Letter From Afghanistan #08

Another week has come to a close and the good news is that this deployment is about half over.  There has already been talk about our redeployment back to the States.  Of course no actual dates have been given but they have already started talking about how they will be sending us home.  One of the thoughts is that they are going to space us out over a few weeks in order to have a few people stay to get the new team spun up after their arrival.  It’s good to know that this deployment is moving along at a good pace (or at least it feels that way to me).

Sadly, not a whole lot has really happened this week here on FOB Lagman.  The one thing that happened just yesterday is that the MWR is currently closed.  According to the sing on the door they are doing some construction.  That was really all the sign said and so I’m not really sure what kind of construction they are doing but I figure that they can really only make it better.  The space is rather small currently and so hopefully they are going to actually expand that area and maybe put in some more computers.  There are currently eight computers in the MWR and with the number of people on the FOB it can sometimes be a long wait to get onto one of the computers.  In order to make it so that everyone gets a chance to use the computers there is a 30 minute time limit.  This is completely fair and at the same time it can be completely frustrating.  Many times the waiting time to get on a computer is much longer that the actual amount of time that you get to spend on the computer.  Especially with writing these letters I get emails from people and I would like to respond but 30 minutes is often not even enough time to read them all.  The good thing is that I am able to get to my email while I am at work and so I have a little more time than most other people. 

In a recent email from Rosemary Kunkel she was wondering about correspondence being censored.  In the past, correspondence from military members to their friends and family back home was generally censored in order to prevent military secrets from being intercepted by the enemy.  So a family member may have received a letter from their loved one with sections that were blacked out.  It could make the letters somewhat hard to read because you would only receive part of a story with some of the important places and people missing.  Now days it is entirely different when it comes to passing information back and forth.  With email and web sites like Myspace and Facebook it is now much easier and quicker to send information back and forth.  The issue is that with the ease of passing information over the internet via email and social networking sites, secrets can be easily leaked to groups that we would prefer not to know our information.  But this is the risk that we run with technology these days.  Many times information is released before we would like it to be and there is little that we can do about it.  The military understands that this is a risk that we run and they have taken it very seriously.  From the day that we join the military we are told all about OPSEC or OPerational SECurity, or ensuring that we don’t say things that can hurt our mission.  Some of it is as simple as not mentioning troop movements from the States and not giving out information the whereabouts of people in your unit.  It can also be a lot more complicated than that as well.  It requires us to be careful to not talk about missions and locations and times of those missions.  Sometimes we merely have to wait until the mission is over to talk about it and there are times when we are not allowed to mention at all.  Sadly the military has little control over the information that we pass back and forth, but they do have consequences in place if security is compromised.  It can include additional duty or jail time, depending on the seriousness of the information that is revealed.

I also had a question from my dad that I thought was rather interesting.  Referring back to my letter about the memorial service that was held here a few weeks ago, I had mentioned that the service was held for a soldier and for a sailor.  My dad said that he understood why there would be a soldier here but wondered what the sailor would be doing in the area since a great portion of their jobs consist of use of different bodies of water.  This is somewhat true but, the Navy also has jobs that require them to be on land.  The sailor that we mourned at this particular memorial service was actually deployed here as a member of an EOD team or Explosive Ordinance Disposal team.  They are the people that are called when something suspicious is found that is suspected to be a bomb or other type of explosive.  It is there job to safely dispose of risk, whether it’s by what the military calls BIP or Blow In Place, or to actually disarm the explosives.  All branches of the military actually have EOD teams and both the soldier and the sailor that the memorial was held for were part of the EOD teams here in Afghanistan.  There are other jobs that allow sailors, marines, soldiers, and airmen to work in atmospheres that are different from what is thought to be normal for their branch.  Myself and the rest of our weather team is a prime example in the fact that we are all Air Force personnel but in fact we are actually deployed and working with the Army.  We all have a common goal and this allows us to all work together no matter what our branch of service.  No one looks at the sailor and expects any less from him because he is suppose to be on a ship out on the ocean.  Of course we still have our rivalries, but when it comes down to it we are all family and we do whatever we can to take care of that family.

On that note I will sign off for another week, but before I go I would like to pass along a couple of quick thank yous.  I would first like to thank my parents for the boxes that they sent the last couple of weeks.  All three big bags of candy that you sent are completely gone, and really it only took about three to four days for it all to disappear along with everything else that you sent.  Everyone here really appreciates the caring that you have shown.  I would also like to thank Dental Associates in Mandan for all of the dental supplies that they gave my dad to send.  I knew that we had some toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss on their way, but I didn’t think it was going to be a couple dozen toothbrushes and an entire case o trial sized tubes of toothpaste and dental floss.  Everyone was excited to see them and it was quickly passed around.  I would also like to pass along a heartfelt thanks to the Word of Life Baptist Church.  Your boxes of snacks and hygiene products were warmly received and much appreciated.  Thank you to everyone who has sent boxes and please know that everything you send is greatly appreciated.

I would love to hear from all of you.  Please feel free to email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com or you can send letters to:

SSgt John B. Ferderer

Task Force Pegasus

HHC 2-82 (SWO) Task Force Corsair

APO AE 09355

If you have any questions please feel free to send them to me and I will do my best to answer them.  I always enjoy hear from people back at home.  For those of you that would like to send care packages, you are more than welcome to do so.  We can always use things like shampoo, body wash, hand lotion, and sun screen and we always appreciate any snacks like trail mix, beef jerky, snack packs, sunflower seeds, and Crystal Light drink packets.  Just know that everything that is sent to me is shared with everyone here on the FOB.

Have a great week and a great Air Force Day!