01 December

On 25 Nov at 4:27pm Eastern time, the wheels of my plane hit American soil; ending a chapter in my life. It has been a long and educational journey. Thank you all for your support and prayers. As I have said many times before, I learned a lot, a lot about myself, people, government, and the military. Some times when you learn things, it is disturbing or frustrating. These problems must be met with solutions, not a blind eye or complacency.

In conclusion: I wish I could sum up all of my thoughts from the past 8 months and provide a concise and clear answer for all of the world’s problems or even a fraction of the problems we face overseas…I cannot. However, there are a few items which I feel strongly about.

Our goals in Afghanistan: The corrupt Afghan government will continue to suck America dry as long as we let them. They will not step up and do things for themselves unless we make them. This holds true from the President on down. WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.

As for sending more troops; Pres Obama relies on advisors for every single decision he makes from his kids advising him in the pardoning of a turkey to his cabinet and czars advising him international politics and war. His top man in Afghanistan has requested/recommended a troop increase. This would not be popular among the people that voted the Pres into power. I believe this is the reason for his long delay in making this important decision. It looks as if he will partially grant this request with a half-hearted troop increase. I think he lets politics fog his ability to make correct military decisions. Sending more troops into harm’s way is undoubtedly a tough decision, but one that he signed up to make when he decided to run for the Presidency.

The rest of the War on Terror: Of course, sending more troops to Afghanistan is not the final answer for our War on Terror. We must hold other governments accountable for allowing terrorists to train and operate on their soil. Governments found to harbor and support terrorists should have the strictest of sanctions placed on them and receive ZERO foreign aid from the U.S., U.N., NATO, etc. Non-profits shall have their assets frozen and punished severely if they are found to provide relief to any country known to harbor or support terrorists or terror organization; knowingly or otherwise. If they are not responsible enough to investigate where there dollars are going, they won’t be trusted with that responsibility. Yes, innocent people will suffer, but if those people are suffering due to the actions of their governments, they will eventually fight back. America cannot afford to continue to give undeserving handouts to the world.

We must continue to develop programs to fight terror on our soil and abroad. When the war in Afghanistan “ends,” the War on Terror will go on. Pres Bush declared a war on terror after 9/11, but we had been half-heartedly battling terror for several decades. The problem was we never allocated enough of the right resources to truly combat one of the biggest problems we face today. What changed after 9/11 was the level of attention we all paid to the problem and our willingness to wage war on those that had long ago declared war on us. I see us now slipping back into a state of complacency in which we prefer to pretend like “everything is OK.” What many people don’t realize is that in the mid ‘90’s, Osama and his friends declared war on us and our way of life. They started their attacks shortly thereafter, but we didn’t “really” respond until 9/11. Our lives changed with the formation of these terror organizations decades ago, but we didn’t see the full measure of the effects until late 2001. I liken it to someone developing a life threatening disease or condition. Did your life change the day your cells were affected in your body, the day you were diagnosed, or the day you first felt the effects? It is all a matter of perspective. One thing is for sure; your life will never be the same. Whether you are fortunate enough to beat it or resume some life that resembles your pre-diagnosis way of life, you are changed. It may be a scar or something else physical, but you will undoubtedly have a new way of looking at life and each day you share with family and friends…bottom line; you are different. The same holds true for our lives in a world with Islamic Extremists. We cannot just stop fighting, we cannot neglect our responsibility to protect our way of life, and we cannot turn a blind eye. Survivors of life-threatening illness or injury all say one thing, “I never quit fighting, and I never gave up.”

America is infected with a rapidly spreading aggressive disease (really several of them in my opinion) that we cannot ignore or stop fighting.

