I blinked and missed spring. It had been cold here. Not the biting cold of Kyrgyzstan, but chilly nonetheless. The chilly winter broke into bright balmy days with cool nights. For about 2 days last week, it was absolutely beautiful. I daresay breathtaking, if you can ignore the bland barren brown landscape dotted with flies. I even saw a couple of girls in the bathroom who thought it would be a great idea to lay out in the sun from 11-1 in tiny shorts. Needless to say their legs looked like lobsters in the bathroom. A-- it's a desert, B -- they're very white to begin with, and C -- they're taking doxycycline, a medication to prevent malaria, which also happens to make you very sensitive to the sun. Not the brightest stars in the sky. ... read more

First, I have to warn you that this is a long blog entry. This covers the first month of life in Afghanistan, and the current conditions here. I’ve been here a month (as of Jan 30) and have settled into a routine. Life in the ghan is much as it was in Al Asad last year. There are some key differences, but deployment life is slow and relaxed (for medical, anyways) and I have lots of time to attain personal goals. Last deployment, my goals were to get my FMF pin, run a marathon, and get my MCMAP (Marine Corps martial arts) belt. I did 2 out of three (the first two) and had a decent deployment. This time, my goals are to do some research, and not run another marathon (haha). Seriously, there is one ... read more

So we meet again. I didn't really expect to deploy so soon again, but as things turned out, here I am. I have to try not to sound too salty because I know plenty of people who have deployed way more, and for longer times. The first one was fun, but I can see how this would get really old really fast. Not sure how people with families can cope! Enough lamenting, and on with the story telling! Our date of deployment was fudged a little at the end. First they give us a window of about 4 days that we might deploy so we can somewhat plan. Then they pick a day (ours happened to be one day BEFORE our window started) -- this usually doesn't happen until a week or two before we leave. ... read more

INTRODUCTION: A little after-the-fact... I didn't even realize that I still had this blog unpublished. I've thrown in the last of my pictures to highlight my time in Iraq (/Bahrain/Kuwait/Qatar). I plan to make my other deployment blogs public (as opposed to the private status they're in now) as soon as I comb them over and make sure there's nothing compromising in them. I also hope to blog the upcoming adventures I'll be having (as well as the couple I've just had!). MY FIRST DEPLOYMENT (cont'd) I write this as we fly over Europe - the first leg of our long journey home. I had intended to blog my way through deployment. There’s no question that there was ample time to blog, but my laziness kicked in (or is it just inertia?) and here I am, ... read more

We landed in Kuwait around 0400 local (3hrs later than we were supposed to) where the pilot announced that the temperature was a cool 86degrees. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated how hot 86 degrees really is until I was standing outside in the pitch black and sweating. Being from upstate NY, dark night to me equals cold. Period. I can’t remember experiencing a “warm” night until I went to Hawaii, and even then it was very comfortable. North Carolina nights are about as close as I got to a hot night. This was something else. It was a good warm-up for what the sunlight would bring. We got off the plane and shuffled onto buses, prison-gang style. Throughout the whole process, we never really have more instruction than what we’re doing at that very moment. ... read more