Crossing Guard

My rack at Airborne was a military spec cot, essentially a single sheet of fabric stretched super taut across a metal frame. It’s like sleeping on a board, except a board will eventually warm up. The thin material of the cot tends to suck the heat right out of you and, since nighttime temperatures in our 20 man tent at 7,000 feet drop to below fifty, sleep was bad and the back is really responding poorly.


Thankfully, our helicopter arrived on time, so there was no excess waiting in the sun. We loaded quickly, having gotten used to the process, and headed to FOB Shank, where we spent a hour or so standing at the top of a hill looking out at where our project would eventually be constructed. We would have liked to be looking at exactly where the project would eventually be constructed, but we landed on the wrong side of the road, and we would have needed plenty of guns and armor to cross the street.

Looking both ways isn’t sufficient any more, it seems, nor is simply flying our helicopter to the other side of the street. Ah well. After takeoff, we made a slow loop around the project area, and I took another few score of images and a video capture or three. We’ll leave the details to the next outfit.

We shook Shank and made our way back to Sharana, where we’ll stay for the next week or so, before heading back to Bagram and redeploying CONUS. Moments ago, we learned that we’ll have another two days here, and two days less in Bagram, because there’s no room for us in Bagram. Workwise, it should be no problem, as we have better working accommodations here (and my eight step commute can’t be beat).

Interestwise, it’ll suck, as there is little to nothing going on here, and just little going on at BAF.