June 'Part-1'

    JUNE  -   Part 1   

On Memorial Day we lost 2 Pilots. These two men gave everything to make our country free. 

It really hit home that this tragedy happened on memorial day. The day we remember the troops, especially the fallen! I will remember this day for the rest of my life! 

Here is some training on suturing(stitches as you would call them).

One of the Docs saw us practicing on Bananas, so he decided to let us practice on him! 

We cut him open to remove a big abnormal mole, then suture him back up. So this is a practice of my handy work. I even went ahead and signed it for him :)

So we have a thing here called the Bazaar. It is a little Hajji Marketplace

This is what it looks like when you walk in the entrance. 

These salesman are worse than used car dealers. They always say "For you my friend......Cheap"  

This guy has just about everything. Or he can somehow get things the next day for you.

One of our guys asked if he had the Korean version of Rosetta Stone, and the guy somehow had it the next day???? I think they have a Wlamart in town or something.

They do have some nice hand woven rugs.

So they sell these jewelry boxes here. They have some really cool ones that are puzzles. You have to move and slide different pieces to open them. I plan on buying a couple of them because they are pretty awesome.  

Here is a store that sells Lapis Lazuli commonly know as just Lapis. I guess there is only a few places on earth where it is mined. Afghanistan is one of the main sources. It is a stone that has an intense blue color to it. It looks good if you like blue jewelry. So they sell it here and you can get a pretty good deal on it!

Here are some of the Shemaghs/Scarves that I bought from the "Bazaar". So if you want one let me know and I can get you one. 

Where are we again?????

Here is some more training we did! 

We did some Hoist Training out of this Chinook. It was freaking awesome! We did half the training during daylight hours, then we worked under NVG's (Night Vision Goggles).

These birds are awesome. They are super quick too!

Here is Litchard and the First Sergeant.

This guy on the end of the ramp was crazy! I kept thinking he was going to fall out!

But in this picture he is just getting ready to take off!

Here we are hovering above a little base and he is just standing there!

Bungee jumping anyone?

One of our birds and a guard tower in the background.

Here is one of the ANPs (Afghan National Police) that work on our FOB.

Here is a Bomb/Drug sniffing dog.

These are pretty small ambulances! ha ha haaaaa This is as heavy as a battleship.

   MAY            

So this is the month were stuff gets exciting...... Or at least more exciting than the past 4 months.

So here is a water tower at Fort Hood, Texas. Every time you go threw the gates to get into Ft. Hood they say "Welcome to the Great Place"?????? I'm not sure where they came up with that but it is false advertisement at its best!

The day before we left my buddy Holman and I got picked to load up gear on this big 747. And of course they do it at 4:00 am.

 And after loading I had to indulge myself with my last McDonald's Coke.

They seriously have the best Coke there! 

 This is the day our journey really begins. Here we are loading up on the bud to go to the airport.

 Here is a our Deployment Prayer. It was a wake up call for sure!

"GOD SPEED SOLDIERS"

 This kind little lady comes and hugs every soldier that leaves out of Fort Hood on deployment! 

That's a lot of hugs. I got at least 4 hugs from her :)

And her we go loading on the plane!

So the group that left the day before us had 2 other stops in the states. And they used those layovers to call home and get snacks. So we thought we were taking the same path.

And here we are on our 10-11 hour nonstop flight to Germany!

They didn't tell us where we were going until we were on the plane and it was to late to call home and tell my wife goodbye. It's hard to not be able to call your wife when you told her you going to!!!!

Hahn Airbase in Germany

And I just had to try a coke in Germany! 

McDonald's still has the best 

They had a giant weiner putting ketchup on itself in the lobby!

And here we are flying over Kyrgyzstan

 And over Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Notice how low we fly over here!!!!

 Here are some pics from Krgyzstan.

Waiting for our gear to show up.

The main drag

 Some local food place. I couldn't bring myself to eat here though.

