A Dose of Reality

For the first time since I've been in Afghanistan a tragedy struck that captured our nation's attention.  On August 6th, just over a week ago, a US Army helicopter was shot down, killing all aboard.  For the next three days our unit, myself included spent endless hours over the site ensuring that those on the ground were in constant contact with individuals located hundreds if not thousands of miles away.  I first arrived on scene about 4 hours after the helo was lost and relieved the aircrew that had been overhead since the middle of the night.  We knew what happened when we stepped out but we did not have the full details.  Thinking that a Chinook with nearly 40 Americans and Coalition partners was lost was a little grounding to say the least. 

The war is a distant image from 45,000 feet, hardly a personal event when I'm flying.  Out of the reach of any capability the Taliban has, we find ourselves far removed from the actual fighting.  On this particular day we dialed in the frequency used by the recovery and security teams and listened in.  While I can't say what was heard I can tell you it a a very frustrating feeling knowing what was taking place and being unable to help other than being there to provide our comm link. We lost a piece of the absolute tip of our nation's fighting spear that day.  I have two guys I would consider brothers in the special ops community, one a SEAL and one a PJ and I think about them often know just how close they are to all of this.

This incident, while tragic, unfortunately also serves as a reminder that we are in harms way.  It is interesting that when the rocket attacks are down and things get quiet around the countryside, how parking tickets and traffic violations increase along with talk of uniform standards.  I think since the shoot down KAF as refocused on the primary mission of winning this war.  American service members will continue to be placed in harms way regardless of what color socks the wear or how flashy their shoes.  American's in general are horrible with clearly establishing priorities.  We are very much influenced by outside sources and do a poor job of establishing boudaries and clearly defined objectives. This is obviously a generalized statement but I am willing to bet you can think of a few examples in your life that fit this concept.

Here's what I ask of you, read this story:  http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-09/us/chinook.son.ireport_1_dad-chinook-father?_s=PM:US  This is just one example of the personal side of war.  Take a moment to hug your children and call your parents.  Remember we are all having a bad day but most likely you are not having the worst day ever.  There are a lot of Braydon Nichols out there, do me a favor and don't let them ever think that their loved one gave the ultimate sacrifice for nothing.

I have attached some more photos of Kandahar and the local area.  I hope you enjoy.

Here's what a typical house looks like, I'm pretty sure they WiFi and plasma screen technology in there.

This is baseops.  If you are bored look up Taliban's Last Stand.  Basically as we overtook KAF in '01 the Taliban leaders all retreated to this building.  It didn't work out so well, most "last stands" don't..Custer, the Alamo...You get the idea.  But then again we're still here 10 years later.

This is the view departing KAF to the south looking westbound (imagine the right side of the plane.  Just to the left of the mountian in the valley sits Kandahar city which is Afghanistan's 2nd largest city (est. 850,000) where President Karzai's half brother was recently killed.  They have a major problem with Taliban and insurgents in the town right now.  I've heard they have some decent bars but I'm not Jones'n that bad just yet, check back in October.

Same mountian as seen at dusk from our ramp.  If you look closely you can see a blimp on the left side of the mtn.  They don't have NASCAR or MNF here so you can probably guess what a tethered blimp is doing over the city of Kandahar.

Happy snap of us walking out to the jet. For the record you are looking at two single-seat fighter pilots about to go fly a corporate jet.  I can't believe the AF thinks this is a good idea.

Doing the pre-flight inspection.  Yes I do wear my Red Sox hat when I fly.  As of this date they are one game up on the evil empire (NY Yankees) so it must be working.