Our government: As Americans, we cannot afford to be complacent. We cannot keep accepting the poor performance of our elected officials and re-electing them. We must hold them accountable and let them know how we feel about the issues. We cannot allow the federal government to continue to take power away from the states. Government intrusion in your life must be met with the fiercest resistance. They shouldn’t be able to tell you how you can discipline your children or what kind of firearms you can legally possess. There is no middle ground here; stand up, be counted and fight, or stay lying down and don’t act surprised when you and every right you thought you had are trampled under the feet of a growing, self-serving government and its politicians.

Our way of life:

· Keep God first in your life and our country.

· Spend responsibly. Save responsibly.

· Have kids and raise them right (Thank you to my parents and family.)

o Make them go outside

o Impress upon them the importance of education

o Teach them about their family and America

o Hold them accountable.

· When the government and your elected officials do something that aggravates you, get mad, let them know about it, and don’t take it lying down. Hold them accountable.

· Be proud to be an American…NEVER apologize for being one.

· I tackle everyday with the following thought: IF YOU AREN’T MAKING IT BETTER, YOU ARE MAKING IT WORSE!

So, is there an underlying theme that could be a big part of the answer?

ACCOUNTABILITY!

Hold yourself, your kids, your spouse, your neighbor, and your government accountable.

Our government must hold itself and others accountable.

The justice system must hold criminals accountable.

It is all about accountability.

Pray for our troops. Pray for our enemies. God bless.

BMP

***Muriel and I will continue to use this to keep everyone up to speed on our adventures. New pics/video from Afghanistan to come soon. California adventures and pics to follow.

13 NOV

Final Friday in Afghanistan. One last Jummah. One last trip to the bazaar. Last truly Afghan blog entry. My bags are packed, boxes have been shipped. How appropriate, my final Jummah is a Jummah the 13^th? Such as life.

I finished a book Thursday that was a great way to follow Because They Hate. Titled Revolution! A New Plan for Selecting Representatives, the book outlines a plan to replace all 435 members of the House of Representatives. Originally written to execute the plan in the 2008 elections, GOOOH (Get Out Of Our House-go to GOOOH.com to check it out and read more) has now shifted to the 2010 election. GOOOH is not a political party, it is a concept that serves to change the way we select those that supposedly represent us in Washington. Sure, the founder, Tim Cox of Texas, wishes that all those chosen and elected would share his views, but he is confident that if chosen by his plan, the people elected will represent the people of their districts. How many of you feel truly represented by the fat cat lawyers and millionaires that make up our elected bodies today? Are they making decisions based on what is best for you, the American TAX PAYER, or what is best for their re-election campaigns? People, hell, entire families have made their entire living “serving” the tax payers. We keep re-electing and electing the same ole politicians year after year, yet we have nothing but failing government programs and ill-advised government takeovers to show for it. Mr. Cox’s plan is not the cure-all, but it is a step in the right direction. How can we expect the same ole crowd to make revolutionary decisions to reverse the current course of our country? Our country was founded on principles held by hardworking farmers, businessmen, and military leaders…everyday Americans, and that is who must stand up and be counted. I find it personally promising that some of Mr. Cox’s main points address the issues that Mrs. Gabriel says we must address in order to stabilize our country and our way of life in the face of Islamic extremism.

As far as those of you who think that a course reversal is a bit much, consider some points and statistics:

• Our reliance on foreign oil controlled by radical Islamic states is out of control.

• We must take action in regards to our environment—the environment is not political, but every time a politician starts talking about it, half of the population automatically closes their ears because the person talking is from the other party—we have to come together and take action.

• In 1936 (Great Depression), about 1% of the population was on welfare, in 1994 15% were soaking up your hard earned dollars—needs fixing.

• The top 52% of earners pay 100% of the taxes—not fair.

• Some Americans fork over close to 50% of their earnings to Uncle Sam, while the drug dealers, bookies, and black market folks don’t pay a dime in income taxes. A consumption tax would alleviate that problem and do away with the IRS (GOOD THING) See fairtax.org

• At the time of printing, the top 10% of earners pay over 60% of taxes. Distributing our growing national debt equally among us 10% folks, we each are down $672,000…but no one is slowing down the spending machine that is our Federal Government.

