still up to the same old same old over here in Afghanistan. For the most part the Taliban have left the 5 fingers and went to Pakistan for the winter where it’s not so cold and snowy. That being said we still have to deal with locals that hate the Americans, as seen by graffiti of “death to infidels” in some pockets. So that gave way to my newest idea, which is to get infidel tattooed on me. Sorry to my family, but you had to expect some sort of ink on me at some time haha.

For the most part I’ve still been pulling guard and doing stupid details around my base, sleeping when I can and showering every 5 days or so. My feet are disgusting so when I come home I’m gonna be keeping socks on at all times haha.

I went to our big base by ours recently for a detainee ops class, which was kinda boring cuz it didn’t really pertain to what I’ll be doing with detainees, but I learned a few cool tricks, like breaking a guys arm if he’s trying to stab me, so that’s locked in the memory bank, along with ways to separate shoulders and stupid little cop moves to detain someone. Either way, it was a nice little break from guard duties so I got sleep and ate decent food. I guess the people of my AO don’t raise cows, so there’s no beef here, so I went to this little place called the Oasis, and they had a burger on their menu, so naturally I ordered it with bacon(haha). It came out and it was lamb meat instead of ground beef, and it was pretty good, even the bacon was cooked right, which surprised me cuz whenever you go to a chow hall where locals work and you order bacon or ham in your omelet they just glare at you, which I find hilarious. Needless to say I ordered another lamburger with bacon before I left, and it was still just as good. I think people here are finally start to let me into their circles, although it still feels strained at some points. But oh well, I’m completely content with facebook and talking with the friends and family. It seriously keeps me sane. That’s it for now, I’ll try to update again when something exciting happens.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this but to be honest nothing really has happened since I’ve updated last. Basically all I’ve been doing is stand guard and watch dirt move. I got a shoot a .50 cal and a few other weapons, and re-zeroed my M4 so it’s ready to deal some fucking death. We took some mortars the other day and we got locked down for like 2 hours cuz usually they shoot off more than one, and it landed kinda close haha. It was crazy cuz I heard a pop and a whistling sound and I hit the deck and popped my head up to see where it came from. After we pin pointed where it was shot from we called a show of force(which is basically when the United States military whips out its 10 foot dick and waves it around), so a fighter jet came swooping into a valley over where they shot the rocket and it got my dick hard just seeing it.

I met an Afghan while I was on guard named Najeb. He speaks decent English and he picked it up in about 5 months which is pretty good, and he offered me this drink and it tasted delicious. It’s milk, teal, sugar, and some plant that makes it smell outstanding. I was suprised at how good the drink was it took everything in me not to down the whole thing. Anyways, we kept talking and he said that the next time he goes home he will have a scarf made for me so when it gets cold I’ll be able to stay warm. I’m hoping I get a care package with some cool stuff in it so I can trade him for it cuz it’s afghan protocol to trade gifts when one is given, and right now I don’t have much in the way of gifts.

I also found out that the kids here are obsessed with pens. Writing pens. Like when you go out they mob you and ask for pens. It’s crazy and they get rough as shit too, but it’s their custom to be like that. Like when a parent wants to get the attention of one of his kids he will throw a rock at him, and hit them with it. And it’s not a small rock either it’s a pretty good sized rock and I’m like what the fuck haha. It’s funny to think about but when you see it it’s sad. Anyways, when the kids start to mob you it’s totally fine for you to pick them up and throw them off of you, and they come in packs so it’s tough to keep your discipline of your mission and keep these kids off you. And they are thief’s too. They make mexican kids look like amateurs it’s ridiculous. Oh and we’ve come up with a pretty good joke of putting pens in other guys equipment and the kids attack the poor guy. We haven’t put it to use yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be hilarious when we do.

Other than all that, nothing really exciting has happened. I saw a firefight go down from my guard tower and it was crazy seeing RPGs go off and explode and hear small arms fire rattle off. I’m sure in due time I will be in something like that, and I’m so ready for it. That will do it for me for today, thanks for stopping by…and stay classy. 

It’s been a long couple of days that’s for damn sure. We flew out of Kyrgyzstan(Kurd-e-stan) at like 5:30 in the morning, but the whole process of flying out started at about 2330(11:30pm). My platoon went and got some coffee, shot the shit, and went back to pack our assault packs and went to a formation, in which they locked us down for the last hour and a half we were in Kyrgyzstan, and I watched robin hood.

