Month 12 Day 29

Our last day on Dwyer.  I woke up really early because all I had with
me was my poncho liner and I froze just laying on my bed.  I had a
0300 wakeup vs my 0400, but that was after about an hour of shivering.
 Some of the other guys had the same problem.  They said that they
roused themselves and went to the restroom merely because they were
cold.

I used the gym and the MWR before anyone else woke up.  While in
between sets I worked on my admissions essays for Yale and Columbia.

When I came back the tent was alive.  Everyone had to get up to be
ready to pack their bags into an ISO container.

I went to breakfast and had a conversation with Josh and Maj Davidson
about Brawny.  Josh said “he has a list of preferences because of
what he has been exposed to. He doesn’t really know why he likes any
of those things, he merely does.”
I said “He’s like a ribosome, he just faithfully replicates the DNA
that he is supposed to, he doesn’t have to know why, he just acts.
Society needs lots of guys like that, not everyone can question the
paradigm, the bulk of people need to replicate similar DNA patterns
and will be ideally suited to the world as it is, not the world as it
might be.”
“Right, not everyone can think about the reason for everything that
they do in life.  I agree with GK Chesterton, Dogma has a purpose.
What is frustrating about Brawny is that he tries to replicate his
preferences in everyone else and doesn’t realize that all he has are
preferences, not real thought, and that when you try to engage with
him about why he believes what he believes, he gets angry.  There may
be hope though, he did say once that ‘maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on
the Muslims, they believe just as much as I do.’”
Maj Davidson came in with a few comments and Josh then piped up again.
“It has been interesting to live in a tent with Chris and Doug all
year, you can’t get more polar opposites.  It’s an interesting social
experiment.”
“The only interesting social experiment in my sent is trying to figure
out which of the Bash Brothers stink today.” Maj Davidson groaned.

We ambled back to our tent and drug out expeditionary wheely bags to
the ISO.  Not even half of the company took up a full semi’s worth of
space.  In all it totaled 5 10x10 aluminum pallets stacked 10 feet
tall.

I came back and set to work on my essays and watched a TED.   That
worked for a while, then I passed out for about two hours at midday.

I went to lunch and met up with the CISE Marines in the chow hall,
they asked me some questions about the ANA.  I gave them the answer
that I knew, but it seemed odd that they were asking me.  Somehow it
felt like they should have been asking someone else.  My instant
mental response was ‘this is no longer my job.’  Steve did something
similar. I gave one of the CISE linguists a Dari greeting, and he said
“leave it here.”  It’s odd, something we worked so hard on for a year
everyone is eager to forget and leave behind.  I wonder if this is
because we all saw the whole experience so negatively.  So maybe this
is how the brand new war starts.  The guys who fail and come back
don’t want to talk about it, don’t want to think about it, they just
want to move on and do something else.  Maybe this is why no one knows
anything when they get here.  Not just because guys like me are denied
the opportunity to train the incoming teams, but also because those
who have the corporate knowledge just don’t want to talk about it.  I
think I have proof of this.  I know damn near everyone who
participated in the “march up”—invasion of Iraq, but even if I know
that others were once on an embedded training team, I have no idea
what they actually did.

I worked out a second time in the afternoon, ripped the nametapes off
of my worn-through cammies and put them in the uniform disposal bin.
I put on the cardboard camouflage that I will wear when I march back
to see my wife.

In true Marine Corps fashion we showed up at the AADCG (Aircraft,
arrival, departure, control group) or as everyone else in the world
calls it, an airport.  We were lucky, this wasn’t like Qandahar where
we showed up half-a-day prior to the flight, we only came six hours
early.

I quickly hogged one of the few power outlets in the building and
again shaped my grad school essays.

Gunny has been more involved in the past few days.  He was actively
involved in passing word about when and where we needed to be, but it
started before that.  When the new guys showed up he was out there
with us on our walkabout, and he had a comment at every turn.  Capt
Nowak mocked him for this and Gunny replied that he got most of his
information about the camp from Facebook posts that he read.  None of
that was odd, the Gunny deflecting with humor and Capt Nowak taking
personal offense that his once-confidant didn’t do any work with the
Afghans during his year in Afghanistan.  What was striking was the
LtCol’s reaction.  He used to actively solicit the GySgt’s opinion on
all kinds of matters, treat him like commanders treat their senior
enlisted men.  These requests for comment tapered off after it became
clear that the Gunny was not doing anything to advance the cause, yet
as soon as the Gunny started getting actively involved again, speaking
up on our tour for instance, the LtCol went back to openly asking for
his comments in front of the new group of Marines.

