Rebuilding Afghanistan

Manic Moran

I don't know, they're kindof amusing.

Manic, are your unit mainly working alongside Americans, or are there other ISAF bods about?

It's primarily an American sector I'm going to, but there should be some Romanians and Jordanians running about.. And, of course, the Afghans. Some of my lads, scattered around the country, are liable to interact with French, Canadian and Hungarian troops.

NTM

Manic Moran

Currently travelling. Made it as far as Norfolk, Virginia, picking up a bunch of Air Force types from Hawaii. Bless the Navy, the Squids are good for something: Their terminal has a power socket and free wi-fi.

Rank hath its priviliges, at least when the chartered jet has a first class cabin. This should be the most enjoyable trans-atlantic hop I've ever done. Sadly, not swinging through Shannon, the money's going to Leipzig instead.

NTM

Manic Moran

Made it to Manas. Never heard of the place before a week or two ago, that I can recall.

Have seen some Romanians and two French pilots. The weather here is so much better than in Indiana. Beautiful. And the mountains off in the distance are absolutely majestic.

NTM

Manic Moran

Made it to the right country, at least. Bagram.

Ran into three Irish people selling cars. One from Limerick, one from Kildare, and a lass from Galway.

NTM

diverdriver

Yes, for some reason a lot of Irish have been recruited over the years to sell cars to US troops in bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not sure why. Is it the so called 'blarney' effect. I once considered applying myself. Makes you realise how big those US bases are when they have a military car sales section manned by civvies, not to mention all those fast food joints. War what war?

Manic Moran

Near as I can tell, somewhere between 1/3 and half the population at the largest US bases are civilian. There are some 6,000 Afghans alone employed in Bagram, pop about 30,000. My little base here in Methar-Lam (I have arrived, BTW) is 95% military.

CH-47 from Bagram to M-L. Ride wasn't as bad as I had expected, though I'm no fan of riding helos in combat zones: If anything happens, there's not a thing I can do to affect the outcome.

Bagram actually is a pretty lousy base. Very disappointed.

NTM

Manic Moran

Fridays is apparently Surf and Turf day. Crab legs today, it alternates with lobster tail. Not being a seafood fan, I ate the surprisingly palatable steak.

It would appear also that I have lucked into becoming the liason with the neighbouring French unit. Mainly because of my job in the Plans cell, partially because I speak some French. This is apparently a plum assignment, because French military showers are co-ed, and the local unit is far enough away that overnights are not unheard of. I wonder what their chow hall is like?

NTM

minidazzler

delighted to hear you have arrived Nick. Hope you are enjoying it! Remember my rule, Never trust the Dubs or the French!:D

Just looked at Mehtar-Lam on Google maps, right between mountains, looks like a nice area!

Have a good and safe tour for you and your men, I look forward to reading any updates.

Gavin.

PS; What's the internet speed like in the back arse middle of Afghan?

PirateShampoo

Dont think war has ever sounded so fun. Wish i had signed up many moons ago.

Manic Moran

4th of July. Fireworks day.

Of course, we have no official fireworks, but plenty of things that go 'bang.' So the EOD guys blew up a 500lb bomb and a couple of Hellfire missiles they had laying around. This evening's entertainment shall be provided by illum, HE and WP rounds from the base's 155mm guns. There's a block party going on just on the other side of the wall, BBQ, music....

You can find some weird stuff here. Took me a while to ID the SPG-82 and DP-28 they've got lying around.

NTM

Manic Moran

24-hour clocks take some getting used to. If you're in a room with no windows, and you see the hour hand way up at the top left corner, you're there thinkng it's almost bedtime when in fact it's only just gone half-past seven...

NTM

Manic Moran

Just to prove I really am out here...

Or maybe they've just played a horrible trick on us, and we're actually somewhere in Northern Nevada.

The RG-31 is far and away the least comfortable military vehicle I've ever travelled in.

NTM

Manic Moran

You know the locals trust you when the local village elder comes up to you with his son and says "My son is fat, dumb and lazy. What can you do to fix this?"

NTM

citizen_p

when i first started reading this page (5) i thought you'd be in the british army until you said flying over virgina.....

you from ireland originally? or are yoU a full blooded yank?
just wondering because most irish join the british army.

ohh and do you have any involvement in operation panthers claw?
beside airstrikes that is

iceage

Nice pic MM. I hope you politely told said father you were good, but miracles!.....come on.

Nice gucci M4 mag.

Manic Moran

you from ireland originally? or are yoU a full blooded yank?
just wondering because most irish join the british army.

Dad's Irish. Worked for the Dept of Foreign Affairs, was posted to California when I popped out. Got US citizenship as a result through a loophole which has since been closed. (Either that, or nobody bothered to check the details). Greek mother, raised primarily in Dublin. Moved to the US for civilian reasons some time ago, then joined up.

ohh and do you have any involvement in operation panthers claw?
beside airstrikes that is

No. I'm a tanker/cav scout, so I have little to do with airstrikes.

