So what does Kabul look like?

Granted, we don't get "out" much, but I did manage to take these pictures from the roof of one of the buildings we visit. The mountains in the background are part of the Hindu Kush mountain ranges, and on sunny/clear days are absolutely spectacular.




The "just to prove we were there" shot - me and my boss.

Farewells

Time to back up a little bit tonight. I've been concentrating on getting the newest events up and left a few off from before I posted to this blog. In the short time I've been here, two JAGs have bid us farewell and are headed off to their new adventures.

Pete is the Navy JAG I am technically relieving. He spent his six months working with the Focused District Development program, getting very involved in police training throughout the country. He was a terrific sponsor and really helped me get ready to come out here. He's heading back to the East Coast to resume "normal" Navy JAG life.

Alan is an Army JAG who was here for a year. From what I've learned, it sounds like he was able to do a little bit of everything - from helping to write Afghan criminal procedure code to addressing their Parliament. Alan extended here for a little while to help out another unit and then will be heading back to his civilian life as a prosecutor.


We're going to miss you guys!


Of course, the departures were a great excuse for a party, so we had a BBQ in their honor (BRRRR!!) complete with s'mores lessons. :)

Of course, this is a very simplistic description of the things they did here. I don't want to go into too much detail, but suffice to say their effects will be felt for a long time.

Fair winds and following seas!

Camels :)

I'll try to put together a "real" post later today, but I wanted to get some pictures uploaded while my connection speed is tolerable (the internet here is really not very reliable).

Contrary to popular belief, there ARE camels in Afghanistan. :) These pictures were taken at the base Christmas party yesterday. We had absolutely beautiful weather - probably the warmest it's been since I've arrived.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Some Christmas-themed pictures from around the base. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Visitors!

Apparently it's pretty common to get a lot of visitors here - especially VIPs! Last week we had the honor of hosting the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force (MGEN Rives) and Senator Lindsey Graham (also known as Colonel Graham, as he was here as part of his reserve commitment). Here is a picture of both during our roundtable session, and Colonel Graham was kind enough to pose for pictures (so was MGEN Rives, but that one didn't come out!).




The Air Force Times even picked up a story about Colonel Graham's visit (and yes, all the women are feeling a little left out!)





It's also nice (and unexpected!) to run into friends here. Theron is assigned to the NJS branch office in Charlottesville, and he was out here doing a TAD for the Army. We're now known as "NJS detachment Afghanistan." :)







I also ran into Congressman Joe Wilson (another South Carolina representative!) as I was headed to chow one morning and he told me all about his son (who's also in the Navy). Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough with the camera on that one!

I've had a couple of questions about the weather here. I have tried a few times to get the Weatherbug uploaded to this blog, but it appears to have some errors. It's pretty chilly here - right now our highs are in the 40s and the lows in the teens. The past few days we've had a lot of rain (which is a little unusual) and it even hailed/sleeted one day (very unusual!). The mountains you can see from the base are snow-covered and absolutely gorgeous. I've tried taking pictures but they really don't do it justice.

Keep the questions and the comments coming and I'll do my best to get to them all!

Accommodations

Just a quick post tonight. I promised a look at our room. I live in a converted CONEX shipping container (no windows!). It does have heat and A/C. I'm told it's 10 feet by 20 feet but it doesn't feel that big! I arrived on a Sunday and had a room on Wednesday, which I'm told is pretty much miraculous by Camp Egger standards. :) They divide up the housing list by rank, and it just so happened that one female O-5 left on Wednesday morning and I was the only field grade officer on the female waiting list. I feel a little bit guilty about that, as two male O-4s arrived with me and they have no hope of a room anytime soon - others have been on the list 5-6 weeks already.

There are two people assigned to each room - my roommate happens to be an O-5 Army type who works ridiculous hours, so I haven't gotten to know her very well yet. She's also on her mid-tour leave right now, so I have the room to myself for a little while. The beds are definitely more comfortable than the cots at Fort Jackson and I don't have to walk outside for the shower or the head, so all in all it could be a lot worse. The first picture is of the room itself (my half of it anyway!), and the second is of my hallway so you can get a feel for the layout. The floor "gives" in some locations but other than that I have no complaints. :)

I've been here just over a week now and I can finally navigate the base without getting lost. Of course, now that I've written that I'll screw something up, but eventually I'll find my way. The people I work with are easy to get along with and the job is interesting - more about that later!

Welcome!

Welcome all! I decided to collect some thoughts and images here in an easy place to find for anyone who is interested, so feel free to share the URL. Keep the comments clean please! :)


I am now in Afghanistan after about a month's worth of training. I'll back up and start at the beginning. First was a week in San Diego getting a few uniforms issued, making sure our medical stuff was ready to go, etc. Here I am ready to leave San Diego (well, not really!) and head to Fort Jackson:














Our 2 1/2 weeks of training at Camp McCrady (a tiny part of Fort Jackson way out in the middle of nowhere) was full of long days and lots of new things to get used to - like carrying not one, but two weapons everywhere and learning Army jargon. What does hoo-ah mean anyway? Definitely depends on the conversation. :) I lucked out and was assigned to a BOQ-style building with four other LCDRs who turned out to be great roommates. The style of the buildings around the camp made me think of Gomer Pyle.






So what did we do at McCrady? LOTS of range time. I had to qualify on both the M-9 and the M-4. South Carolina set several records for cold temperature while we were there, so we were able to "field test" a lot of the cold weather gear that we were issued - lucky us!






Did I mention that they issued us a LOT of stuff? I had a duffle bag and a backpack when I arrived in San Diego. Leaving San Diego, I had a backpack and a seabag. Leaving McCrady I had FOUR seabags and that same backback. At least one of those seabags is FULL of stuff we will never use but have to drag along anyway - makes perfect sense to me!




From McCrady we traveled to Camp Virginia, Kuwait. There we were given some down time to rest, relax, and get used to the time change. After about four days, we went out to the Udairi range for close quarters marksmanship and more convoy training. I was the convoy commander this time - lots more work for me than the one at McCrady! And yes, I'm in this picture if you look really hard...








Our convoy finished first, so we had some time to kill while we waited for the other convoys. Lucky for us, we found a few friends. :) Isn't it mandatory to get a picture with a camel when you visit Kuwait???








As soon as we got back to Camp Virginia, we found out we were traveling that night to Afghanistan. After a mad flurry of laundry, packing, showers (did I mention there's no running water at the range?), and some quick chow, we headed out. We landed at Bagram Air Force base and then convoyed down to Kabul. The "Rhino" is the mode of transportation of choice (actually, it's not that bad!).






It's tough to function (and meet your new boss!) on about 10 hours of sleep over a three-day period, but I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter! I was assigned to temporary lodging, but there were only 8 other females and lots of empty racks so it wasn't too bad. That brings me to my first full day in Afghanistan - I'll post more soon but it's taking forever to upload these pictures!










Special thanks to Maureen and Steve for the use of their pictures - it's good to have friends that are MUCH better at remembering to take pictures than I am!