First Post

Hello!

I dont know how much people know about what all we are doing over here so im going to try and make it clear what my job is and what we are doing here in Afghanistan. Some things will be vague caue of operational security (OPSEC).

My job is to provide indirect fire support to the company. I am attached to one of our line platoons. I am under the platoon sergeant and answer to him; ts nice not having a long chain of command, makes things run faster.

Life here consists of a constant rotation of post and patrols. Post is just an overwatch of the base we are on, maintaining security. Patrols is where we actually go out and into the local towns and meet people, it is also where we are most likely to meet up with Mr. Taliban.

As for our living conditions we are living pretty well. I live in a tent with ten other Marines, the tent is made for more like twenty so we all have plenty of space, which is nice compared to some of the training we had when we had 8 people to a four man tent. It has a heater and an airconditioner, although just the other day the generator broke so we have been without both. Thats fine by me, i sleep better when its cold anyhow. I have a mattress that I found in another tent that the previous company left. Well i call it a mattress but its more like a small foam pad that fits on my cot. I washed it and covered it in lysol and now i have the most comfortable rack in our tent. We have chow made for us for breakfast and dinner, and MRE's(Meals Ready to Eat) for lunch, ... I usually dony eat lunch cause the MRE's are just so stacked with preservatives it makes you want to gag, although when you are hungry you just eat and dont think about it. We also have showers and a small laundry room. So I get to do laundry about once a week.

The kids in the towns are some of the most persistent beggers I have ever seen, they pretty much follow you around once you get into the towns asking for food and pens. They ask for pens because the Taliban have forbidden them from going to school unless they are the ones teaching, so they have taken all schooling supplies away from the locals. We are changing this, as part of our PR(Public Relations) campaign.

The saying that there are no athiest in foxholes is very true. Its amazing to see who comes to chapel services and who is asking for prayer before patrols. Many times it is Marines who you would have never guessed were religious at all. One Marine in particular, who came from the same recruiting station as me, has become very interested in reading the Bible and asking for help understanding certain passages. We do not have a chaplain with us here permenantly, he roves around from base to base. Mostly we have services on our own.

Well I have to go. Hope to post more later

K