Month 9 Day 7

Notebook Entry
Movement to Leatherneck

Journal Entry
I got up late because someone decided to be nice and not make the guys who were going on the convoy stand watch. That was really considerate, but it nearly put me into a panic in the morning because there were things that I really wanted to get done, and I was not able to, such as call Suzan on our anniversary.

The load up for the convoy went fine, so did the order. The ANA [Afghan National Army] predictably showed up late. The move went pretty smoothly, I got us well out of the high-traffic areas and we cruised at aout 30Mph through the mostly open desert. The ANA stopped once for a lost fuel can which became an impromptu prayer time. Everything went pretty well until right outside of Leatheneck. Though my conops [Concept of Operations plan] got approved by UMCC [Unified Movement Control Center] we were set to go straight through a couple of ranges. I saw this as th lead vic, steered us around the first one, then we were on the second one and my gunner said, I think we are in an impact area. I told my driver to make a b-line for the base fence.

A few minutes later I get an angry BFT [Blue Force Tracker computer] message telling me that four ranges have been closed down because of me. I told them that the conops had been approved by their UMCC.

New forcepro [Force Protection measures] made getting onto base much harder, they had redone the entrances. It took us a three tries to find the correct entrance. Being turned away first by the USMC then by the ANA commandos then finally we made it.

Once on base I had to chase around to find the order that said that the ANA were supposed to go get their new kandak and that they rated fuel wate[r], and maintenance from all the other corps en-route. Naturally the corps had no idea what we were talking about. I cornered the brigadeer general chief of staff and he promised that by 2000 we would have the order, but right now he needed to attend a very important VTC [Video teleconference] with the MoD [Ministry of Defense]. Nothing changes at this level. I am too busy to support my subordinates, I need to use the fancy american stuff.

Our impromptu prayer stop in the desert.