Another Busy Day

Another busy day.  Pre-con most of the morning, a Clif Bar for lunch, M-ATV training, catch up on email, more incoming so head to the bunker and some night M-ATV training.

 

We had a pre-con with an Afghan construction company who is doing their third job for the corps.  Their first job was kind of disaster.  It was one of the first ANP HQ built.  So it was the first iteration of plans, they didn't know how the corps worked and it was on the side of a mountain.  However, they have seemed to learn from it and were pretty knowledgeable in our system.  One of the challenges is getting people on base daily and the other is that we typically don't allow Afghans to stay in Man Camps on the FOB.  Hopefully we can get some security issues straight so we can get the job started and stay on time. 

 

The adviser of the company that attended the pre-con spoke pretty good english (as did the QC Manager).  When we mentioned that fact he said that we got his masters in the US.  He had a degree in agriculture, came to Michigan State and got a M.Ed.  He's 66, so he was in the US in the mid 60s.  We asked if he still kept in contact with anybody in the US and he said that with all the civil wars that have happened he has lost everything, even the papers that he had addresses written on.  It has been a struggle for people to get educated and learn a skill.  We require our contractors to recruit, hire and train local Afghans.  They have to try to hire from the trades schools in the province that they are working to help build the skilled work force.

 

Driving the M-ATV with the DVE is pretty cool and it takes some getting used to.  It's hard to tell elevation changes on the screen so when you drive down into a waddie you hit the bottom before you realize it. It's pretty fun though.  It's a little easier driving with it at night because it seems to pick up the heat differences better.  Since I didn't crash it I guess I can say that I saved the taxpayers a million dollars this week :)

 

We have a good sized blimp that is anchored over the FOB.  It's our eyes in the sky.  Unfortunately, the Area Office and Resident Office are next to where it is anchored and the Taliban tends to target it occasionally.  This afternoon they lobbed some explosives into the compound and got pretty close to it.  It was loud enough to shake the building a little.  The IED teams also had a big controlled detonation just outside the FOB this afternoon.  When they find an IED they leave it in place and blow it up, which tends to throw a lot of smoke in the air.

 

HOME FRONT NEWS:  My son is now harrassing his sisters in a whole new way.  He'll hid on the stairs and grab them as they walks by.  He then starts to sing "I'm a grump ol' troll who lives under the stairs!".  I feel sorry for him when Lily gets a little older and her and Sera can gain up on Christian.