My birthday week

Here is one of my new neighbors, just moved in today. He / she lives above my door about 3 feet over. I hope he's not the one who's been waking me up some mornings.

At the bazaar looking over some bling in the open air market. He make me good price!

Remember the old guys that sat in the balconey of the Muppet show? Well we have one of those guy here. Ltc. O'Leary the SECFOR PA. He works with us in the TMC (Troop Medical Center). Someone made the sign for him. They were threatening to put an AED (automated external defibrilator) there just incase anyone finds him slumped over.

My friend Bill gets promoted to Major. He is the one on the right. Major Deckert, the 141 XO (Executive Officer), is awarding him his rank.

What a week. Just found out I'm too old to be drafted anymore. What a birthday! Spent most of it doing paperwork. Fun stuff. My closest co-workers knew and wished me a happy birthday. After dinner I had cake and ice cream. It wasn't for me, we have it available most nights. I just decided to have some.

Just wanted to say thank you for all the notes, and cards y'all have sent me for my birthday. I have read each one and love them. My wife and kids sent some gifts. One of the gifts was some glow-in-the-dark stars. I put some of them up today in my room, it's silly but fun. Tried to take a picture, but too dark.

This week has been busy, I don't know with what but it's been busy. I get to the end of each day and I'm exasusted. We've continued to workout - which is good because of the cake and ice cream. I'm slowly getting my projects done. I need to speed up the process because I won't be here that much longer, seems like it though. I've decided that the new shiny penny feeling has worn off.

The first group of Oregon soldiers have headed home. It was great to see them go, but also sad knowing that others are still here. So many just want to get home and see their families and friends. Others are arriving all the time to take their place. Everybody is teaching their replacements how to do their jobs and the important little things that make the job easier. The night the first group left, the area they stayed was rocketed. Praise the Lord no one was hurt. Just reminds you that you must always be aware of your surrounding and not let up until we are back on the ground in the U.S.

Please keep all the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines doing there jobs (willingly) in your prayers. The people in Congress will play their games to get elected, but I have met the people that actually do the country's will. I'm pretty safe here, but others place there lives on the line daily to protect their country and hopefully enable this country to stand on its own.

Thank you all for all your support and faithful prayers for me and my family,

mike

Trip to Bagram

I got to get out of the wire again to go Bagram and take some patients there for treatment. The trip was pretty uneventful (which is good). The following is a group of pictures taken from the back seat of an up armor humvee. Some of them have some haze in the upper part from dirt on the bullet proof window before I wiped it clean(er). Hope you enjoy them.

Above is a view of Mt. Ghar from the back side near KMTC (Kabul Military Training Center)

Above right, a door factory along the side of the street.

In the foreground is a brick factory, family type enterprise. The black smoke is from the fuel, old shreaded tires. We saw about 40 of these factories. The back ground shows Ghar on the left and just a nice looking mountain on the right.

Looking out the front window a large herd of sheep getting ready to cross the road. Local donkey cart, (mass transit).

More pictures of the same mountains.

Just an interesting building with a painting of a tank.

There were a lot of camels along the road near nomad camp sites

Pics of the mountains.

What looks like a new communication center out in the middle of no where.

Nomad tents near the road with a herd of sheep near by. It is not clear in this picture but the tents have U.N relief fund symbols on them.

More of the sheep along the road.

A bit of green as we get near BAF.

Just a building near the road. Don't have any idea what it says.

Mountains in the distance. A little closer is a swath of green land that looks like it is set up for farming.

Some ruins of an old village along the road.

ANP out post. Afghan National Police. Looks like a highway patrol base. On the way back the 3 officers that were there were standing outside with their AK47's.

More mountain shots.

Large nomad tent out in the middle of no where.

More brick factories just outside of Kabul.

more guys and sheep.

Local shop for something. I think he sells metal doors. One of the nicest shops about. In the city there are a lot of little shops that are made out of conex trailers. They line the streets on the main road.

This was my view from the back seat, behind the driver. Airman Morin did a great job driving.

Hope you enjoyed my little trip. Please send ideas on what you would like to see or hear about. In addition, please leave an e-mail address with questions if you need a personal answer.

Unfortunely I could not get out of the hummer to meet the people or take a better look around at the sites and culture that has been here for over 1000 years. One such place was visited last week by some of the others in our group. They went to what is now a school. It is in the bombed out ruins of a mosque that is over 600 years old. There are older buildings here as well. Up north at mez there is a mosque that dates back to almost the time of Jesus, called the blue mosque. Haven't been to see it, but i've heard it is amazing.

The people I've met here are very much like people in the U.S. They are just trying to get by and make sure they have enough to eat. The kids seem to be very happy and enjoy their lives. They don't need the same things it seems our society needs to be happy. School is very important to the children. My patient with tinea capatus thinks he would not have had it if he had been in school. He states he might grow up to be a doctor so he can help people. Below is a picture of him and his family in the TMC treatment area just after I worked on his head wound. He is the one in the back with the bandage standing next to his dad. His brother and little sister are up front.

His father is a day laborer and likes the Americans. He wants to work here on base. He gave me his CV and wants me to pass it along. I'll try and see if I can help him.

Talk to you all later.

An average day

The following is an average day here at Camp Phoenix. I tryed to include the typical things I do each day, including occasional work.

The Day comes early, beginning with a workout.
Our gym has some very good equipment and plenty of it. It is open 24/7. 3 days a week we lift and 3 days a week go for a run on the treadmill. It is much more pleasent in side because the air is filtered.

This is the basketball court on the other side of the gym. The signs were painted on some time ago. The one on the left shows the different countries involved at Camp Phoenix at that time.

Early morning looking south. These are the only mountains that still have snow on them.

Out behind Legoland. Some soldier built this in Phoenix 3. Note the barriers behind it. These are called Hesco's. They get there name from the company that makes them. These are dirt filled barriers that protect us from blast and form fighting positions as needed. We have bunkers that look like these too, but they have a roof about 6-8 feet thick as well. We have at least 3 layers of barriers throughout the base to protect us.

These, morning doves and beatles are about all the wild life we see. He's about 2 inches long.

My work crew on our latest battle field furniture project outside the front of the TMC. The front of the TMC is pretty small and we sometimes need a place for overflow.

The deck is finshed. Another one was built on the other side of the enterance as well.

My first try at building benches!

Specialist Angel Morrow, Petty officer Jay Day and me enjoying our new deck and bench. It was Jay's Idea to build the deck in the first place.

Different groups from the base. This is a platoon of Mongolian soldiers

The chow hall. We go here to graze 3 times a day. There are 4 places to get food at every meal. You can get as much or as little as you want. Huge omlets, and almost anything else you can think about. Ice Cream about 5 nights a week.

Last week they began showing outdoor movies twice a week on the side of the fire station. We watched Departed last Friday night.

Thanks for looking in to see whats going on here. I have been enjoying doing this blog. Please keep Chris and the kids in your prayers. Thanks again for all of you support.

mike

If there is anything you would like to know more about please let me know. Later this week I hope to put up pictures from my trip to Bagram.