It’s been almost three weeks since arriving in Afghanistan. It’s been very interesting so far. We are over a mile above sea level in Kabul, with mountains all around. The air here is thick with pollutants, making the view of the taller, distant mountains sometimes impossible. The temperatures are not too bad, highs in the low 90’s, lows in the mid 60’s. I know that will change as winter approaches, I’ve been told to expect to see snow.

I know it’s early in the deployment, but it’s hard to not compare being here to my previous deployment to Iraq. Obviously, while I make comparisons between the two in the blog, I’ll be leaving out quite a bit of what it’s like here. Shhhh! It’s a secret.

First of all, when I went to Iraq, the Religious Support Team we were replacing met us at the helicopter pad and was happy to see us. They couldn’t wait for us to get there so they could go home. Quite the opposite a few weeks ago. Someone neglected to tell anyone here that we were coming. Probably because we weren’t replacing anybody. But, none the less, we showed up, without a job and without a place to do that job. We have since integrated ourselves into the overall mission, found things to do, and as it turns out, have some busy times and lots of travel ahead of us. But in the beginning, it was a fight to stay in the fight. We’re still fighting for a desk, but at least we have a job.

Secondly, when I was in Iraq I only got to go on one mission outside the wire. I had a good deployment, worked hard, and was successful in what I did, but it was boring. I’m very proud of he job I did, but I longed to see the outside world where I was at. But that wasn’t in my job description at the time. So far here, I’ve left the compound a number of times already. I got to experience traffic here. I got to see people walking up and down the streets. I could see their shops, their supermarkets, the business of life in this capital city. My only interaction with any of the local population are the ones that work on the compound. They seem happy to have jobs, even if it is picking up trash, cleaning the restrooms, or working in the kitchen.

I’ll close with one thing that is the same from then to now. We will do our job, whatever is asked of us. We will complete the mission, no matter how hard it is. We will be successful, no matter what happens after we leave. We will be proud that we did our part when we were called upon.

Good day and God bless.

Dave

As we left Fort Hood we knew it would be a long day. It ended up being a long two days of travel. From Fort Hood we flew to North Carolina, then on to Maine before going on the long flight across the Atlantic. We stopped in Germany to refuel and then off to Manas in Kyrgyzstan where we had, for the most part, a day and a half of down time before leaving for Afghanistan.

Manas is a good transient base. It has most of the things someone would want for a day or two layover. After lunch the first day there, I was walking with a couple of my fellow soldiers and looking around at what the base had to offer. The three of us stopped in the chapel to check it out. While there, one of them said we should pray, specifically about the A/C not working in their tent. For just a split second I thought to myself, “We’re on way to war and you want to pray about the A/C?” But that’s what was important at that moment, so I led us in prayer. I added parts about keeping us safe on the mission and stuff like that.

But this reminded me of when I went to India in 2005 on a mission trip with three other guys from church. Leading up to that trip I prayed about some things. Of course I mentioned safe travels, that we’d be well received when we got there, and that the trip would be successful not only to us, but in God’s eyes. But most of what I remember praying for was that the airline wouldn’t lose my luggage on the way there and that there would be food to my liking for the 10 days we would be out of the United States. I would need clean underwear, right? And I’m a picky eater. These two requests were important to me.

We traveled around, visiting and speaking at churches in little villages. At each church, at the end of the sermon it was their custom for the visiting missionaries to pray over each person that wanted it. They formed four lines, one for each of us, and one by one made their requests through a translator. Most everyone asked for food, money, or someone in their family to be healed. The areas we visited were some of the poorest people I’ve ever seen, many of them sick from malnutrition and various other ailments from a lack of medical services.

But this one girl blew me away with her request. She must have been somewhere between twelve and fourteen years old, wearing a purple dress. She had a confident smile and beautiful eyes. As she walked up I could tell she had a joy about her. To me, these people, being as poor and sick as they are, have every right to ask God for food and health, and even some money to get by on. She didn’t ask for us to pray for her family’s health, or money to buy food with. She asked us to pray on her behalf to receive wisdom to understand God’s word better.

That was a turning point for me on that trip. I felt ashamed that I had asked for things so petty and missed the big picture. It was ok to have asked for the airline to not lose my luggage and to have food that I liked. But that had been my focus. While I was doing work to make the lives of others better, I was still focused on me and not on the work to be done. I learned a great lesson on that trip. And from a young lady no less. Turns out, at least in my opinion, the one asking for wisdom was more wise than one being asked to pray for it for her.

Check this out. My luggage made it to India just fine. The food was wonderful. But on the way home, as I flew from Chennai to London, then back to the states, my bag went to France. I truly believe God has a sense of humor. It was three days later that my bag showed up. And in that, He was telling me it was ok to have prayed for something as trivial as my luggage, but don’t miss out on seeing the whole picture. I have to remind myself of that from time to time, that’s why I share this story.

Pray for us as we begin our mission in Afghanistan. Good day and God bless.

Dave

(I started this entry on June 19. My computer died that day. It’s taken a month to get a new computer and get back to it. Thank you Bruce and Carol for the computer!!! Much appreciated. Instead of adding to this post all the stuff in between then and now, I will simply finish this one the way I was going to and do a new entry later this week. Enjoy)

It’s been a while since I posted to the blog. I started the blog to fill some time when I had to quit school to prepare for deployment with my reserve unit. I had thought that not going to school would give me too much time on my hands and I wanted something to fill that time. However, since March I have been going non-stop with training, drills, army schools, travel, and just getting ready in general. The time has finally arrived. Our mobilization orders have gone into effect. We have moved to Ft. Hood. We will now finish our training and be deployed in the near future.

As we had our farewell/mobilization ceremony at the unit over the past weekend, a lot of things come to mind for this deployment. First and foremost, I’m so happy my family could join me for the weekend. They were not able to be at the last ceremony I was part of for a deployment. And my younger children were too small to fully comprehend it last time anyway. This time they were there, watched the ceremony, listened to the speakers, and understood what was going on.

The second thing I thought of was how easy I’ll have it compared to my wife. I have long thought this, and it was spoken about by one of the generals at the ceremony, that the spouse of the deployed soldier has the harder job. When I deploy, I’ll be told where to be, when to be there, where to sleep, what to eat, etc. I will have little to worry about most things. My wife on the other hand will now be the mom and the dad; the good guy and the bad guy; the referee, the comforter, the judge and jury. And not that I did a ton of housework, she’ll have to pick up my slack now. Thankfully, we have some awesome children that I know will step up and make things happen. My wife and my kids are my heroes for allowing me to do what I do.

As I look around at my fellow soldiers in my unit I consider them family. There has always been a special bond between people in the military. That bond is multiplied greatly and even more present when a group comes together to go to war. It’s a special feeling to be part of a group like this. And this is a special group to be part of.

Lastly, as far as the blog goes, I’ll finish with this thought. During the ceremony we did the Soldier’s Creed. Within the Soldier’s Creed is the Warrior Ethos, four short lines of the Creed. When doing the Soldier’s Creed in a large group I actually tear up a little. It’s very moving. Even though you can’t get the full effect of 200+ soldiers belting it out, here’s the Soldier’s Creed with the Warrior Ethos in bold:

I am an American Soldier.

I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of Life.

I am an American Soldier.

HOOAH!! Good day and God bless.

Dave