having fun at home

I apologize that I have been absent from the blog scene for some time. I have been enjoying my past life with family and friends. There really is no more purpose for a blog on Afghanistan (unless of course the military invites me back). I have really enjoyed writing a blog while away. It was somewhat therapuetic and at times enlightening. If I get an itch and feel like I really have something valuable to say on a somewhat routine basis (that is a lot to hope for) then maybe I will start another blog for that purpose. For now I am going to go on blog hiatus and prefer to instead talk to you in person.

Mark

hurry up and wait

All you previous military will appreciate this titled blog. I am finished with leg three of my journey back home. I had to show up at customs more than 24 hours ago to start my second leg yesterday. From there we are marched into a room (with chairs this time) to wait for four hours which of course becomes more like eight with the obligatory delays. We finally took off after standing in the rain wiating to board and landed in Germany 8 hours later. Another three hours of waiting. Though this time we were allowed to partake in a German beer if deisred. I desired. I also wolfed down a couple of their bratwurst. Next we flew 7 more hours to Bangor, Maine where I am currently. We were supposed to have a 2 hour layover which is now announced to be 4-7 hours. It is 3 AM local time, however, there were still some retirees here to shake our hand when we stepped off the plan and they opened the coffee shop for some warm drink and food. God bless them!
Okay, next time I blog (if ever again) it will be from my home turf in San Diego. Thanks again for all the support these past few months.
Mark

pete's place

Here in Manas we are allowed to have 2 beers in a 24 hour period if our command is game. Well everyone is interested in having that cold one after 6 months in the desert. Problem is, how do you assure that everyone is safe and behaving. Well, you have the officers and staff NCOs do shifts in the pub to make sure everyone is good. So that is where I am this minute. The pictures I just published are already obsolete as about 30 military members just walked through the door. The music is blaring, the smoke arising and the beer is flowing. I can't wait until my 2 hour shift is done so I can partake.

pedicure

Many of you would say that getting a pedicure is not manly, and you're right. That being the case, I got a pedicure yesterday. There are few reasons why:
1) I have never had a pedicure before
2) There is very limited activities to do while in Manas, Kyrgystan
3) It was a bargain at $10
Let me take you through my experience. First I got my pleasant foot bath. After the clipping and trimming of my nails and cuticles she broke out this razor blade contraption. She grabs my foot and tells me to be steady. I give a quizical look? She explains that she is not intending to shave my toe hair (yeah I got some, so what?), but instead is planning on paring down the skin on the bottom of my foot. I asked if it was ticklish and is that why she wants me to be still so as to not cut me. She replies, yes it is ticklish and that she is not worried for my foot, but for cutting her hand if I were to withdraw my foot. Now that we scrapped away all the old tissue she takes out a paddle, she says emory, and proceeds to scrap away on the sole of my foot. At last she was done and the best part came. I got a foot rubdown with moisterizer. Now that made the whole experience right there.
I know you are all asking yourselves this question now. The answer is no. I did not get them painted.

You could start an IV on that foot!

first leg home

So, yesterday was a looonnggg day. We loaded up ourselves on a bus at 2200 (10 PM) to go to the terminal for a flight out of Afghanistan at 0200. Things did not look good from the beginning as we encountered the worst sand storm of our deployment that evening. It was a complete brownout. However, it rained soon therafter which abated the dust.

At around 0100 in the morning we were told that our flight was delayed an hour which became 2 hours which became 13 hours. All the while we had to stay pretty much in this huge hanger. None of us planned for this and thus none of us had our warmest clothes on, sleeping bags or pillows. We had to make due sleeping on the plywood floor.

The good news is that we finally hoped on board a C-130 and took the 2.5 hour journey to Manas air field in Kyrgystan. It is in Bishkek, here is a link .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishtek. By the time we did all the formations, gear checks, weapons check, briefs....it was near midnight local time. However, I was still on an adrenaline high so I went to the only place on base that serves alcohol to get me a little sedation in a bottle. We are limited to 2 beers in a 24 hour period for safety reasons. I have not had a beer in 6 months and for 2 bucks I got this 16 ounce beer called 9. Why is it called 9 you ask, because it is 8.6% alcohol and they round up. So I drank maybe 40% of the beer to be on the safe side and it did the trick. I woke up feeling almost like a minor hangover between the lack of sleep over past 2 days and my out of shape liver being exposed to alcohol again.

So anyhow, things are better here in Manas. I got a big gym, a big chow hall with midrats (that's midnight rations for all you non-military folk) and my room has wireless internet. I will be back in the States next week. See you all very soon.

Air traffic control.





















Trying to get comfy.












Staging area for flight.











Marines can sleep anywhere.

hectic days

These have been hectic days indeed. We are in our last weeks here in Afghanistan which means that we have to turnover with the new crew, pack our bags and get last minute missions done. For medical it means having to do a final screen of all 470 Marines in our squadron. We also have to go through all their records to make dure complete. This has occupied most of my last week.
I also finally got to pin on my FMF last week. We were waiting until both medical officers and the chaplain had a chance to finish up so we could all pin on together. I have included pictures below. I am hoping ot blog more soon.
Mark



CO doing the pinning

The three of us post pinning.