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.