• The U.S. Government pays 50% more on healthcare per person than the next most expensive country (Switzerland)—we aren’t even trying to give healthcare to everyone, yet. The World Health Organization ranks us 37^th in the world for overall healthcare systems

• Department of Education has spent nearly $1 trillion since its inception ($71 billion budget), yet high school graduation rates across the country have not budged in 28 years. In the city of Cleveland, a meager 28% of students graduated from high school (I personally believe that parental involvement, drugs, and teen pregnancy are chief to blame for poor graduation rates in some of our communities.)

• Most Politicians and many public school teachers send their kids to private school—Hello, anybody home?

• We spend an average of over $23,000 per prisoner in the Federal system, but the average welfare recipient gets less than $15,000—Now, I think welfare needs to be revamped completely, but it wouldn’t cost me or you a dime to switch these two numbers. Prisoners are guaranteed hot food, cable TV, and medical care…the food should be cold, the TV gone, and the medical care limited to tourniquets and rubbing alcohol.

• Social Security—that gig is up. We have to stop the madness.

• Legal Immigration is a great thing. It makes our country who we are. Illegal immigration is bringing us to our knees and killing us literally. Ponder this, freeamerica.com reports(at time of printing) since 9/11, including 9/11 less than 7,000 Americans have died at the hands of terrorists including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other attacks, 19,000 have died a violent death at the hands of illegal aliens, 20,000 due to uninsured illegals drunk behind the wheel, 13,000 victimized children at the hands of illegals…we have 250,000 illegal aliens that are known sex offenders in our country

In conclusion, I demand more than a minor course correction from our elected officials. Every topic listed above has a giant government program with thousands of employees that should all be held accountable for the failures of their respective programs. If you owned a business and got this level of productivity from your employees, would you stand for it? No, you wouldn’t. Heads would roll. Why do we accept this from our government? What if George, Ben, Sam, and Thomas had taken “The Crown’s” bull and not done anything about it 233 years ago? It is our turn, not to take up arms, not to secede, but to use the system put in place by the geniuses that founded our great nation to get her back on track.

Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said, “God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.”

Samuel Adams said, “If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men should possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”

Mark Twain said, “In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him…”

As a Federal Employee, I see the monster at work. I see inefficiencies that would blow your mind. The only thing we can do is report blatant fraud, waste, and abuse and elect officials that will demand more of themselves and hold accountable the spending machine programs. We have 51 weeks left until 2010 elections. Something has got to give.

The FT. HOOD terror attack, I wanted to touch on it, but not go into great detail… Had this been on a street corner or train, no questions asked, terrorist. But he was a military officer, so we cannot call it a terror attack, can we? Cut the crap. This same PC attitude is what kept people from speaking up about this lunatic Infidel-hater long ago. I am sure those people that could have spoken up are sick to their stomachs, I’d be. But, I know exactly why they didn’t say anything. Any harsh word or order to perform a less than desirable task in the military has to be handled with care, always aware of the possible Equal Opportunity complaint that could come my way. I see poor performers promoted regularly because people don't want to give them a bad evaluation because it will hurt their career...not keeping score at kids soccer games is the least of our concerns. Just wanted to let you know where these folks are coming from in their hesitation to report weird behavior by a Muslim in their ranks.

Thanks for the Vets Day emails. Pray for the families of the Ft Hood Terror Attack Victims. Pray for the full recovery of Dr. Hasan; I want him to get his day in court and experience being killed all over again.

God bless and Geaux Tigers.

BMP

06 NOV

10 days until I am homeward bound. I can see it, I can taste it, and I can feel it. It has been a long journey that has gone really fast in the grand scheme of things. The way I see it, this is my second to last Afghan entry, made in Afghanistan. I will probably write during my travels and post a final Afghan Blog upon my return to the U.S. of A.

