Thanksgiving

 

Seasons greetings and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. This year marks the third year in a row that I will spend Thanksgiving away from home, so I guess you can say I know how it feels. Next month will be a little weird because in 21 years this year will be the first Christmas that I'm not home but that will be in next months blog. They dressed our Dining Facility up really nice with decorations and table clothes to give it that Thanksgiving feeling and we had live music from one of the Army bands. On the menu they had Prime Rib, Stuffed Steamship Round, Pit Ham, Cornish Hens, Lobster, Salmon Cakes and of course Turkey. All your traditional sides and deserts were served too. So as you can see they tried to give you as many options as they could and I have to say it was a  pretty good meal. Only thing was that the football games didnt come on until about 10:30pm because of the time difference so there was no football while eating.

This time next month I'll be almost out of the door for R&R I should be leaving Afghanistan on Dec. 28 and after all the stops and checkpoints I should be back in the states on Dec 31, hopefully in time for church. There would be no better place to close out this year and start the new one than in the House of the Lord.

Our official re-deployment date came down the wire this week and we will be heading back to Hawaii on May 28, 2011. It's about two weeks earlier than we were expecting and I'm sure no one is complaining about that. 

Once again I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and if I don't have the time for another blog before R&R I wish you all a Merry Christmas as well.

Countdowns and Countups:
Time is Afghanistan: 5 months, 14 days
Time until R&R: 36 Days
Time until Redeployment back to Hawaii: 183 Days

Untitled

The other day I walked outside and looked in ahead of me, in the distance was a mountain. I turned to my left and there was a mountain. I turned to my right and there was mountain. Looked behind me and guess what I saw...a mountain. Looked on the ground and there are dirt and rocks. Looked at the sky and its cloudy and gray. Those are just some of daily things I see when I walk outside here. I'm not happy here and I'm ready to leave this place. Theres nothing to look forward to, you cant look forward to the weekends because you're working. When I get off from work I do nothing but eat exercise and  then sleep. When I'm at work there's really nothing to do, because I work the late shift 11pm-7am and everybody's gone, so I have to do is really just make sure our link stays up and guard the equipment because we do have secure items that not everybody can have access to. Even with all that I try to make my days count instead of counting days. (Although I do know I have 58 days until R&R.)

I definitely want to say thank you for the care packages that were received this past month, they were enjoyed. It means alot know you thought about me.


The picture you see is my team I feel I should introduce you to them since they are pretty much my family while I am here. The white guy you see is our Team Chief, Sgt Chris Bell he's from Oakland, California. To his left is Spc. Roy Lee Holmes he is from Augusta, Georgia. To the right of him is my roommate PV2 Jeremy Johnson he is from Fayetteville, North Carolina. You all know me. Finally the lady of the team is Spc Felisha Wade and she is from Plain Dealing, Louisiana. All from different places but here in Afghanistan together. I ask you continue to pray us and every soldier fighting in this war.

Countdowns and Countups:
Time is Afghanistan: 144 Days
Time until R&R: 58 Days
Time until Redeployment back to Hawaii: 221 Days

21st Birthday in Afghanistan

If you would have told me three years ago when I turned 18 that I'd be in the army and deployed to Afghanistan when I turned 21 I would have never believed you, but life is unexpected and I will spend my 21st birthday here in the desert. I'm not mad though, this is my job and part of it is being away sometimes so I will make the most of it, because I know I'll be away for Thanksgiving and Christmas too. I should get that day off which I won't do anything but get some good rest. As you can by the picture above my team put together a wall for me with my favorite teams and a bag of trail mix, it may not be much but its one of the presents I've ever gotten and it meant alot to me.

We hit our 100 day mark this month, which is good time is moving even if it doesn't feel that way. Some of the people in our unit started to go on Rest &Relaxation (R&R) which is 15 day non-charged leave and the Army  pays for your ticket any where in the world. I'll be taking mine January  1-15. I tried to get mine right in the middle so I didn't go to early or too late. I know some people that got here in August and have already taken theirs, now they wont be leaving Afghanistan again until August of next year. I'm looking forward to it, it will be a much needed break.

All in all this was a pretty uneventful month and when you're in a place like this that's a good thing, the Lord is watching over us everyday and I pray he continues to do so until our mission is complete.

Just wanted to say thanks for the care packages I received this month, all the snacks were eaten and everything was put to good use, I know there are a few more on the way and thanks for those too.