NTM

Manic Moran

Nice gucci M4 mag.

It works

Dear God, I just had a traumatic experience. I've not had to use that much French in over a decade at least. I just wanted to ask the neighbouring base "Hi! We're new here. Mind if we drop by for a few hours and pay a visit?"

Difficult, over mobile 'phone when we're both in busy operations centres. Took about 20 minutes.

NTM

iceage

Hopefully you got the invite. Was just thinking, how was his English?(your French opposite) Mate of mine who had worked with the French overseas before found it really frustrating when he found out after a fortnight or so of trying to communicate with his opposite in pigeon French....that the guy had impecable English! But refused to use it. :P

When I said Gucci mag, I meant it. Haven't seen a clear STANAG on an M4. Easy confirmation of rounds.

Manic Moran

Poor. He managed to get a 'you're welcome' out after a bit of thought when I said 'thanks' in English.

I think if he spoke English he'd have used it just to end the frustration and to get back to doing something productive.

As referenced in another thread, we lost an MRAP off the side of a cliff when the road collapsed. We have now removed the thing, but how do you get a 20-ton truck up a 40 foot drop when the road is too narrow for a proper crane? (At least one which doesn't fall into the cliff after the truck...which happened)

My favourite proposal, which they did bring the equipment out for, was to put 20x155mm rounds in the back, and set them off. The remaining pieces should be of such a size that we can pick them up with a winch. As this was being briefed, we asked the EOD guys whether or not they were using too much. The famous last words answer came back: "As far as we know, nobody's ever tried to blow up an MRAP like this, so we have no idea how much it's going to take"

However, we decided that since we were only 50 yards from buildings that this might be overly destructive. The next thought was to use torches to simply cut it apart, but that had its own problems, namely time, and the fact that the operation would light up the entire valley. Finally they settled on linear shaped charges, had them flown in, and just blew it apart scientifically.

NTM

iceage

I take it by the way you're describing this, that no one was injured when this vehicle decided to take the scenic route?

Manic Moran

One purple heart from being shot at. Sitting in one place for five days tends to draw attention.

Not serious, bullet fragments to the shoulder. His first time out the wire.

NTM

minidazzler

Manic Moran wrote: »

One purple heart from being shot at. Sitting in one place for five days tends to draw attention.

Not serious, bullet fragments to the shoulder. His first time out the wire.

NTM

Ah, poor fella, Hope he gets well soon.

Manic Moran

What in God's name was AFN thinking? (Armed Forces Network, the military TV/Propoganda station). I'm eating lunch in the chow hall, and they're showing the Hooters Pageant. Including the swimsuit competition. Don't they know what that'll do to people who are away from anything but military females for most of a year?!

That said, I got an email from the squadron XO the other day, saying he just discovered he had an urgent staff meeting to attend next week. Looking up the date, it seems that the New England Patriots Cheerleaders are at the base our Brigade headquartered in on that date... Hmmm..

Rolled another MRAP. Broken nose, a few bruises. At least it didn't go over a cliff, we hauled it the right way up.

NTM

minidazzler

Another MRAP, did ye ever do that to a tank when you were in Iraq? Admit it MM, you just prefer Tanks, so you are hoping to get a few back!:D

Also, regarding the NE Patriot Girls, sounds like a fairly urgent meeting to me, ensure you attend.:D

Manic Moran

minidazzler wrote: »

Another MRAP, did ye ever do that to a tank when you were in Iraq?

We may have had the odd incident with road edges...




But at least when they worked, they had a proper gun and real armour!

Anyone know when the next Ireland-France match is? I have to make sure my schedule has me at their base for it, I just know it's not going to be shown on the American TV.

NTM

iceage

They need to get some Paddys over there to sort out the bloody tarmac in that country.

mysterious

No one even knows why they are fighting over there rofl.........

minidazzler

mysterious wrote: »

No one even knows why they are fighting over there rofl.........

Yup, noone knows about the Taliban or their horrid regime of torture and death of anyone who didn't agree with them. Their Suppresion of the freedom of the Afghani people and the Funding and Support of global terrorism.


Noone knows about that at all.


Keep up the Good work MM, and please, stop fecking about with $750,000 vehicles!!!! Your making me depressed I don't even have a push-bike.:p

Manic Moran

Well, I tell you, if they ever get this country sorted out, it's going to have a hell of a tourist industry. Drove up a wonderful canyon for white-water rafting.

Found the local French base, usual kit, VBL, VABs. Turns out they're Foreign Legion. Ran into a couple of brits (Including the Sergeant-Major) but though I'd heard there were Irish people there, I didn't encounter any.

Anyone got a buddy in the Legion at "Tora", near Surobi?

NTM

Manic Moran

Few piccies.

NTM