The elections getting canceled hasn’t really been a hot topic of discussion around here. We were prepping for the pending elections up until Monday night when they finally called off securing sites for an election that had been canceled hours earlier between two guys, one of which said he quit the day before…shouldn’t be making any sense to you because it doesn’t. My personal feeling on the whole election debacle is one of uncertainty. I think the whole thing makes a statement on Afghanistan's readiness to operate independent of outside help...they are far from it. The runoff was the result of fraudulent ballots, yet nothing was changed with the election commission or any other factor to ensure an improvement in the integrity of the process; however, they were going to go on with an election. That is the reason Dr. Abdullah dropped out, he new that there would be wide spread fraud. When I questioned locals during all of this, the consensus was Karzai is better be cause he is Pashtun (the same tribe as most of them)....sad.

I have been thinking considerably since writing last week in response to Mr. Hoh’s resignation. I also started and finished a book titled Because They Hate. The non-fiction book is written by a Lebanese Christian woman who spent the first part of her life in a peaceful Christian village in southern Lebanon, then all hell broke loose in her perfect bubble of a world and war ensued and lasted for 7 years. Seven years of living in a bunker with her aging parents and seeing death and destruction daily. Seven years of seeing people killed for being Christian or Jewish at the hands of crazed Islamic extremists killing in the name of a god I don’t want to know. Robbed of her childhood, she escaped to Israel where her eyes were opened to the reality of Islamic hatred. Much of the world will say that Israel INVADED Lebanon. Her version of the story is that Israel came to the aid of a group of Christian people who took up arms against the Islamic aggressors. She goes on to explain her feelings about the true the Islam that we are blind to and what America and the West must do to stop them. Without going into great detail, I will outline what she says we must do to protect our country followed by my own commentary:

1. Close the borders…there is a legal way for people to enter our country. She did it herself and thousands of people do it every year. The problem is thousands also enter our porous borders with ill intent for our country and our way of life.

2. Reform the immigration process in our country…according to Mrs. Gabriel (she married an Israeli), The INS approved Mohamad Atta’s student visa six months after he died while blowing up the WTC on 9/11/2001...your tax dollars at work.

3. Increase Human Intelligence (HUMINT)…this means spend more to train more people to go deep under cover in our country and others to infiltrate groups of bad people. Satellites and drones are neat, but there is no substitute for good HUMINT. Someone has to have the guts to act on this HUMINT (Kill bad people). G.W. signed off on it. The CIA was trying to do it, but Congress called foul play because they weren't informed. Now the American people and the World are informed. Quite frankly, there are people that get paid to know and do stuff that the average American citizen doesn't need to know or cannot handle, infact, most don't want to know.

4.” Profile, Profile, Profile” she says. Racially that is. We waste time, money, and energy searching white haired little ladies at the airport with the same scrutiny as we look at Arab men between the age of 16 and 40. If we spend more time searching the people that fit the bill for blowing shit up, and waste less on those of us that don’t, we might actually be able to call the searches worthwhile.

5. Silence any teaching of intolerance against our country…including the close monitoring of Islamic websites. According to Mrs. Gabriel, there are mosques all over our country spewing hate for America and our way of life. All literature that calls for the destruction of America or the death of Americans should be burned and anyone preaching it who is not an American citizen should be shipped home to their country of origin. People who are not citizens of the U.S. should not be afforded rights such as freedom of speech or due process...you messed up, game over, go home.

6. As individuals, she recommends we watch where we invest to make sure we aren’t supporting terror (www.divestterror.org), promote western values in our homes, report suspicious behavior, lobby for patriotic education, and of course, support our troops.

Brigitte Gabriel’s book is a good read and brought many things to my attention that I previously had not considered. What I find most interesting about her book is that she is an Arab woman who lived terror long before the twin towers collapsed. She is not a middle aged white guy who gets paid to talk. She has seen it first hand and stands to warn us of what is to come if we don’t put aside the political correctness B.S. and fight back.

