Here in Kandahar, it is HOT, Dry and Dusty....Oh yeah, did I mention DUSTY ??
Here are a few shots of what I am talking about.....Some serious Dust Devils tearing up the sands....
Showing posts with label Desert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desert. Show all posts
Monday, August 13, 2012
Dust Devils in Kandahar
I have been reading about the drought that is hitting most of the good old USA - Luckily, the New England area has no issue with rain as back home, they have been getting a serious soaking.... I feel sorry for the farmers and others suffering under this seasonal stretch of dryness......
Here in Kandahar, it is HOT, Dry and Dusty....Oh yeah, did I mention DUSTY ??
Here are a few shots of what I am talking about.....Some serious Dust Devils tearing up the sands....
Here in Kandahar, it is HOT, Dry and Dusty....Oh yeah, did I mention DUSTY ??
Here are a few shots of what I am talking about.....Some serious Dust Devils tearing up the sands....
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
" Embracing the suck" - an excerpt from " Greetings From Afghanistan - Send More Ammo " by Capt. Benjamin Tupper
Like many others, I was able to pick up some new reading material for Christmas....and as I have a 1 hour train ride to and from the workplace in Bawston (Boston), I have time to scroll around on the IPad and/or read...
My newest read is an awesome book called, " Greetings from Afghanistan - Send more Ammo" by Captain Benjamin Tupper, NY Army National Guard. His writing is a tour de force of what he experienced as a member of a ETT or a Embedded Training Team (ETT), a small group of U.S. soldiers tasked with training and mentoring the ramshackle, newly formed Afghan National Army. Each two-man unit gets a company of about 100 Afghan soldiers, about whose language, history, and culture Tupper was—admittedly—entirely clueless. The result is a candid series of snapshots of the challenges he faced, both cultural and military.
Tupper and his machine-gunning partner Ski were in a dozen firefights with Taliban during their year in Afghanistan - a relatively high number - and in those vividly recounted life-and-death gun battles, they were not backed by a platoon of US soldiers with "high-tech commo, weapons, medical skills and evacuation assets." They were barreling along IED-laden roads with no engineer route-clearing teams. As just two US soldiers embedded with the ANA, they were very low on the pecking order for emergency air support or a quick reaction force, meaning Special Forces backup.
Yet Tupper and Ski were a priority target for Taliban fighters.
"The ETTs with their sole Humvee," Tupper says, "were understood to be the nerve center of the operation . . . and we were targeted accordingly."
The ETT program in Afghanistan began a half-decade before Tupper's 2006 arrival in country, its aim to speed up Afghan self-sufficiency in logistics, tactics and combined-arms fights against insurgencies. In short, it's "teach a man to fish" with assault rifles.
Part of what makes his write-up insightful is his NO-SHITE attitude and bravado. This shines through in the first chapter entitled, " Embrace The Suck "
" I first heard the phrase " embrace the suck" in Pittsburgh in 2001. I was in the living room of a college buddy, nursing a hangover, and flipping through a popular national magazine. inside was an unsanitized article about the field conditions of America's newest war: Afghanistan. The list of hardships that the soldiers were experiencing in the heat and dust was described in vivid detail. But the spirits of the American Infantrymen were undeterred. Their Zen-like approach was to "embrace the suck", a strategy of treating hardships as friends, not enemies, and driving on.
Less than two weeks after my arrival in Ghazni, I was baptized in sweat and filth into this brotherhood of suffering and misery. I had just returned from a week long mission in the field with our ANA infantry battalion when I found myself in awe over the degradation of my physical body in such a short time.
Operation desert Lion, as it was called, consisted of a series of sweeps deep into remote corners of Ghazni Province, with overnight bivouacs in various district centers. The operation, my first personal foray into real-world warfare, ended up being quite successful. We captured over a dozen suspected Taliban foot soldiers, and the Afghan National Police (ANP) captured a confirmed al-Qaeda regional commander. No friendly forces were killed or injured.
But Death and Injury are only two of the three facets of physical harm that confront a soldier. After this operation, we all suffered from the third facet of physical harm: the generalized internal and external human deterioration that occurs on long combat missions. This source of misery is perhaps best described simply as " the suck": the dozens of small, needling things that torment and plague the body when it is deprived of sanitation, sleep and proper nourishment..."
He goes into extreme detail regarding your body shutting off it's hunger drive due to heat and quality of food offered (i.e. MREs). The debilitating effect of heat as the temps in the area you are working is well up in to the lower 115-120 degree range when combined with a full combat outfit of kevlar, ballistic vest and all other gear, creates a oven effect similar to being suited up for winter weather. Sleep deprivation is an issue, as all on missions are running at a 20 hour+ tempo (or longer), at a state of total hyper awareness, and not having anywhere decent to sleep. Add into all this a lack of any kind of real sanitation for washing, going to the bathroom (there are NO BATHROOMS) and the overall pure crappiness of places you find yourself in, and you get a good sense of why they call it " The Suck" and " embracing the suck" was the only way of dealing with it.
The overall read of this insightful tome into what our guys are experiencing out there in the SHITEWILDS of AFGHN is awesome...I highly, highly recommend picking this up as while I had somewhat better living conditions most of the time while I was in AFGHN, I remember my time in IRAQ and during that excursion, it was just like he describes in his book.
