Letter From Afghanistan #09

Another week has come to a close and the next week has already begun.  It is turning out to be an absolutely beautiful Monday morning.  It is possibly one of the clearest mornings we have seen here in quite a while.  The mountains surrounding us are viewable in their full splendor, which in a place that is mostly made up of just sand, there is still some beauty to behold. 

There is little other excitement here on FOB Lagman since my last letter.  The MWR is still closed and we are anxiously awaiting it’s reopening, which should be very soon.  According to the sign on the door they are doing some construction so that hopefully means that they are making it better.  I can only hope that they are making more room to put in some additional computers so that the wait time to get onto a computer will be reduced.  According the latest update on the sign of the door it should be updating again today but that has changed a couple of times already.  So I will stop by there and see when I get off of shift.

I got a few more questions from people over the last couple of weeks and I want to try and answer at least a few of them.  Sue in Bismarck had asked about night time weather here.  She asked that with the dry desert air if the conditions here were good for star gazing and if our job entails us observing things that occur outside of our atmosphere.  The dry are here does often allow for a superb view of the night sky.  One of the best parts of working at night here is that the sky is often so clear that you can make out stars that you didn’t even know existed.  These last couple days the stars aren’t the only things that have been out in force.  This last week we also had a full moon and I often forget how bright the light of the moon is.  You cannot fully appreciate the light that the moon emits until you have in total darkness with a full moon overhead.  I didn’t realize that the moon was able to cast a shadow, but these last few days, while walking to work, I have been accompanied by my shadow.

When it comes to weather we actually do some work dealing with the happenings outside of our own atmosphere.  Generally our job only requires us to report events that occur around the sun but will affect operations within our own atmosphere.  There is actually a job within the Air Force that requires people to observe and report things like solar flares and high levels of radio-active material.  You wouldn’t think that this would be all that important since the sun is over 92 million miles from the earth but in fact it still plays an important role.  Increases in radiation from the sun can have unhealthy effects on pilots flying at high altitudes for long periods of time.  The sun can also effect two way radio and satellite communications.  So for these reasons we are taught a brief overview of solar weather.  If we are sent to a location where observing solar weather is required then additional training would be conducted.

Sue was also wondering if we see any wildlife here in Afghanistan.  To tell you the truth the wild life here is rather limited or at least what we see is fairly minimal.  One of the big concerns that I always have in a place like this is snakes.  I absolutely hate snakes.  It doesn’t matter if they are poisonous or not, I don’t plan on hanging around long enough to find out.  Recently I received several emails from Kandahar stating that they had been receiving reports of snake called a Saw Tooth Viper.  They are often small but can be very poisonous.  According to the report the snakes have been taking up residency in the air ducts of some of the tents.  The other problem is that people will sometimes run into these little snakes at night when they are the most active.  I have not experienced this little treasures and quite honestly hope that I never do.  Luckily the next time I travel through Kandahar it will be winter so it shouldn’t be as much of an issue then.

We have a lot of different types of insects around the area as well.  Luckily a great majority of them are not dangerous.  For the most part they are just a little scary looking.  One of the spiders that we have here is called a Camel Spider.  According to Wikipedia.com the larger or the species can get up to 2.5 inches long.  Seeing some of the ones that we have around here I think that may be a little bit small still.  Their main diet consists of other bugs and are commonly thought to be non poisonous and so they aren’t of a major concern, but they sure do look scary.

Well my shift is finally over and so I will sign off for another week.  I want to thank everyone who has take time to write or email and especially those that have kept us in their thoughts and prayers.  I would also like to thank everyone who has sent questions.  I didn’t get to all of the questions this week but will do my best to answer them over the coming weeks.

I would love to hear from 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.  Please refrain from sending things with chocolate as they will melt and have a tendency to make a mess.

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