If what Mrs. Gabriel says is true of Islam (I am trying to find a “real” English translation of the Koran), our mission in Afghanistan needs to wrap up. We need to collapse our security perimeter to our borders, support Israel in their military endeavors, and stand by to defend our nation against the impending attacks. This seems like dooms day talk, but why do we have handguns in our homes…there are police right? We lock our doors at night. We have neighborhood watch and street lights. Sure we have all of those, and no real reason to suspect that someone is coming for us and our stuff, yet most of us stand ready to shoot the first S.O.B. that wants to get at us and our stuff…white, black, yellow, Christian, Muslim, Jewish…our bullets in the closet don’t care. Why should our borders be any different? If you mean America harm, if you preach or find delight in the idea of the destruction of my way of life, if you run around thinking that you are going to turn my country into an Islamic state, please, I beg you come to my house first to try to convert me by force.

Geaux Tigers. God Bless.

BMP

31 Oct

In a rare non Friday entry, I have urgent news to report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,570613,00.html?test=latestnews

The headline reads:

"Murdered Imam's Followers Deny FBI Radical Claims"

Murdered?... Murdered?
Websters defines murder as: 1 : the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought

Since when is an FBI shootout that results from them getting shot at by some radical hate preacher "unlawful." FOXNEWS should be ashamed for posting such nonsense. I cannot contact FOX because my computer won't let me, but I ask that you all do so.

Thanks
BMP

30 OCT

Greetings. This week's entry is the result of a question I was asked regarding my opinion on the actions of an American civilian who quit his government job due to loss in confidence in our efforts in Afghanistan.

Mr. Hoh is a civilian and can quit any job he wants when he sees fit and say anything about why he did what he did or how he feels about government policy. As far as what he said: he has lost confidence and understanding in the mission. The mission is clear: Train and enable the Afghan Government and Security Forces to do their jobs so they can stand as an independent free country that can squash any uprising or insurgency and fight to own land that would otherwise be inhabited by people who wish harm to millions of innocent people around the world. If we leave Afghanistan now or before the above mission is accomplished, there will be more blood on American soil. Why? Because the same peace-preaching hippies who want to bring all the troops home regardless of their need to be overseas won't take the steps necessary to keep bad people out of America or hunt down the ones already in our country in the name of rights (Reminder, they aren't American and they want to do bad things to us.). We can fight them over here or we can fight them in our streets, which sounds better to you?

I am not mad at you for asking or at Mr. Hoh for walking away. He had the right and he chose to exercise it. I wish we could leave here and the people here could live on their own and defend their country against all enemies foreign and domestic. Is the war "fueling the insurgency?" I think it is a ridiculous "trap question." What came first, the chicken or the egg? If we left, who would they blow up? The answer is, they'd blow up whatever they see fit in order to reclaim control of this country, which they probably would do eventually do. Then they'd establish a Muslim State and harbor more bad people that would train to kill good people and then they'd launch more missions like the embassy bombings of the late 90s, USS Cole of 2000 and the 9/11 attacks. Then what do we do, start all over? If at first you don't succeed, try again...I think that is best left for the first time you try to run a 5K or make the football team. What about, "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing twice." Nope, that isn' t it. The more appropriate saying for international conflict is, "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right and finishing the first time."