Great stuff and well worth the cost of picking this up at your local bookseller.
My newest read is an awesome book called, " Greetings from Afghanistan - Send more Ammo" by Captain Benjamin Tupper, NY Army National Guard. His writing is a tour de force of what he experienced as a member of a ETT or a Embedded Training Team (ETT), a small group of U.S. soldiers tasked with training and mentoring the ramshackle, newly formed Afghan National Army. Each two-man unit gets a company of about 100 Afghan soldiers, about whose language, history, and culture Tupper was—admittedly—entirely clueless. The result is a candid series of snapshots of the challenges he faced, both cultural and military.
Tupper and his machine-gunning partner Ski were in a dozen firefights with Taliban during their year in Afghanistan - a relatively high number - and in those vividly recounted life-and-death gun battles, they were not backed by a platoon of US soldiers with "high-tech commo, weapons, medical skills and evacuation assets." They were barreling along IED-laden roads with no engineer route-clearing teams. As just two US soldiers embedded with the ANA, they were very low on the pecking order for emergency air support or a quick reaction force, meaning Special Forces backup.
Yet Tupper and Ski were a priority target for Taliban fighters.
"The ETTs with their sole Humvee," Tupper says, "were understood to be the nerve center of the operation . . . and we were targeted accordingly."
The ETT program in Afghanistan began a half-decade before Tupper's 2006 arrival in country, its aim to speed up Afghan self-sufficiency in logistics, tactics and combined-arms fights against insurgencies. In short, it's "teach a man to fish" with assault rifles.
Part of what makes his write-up insightful is his NO-SHITE attitude and bravado. This shines through in the first chapter entitled, " Embrace The Suck "
" I first heard the phrase " embrace the suck" in Pittsburgh in 2001. I was in the living room of a college buddy, nursing a hangover, and flipping through a popular national magazine. inside was an unsanitized article about the field conditions of America's newest war: Afghanistan. The list of hardships that the soldiers were experiencing in the heat and dust was described in vivid detail. But the spirits of the American Infantrymen were undeterred. Their Zen-like approach was to "embrace the suck", a strategy of treating hardships as friends, not enemies, and driving on.
Less than two weeks after my arrival in Ghazni, I was baptized in sweat and filth into this brotherhood of suffering and misery. I had just returned from a week long mission in the field with our ANA infantry battalion when I found myself in awe over the degradation of my physical body in such a short time.
Operation desert Lion, as it was called, consisted of a series of sweeps deep into remote corners of Ghazni Province, with overnight bivouacs in various district centers. The operation, my first personal foray into real-world warfare, ended up being quite successful. We captured over a dozen suspected Taliban foot soldiers, and the Afghan National Police (ANP) captured a confirmed al-Qaeda regional commander. No friendly forces were killed or injured.
But Death and Injury are only two of the three facets of physical harm that confront a soldier. After this operation, we all suffered from the third facet of physical harm: the generalized internal and external human deterioration that occurs on long combat missions. This source of misery is perhaps best described simply as " the suck": the dozens of small, needling things that torment and plague the body when it is deprived of sanitation, sleep and proper nourishment..."
He goes into extreme detail regarding your body shutting off it's hunger drive due to heat and quality of food offered (i.e. MREs). The debilitating effect of heat as the temps in the area you are working is well up in to the lower 115-120 degree range when combined with a full combat outfit of kevlar, ballistic vest and all other gear, creates a oven effect similar to being suited up for winter weather. Sleep deprivation is an issue, as all on missions are running at a 20 hour+ tempo (or longer), at a state of total hyper awareness, and not having anywhere decent to sleep. Add into all this a lack of any kind of real sanitation for washing, going to the bathroom (there are NO BATHROOMS) and the overall pure crappiness of places you find yourself in, and you get a good sense of why they call it " The Suck" and " embracing the suck" was the only way of dealing with it.
The overall read of this insightful tome into what our guys are experiencing out there in the SHITEWILDS of AFGHN is awesome...I highly, highly recommend picking this up as while I had somewhat better living conditions most of the time while I was in AFGHN, I remember my time in IRAQ and during that excursion, it was just like he describes in his book.
Great stuff and well worth the cost of picking this up at your local bookseller.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The 63rd Psalm...."my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; "
The words of this Psalm have been one that I have recited often.....the part where it talks about " my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; " resonates with me as I have spent time in Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq & now Afghanistan....
Read the words of those who knew our savior and be humbled....This Psalm is the answer to the murderous thugs of the Taliban. They will find out when it comes their time to answer for their crimes when they meet their maker.....inshalla indeed.
Psalm 63
1O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
8My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
9But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
11But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
And How was your day??? - Dust Storm hits Camp Leatherneck
Today at approximately 16:00 hours, our location was hit by a fierce Dust Storm....
We are here supporting the US Military and conditions here are harsh - Temps soar to the lower 120's during the day and the weather can change dramatically as seen in these pictures...Hot, windy & dusty seem to be our three most regular weather conditions.
I am looking forward to being home in Late July for a well deserved R&R, and enjoying the beautiful summer weather in the greater Boston area....I really, really am....
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