The Left Captain

It's been strange coming back to the US after two months in Army-World followed by six months in Afghanistan. Endless days of anxiety, P...

At 2am on January 10th the World Airways DC-10 left Manas. I was seated in an aisle seat with four empty seats to my left. I sunk into the s...

A three hour flight to Manas went by quickly, despite sitting in a small space where two pieces of nylon met on the bench seats. My legs wer...

I was told that "show time" was at 10pm, so I muddled through the day, watched some videos, shaved, showered, ate too much for lun...

I think I've been at Bagram for four days now, living as a transient. The transitional "quarters" consist of big circus tents...

I'm stuck at Bagram now, limited to 30 minute chunks of time on the computers at the MWR, so I have to write fast. To recap the last few...

Update: I have moved to Bagram and will continue to blog after I get some outprocessing done. It has been an interesting few weeks. Right no...

Bad weather kept the skies of Afghanistan locked down for rotary aircraft. The day I was notified to leave it started to snow, and it didn...

"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people," the Post quoted one agent as saying. "Whether it's building a s...

Christmas is complete here in Afghanistan and it is back to business as usual. The holiday tone here was quiet, reserved. At a forward opera...

I wasn't aware of this before getting here, but there is a massive cottage industry devoted to sending care packages to deployed US serv...

Time definitely slows down at the end of a deployment. I have observed this personally and everyone I talk to says that this is a real pheno...

Woke up this morning at 0500 and saw a sky full of stars and the partial moon for the first time in almost four full days. The weather syste...

I'm sure loyal readers are wondering "what's going on over there?". My wife mentioned to me that I hadn't written an e...

One of my latest “projects” is recording the best of the graffiti on the men's bathroom walls. I know it sounds strange, but I wondered ...

Back from what I again hope will be my last mission, I had a nice afternoon doing PT, looking at the sunset between sets of push ups and pul...

As I round the corner on my last month in Afghanistan I have been thinking about why it has been hard for me. There was a time back in Septe...

What do you tell a man who shuffles in smelling of dust and diesel, hands shaking, red rimmed eyes, voice quavering as he explains how the c...

I returned from that FOB and it was remarkably uneventful. I was on my fifth day, steeling myself for a seven to eight day stay, when I foun...

Still at this FOB, in the middle of nowhere. I completed two days of clinical work when I first got here but this is day five. Might be anot...

Is this my final routine mission? I think it might be. I am at a notorious FOB in the wilds of the Hindu Kush, but it has improved since I w...

This from Army Times: "The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs warned Monday that U.S. troops and their families should not expect to re...

"Australia navy off for Christmas" Most of Australia's navy is to be given two months off over Christmas as part of a new stra...

Last year, the German armed forces shipped more than 260,000 gallons of home-brewed suds to its troops serving in northern Afghanistan, as w...

I haven't posted to the blog in a while, having lost some motivation for doing anything other than the minimum. I'm at day 129 in-...

The relative calm for us has continued since early October. In the last 39 days we have done three missions to outlying outposts and two t...

 Election day and I spend it at a small outpost with a bunch of heavily armed deranged racist hillbillies. I wish more people would use birt...

 It's November 5 now and I am writing from one of the smaller outposts I cover-- one I haven't been to since early September, and I ...

I'm getting ready for the November mission schedule. As it stands we have four scheduled missions and of these four, only two of them fa...

Things have slowed down in our part of the world, which is fine by me. I know it drives some of the Soldiers nuts. I enjoy the steady and qu...

Back at my FOB after another sleepless night of waiting and waiting and then the Chinook, which is now a very cold ride as we slide into the...

Day two accounting:   11 hours of sleep 1 triple latte while reading Harpers 1 casual breakfast while watching Sportscenter 2 hours at ...

Ahh... back at Bagram Air Field (BAF) for a few days. I left my home FOB at 1am and arrived at Bagram at 4am after a freezing cold Chinook f...

Finally, my professional organization joined the rest of the medical community. It will be interesting to see how the DoD adjusts to this. I...

I joked with Colleen that this blog should become a wine and beer tasting blog in January... I know that's potentially a bad joke give t...

Back from another mission to the south. This trip reinforced my secret opinion that I am a wasted resource being deployed to these far-flung...

Last night I woke after 3am to my room shaking. I came out of a deep sleep and wondered what was causing the movement. It moved the building...

Another convoy, another five day trip to a different camp. I rode with the route clearing package-- a huge convoy of vehicles led by special...

September is gone and that's a good thing. It was a bad month around here for everyone. Ramadan left a foul taste in my mouth. Sometim...

I'm back at home, returned from the south of Afghanistan. I managed to catch a ride on a Blackhawk where I was the only passenger. I buc...

The rumors of this being the end of the world are true. Everyone here joked that I was stuck for a good two weeks once I got off the helo. T...

Writing from southern Afghanistan. I wrote in my journal that the area is just a sun-blasted desert (southern Nevada) dotted with small vill...

I'm getting a new battle rhythm, based on the needs of our commander. It looks like we will be expected to try to visit each of the FOBs...

The vote, 8,792 to 6,157 in a mail-in balloting concluded Monday, may help to settle a long debate within the profession over the ethics of ...

"When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs a...

I just got back from another mission and I am now at my FOB, hopefully for a few weeks at least. I have now visited every FOB and combat out...

Sometimes it's easy to forget that I am in Afghanistan. I can lose myself in talk about my children, plans for the future, favorite pizz...