Letter From Afghanistan #17

One week has come to a close and another has already made its way into existence.  As I write this I am still sitting at work waiting for my relief to arrive.  This morning was the day of the Army 10 mile race and Sergeant Moullet wanted to participate.  Even though the name of the race names it the Army 10 miler, this race was won by a member of the Air Force by running the 10 miles in one hour and fifteen minutes.  I think they should have to rename the name of the race to the Air Force 10 miler.

There hasn't really been a lot of excitement here on FOB Lagman this last week.  We are working hard to get ready for the arrival of our replacements.  They will start departing soon and as they come in they will get a quick training on the in and outs of everyday life here and then we will start departing to return home.  Of course now that we are getting short it seems like the clock is slowing down and it will take twice as long to get through these last few weeks as it took to get through the last 5 months.

From here on the FOB there are several mountains that surround us and they form our horizon pretty much on all sides, but there is one very distinct landmark that you can see from here as you scan the horizon and that landmark is what is called the Castle of Alexander the Great.  I have spent a lot of time during our stay here trying to find information about this so called castle but for some reason there is very little information available or at least I was not able to find the information.  Of course this castle isn't what you would normally think of as a castle with the high walls, a moat, and a draw bridge.  This castle is instead built into a hill just a few short miles from here.  Looking out to the West we can see the top of the castle where it is still standing today.

According to Wikipedia.com Alexander the Great was a resident of this plant 356-323 BC and during 33 years of life he traveled through many countries, many of which have different names than when he was passing through.  During his travels he spent some time in what is now Afghanistan and during that time he had a castle built near Qalat.  It was presumably built on the top of the hill simply due to the fact that made it easier to defend since you could see any opposition coming from several miles in any direction. 

As time has progressed, different armies have used the castle of Alexander the Great.  It is said that the Russians used the castle during World War II and more recently the US Army used the castle for a short time as a staging area.  Alexander the Great knew what he was doing when he built the castle on the hill and this knowledge has been proven time and time again as different armies from different wars have occupied this ancient dwelling.

Sadly, I have not been able to find much more information about this castle and since it is off the FOB we are not able to tour through it, though I think that it would be very interesting to see and be able to walk through.  I believe that there will be a day when Afghanistan becomes more stable and this country will have the ability to share it's very rich and extensive history with the rest of the world.

Recently I started looking through some of the old files that I have on my computer and I came across most of the old letters that I wrote for the New Salem Journal during my deployment to Iraq and now to Afghanistan and I thought that it would be nice to be able to put them online so that whoever wanted to read them would have the ability to go back and see where this journey began.  I decided that I would post all of my old letters to a blog that is available to everyone.  One of the up sides to the blog site that I am using is that it gives me the ability to back date the letters and so I can post each letter on the date that it was originally written and it will display them in order with the newest letters first and the oldest ones last.  My plan is to use this from now on as a way to share my letters with friends and family that don't get The Journal, but if you have friends or family that you think might be interested in reading the articles, you can also pass the page along to them if you would like.  Using the blog site also allows for anyone to leave comments on the individual letters, so feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.  The address for the site is http://johnbferderer.blogspot.com.

Well on that note I suppose I will sign off for another week.  My relief is here and so it is time for me to call it a day.  Before I go I would like to thank everyone at the Peace Church in New Salem for the wonderful care packages that they sent our way.  Within a few short hours everything was gone and everyone was excited to have some new hygiene products and a few snacks.  Please know that your generosity is always appreciated.

As our time here is running short, if you are interested in sending a letter or care package, time is also running short before I will no longer be able to receive them.  If you send a care package and it arrives after I leave, if you don't mind someone here opening it, please put "Any Soldier" on the customs form in the appropriate box and I will let the folks here know that they can open them.

I would still love to hear from you.  If you would like to send an email you can send it to john.iraq@hotmail.com.  If you have any questions or just want to know about something please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer any questions.  If you are interested in sending a letter or care package they can be sent to:

SSgt John B. Ferderer

Task Force Pegasus

HHC 2-82 (SWO) Task Force Corsair

APO AE 09355

Boxes that you send will be shared with as many people here as possible and they really do appreciate your generosity.  Our tiny PX that we had is closed again and so our sources for hygiene products and snacks are fairly limited.  Our temperatures are starting to get a little cooler (it was 42°F this morning) and so it may be safe to send chocolate or other items may melt in the mail.  I would still suggest that they be put in some sort of sealable packaging just in case they do happen to melt.

Have a great week and have a great Air Force Day!