I've been told some people were having trouble leaving comments on the blog so here's how you do it
1. Scroll all the way down to the bottom where it says "Posted by Caronta" and click on comments.
2. Post a comment will come up with a box where you can write whatever you like.
3. When you are finished with the comment, right under the box it says "Comment as:" you click that and scroll down Name/URL.
4. Type in your name and leave URL blank and click post comment.

Countdowns and Countups:
Time is Afghanistan: 109 Days
Time until R&R: 93 Days
Time until Redeployment back to Hawaii: 255 Days 

A Mission

 Well we finally got a mission, honestly I wasn't to happy about it. I've gotten accustomed to the location that we were in  and the routine that we were in. I know were everything was and how everything worked in Kandahar but when duty calls, duty calls. We are now at FOB Spin Boldak which is about 50 miles from where we were and right on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. The FOB is much smaller than  Kandahar but pretty much has the same amenities which is good. We no longer have to sleep in huge tents with 30 other people, we now have 2 man rooms.

We flew over here on a chinook  which I posted a picture of one to the left, I couldn't get the actual picture of the one we flew on because there are no photos allowed on the flight line. As you can see the back is open throughout the entire flight and a gunner sits on the back to scan for enemies that may try to shoot at the chinook. Our flight did take a few shots but the combination of us flying at the speed we were and our gunner firing back it didn't have any impact on the flight. It didn't really scare me, I guess that's because my stomach was hurting from the flight. I'm glad I didn't eat breakfast that morning because if I did I don't think I would have been able to hold it down.


We are now supporting the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade who provides intelligence analysis and collection support to the XVIII Airborne Corps. Our job is still to provide phones and internet for them.

I was able to see my brother Chris before I left out, that's him in the top picture we had dinner at TGI Friday's a couple of days before I flew out. He's leaving in about 9 days, I wish that was me, but I still have roughly 290 days left on my tour of duty, not that I'm counting or anything like that.

This months was pretty uneventful, when we were still on Kandahar there was a ground attack, kinda scary I wont get into details but I will post the link to CNN story at the bottom along with the link for the pictures again.

My address has changed now that I am here it is and I will also post that on the bottom. Some people have been asking whats good to send and whats not, I am completely stocked as far personal hygiene goes. I have tons of toothpaste, toothbrushes, baby wipes, shaving cream, hand sanitizer, and soap. So I will not be needing any of this items. A few things that are wanted/needed are air freshener (plug in or spray), febreeze, AA and AAA batteries, shaving razors ( I use bump guard it is the brand with the black man on it) and of course snacks are always great, Pringles, slim jims, chewing gum, hard candy, etc. Thanks in advance to anyone who does send anything.

Florence, Caronta
525 BfSB (307th)
Spin Boldak
APO AE 09355


Article about the attack.

Pictures

1 Month In

So we have been here for 5 weeks and 5 days so far and I can honestly say its not going to bad. The first flew by which is a good thing and I can only hope that the next 11 go just as fast. One of the hardest parts of being out here is the heat yesterday it almost reached 120 and today the forecast was 114 when you factor in the heat index it actually feels like its 130 sometimes, and most of the work we do is outside so we always feel it.

I had to switch teams again and I was really upset about that, when the teams were formed back in Hawaii each team had 5 people on them but so many people didn't come for medical reasons. So they had to be evened out and my team was the only one still with 5 so I had to move to a team with not as many people. I have no problem with the people on the new team, its just when you get comfortable with a group of people its hard to change but its part of the job and nothing I can do about it.

We are still waiting for a mission so we can go "outside the wire" to a smaller FOB (Forward Operating Base) and actually do what we were brought here to do. So far one team has left and another one is scheduled to leave on Tuesday. On the order of precedent we are team #4 to leave. It could be a week from now, a month, or four months, nobody really knows you just have to be ready when you are called.

This month there have been a lot of rocket attacks, way more than last month I think we are to 18 or 19. This place is so big that you don’t hear the impact from most of them but one of them landed less then 200yds from the tent we live in and that was scary.

I've received a few care packages and would like say thank you to those who have sent. I never knew how happy simple things such as pringles or jolly ranchers  can make you. I always share though because there are some soldiers who haven't received any yet. I’ve received my box so there are some things that I packed way too much and will have for the rest of the year. I’m good on toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving cream, babywipes, hand sanitizer, and a few other things.

