Aaaaand I'm Back!.... to Leatherneck.

Alright so it's been about 4 months since I last posted anything on here due to me being on a smaller base for since the end of March. I'm now back in Leatherneck and the amenities are pretty nice; I've got WiFi, A/C (that actually works), a full chow hall that is open 4 meals a day (no more MREs for me), and the gym's equipment all works! The only down side to working here is having to deal with the complaints and all the rules that occur on this base, such as: you have to bring two pairs of shoes to the gym because they don't want dirt tracked into the gym (come on guys, we're in Afghanistan...), and I LOVE hearing people complain when the internet goes down or when the chow hall has horrible food, it makes me laugh and then I tell them to try living on MREs for months on end. It's also nice not living in the same building that I work in, so I can actually escape to my little private area to relax from the days work and catch some solid sleep. Well here's some pictures from back at my older bases, hope you enjoy them :-)

 You'll notice that this uniform is a bit different, it's our flame retardant uniforms we wear sometimes.

 Kickin it at sunset inside a hand sewn hammock!

 Rolling in hard.

 These things turn the whole base into a dust storm EVERY TIME!

 Nothing but fun fun fun here :-)

  

Some one had a bad day

Post Of Pictures

I got a bunch of pictures from one of the Marines I work with, hope you enjoy them!

My SSgt on the Left, GySgt on the right.

Our local mountain

A shot from the back of an Osprey

Typical convoy on Leatherneck

Loaded up in the Osprey flying away

Me and another Marine I work with

These stacks of water are all over the bases... Never in short supply

Vehicle roll-over simulator

Getting ready to take off

Us flying in the air with the gunner in the rear

Martial Arts

hey everyone, so I'm gonna write a longer post later this week, i just wanted to post this picture of my eye after i got punched while sparing when i was training with our Marine Corps Martial Arts Program hahah!

Into The Groove

Well I'm finally getting into the groove of things here. my work day is actually consistent now, just 12, 13 hours max when everything goes well. that's what i like about my job, if I'm doing my job correctly and nothing breaks then my job is easy and there isn't much to do. But it's never boring because when there's nothing to do for my job, there's always little things I can do to keep busy; organize gear, clean up a bit (there's always dust on equipment) go outside and do some pullups, shoot out some emails... stuff like that.

As Marines we find humor in pretty much anything and if something isn't funny, we make it funny, even though sometimes it's a little over the top. For example, we hear reports of suicide bombers "missing" their targets... as in the only people they kill or even harm is themselves, I'm not sure if that's normal to laugh at but we find it funny when a terrorist blows himself up and only kills himself. Also, one of the guys from our Battalion (lets call him john) who was closer to the "front lines" was doing a mission and got shot, he fell to the floor and just laid there... now most people wouldn't think that this was a good time to play a practical joke, but this guy is kinda like that. When the other Marines rushed over to him not knowing his situation or how bad it was, when they got to John's side he turned over and said, and i quote: "Hey! what's up dudes!?!?" with a smile on his face and a bullet through his leg! haha! The other guys said they couldn't help but laugh as they bandaged him up. He's fine now and is ready to go back to work once the Doc's let him go. The day he got to the hospital he was already posting pictures on FaceBook and boasting about it naturally.

With the kind of work we get done out here and the success we have, I'm REALLY glad I'm on our side of this fight, the terrorists are not having a good time, I can promise you that. I see great success in our future and don't let any news reporter or "Hipster" kid at Starbucks tell you any different. Of my whole time out here and of what I heard from people who have been out here for the past year, we have been winning this war overall.

Well as you can see in my picture, all those sheet forts I used to build as a kid have paid off, we all put up sheets and blankets to block out the lights whenever someone comes into the tent since everyone has different shifts (i sleep from around 11am till 6pm). It's kind of like everyone has their own little room. I also found pictures of us boarding the commercial flight from California to Alaska, which then took us to Kyrgyzstan and then the military flight from Kyrgyzstan to Camp Leatherneck. The pictures in the hanger were at March Air Force Base in California, waiting for our flight  :-)

Found This in My Shop Today Too....

"Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle." 

- Psalm 144:1

So Within One Day....

Closest mountain to us. (and yes there are black squares on this picture
for a reason. Just things other people of this world don't need to see.)

Desk... awesome. where there was nothing... there is now shelving.

So within one day, it was sunny, it stormed, heavy lightning, clear skies, hail, then the clouds moved to the mountains and it coated the top half of the mountain ranges in snow. During all this, I was at work and built a shelf/desk with a laptop stand equipped with ventilation holes.

I've had several people ask me about care package stuff so here's a list off the top of my head:
-COFFEE! (whole beans, we have a grinder)
      -(powdered creamer, any flavor)
-trail mix
-beef jerky, any flavor
-If someone can figure out a way to send salsa safely, I'm pretty sure I'll get a promotion the day i bust that out.
-granola bars, chewy, crunchy, medium soft... anything like that.
-Chlorox/Lysole wipes (I'm pretty sure I spelled both of those wrong)

I'm kind out of ideas right now, but if I think of anything else, I'll let you guys know. Just try to think what you would want if you were stuck inside 12 hours a day, 70% of the time on a computer, with access to a fridge/freezer, microwave, and a coffee maker. Anything sent here is GREATLY appreciated by everyone.

That's Snow on those mountain's that wasn't there the day before
(and once again, black squares on here for a reason)

FOB Delaram

 So after spending some time in Leatherneck, I got shipped out with my team to FOB Delaram. FOB (Forward Operating Base) Delaram is a lot smaller than Camp Leatherneck, but big enough to still be a comfortable place to live/work. Everyone pretty much likes it here and is one of the more enjoyable places to be stationed at.  Those Tents in the picture is what we live in, and can hold 6 bunk beds comfortably, so 12 people, but ours only has 6 people so everyone gets their own rack and plenty of living space. I also like it here because the ground is pretty much completely covered in stones/pebbles/rocks that are about the size of half dollar coins to fist size. With the ground being covered with rocks, there is pretty much no lingering dust in the air like at Leatherneck, and the dust doesn't seem to get into every little thing you own either.

I can see the town of Delaram from our base which is pretty cool and we are pretty much the furthest north you can go in Afghanistan before you end up in the huge mountain ranges that cover the rest of the country. So the entire view North is a horizon of mountains that look pretty close to the size of the Rockies.  Right now is the "weather" season of Afghanistan so there is pretty big swings in the forecast throughout the week. For example, the beginning of this week was pretty cold, 50ish in the day, 40s at night, then it warmed up to around 60 something another day, and then it rained for a bit... last night there was a big thunder storm that went on for about 6 hours, tons of lightning and we even got a good amount of hail a couple times (the only downfall to my job is that no matter where I'm stationed, I'll always be working in the building attached to the largest antennas around for a 100 miles hahaha).  My work schedule is as expected, working 13+ hours every day... EVERY day. :-) we are always making jokes like on Friday morning saying stuff like "hey, so you got any plans for this weekend?" haha, and everyone seems to have the same plans as each other..... weird.  So me and my friend decided to do the math on how much we get paid hour for take home pay, including room and board..... that was a sad sight hahaha, lets just say we make less than minimum wage for the amount of hours we work, yet somehow everyone puts forth more effort than most anyone at any other "normal" 9 to 5 job.  (power just went out on our generators as I'm typing this :-).... it's back on now.) But working here is VERY exciting with all the stuff I do and what we are involved in.... lets just say that the stuff me and the other 11 people I work with have a direct impact on saving tons of peoples lives and tons of mission accomplishments (and I'm not talking an impact like how an armory fixes a gun, for someone who can now take it to the field and hope it works and use it to save his life.... a little bigger of an impact than that).

But yea, that's about all I have to say about my life so far, hopefully I can get around to taking more pictures of stuff when I get the time. Thank you all for your support :-)