We boarded a C-17, which is fucking massive it’s ridiculous. It took off and we landed in Afghanistan. It was surreal when the back ramp came down to actually be looking at the mountains. They look almost exactly like the mountains you see when you drive to the beach from Bakersfield. Not the part where the road is all curvy but like the mountains you see when you drive through Cuyama, just with less vegetation and more rocks and boulders. We stayed in the rear for just a day, and then we took off to our new home in Afghanistan for the next year.

We packed all our bags for the last trip and we took off from the rear at about 11. It was a chinook helicopter ride and it was awesome. I looked out the window down to the villages below and it was again surreal. I kept thinking to myself, I’m actually in Afghanistan now, I’m actually in a warzone. Somewhere, in this exact same country I’m in now, there’s combat operations going on.

I’ll write more when more happens, but as for now we will be learning about our AO and what to expect for the upcoming year. I love and miss everyone and I’m looking forward to talking to guys on facebook or skype or whatever else.

As most of you know, I took off for my journey to Afghanistan yesterday, well today if you in my time zone. It’s currently 4:53 am in wherever I am, I really don’t know. I know it starts with a K and ends with a Stan, so we will go with K-stan for the time being. My adventure started at midnight friday night/saturday morning, with a quick roll call and shit, and a bunch of waiting around. We drew weapons, waited some more, then went and checked in before we loaded onto buses to go to the airport. All in all, it was about 6 hours of waiting in the somewhat cold weather/company area before we were finally on our way. I slept the entire time we were on the bus. The thing wasn’t even moving yet before my eyes shut, and I woke up to it backing up to our hanger. We weren’t allowed to the main terminal because well, we were loaded down with weapons haha. We got briefed, got fed apple pie and sodas, and then shortly after we were put onto a big ass plane that took us to some town in Maine that, no homo, looked like it belonged in a scene from Twilight. The plane ride I don’t remember much of either. I know Avatar was playing, but I was sleeping from take off to touch down. Speaking of touch down, how bout them niners? yea we are 3-6 but you know what’s badass, the Cowboys are what like 1-5? Pussies.

Anyways, we landed in Maine and we had like a 2 hour layover so we got off, left our weapons and stuff on the plane, and headed into the terminal. As we walked out there were people lined along side where we walked ready to shake our hands and stuff, which was cool, but I was still groggy from sleep so I didn’t pay much attention. I sat down to charge my phone, and looked for someone to bum money off so I could get some actual food. As I sat down, some overly excited old woman came up and asked to take my picture. Still groggy from sleep, I halfway smiled and said thanks, she then told me this picture will be on the internet, so if you want to see the pictures she took of me and a few friends as well, it will be at www.ourstopinmaine.smugmug.com. Feel free to make fun of me on there.

After our short layover in Maine, we boarded back onto our plane and took off for Sofia, Bulgaria, roughly an 8 hour flight that I again don’t remember much of. I know I was awake for the whole movie of Surrogates, which wasn’t too bad, and half of Ironman 2, which was awesome. I then fell back asleep and awoke only for my hot dinner, and a few snacks they brought around. We landed in Bulgaria and had a 6 and a half hour layover there. By this time, my phone was dead so I had no music to listen to while I was there, so my buddy and I found a spot on the ground to sleep, and we did. I only woke up for the sandwiches they served for free, and to use the bathroom. By the way, the women in Bulgaria are pretty hot, but unfortunately underneath all the peacoats and scarfs, they probably look like Sasquatch. They also took pictures of us sleeping, which I found kinda weird. Like I would be more than happy to pose with your beautiful daughter and wife sir, you don’t got to get me while I look like an idiot on the ground.

We boarded yet again for our last flight to K-Stan. I slept through most of this one as well, I even forgot to let down my food tray to signal the people working to leave goodies for me to wake up to, so that pissed me off, but oh well. I watched the last bit of Sherlock Holmes, and we landed. It was about a 7 hour flight so 3+8+7 is 18 hours total in the air, and probably 13 to 14 was spent sleeping.

We got into K-Stan, took all of our stuff off the plane, and took a bus to our new base. It’s kinda weird cuz we flew into a civilian airport, but right behind this airport is this US base that has guard towers and sandbags, and big ass barriers. It’s just kind of odd we wouldn’t place it a safer distance away but oh well. I won’t be here long.