I recorded the video at the top today while they were testing the alarm system so you can hear all the different alarms.

Boots on The Ground

In the Army they say always be flexible and that's exactly what we had to do when it came to rolling out for this deployment, the initial plan was to meet up at 6pm get weapons, accountability, and have family time. From there we we were supposed to roll out to the Air Force Base and fly out at 330am. Well plans changed and we were told to meet up 8 hours later at 2am...then plans changed again and we were told to meet up at 1pm the next day. Third times a charm, we were finally able to go through and fly out around 11pm on Wednesday.  It was hard watching all the families say their goodbyes, seeing the ones staying behind crying. We flew from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, from there we flew to an Airport SE Germany, I cant remember the name, both of those flights were around 8 hours. We laid over in Germany for about 7 hours. We left there and flew into Kyrgyzstan, after we rested there we took a two hour plane ride into Afghanistan.



Even though the sun had already started to set it was still so hot when we landed  at Kandahar Airfield, we were showed to living quarters which is just a big tent with lots of bunk beds. Afghanistan is very hot and very dry, with lots of dust and rocks everywhere. I look around and cant believe I'm actually here.

On our second night here we had a rocket attack, luckily it was on the other side of the post, but no matter where you are when the alarm sounds you have to get down on the ground for two minutes and then seek cover in a bunker until you hear all clear on the PA system.

Until the rest of the surge gets here, we are pretty much just on a stand by status we still have to establish our company office and inventory our equipment. Once all the other troops get here we will mostly likely leave Kandahar and roll out to a smaller site to provide communications for a combat unit which means we will see alot more action. Just gotta stay alert and alive.

I have posted my address, at this time I really don't need anything because I haven't even gotten my tuff box yet which I packed full of stuff, but a few people were asking for it.


This will take you to my pictures

Florence, Caronta
B Co 307, 86th ESB

APO AE 09355 

Please don't put my rank or Kandahar of the address, it could hinder me getting  the mail.

Time Has Come

After all the preparation and training, the time has come for us to roll out to "The Box". Many people have asked me how I feel about, I'm writing this on Monday with about 42 hours until we get on the plane. I don't really feel anything right now, I'm sure as time ticks closer and were issued our weapons and actually get ready to travel its gonna hit me. I can say that I am a bit nervous and a bit anxious but I'm confident and faithful in the Lord to see us through the next year.

We will have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, we have a formation at 6:00pm and that's when will be issued our weapons and have our passports & I.D. cards inspected. From there we are going to march over to the gym hang there for a while so families can say their goodbyes and all that good stuff. We will load buses and head down to Hickam Air-Force Base where we have a 5 hour window of when we can fly but we should be gone by 3:30am. We will go from Hawaii to Chicago to Germany and then into Afghanistan. I can only imagine how it will be when we touch down, I know there will some in-processing but I just have a feeling it will be a long day.

I just wanna thank all of you who read, for keeping up with my journey and keeping me in your prayers. I just ask you to continue. I will post my address in Afghanistan when I get it. The next blog you read will be from Afghanistan.

Block Leave

It felt great to get away from the Army for a while and just relax, with no worries at all. I was able to spend quality time with the ones I love the most, which was important to me because I don't really know when I'll see them again. I flew into Orlando which is where my cousin had his wedding the day before so alot of my family were there, some of them I hadn't seen since I joined the Army so it was really nice to see them.

I got a chance to attend two Magic games when they played the Atlanta Hawks the first two games in Atlanta, which probably the most I did, for the most part I just rested and relaxed the last 3 months were very tiring and the road ahead is long, so I just caught on some much needed rest. There was yellow ribbon ceremony for me at my church where people were able to come and chat with me a bit after the service, and sign prayer books. I'm thankful that I have a church family that is back home praying for me.

This first week back wasnt too bad, I was in class for a tactical radio all week so I was away from the main operations which is always a good break, but we did have a readiness meeting where they put on out tentative flight dates. We still don't know the exact day of our departure but... we know that we will leave between the 8th and 12th of June, we also know its gonna be non stop plane straight into Afghanistan. Our barracks rooms will be packed up on the 2nd and vehicles are gonna be stored 24-48 hours prior to our flight..whenever we get that exact date.

Its a fast moving train and I'll be getting on that plane before I even know it. Y'all just continue to keep me, my unit, and the whole United States Army. 