Two things are striking about this.
First, why the Gunny gave a shit in the first place.   I think I see
why.  The Gunny is the master of the weak tie.  He makes great short
impressions on everyone, he comes across as effusive, engaging and
entertaining.  Most of the time this is over-the-top and it is easy to
see when he is putting it on, like he did when he spoke to some female
Army Psychological Operations Staff Sergeant in the AADCG.  After this
period his interaction falls off.  I don’t understand why that happens
except that maybe he is right, that he is a really shy guy who has
developed this ‘not me’ persona that helps him get by.

The Second odd thing is the LtCol’s response.   I am not sure why he
allows the gunny to step back into that role so quickly.  Neither of
these are mutually exclusive, but as I have said before.  Perhaps he
wants him to become that guy, so he treats him like that.
Alternatively, perhaps he has been so conditioned to the roles that we
all play (e.g. an Officer in Charge/Commanding Officer needs to treat
the senior enlisted man like this____) that he easily falls back into
it even when the senior enlisted is not doing his part.

We hopped on our C-17 and sat because the Manas Airport was not open
yet.  I was doubly fortunate.  I was able to sit next to Rob LaFranchi,
and I got one of the inward-facing bulkhead seats with legroom.  I
thought I would feel more as I left.  I thought I would feel elation
at leaving, or some type of angst that the next team was now bumbling
their way forward.  When the turbofans wound up and all of the gear
shifted a few inches to the rear of the plane and clunked as the locks
held it in place, I felt nothing.  Was I just tired, was I somewhat
loath to leave the place that I now thought of as ‘mine’, was I
mentally drained?  I don’t know

Month 12 Day 26

I worked out this morning.  The gym is still up, fortunately.  I cut my hair.  It was a little more awkward this time because there are so many more Marines over there because MWSS is moving.

The workout was good.

We went to the RCT and turned in our ammo.  I had to borrow some more from the next team so that we can protect ourselves while we are on camp.

I sat down with Siegel and gave him my list of tasks that remain unfinished. A lot of them he didn’t really understand.   He has a tendency to speak before he listens.  Ah well, at least he is eager.

I found out that his brother was a guy who I went to the Citadel with, he was in my company while I was a knob, we were on the same scholarship, both in the honor’s program.  Small world.

I packed my stuff.  It is almost all in one giant wheely bag now.  So much of it is stupid.  Did I really needed a second flak vest? 15 different types of warming layers.  This is just stupid.  They dance around giving units special gear when they are heading into combat, but if they just kept all of this shit here, issued it when you arrive and deissued it when you leave, then life would be simpler, transit costs would be lower (my bags weigh almost 200lbs).  I suppose they think that would make us less expeditionary, but really do they think that lugging around 200 lbs of individual gear is expeditionary?  It’s not like we don’t have the room to just store the shit here, and it’s not like we don’t have the time when we arrive and depart to get it if we need it.  Maybe we could start acting like an occupation force because we are one rather than pretending that we are expeditionary when we aren’t.  Really I lug around two wheeled bags that are basically giant brown suitcases, and I carry a pack that can’t contain all of this shit. 

Anyway.  After that fiasco was done I helped one of the power guys install a small transformer in our tent that will drop the voltage from 220 to 110.  That kind of stuff is interesting to me, it makes sense.

After lunch I came back and watched Patton.  That is a whole different type of war than we are fighting here.  It really is a war, not nation-building counter-insurgency.  That kind of war, the kind where the existence of your civilization is at risk if it is not fought, that kind is the kind we should entertain.  Wars of option, they are really costly with marginal benefit.  I want to be around for those ones where I am really needed.  I think a lot more folks will be getting out if they change the retirement system like they say they will.  No more 20 years and go.  You have to save into an IRA, you can’t start drawing until you are actually retirement age.   That should make trimming the force easier in the future.  It will make wars of option like this much less tenable.  There will not be a bunch of guys hanging out hoping to save their careers in the military.

In the evening the cries for the boss to get a new air conditioner became too loud to stand.  His died yesterday, and no one knows why.  They slept last night without one.  We offered for them to stay in our tent, but they preferred to send Casbarro around to try to take air conditioners from the ANA.  Exactly the type of shenanegans we tell the ANA not to do.  

Month 12 Day 10

Notebook entry

18 reports given, Munir maps, Salim not in drivers, Ministry of Defense form 14, $250,000 Darrell, zero parts.