The truth hurts, and in war people die. What changed regarding our superiority and patriotism between WWII and today? Why are our politicians scared of war? A few things...we haven't had a uniform-wearing enemy that wanted to fight man on man. They cheat. They hide among women and children and use them to kill Americans and coalition forces. Can anyone fight and succeed against America in the air, on land, or on the high seas? No, so no one will try. Anyone that would like to do so can easily fund our enemy to keep us busy and wear down our fighting forces....it is being done today by Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela, and the list goes on. Politicians need votes to stay in power. Coffins don't vote and actually can cause people to vote the other way. With a governing body that is more concerned about votes and staying in office than serving our country and upholding the constitution as it was written by the brave men that formed our country, you get people voting not in line with the long term best interest of the United States, but in the best interest of their individual political careers. I see it everyday in Afghanistan; people acting in their own interest instead of that of their unit or the people of Afghanistan. The same self-serving and self-righteous attitude that is not allowing this country to transition from crawl to walk is going to take America back to her knees. It has been said that we are hundreds of years ahead of Afghanistan and other third world countries (sans cellphones, computers, and internal combustion engines), but if our "leaders" continue us down the current course, we cannot maintain our superiority. It also falls on the American people to find new people to lead this country in the right direction instead of the resultant vector of their individual agendas. Russia was a great and powerful nation. Communism broke it and now they are getting back on their feet. America will borrow ourselves broke to bailout this and that and provide stimuli to our people because that is instant gratification.

Our first Gulf War lasted less than 48 hours...instant gratification, but if we'd finished Hussein off that time, we wouldn't be there today. Bush proclaimed mission accomplished too early in Iraq because he either suffered from the same anxiety that his father did and wanted to say it was over, or because he thought that is what the American people wanted to hear...probably both.

In Afghanistan, they say the Americans have the watches (all the fancy equipment and gear), but the Taliban have time. This means they know that all they have to do is hold out and make us lose the war at home by killing a few people here and there. The commanders over here are scared to lose people, so they make their folks sit around on bases all day making power points about how bad the bad people are. If the American police just sat around talking about bad people and never made an effort to go get them, we would never lose police in the line of duty, but many innocent Americans would die at the hands of rapists and murderers...would America stand for that? Why not, no police are dying? What is the difference? If we are going to kill these assholes that mean us harm, good red-blooded American men are going to die in the process. It will hurt and families will suffer losses, but no one over here was drafted and we all signed up knowing what lied ahead.

Remember, it is either going to go down on the side of some mountain or on a dirt road in this country, or it is going to go down in the streets of ours*. I will say it again. Home field advantage is not something you want in the war on terror.

BMP

*This was written 2 days before the FBI had a shootout in the streets of Michigan with an extremist Muslim cleric who preached hatred for Americans and all non-Muslims.

23 OCT

5 weeks until I touch down on sweet American soil. Not much has changed in my world. Still, more folks from the GA National Guard arriving daily. With the influx of people, more people to cause trouble, spread germs and, as mentioned before, just make the place less pleasant. Well, when you tell all these people who, apparently, know everything that it is vital that everyone follow certain rules designed to prevent the spread of germs and they don’t choose to follow the rules, people get sick. I fell victim one night this week to a 24 hour bug that put me down hard. I am better now and ever vigilant of the non-hand washing newbies that have taken over our slice of heaven.

I have been able to turnover my U.S. responsibilities, so now all I have are my mentoring jobs. I’d rather have had only the mentoring jobs the entire tour. The next hurdle is getting the GA guys to take the same attitude and initiative we had toward the mentoring mission. I fear that they underestimate the importance of the mission and will neglect it. One does not have to look far to find that our priority in AF is to build a self-sufficient government and security force to combat the Taliban and other Anti-AF Forces. How can they possibly think that they can roll into these people’s backyard and not interact with them. They are coming around, but initially they had no intentions of working with the ANA. Still, they do not have the training that even I have for this. One guy that I am working with has been in the country as long as me and has never used an interpreter. It truly blows my mind. I would love to tell you that this is all part of someone’s bad plan, but this is shear accident. My team has been scheduled to leave in late Nov for several months. This GA Guard unit just showed up here a few weeks ago to call Hughie home. They weren't sent here as part of someone's master inadequate plan. They got booted from Kabul and literally just packed the trucks and came to our area and started looking for a base to set up in. By virtue of them moving in and staking claim, they inherited our mentoring mission. So, without them, the guys we (including my predecessors) have been working with for several years would have been left to fend for themselves. Yes, they are grown men. Yes, they should be able to handle independent operations, but the cold hard truth is that they can’t. We have had many small successes, but the battle of training up a real, complete fightin’ army is far from over. Sure, they know how to fight, and can reasonably drive vehicles, but the administrative, maintenance, and logistics areas remain weak.

