Before we left for Afghanistan, I was really wishing for warm weather because I knew we would be spending a lot of time outdoors, and I’m not a big fan of being cold. However, I soon learned that warm weather in that region is not something to wish for. The “bad guys” (bad guys is the general term everyone seems to use) hibernate in the mountains when it’s cold, they get restless, and they come out of hiding when the weather gets warmer. Coincidentally, the climate was just changing from months of freezing cold to warm and sunny. When we arrived at FOB Shirana the first thing they told us was that they were starting to see more activity from the bad guys in the form of rockets being launched at the base. That bit of information sure helped my sense of security upon arriving at the base. Shirana is at an elevation of 7,500 feet, so it’s in the mountains already and the bad guys don’t really have to travel far. That didn’t stop me from going to the perimeter of the base for a quick photo op.

We enjoyed an outdoor barbeque with a large group of troops stationed at Shirana. We also enjoyed it with a large group of local Afghani guys. That was my first contact with the locals and at first sight, I was really surprised to see them on the base. To be honest, it made me kind of nervous, but I remembered that a big reason we are in Afghanistan is to help the Afghanis. The military hires them for different jobs around the base. They help with construction, cooking, and cleaning. The Afghanis only make a couple dollars a day, but apparently it goes a long way for them. They come to the base in the morning, work all day, and then they have to leave by 4:30 in the afternoon. From what I understand, those are strict working hours that the Taliban enforces. While I’m glad that we can help the locals, you never really forget that in that region a local might be your friend one day and your enemy the very next.

That afternoon at Shirana we visited the shooting range. I had never shot a gun in my life nor had I ever had the desire. However, I had to redeem myself for being such wimp about flying. What could make me tougher than shooting an M-16? Most of the military personnel on the base have to carry them around all the time everywhere they go. Maybe seeing so many guns all the time made me have an interest in learning to shoot one. I actually liked it. I was pretty happy with my accuracy with the M-16. Later on in the trip, I shot a 9 mm and definitely wasn’t as accurate.

There is a lot of construction going on at FOB Shirana. Many of the military men and women that I met from that base are not there for combat. Many of them specialize in construction and engineering. They are doing a lot of road building off the base because there aren’t a lot of paved roads in the country. I also noticed that at many of bases it’s not just tents and pods that are going up. Our military is building concrete structures meant to last. We are making huge investments in infrastructure. Our troops as well as troops around the world are making huge time and labor investments. Not to mention the amount of money being spent. It seems that we are planning to be in Afghanistan for a long, long time.

We stayed one night in Shirana and then hopped on a plane to Jalalabad. On the flight there, I got to sit in the cockpit of the Casa 212 plane. That type of plane is much smaller than the C-130, but it has real seats to sit in. Afghanistan actually has some really pretty scenery. Some places are flat and sandy. Some places are mountainous and snowy. We flew surprisingly close to the Pakistan border. The pilot explained to me that we could not touch or cross the border, not that I wanted to. In fact, we had to fly a little bit out of our way avoid Pakistan. I wish we would have avoided coming so close to the mountains, but I figured who I am I to start navigating the plane. I kept my mouth shut and stayed busy taking pictures. Flying in the region is dangerous not only because of who might be hiding in the mountains waiting to fire at aircraft but because airports are few and far between. There isn’t really any place for emergency landings. A few of the bases where we landed had minimal pavement. It felt odd to land on pavement and then taxi onto gravel. Actually, most of the time it was just nice to have all the wheels on the ground.

I’ll tell you about Jalalabad, or J-bad as it’s commonly called, in my next blog. I just realized that I should probably tell you about the other people in my group that you are seeing pictures of. They were really cool, and I’m so glad I got to travel with them and get to know them. I’ll tell you about them in my next blog.