Blogs from Kandahar, South, Afghanistan, Asia - page 2

PLEASE ** do not forward this blog or its photos. If anyone is interested in seeing it, have them email me. ** Following the training exercise in Southern California, I spent a week in the Whistler area with Erin while she worked at the Olympics. We flew to Saskatoon together and I was able to spend 2 days there before heading back to Ottawa. A few friends came over on the last night I was home and saw me off. What followed were 2 additional weeks in Kingston and a final one in Ottawa. We did receive an unexpected long weekend when we were given the last Monday-Tuesday off. Erin and I quickly made arrangements for her to fly to Ottawa and we spent 4 days taking in some sights and relaxing. The bulk of my ... read more

-10 days till Afghan national elections. The Georgia National Guard (48th)deployed record numbers of soldiers to Afghanistan-most of them took over ARSIC East, the eastern portion of Afghanistan encompassing the regions occupied by Illinois national guardsman. Unfortunately, our rip-out date was extended a few weeks so we could provide support out west while waiting for the 82nd to come in and take over. After the Georgia guys arrived in Camp Clark, I flew to Gardez and then to Kabul, where I settled at Camp Blackhorse for 7 weeks training and mentoring a new crop of Afghan soldiers, the 207th RCC (Route Clearance Company). From there we formed a 200+ vehicle convoy and drove from Camp Blackhorse by Kabul, to Camp Stone in Herat province next to the Iranian border, a journey along the ring route that ... read more

Hello All, We kind of left this site hanging once we hit further south. Then one day lead to the next, and here I am in Kandahar again. My Dad and brother are all back home safe and sound. A quick summary from the last blog. We all made it to Panama, and actually took a couple of days off. We met some great people down there who helped us around the city and then left North. We were determined to take a different route home, and that we did. Some of the roads were truly in the remote sections of Honduras and Nicaragua. We hired a boat to take us up a river, and found ourselves in tiny jungle villages, on trail/dirt roads, 12000 ft mountains, backroads, and in towns and places I can't even ... read more

Day 43 - Saturday 25th March It was difficult to sleep on the coach. At 4am Heather and I went for a walk around the centre of Kandahar. The roads were still lit and the drains smelt pretty offensive. There were a few people around and surprisingly some shops were already open. At 5am the Imam called the people to prayer and gradually the scene changed until by 7am the square was filled with people and also vendors selling nuts, raisons, rice and bread from their hand pulled stores. There were beggars to be seen and some tried to get on the coach. It was interesting to see the wide variation in dress. Apparently we had to change coaches for Kabul and some guys had already moved our rucksacks - no problem until they demanded money ... read more