Trunky...

When I went on my mission to Brazil there was a term for an Elder on his way out. They were commonly referred to as being "Trunky". This means that their bags were packed and they could do nothing but talk about how excited they were to get the heck out of dodge. In my first area we had one such Elder. It was kind of a drag on everyone, like me, who was faced with the prospects of being in country for another 23.5 months!

I have been fortunate enough to have arrived here to my destination a week or so before the other members of my team. This has allowed me to see how the current surgeons interface with the team of medics and nurses. They have a very good group of motivated people here and we have some very big shoes to fill. The downside to this is both of these guys are extremely trunky! I feel very much like a green missionary in Ponta Grossa Brazil, except the people there didn't want to kill me. They are waiting for the next MEDEVAC out of here.

There was a big dust storm today followed by rain showers all afternoon, turning everything into mud. The dust here is very fine, and has the consistency of flour. It blows everywhere and gets onto everything.

I made a set of shelves today and I am quite proud of my handiwork. Tomorrow I am going to make some adjustments, like adding clothes racks and also making a night stand. I ventured out to the artillery pits today to meet my noisy neighbors. They were very friendly and invited me back sometime to fire their artillery pieces. That sounded almost as cool as the helicopter ride here!

Adapt or Die

While I was at Bagram Air Base waiting, and waiting (did I mention that I waited) to get our here to Shank I noticed the moto of the 30th Medical Task Force was "Adapt or Die". At first passing I was not awe struck nor particularly moved by this motto. It was accompanied with a cobra twisted menacingly around a sword. Oooooh, scary a bunch of doctors.

Now that I have been out at my FOB for a couple of days now, I am learning to really appreciate that motto. There is so very much that you have to adapt to around here that you find yourself constantly having to make adjustments. Simple things like, going to the bathroom before you go to bed so you don't walk into the barbed wire surrounding the women's shower. Other more complex things are having to adapt to new surgical teams, ATLS teams and integrating yourself into the machinery without breaking it.

You have to adapt to the dust, the heat and the arid climate. Adapting to a crummy mattress (I have fashioned a pillow top mattress with my sleeping bags and an egg crate pad!) We are going to have to adapt to having four men living in cramped spaces with little privacy. Adapting to the time when I can call home and find my family awake and getting to talk with them (turns out to be around 5AM).

Seeing all of the people already here gives me great hope that I can make the changes necessary to "Adapt or Die".

The one thing that I found very refreshing was to be able to partake of the sacrament today. There were only three of us there, but to have something so familiar and base to draw upon was very comforting and refreshing.

Hitchiking Your Way Around the World

Well, I have finally arrived at my final destination! After a week and a half of literally hitchiking my way around the world I have made it. During this time I have learned the lesson that no one cares more about me than me. It I am not looking out for myself, no one else will. Let me explain...

While at CRC in Ft Benning, their main goal was to get us out of the US. They were fast and efficient. There was some "hurry up and wait" but it was really a minimum. On Friday afternoon we were bused from Ft Benning to Atlanta GA where we boarded a "Freedom Flight". This was an old DC 10 contracted to a private company. I was able to get a seat with lots of leg room, but it was a very narrow seat and the arms didn't fold up. From GA we flew to Shannon, Ireland where we stopped over for 6 hours. I was able to get a nap and renewed the age old debate, "If you just stop over in the airport, can you really count it as having visited that country?"

From Ireland we flew to Kuwait International Airport. We were unloaded in a secure part of the airport and hearded onto hot smelly buses. Side note: Kuwait at night has 100% humidity and is about 95 degrees. We waited around for about 2 hours and were escorted by the Kuwaiti military to the base Ali Al Salem. It is now about 2 AM and we are hot, tired and hungry.

