Letter From Afghanistan #03

Good morning, or in your time zone I guess I would still be afternoon yesterday.  This whole time difference thing can be extremely confusing due to the fact that Afghanistan has decided to be a little difficult and is four and a half hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time or what we refer to as Zulu time in the military.  A four hour time difference wouldn’t be so bad because we would only have to had or subtract whole hours but instead we also have to figure out the half hour time change as well. Within the weather community we deal with Zulu time when it comes to most aspects of our job and so I spend a lot of time converting the local times that we are given into Z-time. 

Last week, during our short time together, I finished telling you about very long trip to get all the way here and to start doing the job I was sent here to do.  It was a long and arduous journey and we were all glad that it was finally over.  If I never have to make that long of a trip ever again it would be entirely too soon, but more than likely it will happen again sooner rather than later.  I thought that this week I would take some time to tell you about life here on Forward Operating Base Lagman.

FOB Lagman is located about 3 miles to the northwest of a town called Qalat (pronounced Ka-lot), which is located about seventy-five miles northeast of Kandahar.  I realize that this is probably more information than most of you need but every time I go some place I always get asked where we are and how for it is from one place to another and so I thought that I would give you some idea.  The actual FOB itself is very tiny measuring only about one half mile across.  So in other words it’s only slightly larger than a large quarter.  Living on a FOB this small does have its advantages and disadvantages though.

One of the advantages of living is such a small space is that everything is relatively close together and therefore easy to walk to.  Since we have to pretty much walk everywhere, this is a huge time saver.  It takes me less than 5 minutes to get from work to my room.  One of the other advantages (or disadvantages, depending on who you ask) is the same as living in New Salem.  You get to know everyone since you are all in such a defined space and everyone uses the same facilities.

One of the other disadvantages to living on such a small FOB is that a lot of the facilities haven’t been put in place.  Upon our arrival we were shown to where we would be sleeping.  It would be two to a room, which isn’t really all that bad, but the problem is that we would be in staying in rooms that didn’t yet have power or air conditioning.  Since our arrival there has been some progress made on this but quite enough to actually create an advantage.  We now have air conditioning units that are installed into each of the rooms but since we still don’t have any power the a/c units are of little use.  Since I work at night and sleep during the day this is a bit of problem, but we are making do with what we have.

One of the other facilities that we didn’t have until a few weeks ago was a PX.  The PX is rather necessary do to the fact that people need supplies.  Some of us planned accordingly since we had heard rumors of a lack of a PX (Post Exchange) on the FOB and wanted to make sure that we had some of the essential items that we would need.  Of course with most things though, even with all of the planning, you will eventually need something.  Even after the very small PX opened we were still very limited on what we could get.  This caused me to start a list of things that people could use around here that may be a little difficult to get. 

Another of the difficulties of living on a small FOB with few resources is that boredom can be rampant amongst the residents.  We have a small MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) facility that has a few computers and phones so that we may stay in contact with loved ones back home.  The problem is that there are many who would like to use the computers and so we are limited to 30 minutes.  You are allowed to sign back in to get a computer again but there is usually a line and you end up waiting as long or longer than you are on the computer.  The MWR also has a pool table that looks like it has been used as much as has been.  There are also some tables and chairs sitting around amongst the books that people have sent and also a few board games that get used rather heavily.  Asides from the MWR though, there is not much else to do around the FOB.

One interesting fact about life on FOB Lagman is that we share this FOB with a couple of armies from other countries.  Asides from the Americans, we also have the Romanian Army and the Jordanian Army.  This can lead to misunderstanding between the different armies but it can also lead learning and understanding.

Well on that note I will sign off again for this week.  I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and emails/letters from back home.  I always love to hear from you back in the states.  As I mentioned earlier I have started keeping a list of things that people here on the FOB can use and I would like to pass on a small part of this list each week to you.  During my last deployment I constantly asked the generous readers of the Journal if you could send care packages, and quite honestly we loved to receive them.  This time I thought I would help out by giving some suggestions of things that we may need around here.  This list is not all inclusive and anything that you would like to send would be greatly appreciated.  Some of the things that we can use/would like are:  hand lotion, games (board games/cards/etc.), Crystal Light On The Go drink packets, body wash, shampoo, beef jerky, and trail mix.  That is just a small portion of the list and each week I will put a few things at the end of this letter.  If you are sending a box I would like to request that if you send anything liquid that can come open, that you put it in a Ziploc bag in case of leaks.  I would also ask that you refrain from sending anything that needs to be microwaved or heated (we don’t have a microwave at this time).

If you would like to send an email you can email me at john.iraq@hotmail.com.  If you would like to mail a letter or send a care package you can send it to the following address:

SSgt John B. Ferderer

Task Force Pegasus

HHC 2-82 (SWO) Task Force Corsair

APO AE 09355

I love to hear from you all back home and if you have any questions I would love to try and answer them.  Have a good week and have a great Air Force Day!