Speaking of fortified positions, the wife has settled into her compound at FOB Gardez in Afghanistan. The getting there took the better part of two weeks. First a stop in Shannon, Ireland, that turned into a stay of several days while weather improved at the next stop, Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Manas is the base, you may recall, that the Kyrg government briefly threatened to close last year but after negotiations allowed to stay open and available to the US. Here's a slice of the description she sent regarding the downtime spent there waiting for a flight to Bagram air base, Afghanistan:
"I'm sitting here now in the big bar and rec tent that's centrally located here. Has good WiFi. There's a stage, and a live band is about to get rolling. The place is pretty full, and there's all sorts of shenanigans going on. I see Army guys who clearly aren't allowed to drink building can pyramids with Red Bull cans. Most the AF people have a beer in front of them. Us PRT weenies are still under GO1 (General Order No. 1 forbids alcohol consumption -- Ed.) and can't partake. There's lots of Polish and Croat soldiers here right now, as well as some US Marines in their desert cammies. All just trying to get downrange like us. The Croat group has a bunch of women in uniform as well. I saw a couple of them rocking long ponytails and gold hoop earrings. Very different appearance standards than we have. Pretty sweet."Next stop was Bagram, the air base northwest of Kabul, where Kelley was last deployed in 2007:
"That is hardly the same planet it was when I was there before. It's totally different and the place is exponentially busier than when I was here. Plus, the transients are all put in a camp out on the edge of nowhere, where you have to take a bus if you want to get down to main base where I used to live, and I just never did it. The transient camp is just downright freaky. People from all over, with tons of civilians, mostly Afghan, mixed in. I kept referring to it as "Bartertown," because it just had that Mad Max apocolyptic, survival-of-the-fittest feel to it. What a freaky place."And then finally the last stop for the next several months, FOB Gardez, which is similar in geography to northern New Mexico. She lives in a mud brick building, or qalat, in a base where outside lighting is nonexistent. The nighttime stars are a breathtaking sight. More on living conditions:
"The qalat is really like living in an adobe house in NM. Has the vigas across the ceiling, and I constantly worry about bugs and rodents. The guys who lived in the room before me have had a running tally of mice killed there, and it's depicted on the wall with a little drawing of a mouse and tic-marks for each year, going back to 2004. Nice."The high altitude takes some getting used to, even for tough guys:
"Starting to get less uncomfortable here. I know it's at 7,600 feet, but thought that wouldn't be a huge deal. I kept a headache for the first two days, was nauseous off and on, and I get out of breath walking more than 50 feet. It's pathetic. I had to don my gear yesterday and we convoyed over to the nearby FOB to their firing range, so we could re-zero our M4's. Apparently the altitude messes with the scope's settings or something, and we had to re-zero. According to one of the SECFOR guys, I'm a really good shot! That was a shock."On the Home Front
Stars & Stripes must have heard my plea because it ran this piece on the surprise hold put on MyCAA, the program that gives military spouses up to $6,000 for tuition. The program is supposed to help spouses train up for some kind of career both meaningful and portable. It no doubt aims also to improve retention among the military members themselves by giving two-career households better odds within military families. A post on the Facebook site dedicated to this situation surmises that with retention and recruiting goals being met, keeping spouses satisfied may have less urgency.
I take advantage of this program, sure, but lots of spouses with husbands and wives in much lower pay grades see this as a definite leg up. It affords an opportunity to learn anything from auto mechanics to computer IT to a graduate degree. Finding work anywhere is a difficult proposition, but as a constantly shifting military member's spouse there exists an added layer of difficulty. If not for folks like me, but for those who need it most, this program needs to survive.
Here's another story, from Military Times, that emphasizes the rather clueless and sudden nature of the abrupt shutdown of this program.
This strange development leaves a lot of people in the lurch with little explanation and no expectations. Some may question whether it's largess we can ill afford and that's a fair question. Turns out there's nearly $600 million already committed. I expect the program will either disappear or return with a diminished budget.
Elsewhere in This Great, Big World of Ours
We just finished another semester's worth of graduate education crammed into a week of classroom time at Lakenheath, the topic this time was international communication. I ruminated upon lessons learned as I sipped my morning java and perused the news channels and online newspapers.
The Oscars topped the New York Times, which also gave prominence to the Iraqi elections.
The Washington Post echoed the same set of reportage. The earthquake in eastern Turkey had yet to register, as did the massacre of approximately 500 in Nigeria.
Al-Jazeera had good reportage from the scene in Nigeria. It also reported this story about the Mekong River drying up, due, in part or largely, depending on who you believe, to the Chinese building a series of dams up river.
Reporting on the capture of the American-born al-Qaeda member in Pakistan is beginning to look like a case of mistaken identity, as much as it would be intensely satisfying to see this SOB captured.
Finally, Robert Gates, the US defense secretary, is in Afghanistan today, following up on the apparent success in taking Marja. The battle now is for Kandahar.
'Til next time, keep it real.
No comments:
Post a Comment