Well, my time here in Afghanistan is drawing to a close…at least for this tour. It is however, with a tinge of sadness that I prepare to leave. Even though I don’t like being away from home, I do like that I am able to contribute to the cause. Of course, I’m “only a contractor” now and not a Soldier, but it is an honor to be among our young men and women who are the warriors.
Here on our base we have an area we call the “Boardwalk”. It’s basically the town square, and its main thoroughfare is a covered walkway made of boards. There’s a roof over the walkway made of wood that provides shade. This set up gives it an appearance similar to the old covered wooden bridges. The walkway is built around a large square of sand that encompasses a basketball court, a concrete hockey rink, a stage and an area to play softball, cricket beach volley ball or other running around in the dirt type sports. The entire field is about the size of two football fields placed side by side. Around the outside of the boardwalk are some local vendors as well as some “from home” type establishments like KFC. Being a NATO base there are soldiers, sailors and airmen/airwomen from several countries and branches of service stationed here. Many of them stop by the boardwalk at all times of the day and night for coffee, pizza, souvenirs internet wifi, etc.
The other day as I was sitting at a picnic type table with Jared, one of my fellow contractors, a couple of Navy Sea Bees sat down across the table from us. One was a young lady and the other a slightly older young man, each wore a shoulder holster with a loaded 9mm pistol and carried a large slice of pizza. They were quite obviously enjoying just relaxing in the shade and shooting the breeze. I had my guitar with me and was kind of strumming, but mostly just talking with Jared about my 50 / 50 plans.
At one point I couldn’t help but overhear the young lady say something about something getting “BLOWN UP”. Now, I know this is a war zone and I know many of these young soldiers are in harms way on a daily basis. However, hearing a young lady talking about stuff being blown up caught my attention, so I said to her: “Excuse me, but when you said blown up, were you talking about being outside the wire and IED kind of blown up?”
She said yes, and proceeded to tell me more. I learned that both of them were in fact Navy SeaBees, which is the nick name for the Construction Battalion. Sea Beas typically build stuff! She was the same age as my oldest daughter and, by trade, a carpenter, he was a heavy equipment operator. Another young lady who showed up and sat with them was an electrician. On this tour though, instead of building they had been cross trained to run convoys of materials between the different Forward Operating Bases throughout southern Afghanistan.
She asked if she could play my guitar and then proceeded to tell me a story of her first encounter with the Taliban. As she spoke I couldn’t help but think about how times have changed. We all know that Combat is no longer limited to young men, and all of our young people are experiencing events that will forever change who they are. Even though she spoke with a sense of humor, and a hint of nonchalance, I could tell that she knew it was no laughing matter. She and her shipmates are true Patriots! I am proud of our young men and women.
Sarah allowed me to video tape her story. If you’d like to see it please watch her video. You can see it at this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGW-0RK5Vk4
Or click on the picture of the boardwalk.
Here on our base we have an area we call the “Boardwalk”. It’s basically the town square, and its main thoroughfare is a covered walkway made of boards. There’s a roof over the walkway made of wood that provides shade. This set up gives it an appearance similar to the old covered wooden bridges. The walkway is built around a large square of sand that encompasses a basketball court, a concrete hockey rink, a stage and an area to play softball, cricket beach volley ball or other running around in the dirt type sports. The entire field is about the size of two football fields placed side by side. Around the outside of the boardwalk are some local vendors as well as some “from home” type establishments like KFC. Being a NATO base there are soldiers, sailors and airmen/airwomen from several countries and branches of service stationed here. Many of them stop by the boardwalk at all times of the day and night for coffee, pizza, souvenirs internet wifi, etc.
The other day as I was sitting at a picnic type table with Jared, one of my fellow contractors, a couple of Navy Sea Bees sat down across the table from us. One was a young lady and the other a slightly older young man, each wore a shoulder holster with a loaded 9mm pistol and carried a large slice of pizza. They were quite obviously enjoying just relaxing in the shade and shooting the breeze. I had my guitar with me and was kind of strumming, but mostly just talking with Jared about my 50 / 50 plans.
At one point I couldn’t help but overhear the young lady say something about something getting “BLOWN UP”. Now, I know this is a war zone and I know many of these young soldiers are in harms way on a daily basis. However, hearing a young lady talking about stuff being blown up caught my attention, so I said to her: “Excuse me, but when you said blown up, were you talking about being outside the wire and IED kind of blown up?”
She said yes, and proceeded to tell me more. I learned that both of them were in fact Navy SeaBees, which is the nick name for the Construction Battalion. Sea Beas typically build stuff! She was the same age as my oldest daughter and, by trade, a carpenter, he was a heavy equipment operator. Another young lady who showed up and sat with them was an electrician. On this tour though, instead of building they had been cross trained to run convoys of materials between the different Forward Operating Bases throughout southern Afghanistan.
She asked if she could play my guitar and then proceeded to tell me a story of her first encounter with the Taliban. As she spoke I couldn’t help but think about how times have changed. We all know that Combat is no longer limited to young men, and all of our young people are experiencing events that will forever change who they are. Even though she spoke with a sense of humor, and a hint of nonchalance, I could tell that she knew it was no laughing matter. She and her shipmates are true Patriots! I am proud of our young men and women.
Sarah allowed me to video tape her story. If you’d like to see it please watch her video. You can see it at this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGW-0RK5Vk4
Or click on the picture of the boardwalk.
RSS Feed