As we got off the buses we had to unload all of our bags that came with us as luggage, and separate them, pull out of body armor and body armor carrier(called an IOTV), and take them with us since we will need them once we fly into Afghanistan. We got briefed on the base on where everything is and where we aren’t allowed to go(since we are in a foreign country so close to Afghanistan, we aren’t allowed to leave this base while we are here due to terrorist threats), and so on and so forth. We went back out, grabbed our gear, and went to find where we would sleep. The tent we chose holds about 50 guys in bunk beds, and it makes this annoying ass sound about every 5 minutes. The sound resembles the sound in the movie Inception. You know like when he washes up on the beach and the camera pans out to show the city he had built and then that horn sounds off. It’s basically that, every 5 minutes. But I got sheets, a heater, and wifi so I can’t really complain. We went to eat at the 24 chow hall, where they have everything you would want, which includes Mountain Dew so I snagged a few of those, and candy and all that noise. I even got to catch a glimpse of some football and see Ryan Matthews score a touchdown. I got formation at noon my time, in which I will find out when we will get out of here and to Nerkh. I love you and miss you all, I hope you all had a safe, drunken, and fun Halloween, and I can’t wait to hear from you all. The wifi here sucks ass so skype will be tough, but the chat part works pretty good so we can still do that I guess. Well I think that’s enough. Peace.

As most of you know, I’m getting ready to depart on my biggest journey yet, a year long deployment to Afghanistan. I’ll have wifi where I’m stationed, so I decided to keep a brief blog about how I’m doing, consider this a safety check, as long as I keep posting, I’m still alive haha. This I guess will serve as my introduction, I’ll answer multiple questions about this deployment, my mail situation and what not, and just blabber on about nonsense since I’m bored.

First off, since this is the internet and anybody and everybody can read this, I have to keep my posts brief. I can’t put information on here that will put my friends and I in any more danger from the enemy, so it’s basically gonna be like, hey I burned shit today and talked to some afghan kids. Nothing crazy about battles and firefights that I’ll be in, I’ll save that for actual letters and facebook chats if you’re up.

That brings me to my next point. Afghanistan is 11 and a half hours ahead of the west coast, so getting a chance to talk to me is on you. Take for example if it’s 8:30pm in afghanistan it’s 8:00am in California(I think I did that right haha). Also, I’m putting my family first. I told my dad that we can setup little meetings where they will all be together so I can talk to them and such.

Another thing, I want all my close friends, the ones I consider family, to stop by as much as possible at my house to see my parents. They cherish you like family as well and it helps deal with the fact that I’m so far away to see you guys and talk to you about what you’ve been up to. So I ask for you guys to go see them. Go have dinner with them, you know they can cook and I know you enjoy their food(Kolby) as much as their company. If you want to know exactly how I’m doing, they are gonna know. If you want to see me via computer, I’m most likely gonna be talking to my family and you’re more than welcome to come over and join. I seriously can’t stress this enough but please, as my only request to you, go see my mom, dad, and sister.

A lot of people have been asking about care packages, and it’s good to know you guys care enough to send me stuff so, here’s a list haha:

non-perishable foods

pop-tarts and honey buns

socks, heavy ones during the winter and lighter ones during the spring and summer

puzzle books like soduko and stuff

movies/dvd sets of tv shows. you know what I like.

writing materials.

books/magazines.

pictures. I won’t have a printer and I can’t take facebook with me when I’m on a 10 day patrol. try and get them laminated so they don’t get ruined by sweat and rain.

baby wipes and toilet paper.

any other personal hygiene products.

gatorade powder.

anything else you deem necessary.

Mail can take up to 3 weeks just to get to me, and another 3 weeks to come back to you. Be patient and after a while a steady stream of letters should come your way as long as you keep writing. Mail is a HUGE moral booster, cuz hearing from back home gives you something to look forward too. I know your days won’t be as hectic as mine, but I really don’t mind hearing about your day, no matter how boring it may sound to you.

That’s about it, I’ll post my address on here as soon as I get in country. As always I appreciate your support and prayers during this deployment and I look forward to causing a ruckus when I get back.

P.S. I’ll try to keep the swearing down on this since I know families will read this, but the fact of the matter is I got a dirty mouth thanks to my new profession, and I will let a few slip. My apologies.