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March 2005
Classmates ... I hope this finds you well. We don't have a lot of
submissions this month, but we do have a lengthy one from Pablo
Breur.
Pablo writes:
Dear Friends and Family,
I've been remiss in my updates so I thought I'd take the opportunity to
update you on my adventures. I've been in Kabul for three night now via a
worldwide whirlwind tour. My adventures started off at Fort Benning, "Home
of the infantry." I'm not sure how the Marines might feel about that
slogan but we got to learn combat essential skills there. We got to eat
MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at least once a day, disassemble and reassemble
weapons systems for hours at a time (never got to fire them) and learn
that handheld GPS receivers don't work indoors. Seriously, there was some
worthwhile training. I think I can sum up the two weeks at Camp Benning
like this: one week of training crammed into two "stress-free" weeks.
Upon completing training we started our long voyage to theatre. Our
first step was the international airport at Atlanta. We managed to really
confuse the people checking in our luggage. As a matter of fact, my
luggage got "lost" twice before I made it through security. First they
sent one of my seabags through without a routing ticket and then they sent
the rest of my luggage through with the wrong destination on the routing
tickets. That poor woman at the desk couldn't get rid of us fast enough.
Everything turned out fine because my bags made it to BWI.
BWI was a bit like the Three Stooges. Delta tried to check our bags all
the way through and AMC kept sending them back. Eventually people started
talking and we claimed our bags at baggage and dragged them upstairs to
check them in. Common sense aside, we waited about
eight hours for our flight before boarding. Unfortunately, there was no
one to pick me up at BWI; a real shame since I only live 15 miles away. We
finally get to board the aircraft and the cargo door won't close. We ended
up on stuck on the plane for two hours while they fixed it before we were
allowed to take off - next stop Germany.
I'm really excited about this next stop since I've not been to Europe.
Now that I've been there I can state definitively that Ramstein's terminal
looks pretty much like every other terminal I've been in. No time for
tourism, we're off to Turkey! Turkey was nice. At least I think it was. It
was the middle of the night, we were only there two hours and we were only
allowed in the terminal. We did find out that the Turkish police would
likely shoot us if we left. They're very friendly people.
Our next hop took us to Kyrgystan. We landed in Kyrgystan and were
directed toward and arctic shelter where we could unload and catch some Z's.
Arctic shelters are rigid tents. They were roomy and heated. Most
importantly, this was the first time in two days that we could take a
shower. After a shower and a hot meal we walked around Kyrgystan and found
out about all of the nice amenities. $15 for a 50 minute massage may have
been one of the better monetary investments of my life. Leave it to
Sailors. I think all 20 Navy personnel on the flight managed to get
massages before the Army troopers found out they were even available!
There were also some small shops and a cafe with a pretty decent cup of
coffee could be had.
After fourteen hours of downtime 66 of us crammed into a 67 "seat" C130
toward Bagram AFB in Afghanistan. I managed to zonk out for an hour of
the two-and-a-half required to fly to Bagram. It's true, Sailors can sleep
anywhere. We landed in Bagram in the middle of the night, got our gear and
piled into a wooden shack for our briefing. Those of us that had to
continue on to Kabul (all Navy folk) froze our butts off that night
sleeping in that shack but at least we found solace in knowing that we had
joined the right service. Now that we're in country it's time to get out
of civilian clothes and don our DCU (desert combat uniforms), body armor,
LBE's (load bearing equipment), weapon and Kevlar helmets. When combined, all of this
equipment is lovingly known as the "full battle rattle." We used the few
hours we had in the morning to grab a burger and check email before our
convoy picked us up. About 10am a convoy of a mini-van, a flatbed truck
and three SUVs arrived to take us to Kabul. Since I'd had convoy
operations training at Fort Berming summer camp a question creeped into my
head: "Hey, Sgt do we need ballistic plates for our body armor or
ammunition for our weapons?" The good Sgt sheepishly explained that it
would be "ok." Off we go with our convoy on the superhighways of
Afghanistan. I can say with all certainty that despite the lack of traffic
on Afghani roads is made up for in aggressiveness. The only thing that
could possibly prepare one for driving in Afghanistan would be to drive in
the wrong way on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway during rush hour. Thank
goodness our driver (a hardcharging Marine LCpl) had nerves of steel and
managed to make the drive without making any of the passengers wet
ourselves. We arrived at Kabul compound without major incident. We awoke
Friday to be told that Fridays are "reduced battle rhythm" days and that
we were allowed to wear civilian clothes and visit the bazaar that occurs
every Friday on post. It was a bit strange to see everyone wearing jeans
and shoulder holsters. It looked like a bad western movie - or west Texas.
While at the bazaar I managed to find out how Santa stays under budget.
I was surprised, however, to see Santa shopping for a 9mm holster.
Kabul compound is small but has very good facilities. Housing is limited
on the post so most people live in safehouses on town. I have an Army MSgt
who works in my office and he did the senior NCO horse-trading (or is it
cameltrading) thing to get me residence on post. The upside is that I'm 60
seconds from the office which, coincidentally, is also the down side. The
food is good, the people are friendly and there's plenty for me to do. I
can state with absolute certainty that my time here will not be wasted.
Kabul has been held together with duct tape and chewing gum. The IA
(information assurance) situation when it
comes to communications could be an example of how not to do things. It's
all understandable under the circumstances and I'll have the privilege of
ensuring security of systems as we transition to longer-term solutions.
All-in-all I'm thrilled to be on the pointy-tip of the spear doing
something important with some of the finest Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and
Marines in history. Rest assured that we're all working hard, playing hard
and keeping a good sense of humor.
For those of you that were asking my mailing address is as follows:
Pablo Breuer
CFC-AJ6
APO AE 09356
Please note that for security reasons there should be no rank when
things are mailed here. Mail takes anywhere from two to three weeks to
arrive.
Cheers, Pablo
And as a side note, though many of you may already know this,
congratulations to Mary Kate Bailey (22nd company, I think). She won the
women's side of the Marine Corps Marathon this year with a time of
2:48:31. She's the first active duty female Marine to win since 1979 and
USA Track and Field named her athlete of the week that week.
On a personal note, Carissa, Caleb and I are doing well and enjoying
life here in Wilmington. My real estate sales company is doing well (we're
up to a team of five people now) and expect to double our sales in 2005.
On that note, we can help you (or anyone you know) with the purchase and
sale of real estate anywhere in the country. If you get the chance, visit
our website at www.finecoastalliving.com. Of course you can always email me
at cbjohnson@1998.usna.com.
Semper Fi, CB
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