First mission

We finished our first mission today. It was a short mission as far as missions go. We left yesterday, early afternoon and went down south to a soon-to-be out post. We set up and did our thing. As far as missions go, this one was rather uneventful. There was nothing going on in the area at all. That is what we suspected, but, the S-2 wanted to make sure and sent us down.

It was more of a training mission of sorts. It gave us a chance to operate with a minimal chance of danger so we could concentrate on doing our jobs instead of worrying about our safety.
It is now the 14th of Feb. 2009 and the end of Valentines day. I, for one, had a rather interesting day. I am sad that I am not home with the family, however, I am going to remember this Valentines day more than most.

It was an interesting experience to be able to work side by side with the A N A (Afghan National Army) and see how they operate. I think we have a long way to go here in Afghanistan, before they are ready to take over the job at hand. They do have the heart though. I felt sad seeing how hard they work and yet how little they get done.

There are many things we take for granted back home. For example; They do not have electricity like we do. There are no wall plates with switchs to flip, for lights. There is, however, a generator that runs at night, from which they run extension cords and plug up lights to it. The compound I was on had one generator. That one generator powered the security lights and the room lights. No heaters to go around either. We just put a piece of plywood on the concrete floor and then put our sleeping bags on the wood. That kept the cold concrete from sucking the heat out of our bodies through out the night. The next morning, however, my back was in so much pain, that I could not even think of moving. I took about an hour just to get up and start moving around. It seems that I have gotten spoiled by sleeping on a great bed for the last few years. I MISS MY BED, but, not as much as I miss my car. LOL

Well, that is it for now. I will write again when I have access to a computer.