First Pictures From Kandahar

Here are some of the pictures from my first few days at Kandahar.  More to follow soon.

Looking down the main drag.

Random picture.

Random picture #2.

In tent city.......again.

Inside our mechanics' tent.  Mine is a 

little smaller with a lot less people.  

Fire alarm.

The line to get into DFAC Harvest Falcon.  The DFAC is the 

single peak tent in the center background.  There were about

30 or 40 more people behind us.

Inside the DFAC tent.

Our temporary clinic.  Everything we have fits into the first desk.

Going to Kandahar

On the 21st M.M. and I left Bagram, boarded a C-130, and flew to Kandahar Air Field, which is to be our home for the duration.  Our clinic is in the process of getting to KAF, after being incorrectly routed to a FOB 20 miles away.  As such, we are currently operating out of a desk in one half of a 40' CONEX that belongs to one the AECOM operations personnel.  We have limited supplies, limited meds, and limited space.  This is truly operational medicine.

KAF is considerably different from Bagram.  Everything is much more spread out; we walk 2 km to our clinic every morning and 2 km back, and we walk about 1.5 km one way to chow every time we eat.  Needless to say, we are both getting in plenty of exercise.

That being said, the following are some pictures before and during the flight from BAF to KAF.

Right before we left BAF.

Out the back of the plane.

I'm not sure what that expression is on my face.  

Still pretty blurry, but it gives you a little better idea of 

what the interior of a C-130 looks like.

Villages and fields.  If the lines were straighter, it could almost

be Iraq.

Whole lot of nothing down there.

Goodbye mountains.  We won't get to see you in KAF.

In the next post, I will be putting up pictures of our first look at KAF, including the DFAC at the South Park Compound and some general pictures of the base.

What Remains

Between December 25, 1979 and February 15, 1989, a total of 620,000 soldiers served with the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.  
After the war ended, the Soviet Union published figures of dead Soviet soldiers: the total was 13,836 men, an average of 1,512 men a year.  According to updated figures, the Soviet army lost 14,427, the KGB lost 576, with 28 people dead and missing.
Material losses were as follows:

• 451 aircraft (includes 333 helicopters)
• 147 tanks
• 1,314 IFV/APCs
• 433 artillery guns and mortars
• 1,138 radio sets and command vehicles
• 510 engineering vehicles
• 11,369 trucks and petrol tankers

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan

Evidence of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is still visible even twenty years later.  Wrecked and blown petrol tankers litter the landscape at Bagram Air Field.  Thousands of Soviet mines remain buried behind fences of barbed wire strung up to protect personnel from wandering into a mine field.  Skeletons of buildings and half collapsed bunkers are scattered throughout as well.  As hard as Afghan people try to put the memories of years of occupation behind them, reminders lay all around.

The Friday Bazaar, Moving a B-Hut and Seriously, What Else Can We Build Out of CONEXes.

On Friday, M.M. and I rode the shuttle bus to the Friday Bazaar held at the BAF front gate.  The vendors sold everything from the ever popular iPod accessories, to semi-precious gemstones, to traditional garments all displayed in small booths or on large pieces of canvas laid on the ground.  I had been looking for a traditional style scarf to wear around my face during the walk to the DFAC in the evenings, as it has been getting colder lately.  I found one rather quickly, then spent the remainder of my time wandering aimlessly through the booths.  As I have experienced elsewhere, the vendors' command of English varied greatly between stalls.  Also, they were very receptive to haggling, as they knew their customers would walk away and buy from "the other guy" if they didn't drop their price.

On the way back from the Friday Bazaar, a small convoy drove by, apparently relocating a small housing unit.  These small buildings are called "B-Huts" and house up to 24 personnel.  B-huts are filled to overflowing with bunkbeds, wall lockers, foot lockers, and other assorted gear.  They are so cramped that some people are said to prefer a GP-Medium tent over the B-huts.  I believe that the crowding in housing has led to a lot of our almost endemic viral conjuntivitis that was burning through the living quarters like a runaway wildfire.  We have the tide mostly stemmed now, but for a few days we were seeing up to 10 patients a day with pinkeye.  There were only a few cases last week, and the number is expected to decline even further as our public service campaign against it takes further hold.

As M.M. and I walked from the Bazaar to the PX, we came upon a housing situation that is becoming more and more common in foreign theaters of operation.  I noticed it a few times in Iraq, but here in Afghanistan, housing units made from CONEXes are all over.  We have several on our compound alone.  Not only are ours used for housing, but several departments use them for offices.

More Mountain Pictures

Today we could see the mountains better than we have been able to since I arrived.  Very beautiful.

Looking straight west down our street.

Northeast over the fence.

Ears, Fingers, and.......Oranges?

Yesterday we had two people with lacerations that needed stitches.  The first, 8 stitches behind his ear and the second, 3 in his middle finger.  After assisting with the first, and placing 2 of the 3 stitches in the second, I decided that I needed a little more practice to become more proficient.

The orange is expected to make a complete recovery.