Here is an article about our Deployment.

Coming Home

Sorry I haven't posted anything these past two weeks, we have been busy training with lots of long days and short nights, but it has all come to end and we have Block Leave starting tomorrow. Over the past two weeks we to qualify with our M16 rifles to qualify you have to shoot at 23 of the 40 targets or 57% they pop up and down at distances between 50-300 meters shoot  26/40 which isnt the best but its good enough.

We also had training at the Gas Chamber which is when we go into this where this room with our mask on and there is CS gas spraying in the air, the gas is similar to tear gas. Something was wrong with my mask and some of the gas sneaked in there, it burned my eyes and my throat I couldn't see for 10 mins. I'm really hoping we don't encounter anything thing like that when we go over. We also had a Humvee rollover training, we were put in a Humvee and it rolled over three times once it stopped rolling we had to climb out of while it was upside down. That is another thing I hope we don't have to use in Afghanistan.

These last few months have been very hard, we have done all the training and preparation that most units deploying do in 6 months in 3. Staying at work until 9:00pm and coming at 5:00am. I'm just glad its over and I'm leaving to head home for two weeks. I plan to just take my mind off the Army for a while and just relax and enjoy myself, because once we come back we have less than 30 days before we fly out. Although all the training and longs will done the anxiety will increase as each day gets closer and things will be more serious.

Hoping to see all of you while I'm home, and look forward to sharing  the next part of this journey as I go forward.

MRX 1

This week was our MRX 1 which stands for Mission Readiness Exercise, basically our mission was to establish a network as if we were in Afghanistan so that we could all communicate. There were three seperate sites and each team was spread out throught the sites.

We started off on Monday morning with an alert call around 3:20 A.M. and were told there would be a formation at 4:30. I was already up because I didnt go to sleep the night before. There were 5 chalks that we left in spaced out by about 15 mins. My team and two others rolled out to Camp Spann, which was nowhere but behind our company offices. Once we arrived we had to set up all our equipment and get into the network. Then we were told that we didnt finish all of our certifications and that we would certifying on Tuesday. We accomplished that and became 100% certified.

I was on night shift which was 7pm-7am and on Wednesday around 2pm when I was deep in my sleep we were told that we had to jump to another site. So I had to get up and we had to tear down all of our equipment and move to the new site. It was about 10:45pm when were fully operational at the new site which I cant remember the name of it.

Thursday was pretty much an easy day but Friday we were told at 5am that we had to jump again only this time it was the same site just in a different area, wasnt happy about that but complaining isnt gonna do anything we still have to do our jobs. The job was too bad and we were in bed by 9am and around 5pm we found out the exercise was sucessful and that we were going home that night. If it had not been sucessful we were gonna be out there until Sunday so everyone was happy about that.

There were some complications with weapons and a few other things so we didnt leave our motor pool until 2:45 A.M. it was still better than being in the field.

The morale was down this week lot of tensions flared, lot of anger, arguing and stuff thats just not good for us as we prepare to head down range. I just stay positive and try not to loose my cool about anything, its just not worth it.

MRX 2 is this week we will we doing weapons training and drivers trainng Hummvee rollover training all the "fun" stuff thats not really fun.

Thanks for reading.

64 Days

Happy Easter to everyone, we actually got Friday off it was the day off we'd had off in a while other than the weekends. However the week was still long, we pretty much were up at 5:30am and we had to be at the training site by 6:30am and we were usually off by 9:00pm LONG DAYS. Our team did certify which was good and when I say certify that means we have to set up all our equipment, get it up and running and make a phone call to the distant end along with pulling web pages on the laptops, and it all has to be within a time limit.

We now head out for our MRX (Mission Readiness Exercise)which will last Monday-Friday and we will be pulling 24 hrs operations. I'm really not looking forward to that at all but it is what it is gotta do it.