This is where I wanted to eat! But I was to impatient to wait 20 minutes for a Pizza or a Whopper!

Here is the local bar. The only ones allowed to drink here are the other foreign militaries, and airforce???? 

Really........ Airforce??????   

Hotel California my butt! I didn't see anything like the Hotel California here! 

A Sign.Nothing exciting..... Just something different!  

Speaking of different.

Only in a war zone will you see something like this!

No ammo or grenades in this trash can.

The Fire department, and a Mercedes. Everything here seems to be a Mercedes. 

From the garbage trucks, the buses, and a few G-Wagons.

Here is a little market place. 

This is where you go to get your fOakley glasses, Morth Face jackets and what not!

This little hut was part of the market as well! 

There was a bunch of foreign militaries here!

Anywhere from United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Hungary, Spain,Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Croatia, Georgia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria,Slovakia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Slovenia.

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Here were our cramped living quarters. 

 

There were full bunk beds down both sides and a row down the middle.

Practicing playing Corn Hole.

I have to beat my brother in law when I come home!  

My buddy Holman and I came here to Skype our wifes :)

That's our plane to get us into Afghanistan!

Here we go! 

Loading in threw the back.

Thumbs up! We are ready to go!

Once over Afghanistan we went into blackout mode!

When those red lights went on it sent a shiver down my spine!  

And Here we are in Afghanistan

This is just a temporary holding place till they moved us to our final location.

There were so many people in this tent, and it smelt horrible! The mattresses or box springs or what ever they called them were so uncomfortable, that some people took them off and slept on the bars! I would sit on one end of mine and it would curl up like a banana! Luckily we were only here for a few days.

And of course! An Afghan coke!  

A class on IED making! 

The eye in the Sky! 

Some German MRAP thing? 

Some other countries version of an MRAP! 

I wish we had these to drive around in! There are some nice Toyotas here! 

Afghan construction workers and surveyors :) 

And here we are me and Moos on our way to our final destination

Our other comrades!

And my favorite! Our escort :) 

Over Afghanistan 

Cool Mountain formations! 

Landing in at our final location.

Here is a Chinook. These are pretty cool helicopters.

Pretty sunsets here! 

Here is the Doc that we are replacing.

The first week I had to sleep in the clinic. And she is one of those super early morning people. She came in to make coffee and surf Facebook at about 4:30 everyday! Come on lady, sleep in!

Here is an American MRAP! 

And here I am doing a little pose for the Camera! I would never ride up in the gunner hatch though!

They want the medics on the inside!

They go threw about $45,000 of  bottled water here a week!

Me and Brown ready to take on the Bad Guys

And here we are waiting for Kelly Picker. I wasn't sure who she was at the time.

She is a country Singer who won on American Idol. 

And here she is! 

She was awesome! She really got into it. It was funny to see all the guys act like they haven't seen a female in 20 years! 

So here is the night crew doing some suture practice on some bananas!

Looks pretty legit right!

After we got done with the bananas Doc J walked in and asked if I wanted to practice on him! So of course I said "Heck yeah I do!" So we cut a mole off of him and sutured up his 1.5" long incision! Pictures and a video to come of that event!

Here is Doc S teaching is about EKGs and how to read the Axis of the heart from a 12 lead!

Don't mind the beach ball in the back! It's all serious here! ha ha haaaaaaa 

This place is filled with G-Wagons. 

Back in the states these are reserved for the rich people!

And here is my place of work! 

And here I am as I post this little blog! 

It's been a long month and I'm glad it is over. I still am trying to get used to everything, and I still don't know what day it is yet....... Maybe soon I will adjust. This is the life of a Combat Medic!

Okay people tell me what you think! Leave some comments so I know that somebody is checking this thing out! It takes me 5-10 minutes per picture to upload! So someone better be looking at it ;) I hope you enjoyed my journey up to this point. Until next time my friends.