Journal entry

I went to the gym this morning .  I am growing thankful for every additional day that I get in there.  The MWSS guys are going to be taking all of the gym equipment with them when they leave.  The trouble for me is that they don't actually own any of it.  A bunch of it was here before they arrived.  Fair enough a bunch of it was shipped in about a week and a half ago by them, but a lot of the rest of it has been here for over a year, and they said that they promised some of it to other people on camp.  I'm like cool, so I can promise a public part to someone now.  anyway  the reason that I bring it up is not because it is especially annnoying, but because it is emblematic of the difference between the ANA and the US military.  even using the USAF Red Horse showers is a big dela they think these are 'our' showeres.  Obviously that is bullshit the American taxparyer didn't earmark money for the USAF in Afghanistan, nor did they earmark certain fuel trucks or certain water trucks to carry water for them, but they take ownership of their stuff.  Even when an NCO walks into a room he starts using the possessive, he'll say to a  yound Marine 'get me my trashcan' even if it is just sitting there and it is a classroom.  The Afghans don't do this.  they don't have personal weapons, they don't have take ownership of their tents, their showers or their facilities.  They will generaally just run it into the ground and ask for someone else to come fix it.  Tragedy of the commons problems are rampant here.  If everyone has access toa  resource and they can gain some marginal utility form it suse, then they will use the hell out of it well, that's what these guys do.  For most people these problems are solved by and external fore like a government taxing and restricitng use or dealing with upkeep, like in public parks.  But even in the more hierarchical organizations, like the Afghan military the leadership does not step up to this responsibility, and the underlings do not want them to.  The attitude is like Col Mustaga and the Ablutions buildings.  "I know you will find a way to secure my buidlings for me and stop my soldiers from pooping in them."  That is what happens when you have no sense of common identity, common claim, or common heritage.  

I came back and CJ Radin wanted to come by early to work with them on their slides.   That was a good idea because we are solow on terps because of the drivers course-main effort.  HE worked with them and ten rolled aroudn and I still didn't have a linguist I came over and started to work with Munir and my sergeants were like "what about our class"  I kind of smiled and I said, lets do some review.  We did and it was pretty good.  I was proud that they asked.  Salim has been kicked out of the drivers course so he's around now.  I worked with Munir on three more map requests.  He did pretty good on the subsequent iterations.  I was pretty proud of him.  He then wanted to work on getting supplies.  I sent the Sergeants on a search for the CD that I had burned them with all of the supply information on it.  They found it.  I gave him a quick run-through told him to take a stab, and that I'd help him the next day.  Again I was pretty proud that he wanted to work on stuff.  Salim wanted me to uninstall "Windows Black" an iranian pirated version of windows from his computer.  I talked to the assistant code officer, and they gave it a try and failed.  At least they are trying. 

I had lunch with the LtCol and told him about the Semi-successful map requests which were then deflected by Corps saying that there is some other type of special form that no one can seem to find a copy of that we need. He said "it's almost done, it's a shitty way to look at it, but it is almost done."  He told me to go have a look at the Generals new toilet, the plumbing is just a pipe that runs through a small cinder-block wall between the buildings.  The feces will travel three feet and sit on the ground or he'll tell his soldier to clean it up.  all so that he doesn't have to shit with his soldiers.  Awesome. 

I worked on the Gazetter article in the afternoon.  To my surprise the LtCol didn't tone it down he increased the tone.  He is so good at hiding how he really feels about this place. 

The only other thing of note that happened today was with our communications maintenance contractor.  There are basically no repair parts in the country for ANA radios, and the pre-fab repair shops which are like pop-up trailers (about 90 of them) were all stolen in Kabul before they could make it to this level.  So we not have a contractor living on our camp with no ability to do his job making over 200K per year.  Awesome. 

Month 11 Day 12

Notebook entry

15 reports given, trip to Fiddlers Green and Nawa.

Journal entry

Served as the lead vic in the convoy from Dwyer to Fiddler's Green.
We made pretty good time, doing about 30 MPH through the desert most
of the way, but when we got there I found out that I had broken a
shock.  That was annoying.  We took a tour around Fiddler's Green. The
Marines caughed up a bunch of tents for the ANA to live in temporarily
until their more permanent tents (base-in-a-box) were built.  Some of
those were going up but the Marines complained about the quality of
the contracting, they literally had a 12 year old kid working on the
electrical grid.

We had lunch there and the General talked about how important all of
the different staff sections were. After the lunch I went to meet the
kandak S2 and the two S2 sergeants.  Here's the funny thing, they have
guys assigned, but because of the way that Artillery treats intel
guys, there was only one guy, a LCpl in the S2 shop for 1/12, the
officer was doing some type of op in Kajaki.  None of the S2 guys had
gone to school and they really didn't have any communication with the
outside world for the time being they didn't have cell boosters and
they didn't have a radio.

