The Things You See in Kandahar

Life here in the Sandbox can be very routine....The Term " Groundhog Day" not only applies to the movie with Bill Murray, but also can be very descriptive when you observe the ebb & flow of time here in the sandbox.

The day-to-day routine becomes predictable...I get up at the basic same time each day, go to Breakfast at about the same time, work the same basic hours, have supper in the evening at the same time and try to end my day around the same hour each night, etc.

Then there is the unexpected things that make you go “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot????" What is with that??? Something occurs or is seen that throws the norm right out the window.......

As an example, when I was in Iraq, we had a Gunnery Chief, who was in charge of all the weapons for all the Seabees, and he used to walk around camp with an inflatable sheep under his arm....we would ask him " What's with the Sheep Chief??" and he would reply, " To hell with the rest of you, the Sheep is mine..." or some other saltier Chiefly remarks that can't be repeated here due to decorum....

Here in Kandahar, certain things tend to stand out. I am driving down the road the other day and I spy something that catches my immediate attention. An antique BMW Military Motorcycle (Model R71) with a sidecar attached, parked by the side of a building. It is in pristine shape and painted up in period correct colors. This would be like finding a beautiful old 57 Chevy sitting untouched at the local gravel pit....I am unsure who it belongs to but it is without doubt the coolest vehicle I have seen here.....lots of nice military rigs here but this one beats all others hands down for style and just out & out coolness..... It looks like Steve McQueen should be coming out to take her out for a ride....I would like to take it for a ride…and I’m not the biggest motorcycle guy in the world.

Then there is the Military compound decorated with a pair of "Hang Ten" feet painted on their Building and an elevated sign above their compound....I can't snap a picture for obvious reasons (it is strictly verboten to photograph certain military areas) but it stands out like a lady bug at a duck picnic.

On a regular basis in the evening, you can observe a fighter jet heading out at high velocity with his after burner firing full blast....in the darkness the afterburner lights up the sky and the roar of the plane can almost drive you deaf.....I like that we have a constant airshow going on for our entertainment (and punishing the bad guys along the way.) Those things are to be expected but sometimes, the pilots push it with a low level flight or other feats of incredible flying acrobatics…

Other than that, most other things here are very very routine, mundane, dusty and grey. This is good as dull & mundane means that nothing really really bad is happening to people on base....and that's the way we like it......