On a better note, I went up to the ANA front gate today, and when I got there, I noticed that all the guards were wearing helmets, bullet proof vests and looked to be attentive. My first instinct was, “What the hell is going on here?...Should I be up here?” First thing is first, I told my terp to find out what the hell was going on. He asked the guy in charge and that guy explained, “It is our main gate we must be professional and ready for anything.”

SIX MONTHS! SIX FREAKIN’ MONTHS! After blood, sweat, and nearly tears, they show a glimmer of understanding. Is it going to be like that every day? NOPE. Why? Because if I thought it would be, I’d be expecting it to be, and that is poor expectation management.

While up there, I note that one of the soldiers’ AK47 machine gun is on the full auto setting. I told the terp to inform him of this. The soldier replied with, “No it is not.” I asked to see the rifle, but before he turned it over, he had to repeatedly pull the trigger to show me how safe the gun was. It wasn’t pointed at me at the time, but I do think my heart skipped a beat. I showed him that he was, in fact, walking around with his weapon in a less than optimal condition, but he would have none of it.

Security Company and Headquarters Company (both departments I mentor) were issued 4-wheelers this week. I have scheduled Saturday as a intro to 4-wheelers instructional course. I have heard horror stories from other units around the country turning over 4-wheelers to their counterparts and these guys destroying them and hurting themselves. With no concept of safety or control, things can go real bad real fast.

Didn’t stay up and watch the Saints game last week, guess I am not a true fan. A Giants fan did refer to them as the ‘Aints a few days ago. I replied, “I am pretty sure you can’t call them that anymore.” Should be a classic battle on the bayou this weekend in Tiger Stadium. I will be watching at 4am.

Have a great weekend. Geaux Tigers and God Bless.

BMP

16 OCT

Real quick week. They are flying by now. I said last week that I was in to T minus 7 weeks, but that was wrong, I have 31 days until I leave this base and then about a week and a half of travel before hitting the U.S. Many of you may have heard Murl and I are headed to San Diego for a few years for our next tour.

Not much at all to report here. People don’t talk much here about more troops or the Afghan elections…that stuff is all over the news, but not much to talk about it here. The biggest thing going on in my life is over 200 people moving into my neighborhood that was once a quiet little wooded FOB that we called home. There have been murmurs of it for months, but nothing concrete. Well about two weeks ago, it got real concrete real fast. The French took over a U.S. base in Kabul and the displaced folks (GA National Guard) needed a place to call home. Problem is, there was really no room in then inn. After re-setting up tents that we set up twice and disassembled, taking out the base recreation room, chapel, store, mail room, and moving a lot of people around, they think they have room for all of these people. How does it affect me? Hopefully soon, one of these fine folks will take my job and I’ll lose my office. I will be able to stay in my room until just before we roll out. Lines will be longer to use the computer and phones, and the gym will be more crowded. All in all, it just makes the place more crowded and less pleasant to be at.

Watched Game Day broadcast from the Parade Grounds Sat night and woke up early to watch the LSU/UF game. I think we all know how that turned out, but there were some promising things I saw in the game. I cannot express how nice it is to be able to watch live football, especially the Tigers, while over here. With the bye week this week, I’ll have to watch the Saints game instead of LSU.

We celebrated the Navy birthday this week. Nothing big, but they made us a cake and hung up a ton of decorations. We have been burning scrap wood in the evenings and sitting around the fire. It is really starting to cool off here. Still getting hot during the day, but only up to the high 80s/low 90s. At night, it is probably dipping into the 60s. The fire pit is our escape from all of the new people clogging up the gym and slowing down the internet.

If you cannot tell, I am most definitely ready to pack my bags and start my journey home.

Have a good weekend. God bless.BMP