Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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