Giving Credit Where (Dis) Credit Is Due

A few posts back I took the Afghan armed forces to task for the way they treated their ammo. Well, for the benefit of our Ammunition Community I submit the following:

To protect the guilty and ensure I stay employed I will comment no further.

I Once Had A Comrade

Americans aren't the only ones that bleed over here. The Brits have casualties quite often. The Germans just lost a few to violence as well. Truly we do all the heavy lifting but our allies pay the price too.

Ich hatt' einen Kameraden.
Einen bessern findst du nit.
Die Trommel schlug zum Streite,
Er ging an meiner Seite
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt.

Eine Kugel kam geflogen:
Gilt sie mir oder gilt sie dir?
Sie hat ihn weggerissen,
Er liegt zu meinen Füßen
Als wär's ein Stück von mir

Will mir die Hand noch reichen,
Derweil ich eben lad'.
"Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,
Bleib du im ew'gen Leben
Mein guter Kamerad!"

- Ludwig Uhland


I once had a comrade,
you won't find a better one.
The drum was rolling for battle,
he was marching by my side
in the same pace and stride.

A bullet flew towards us
meant for you or for me?
It did tear him away,
he lies at my feet
like he was a part of me.

He wants to reach his hand to me,
while I'm just reloading my gun.
"Can't give you my hand for now,
you rest in eternal life
My good comrade!"

The Fort Riley Ammunition Supply Point Fashionistas

Here is the crew rocking their new Afghani hats.

They may not know too much about the art of headgear fashion but they definately know rat shit from rice krispies when it comes to ammunition!

With Friends Like These...

An excerpt from The Long War Journal that I shamelessly repost here without permision.

Suicide bomber targets hotel in Kabul
By Bill Roggio February 14, 2011

Read more:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/

"...Background on the Kabul Attack Network

Today's suicide attack was likely carried out by the Kabul Attack
Network, which is made up of fighters from the Taliban, the Haqqani
Network, and Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, and cooperates with terror groups
such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda. Top Afghan intelligence
officials have linked the Kabul Attack Network to Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence directorate as well. The network's tentacles
extend outward from Kabul into the surrounding provinces of Logar,
Wardak, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Ghazni, and Zabul, a US intelligence official
recently told The Long War Journal...."

Saint Valentine's Day

Facing Saint Valentine's Day alone this year is turning out a lot more dificult than I expected. Many lament the useless made up holidays used to hawk maudlin greeting cards. I would very much enjoy to hold the love of my life in my arms and fill my senses with all that lies within her aura. The heart and soul are what matters, everything else is superfluous. One learns that quickly when away from a treasured relationship. Card or no card.

It's been almost 11 years together for us. The journey has just begun...

Snow

Sloppy, wet, cold, and sticky. Not quite as bad as we've had back home lately, though.

22 Bunkers

22 Bunkers is an Afghani  ammo depot near Kabul. It is a national level ammunition storage area where this country stores some of their strategic reserve of Class V. I have seen pictures of it. It is a place best described as a horrific explosive disaster waiting to happen. It is a question of when, not if, the entire place will go high order. The pictures I have witnessed show ammo of every imaginable size and type strewn about. On the ground and in the storage "structures".  They even have it in and around the admin building - it's everywhere! Several structures in the area are nothing more than piles of rubble because ammunition spontaneously detonated due to negligence or someone just had the one last cigarette in their miserable life. 

Most of the ammunition there is stacked without regard to compatibility or any semblance of Net Explosive Weight considerations. This is especially true if the ammo came in wooden boxes. There are very few items in boxes. The people who work there take the boxes for firewood, leaving the rounds exposed and haphazardly stacked or thrown in piles. They break open large caliber rounds to pour out the propellant that they use to ignite the boxes. Subsequently, propellent grains of various shapes and sizes are everywhere underfoot.

I was invited to go there tomorrow. I'm not going. I'm too scared. No, not because 22 Bunkers is the epitome of everything opposite I was ever taught about ammo. I would love to go there. It is the haunted house, freak show, train wreck, animals loose in the zoo, git down party one in my profession would love to see. Heck, I'd pay to go there. No, I'm not going because I don't want travel there through unknown territory with folks I don't know and without a firearm of my own. My first chance to go outside the wire and I turn it down.

Kandahar War Story

A story about a recent trip one of our Explosive Safety guys made down Kandahar way. Enjoy.

"Ok so there I was, I get checked into my tent with 499 of my closest new
buddies.  As I drift off to sleep for the night with the soft droning of
C130 engines grinding in the background, with the occasional ear
piercing noise of fighter jets doing a "fly by" to keep us all safe at
night.  I am suddenly awakened at 0300 by the big voice, "rocket attack,
rocket attack, rocket attack." As the sirens gurgle a sound straight out
of hell.  I just lay there and think, it can't be that bad to be blown
up by a rocket, at least I wouldn't have to hear those damn airplane
engines. 

I did manage to get back to sleep.  But at 0445, the spring from my
mattress sticks me in the leg, I'm almost sure at that point I am going
to bleed to death.  It was just a scratch.  So I drag myself out of bed,
slog through 3 inches of mud to the show container.  Luckily, the shower
was uneventful.  After getting dressed I wander over to the DFAC.  It is
amazing how many people they get into the DFAC at one time.  Chow is not
too bad, cause I have had worse.

Nevertheless, I get through breakfast and head to the office.  Damn,
locked out, they changed the combination since my last visit.  Suddenly
I feel the urge to make a hasty exit to the restroom.  The closest
restroom is about a block away, too late, have to stop at a
port-o-potty.  It is freezing out and .... well, I'm about to bottom
blow.  Anyway, it is amazing how cold frozen plastic feels, but it is
better than crapping your pants.  Bad thing is, the warmth from your butt
sitting on the frozen plastic melts the ice, then if you sit there long
enough, it re-freezes only to tear every hair off your ass as you try to
stand up.  Other than that, it was not a bad trip."

Waffles

Well, it looks like we'll be getting waffles served in the DFac starting tomorrow. That's nice. Too bad no one has contacted me with an offer for some C-130s. Of course, because of  the C-130 deficit, there won't be any intra-theater movement of, ya know, waffles. I mean, we have enough waffles in the theater. They're just in the wrong places.

Wanted To Buy...

a couple of Lockheed Hercules C-130 cargo aircraft. Yes, I would like to buy at least two. I got $96 cash US, somewhere around 3,400 afghanis, and about $24 in AAFES pogs.

Anybody?

Recognition

Wow! At least two people, in the last couple of weeks, have walked up to me at NKC and mentioned they have read this Blog. One guy even shook my hand. I think that's fantastic. I never figured I'd get any body to read this except for a few friends and family back home.