollution blamed for climate change.
Still, they chatted with a few passers-by during the commuter-hour protest near the Gateway, and explained that, blizzard aside, climate change is expected to bring chaos to the global climate, said Major.
She called Wednesday evening's effort a success and possibly the first in a series. As for the snow, it's not entirely new; a protest she attended last year in Washington, D.C., suffered a similar fate.
"There is always the irony element," Major said.