At Kuwait there are liasons who are supposed to help us get to our final destination. The Afghanistan liasons, I found less than helpful. In Kuwait we were put in a tent with about 12 other officers where we would wait for a space available flight to Bagram. Space "A" flights to Bagram were few and far between. Guys comming back to theatre from R&R have top priority and following them it is just a scramble for seats. I befriended a LT Colonel who was able to finagle his way onto a cargo flight to Bagram and he gave me his reserved seat on the evening flight. Understand that I have been in Kuwait now for nearly 3 days. (Kuwait during the daytime is like living in a convection oven. It is absoluely the hottest place I have ever been. At night it is like living in a sauna.) Back to the story... So I show up for the flight that evening and my friend is still there. Apparently, his flight broke down on the runway and he needed his reserved seat back. My fall back plan was to fly out to Kandahar and then to Bagram. As I am on the phone with the terminal in Kandahar getting an idea of the flight schedule to Bagram, my friend grabs me and tells me that due to my pathetic begging and pestering, they are putting us on a flight leaving in 15 minutes! I grabbed my bags, and off I went.

We leave Kuwait and get about 1.5 hours into the flight and are informed that we are diverting to Qatar due to plane problems. We arrive in Qatar where we are taking to a tent and sit for about 4 hours while they fix the plane. Once back on the plane, we are informed that the flight has been re-routed to Manus (Manus is a US installation in Kajikstan, you have to fly over Bagram to get there!) We arrive in Manus and sit around for another couple of hours and finally make it to Bagram.

In Bagram, I am bunked up in a janitorial closet converted to transient quarters. I am not complaining because I could have been put in the boiler room or the electrical closet. Really, I am not joking! I sit around Bagram for a couple of days and catch a dustoff to FOB Shank!

FOB Shank is the equivalent of a spralling mining community. Nothing but tents, wood decks, main street stores and gyms. Except here all of the residents are carry machine guns and riding around in huge armoured vehicles. The climate here is very dry, dusty but actually crisp and cool in the morning.

Well, the adventure has really begun.

The Trip...

After a week of being cooped up at Ft Benning we left on Friday and traveled to the Atlanta airport where we were shuffled onto a contract plane for the long flight. There were a couple of things that I noted: The plane we were flying was older than I was, and people in the day these were built must have been much smaller. From Atlanta we flew up to Shannon, Ireland for a refuel stop. I initially thought it was because of the hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently this is a common stop off for these flights. My room mate and I debated whether or not just stopping off in the airport constitutes actually visiting that country. My vote was "no" because you have done nothing to actually experience the place. You have to at least get the stamp in the passport. Eating at a "fish-n-chips" tourist trap and buying a lepperchaun keychain, IMO does not constitute visiting Ireland.

The flight from Ireland to Kuwait was uneventfully boring, long, painful and I swear I have a decubitis ulcer on my thigh from where my tail end was wedged into the seat. I really could not get comfortable, and even Ambien aided sleep was wishful thinking.

Upon arrival at Kuwait we were sequestered in a secure portion of the airport and transported on buses to another staging area. This is where I was first introduced to the oppressive humidity of Kuwait. For the next 4 hours we proceeded to wait, wait, wait, unload bags, and wait. The one coup de gras of the night was that while everyone else was waiting (because that is what you do in the Army) another couple of doctors and I went to the Afghanistan liason tent and were the first ones to sign for the earliest flight out of Kuwait to Afghanistan. This flight quickly filled up and if not, I would be here in the bowels of hell for another 24 hours, waiting.

Well, I have been at CRC (Conus Replacement Center) for about 5 days and it has been interesting. Well, not that interesting. This is a short week long processing course where the Army double checks to make sure that everyone is ready to deploy. Ready medically (shots, dental exams, etc.), equipment (they issue an amazing amount of equipment, and it is actually less than they used to), and weapons. Tomorrow we will go and qualify with our 9mm pistols.

We were issues our body armor yesterday. This vest weighs a fair amount but is the one thing that I don't want to go into theatre without. Today we had a IED (Improvised Explosive Device) training session. They aren't trying to make us into IED experts but to give us some familiarization with them.

Interestingly enough, there are actually more civilian contractor here than military personnel. They vary from highly specialized technicians and consultants to shop clerks. Overall, it has been a pretty positive experience here. There is only so much that one can do to make, "Hurry up and wait" tolerable. They have been doing it for quite some time here so it functions as a reasonably oiled machine.

I have been busy enough that I haven't been able to think about home too much. It still doesn't seem real and I feel as if I will be going back home in the next day or two. I think it will hit me like the summer heat in Kuwait when I step off the plane into 100 degree weather at 3 in the morning. We had a great time with Mom and Dad before flying out. It is nice to know that I have so much support here at home.