The Eve

Jenna and I just returned from our leave in San Fransisco. It was a lot of fun we walked nearly the entire length of the city and saw some parts that were certainly off the beaten track for tourists. It lead to a few uncomfortable moments but a few shots of fleeting beauty in areas of the city that had seen years of neglect. We visited the Presidio, the former Army Base on the tip of the city. That was cool made me wish that it was still a base, there won't have been a cooler place in the states to be stationed.

Now we are back to Camp Atterbury, back to General Order 1 -- No Beer, no sleeping with Jenna. It is hotter then hell and humid which is only made worse by the fact I have to wear the uniform all the time.

My team heads out soon, rolling out of Indiana, going east. It could take a full 2 weeks to get to Gardez, if not longer most of the time will be spent in tents sitting waiting for flights to the next set of tents. One of the things this experience has taught me is to never expect the Army to be fast at anything and they will make every effort to make something simple more complicated. Take this for example: we were just informed that once we get to Bagram Air Feild in Afghanistan we will be forced to receive a 3-day course in Counter-insurgency Warfare which would be great if we hadn't just completed a 3-month course in Counter-Insurgency Warfare. The most awesome peice of that is we will miss 3 Days of fight insurgency--which is the whole purpose of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT), but don't worry I am sure they will just add that to the back of our tour.

I guess I should explain what I do (or will be doing for the next 9 months). I am a US Air Force Civil Engineer Captain serving as part of a PRT. We are a multi-disciplined team of Air Force and Army personnel who work with the Local Leadership of Afghanistan (village leaders, sub-district governors, and governors) to expand the reach of the Afghan government. The engineers to this by managing Construction projects for the local Afghans (schools, wells, clinics, etc), and large province-wide infastructure projects (roads, dams, irrigation). We also managing the planning and design process, and work/training the local government Engineers on the whole process. By luck of fate, my wife, Jenna, does the same job in a different province.

The hardest thing looking forward to deployment is not the work or potential combat situations, but the knowledge that my wife will be going through the same thing. I trust her gear, training and team as much as my own but the husband in me wants to shelter and protect...which of-course is something I can't do. So shortly, I will say goodbye to her face to face for the last time for the foreseable future and have to trust in luck, faith, God (someone I don't trust in often) and the all-mightly MRAP. I know we will both be okay, I just can't wait to sleep with my Snuggli Bunni again.

Anyway I need to spend some time with Jenna now so, signning off.

Scott