I was talking with my buddy Brooks, who's like brother to me and we were saying how crazy it is that we'll be back home in a month with our families, and then a month after that we'll be down range in Afghanistan, its kinda like when I was first coming in the Army, I knew I'd be leaving home but it didnt until I got on that bus to leave and then it hit me harder when I got off that bus and had drill sergeants yelling at me. I know thats how its gonna be with this deployment its not gonna hit me until we are getting on the plane and its gonna hit harder when we get off the plane and hear gunshots in the distance. I'm just trying to be mentally prepared. 64 Days To Go

Long Week

This week had to be one of the longest weeks I've had since I've been in the Army. I didn't post last week because it was a pretty slow week and we really didn't have much going on. However this week was the opposite, as I said in the the last post we have new people on some of our teams, but only two teams have a new team chief, and those teams have to certify on the equipment all over again. This week was basically just getting familiar with working together as a team and next week we will do it for time. We worked until 9pm almost everyday this week and next week will be the same. The week after that we will head out to the field for a week of even more training.

Our First Sergeant returned from the PDSS (Pre Deployment Site Survey) and told that the location we are goin to is one of the more built up locations, and will have some ammenties. All I really want is access to a shower and the ability to use internet. I've always had a I'll believe it when I see it type of attitude when it comes to alot of things in this unit because they tell us one thing and it turns out to be something totally different. So we will see when we get there.

As you can see in the picture the my personal box is pretty full I have everything from toothbrushes to beef jerky in there. I tried to pack everything I could think of that would make for a more comfortable deployment. Im sure most of it will run quite fast, so hopefully the location we go to will have a PX so I can buy what I need.

Things are getting more and more serious here, and at the same time more stressful I'm just trying to keep my head up and get through it. I read somewhere this week that "If God brought you to it he will bring you through it" and even though I had heard that before it came right at the perfect timing. I know I just gotta keep my nose out the sky, keep my heart to God and keep my face to the risin' sun. Everything we will okay. God Bless

New Teams

For the last 9 months our platoon has been broken down in to five teams, and in those months I've developed a good relationship with my teammates and team chief. Well now that we our deploying the teams have moved around and there are new team chiefs. There is only one guy from my original team. It's very important that you get to know the people on your team and develop some type of relationship with them because these are the people you're gonna be working with and living with for the next year in Afghanistan.

Our First Sergeant has gone ahead to Afghanistan to survey the sites that we will be work at, he will be there for 19 days. He called back this week and said that conditions are very hostile, with constant shots being fired. He says its also very cold right now, I'm hoping it warms up by the time we arrive. He is supposed to take plenty of pictures and give us a full brief when he returns. Just the thought of hearing bullets be fired all day and night is enough for me. They say that you'll get used to it after a while, but how long is a while?

The pictures that you see are of the main equipment that we'll be using over there, they are called Satellite Transportable Terminal (STT). There are only about about 30 of us from my old platoon who went to Arizona and got trained on the equipment and now that we've added so many new people they also need to be trained on it and get validated. So for the most part that's what we will be doing this upcoming week, getting every one proficient on this equipment because if somebody goes down the next person has to be able to pick up where he left off.

Were also in the process of packing up our personal boxes, each person was given a black tough box to fill with personal items such as baby wipes, toothbrushes, soap, deodorant etc. They have told us to try and pack for at least six months because theres a good chance we wont have access to many facilities to purchase more items. I think I'm pretty much good with what I've bought so far, I just need to get a few more things. The boxes will be do on Friday so that they can be put on the boat and be waiting for us when we get there.

Long week ahead I look forward to sharing thanks for reading my blog.

Fast Changes

When I arrived to the 307th Integrated Theater Signal Battalion at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, I was told it was a non-deploying unit. I was told that the most we would do is go on missions to places like Thailand, The Philippines, and Guam among others. Basically I was told that our mission was to support the Pacific. Long story short, many things have changed since then and we are now scheduled to deploy in June to support Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)which is just the governments fancy way of saying the War in Afghanistan. We were informed in January and that leaves only six months to get our battalion ready to go down range. That means lots of long days and lots of training, but most important to me is to be mentally ready for a year in a combat zone which is very hard and I don't know where to even start. They haven't given us a set date that we will fly out but they have posted a calender with all of our training and everything we have to get done, block leave is set for May 1 - May 15 and the 72 hour prior pregnancy test that the females receive is scheduled for May 29-May 31 so June 1 is looking like the day. I continue to keep my faith in the Lord and I know that he is going over there with us. I often refer to Ephesians 6:11-18, because I know that despite all the gear and equipment that we will be issued, I will still need to put on the full armor God everyday as well. I will try to post weekly, to keep this blog updated and post pictures and videos to give you a full insight. I ask for you to keep me and my fellow soldiers in your prayers. Until next time this is PFC Florence signing out...