Today was orientation training-- orienting us to the threats in this AOR. I'll spare you the details because you really don't want to know, and I can't talk about most of it either: a lot of it was discussing threat countermeasures, current trends, etc.
The ride out to the facility was interesting, going along the perimeter road, seeing old Soviet defensive positions and mine lines, which are corridors where the Soviets put down antipersonnel mines around the base perimeter. A bit of irony talking about defeating insurgents while sitting in a Soviet base (that was abandoned by the Soviets) getting attacked by the same guys who we trained and armed to defeat the Soviets. Anyway...
I am now confirmed on a flight manifest and scheduled to leave for my FOB this week. This is good for two reasons: (1) I leave Bagram Air Field and (2) I am not going by convoy. You can read the news and deduce for yourself why I have the second sentiment.
Related to this, I found out today that not only is Afghanistan geographically larger than Iraq, but it also has a larger population, several million more than Iraq. At the same time, the coalition forces number at less than half the numbers in Iraq. I think the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) numbers at about 50k.
I have to admit some measure of fear now-- it's like it will get real as soon as I leave the relative safety of BAF. I've heard good things about my FOB (read: secure) and the place is not in the news, which is good. My fear is not just mortal fear but it's also fear of the unknown, fear of the distance and the time, fear of not being able to do a good job at what I am supposed to do. Like most fears, mine are exaggerated and disproportionate therefore I am confident that once I face them, they will shrink down in size... and no, by "shrink" I'm not referring to the "pucker factor".
Sunday, July 13, 2008
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