About to Take Charge

May 16-

Man, days can fly by like that. I can't believe the 11th was the last time I wrote something. Thats fine by me though. The faster the time goes, the better. And by the looks of how busy I will be, I'm going to wake up and be getting married in no time. Busy you ask? Yes. Let me ramble off just a few of my jobs.

Of course first and foremost, Fire Direction Officer. Next, Headquarters Platoon Commander, Watch Officer, Supply Officer, Armory Officer, Assistant Executive Officer and Command Emergency Response Program Pay Officer. So what this means is I lied to everyone when they asked me what I would be doing in Afghanistan. I thought I would just be receiving calls for fire from observers, processing some data and sending it to the guns. That job in itself can be quite busy, but since we are providing fire for ourselves we will usually know when fire support will be needed. That is, when we send a patrol out, be ready to go. When a patrol is not out, do everything else. Honestly though, I love it. Like we discussed earlier. Busy=Time going faster. Time going faster= getting home soon. Getting home soon=getting married soon. Getting married soon=Having a wife sooner. Now, I'm no Einstein but I believe that means, Busy=Wife. Gentlemen, does that sound correct? Hahaha and the best part is, there are no women here to slap me. And by the time I see you women you will be too happy to see me you wont want to slap me. You know its true.

Going with the facts just proven and thinking about my life being busy with a wife, that kind of makes me sad. That means the time that I will want to slow down and enjoy will go the fastest. Booooo. I no longer like my logic.

Its very pretty here. The lake, dam and river provide irrigation to all the farmers in the area which makes for some nice greenery to look at. On top of that, the water is beautiful. I'm holding out hope that they will let us swim in it! My mind should probably be on more important things, like my job(s), but this water out here is really distracting. I don't think there is anywhere else in Afghanistan I'd rather be as far as a FOB goes. From everything else I have seen, its all dry sandy desert. I'll put some photos of the area up when I get a chance so you can enjoy it with me. It is very hot though. Its not even the hot months and I'm convinced we are hitting the 100's already. I'm betting it gets up to 120 around August. Its a crazy but very true thought. For the past two weeks and the next 6 months I will sweat every single day, almost all day long. It's just like at OCS in Virginia where I was soaking wet all the time from the humidity. For example, right now I'm sitting on my cot in pt gear with shower shoes on and I am STILL sweating.

A good time for me to PT here is around lunchtime. There is a problem with that though. No, not the heat, I can work through that. Its the fact that we can only take showers during a two hour block in the morning and an hour and a half block in the evening. If I get up early, it will be to call home because its nighttime then. If I stay up late to work out, it is packed. The gym isn't very big as it is, then throw 20 more Marines around and you end up just watching a bunch of dudes work out. That may be your cup of tea, but not mine. I tried using the shower that the CO/XO/1stSgt/Gunny have because they can shower whenever but I was told I wasn't allowed to use theirs… that its only for the people who live there. Sometimes I just don't understand people.

I've taken a tour of most of the battle space that we have Marines on and gotten a pretty good picture of how things may pan out over the next couple months. I'm not saying I know whats going to happen, but its nice to know some history about this place and learn from the unit that has been here the past 7 months. Don't worry about us too much over here. I am confident in the capabilities of our Marines and our Commanding Officer. We will never take unnecessary risks. We know our job, know our buddies jobs, and know how to accomplish our mission.

My living quarters right now aren't too bad considering the situation. I am in a building and I have a cot. Thats pretty good. Problem is… no A/C, no fan and nowhere to put all my stuff. We all love living out of our suitcase though so no big deal. The great thing is that after B Battery 1/10 leaves this week we can move into their rooms. The one I have my eye on has A/C. I'll let you know if I acquire it. I didn't even sleep in the building last night because there is no circulating air. Instead, I took a bug net and a cot and laid outside in my skivvies. It got nice and cool. I even got in my sleeping bag liner halfway through the night. I've decided to continue doing that until I can move in to my room.

There is only one spot on the FOB with purified water. The problem is, the water in the sink is cooler (coming from the Dam) so I tried drinking that. It actually worked out well. I have not gotten sick yet and its a much more convenient trip to the bathroom than the water pump. The plumbing system here is pretty funny though. Theres directions on how to work everything written all over the walls saying turn this handle, don't turn that handle, that knob is for decoration, that knob will overflow the head, etc etc etc. Thats how complex it is.

Food is just fine. Meal rats in the morning and evening and MRE's during the day. On Fridays we have steak and crab meat. Last night (Sunday) we had a meal rat steak that tasted better than the real steaks we get and the crab meat taste like snot. The "good" food is called Class 1 I think. Class two or three should not taste better than class 1, but sometimes it does.

Okay, I am about to pass out, not sure if its because I'm tired or hot, but either way, I need to get some rest. PEACE