The Country Club

One of my favorite quotes from the Vietnam era TV shows that hit the airwaves in the 80's was "Welcome to the Country Club." I don't remember the show, but I certainly felt that way when my Air Force C-17 landed in Afghanistan around 0130 on 7 August. The pic above is of the in-flight entertainment for the roughly four hour flight. We watched "Monte Python and the Holy Grail." Since we did not have speakers, we actually read the subtitles. Saldy many people read them aloud and with the appropriately poor English Accent.

Upon arrival we had some excited Navy guys waiting for us, along with an hour and a half of paperwork. After finding our home for the next two weeks, we finally got to sleep around 4am. The barracks housed six people and is in a double wide conex box. The room was absolutely dirty, every surface was layered with dirt. The next two days were pretty much a rest, recouperate and adapt timeframe allotted to us prior to starting our in-theatre training. During this time we explored the base in a failed attempt to find the best DFAC to patron, sadly they were all pretty much the same. Of course, I also made my first in country purchase. . . a brrom and a swiffer wet jet with which to clean our covered barracks.

One of the evenings we enjoyed the hospitality of the UAE. They open up their DFAC on certain nights to all of the coalition forces, and we got in to enjoy the good food. I had the best hummus I have ever had, plus a great mango juice.

We enjoyed the food of the Korean DFAC yesterday, but I was not as impressed. The food was good, but the best part was the rice. I just don't think I have the stomach for Korean.

I went to the Bazaar here on base the other day. I was able to pick up a few items, but I was overall unimpressed. If you want a rug, pre-1898 rifle, or bootlegged DVDs then it is the place for you, else there is not much differentiation in the goods available, though there certainly are alot of options.

That is it for now, I will keep you posted on other neat things as time goes on.

I will leave this message with acknowledgement to the author of the Desert Periscope, a blog by another Submarine Officer who is currently serving in Iraq. Had I not run across his blog I may not have decided to do this webpage, thus preventing a good, true accounting of my activities.