Long time...no post

So i know its been forever since I posted anything up here.  Things have been real busy around here and I havent gotten a lot of free time.  What I DO have are the latest pictures of me.

So you can all stop complaining about not having new pictures of me!

Image Dump

I figured this was as good a time as any to upload my pictures.

Heres me on the C-17 flight from Kyrgyzstan to Kabul. (say that 5 times fast)

And heres the view behind me in the aircraft...thats 2 and a half batteries worth of solders..our baggage, and the crew.

More after the page jump.

Time to update again

So in response to everyone complaining that I dont update this as much as I should, I'm gonna write this...so STOP COMPLAINING!

Things here at Camp Dubs are going fairly well.  We're just about settled into our routine here.  Oh, for those of you who keep asking "whats a Dubs" I'll explain.  Camp Dubs is named after Adolph Dubs, the last US Ambassador to Afghanistan who was killed here in the late 70s.  I've spent most of my time here on the camp, with a few trips outside to break up the monotony.

As most of you probably know by now, we lost one of our guys last week.  He was one of my friends.  None of us expected this to happen so soon into the deployment, and it really hurt.  I'm not really gonna say much else on the subject, mostly because there isnt much else to say.

I've taken some pictures since we've been here but the internet is being cranky and not letting me upload them.  They'll make their way here when it finally behaves.

Finally time to update

I figured I should update this with something else so here goes.

I'm pretty much settled in here, enjoying the deployed life....crappy mattress in a 6x8 plywood box (aka my hooch), 9 shower stalls for close to 80 soldiers, oh and cheap bootleg dvd's (3 for 5 bucks).

I'm at one of the quieter bases in the capital region. Theres troops here from all over, all 4 branches of the US military (no im not including the Coast Guard in that), England...well all of Great Britain really, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, and France. On a day to day basis I work with most of the senior leadership from these groups, as they come into the TOC regularly. For you non-military types out there, the TOC is the Tactical Operations Center...basically where the command staff work outta. My job there is to give everyone their intel when they get ready to head out in the morning, and get important info out of them when they get back. I also work the radio and data links to our guys in the field, as well as regular clerk duties like answering the phones, taking out the trash, making sure the coffee pot is always full, which is the most important job of all of them.

The area that I'm in is beautiful. Theres mountains all around us and the palace from the last Queen of Afghanistan is about a 20 minute hike up a hill. The air is a lot cleaner here than in the downtown area, cause we're a bit higher up. When i say higher up i mean we're at about 6200 feet altitude here. It took some getting used to, believe me.

I'll put more up when I can but I cant promise that it'll be regular. Keep sending those letters and care packages...mail day here is probably the best day, other than fridays (surf and turf night in the chow hall).  My address here is different than the one I had posted before:

Maxwell Titelbaum
A 1-101FA 86th IBCT (MTN)
Camp Dubs
APO AE 09320

Afghanistan

Well I'm here.  Not much else to say.  Really busy and such....talk to everyone whenever I can.  More when I have more time.

In Transit

So we've finished most of the traveling.  We're at the last stop before we hit Afghanistan, the Air Force-run transit station in.....well lets just say its one of those other countries that ends in -stan where they like to speak Russian.  We're going to be here for a few days until theres a military flight thats going where we need to go, at which point we'll pack up, head onboard and fly into country.

This doesn't seem like a bad base to be stuck at for a while.  Its not too big, but its got just about everything you need to deal with the wait times.  Theres 2 lounges with Wi-Fi, phones to call home, mini movie theaters, X-Box/Playstation rooms, and pool tables; plus a bar type area with live music, food, and alcohol (only available if you're USAF stationed here).  The chow hall here is INSANE!  The first night we were here they were serving steak, shrimp, and lobster.  I spoke to one of the AF guys here and they have that at least once or twice a month.  The quality of the chow is great and its kind of ironic that I had to fly halfway around the world to get a decent meal and a somewhat comfortable bed.

Still getting used to the time difference.  For example I woke up here at about 0030 local and couldn't fall back to sleep, so I walked over to the nearer of the 2 MWR (MWR is the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation service for the military) centers.  As I got there and sat down with my laptop they turned on the TV to the Olympic gold medal hockey game.  No idea what time that came on back home but it was about 0130 here.  All I have to say about that is thank god there were no Canadian soldiers here or things might have been interesting.

I'm hoping to be able to relax for another day or so before we head into country.  Once I'm there I'll try to keep up with the posting here.  I set up my Skype to be able to call back to the States, so I may end up using that to make calls to everyone.

Talk to you all when I can!


NOTE: I'll be changing the time zone on the blog to match local time wherever I am.  Also I changed the date format to semi-match military date format

Ireland...and more ireland...

So we're maybe halfway through the trip (i hope).

 I'm sitting in the airport in Shannon, Ireland waiting to reboard our aircraft, and being slightly bored outta my mind.  After buying dinner here, and choking on the exchange rate, i went ahead and visited the duty free shop.  Picked up a bunch of Guinness memorabilia (a coffee mug, tshirt, hat, boxers, stress ball shaped like a pint glass), and then got the lecture about "No alcohol"...how lame is that.  Should be continuing the journey whenever they tell us to get back on the plane.