We moved on from there to the merry-go-round area, a crazy little town
where the kids will try to climb onto your trucks to steal stuff.
This is one time that it is good to have the ANA around because they
will tear the kids off, smack them and call all of the adults bad
muslims.  Anyway, we went through there to Geronimo.

A lot has changed on Geronimo, we are staying in what was a COC until
a few months ago.  They have a brand new huge CCOC.  They really have
the AFghans in there with them, they have offices immediately accross
from them.  It really looks impressive, but there are no Afghans
assigned to the intel section here, so they have no one to partner
with.

We went to a brief by the kandak XO that described in detail what the
kandak was facing.  It was actually a good brief.  It broke down the
areas where various TB commanders worked, talked about the Areas,
Structures, Capabilities of Government, Organizations and Equipment.
A lot of the information was verbatim copied from the Legacy GSG2 guy
here who seems to be really on his game.  Unfortunately, again they
IDed logistical shortfalls (no fuel, oil, spare parts) as the primary
reason for concern.  Since the contract has been taken over by ATemp,
and their job is to use the ANA system and since the system is broken,
no parts are available.  The team down here has been buying oil and
lubricants on the economy to fill the gap.  This is IDed as a
shortfall because it is tangible while the total absence of an S2
section was not mentioned.  I don't know how much of that was in turn
copied from US forces.  In the empty ANA S2 office that the Marines
built in the Combined COC, there were already maps in Dari, pictures
of HVIs, etc around.  I wonder how much of this is window-dressing.
Talking to Lt Phippen, the S2 mentor down here, he's still working on
the basics with them, map reading, weather analysis etc.

Went down to eat with the General and his entourage.  He was playing
volleyball (or "wallyball" as they humorously call it). We had to sit
down and wait for about an hour to get any food.  The food was pretty
good.  It was a bit rude, but I was having a good time talking to
LaFranchi, so I did not really talk to the Afghans.  We talked about
life, our mutual mental dysfunctions, finances, and our wives.  They
had the fried potatoes that I like so much, then we were off.

Month 11 Day 11

Notebook entry

11 reports given, Taliban patient, helicopter, nine students in class, multiplication, class with sergeants, Area of responsibility, area of interest, major Tawoos and captain CJ Radin, building quality, general signing, container.

Journal entry

In the morning the ANA tried to put our active TB patient on an ANA helo with about 25 other Afghan soldiers, no mask, no contact precations.  The docs intercepted him before he came out of the ambulance, thank God. 

I tried to go see Tawoos in the morning, but he was busy with some of the soldiers who just arrived he was giving them a 'psychological evalution'  seeing if they were nuts, if they were he was going to send them back to SBK to get processed out of the Army, the list of S2 tasks grows...He was busy with that, so I went to check up on the literacy instructors.  One of our teachers was doing a really good job, they were working on multiplication, and the students seemed to be getting it. 

After that I sat and talked to Tawoos for a while about Qais' issues, his performance, manning, the convoy the teleconferences that we were supposed to have in the afternoon.  He said that both Sgts would go to class at 1030.  I went out to prepare, but we were really down on linguists because of a couple of RSO&I courses, so the LtCol intercepted me and Naikpai and pulled us into the General's office.  He was sitting in is chair signing a stack of papers and bitching about how hard his job was.  I briefed him on his intel section.  He only half-paid attention, which I guess was good because one of the things the doctors wanted signed was in that stack of papers and they presumed that the general would get tired of signing and eventually just pen-whip it, which he did.

I taught a class to the Sgts, I told them everything that they needed to write down for their notes.  That seemed to work ok, I need to get them extra binders to put thier notes in.  They lost the old ones.

I went to lunch with the S2.  He said I would have to get extended because he didn't want me to go.  While I was flattered, I told him he'd be happy to see me go soon enough.  He denied it and said I was the assistant intel officer for the brigade. 

In the afternoon we were supposed to do two VTCs, but a generator went down which fried the SIPR and NIPR for most of the day.  Tawoos didn't show, which was good for a change.

CJ Radin came over and taught Tawoos a class instead of the VTC.  That's cool with me.

In the meeting it came up that Mustafa was complaining about the quality of the buildings that were going up.  The fucking nerve, you don't pay for them, don't plan them, don't inspect them, but complain about cracks in the concrete. Dick.  I guess the S6 got his ass in gear after he heard that Tawoos had eyes on his container, if he didn't finish it, then Tawoos would take it over. That sped things up.

At the last minute the LtCol wanted to change the route, which meant a new route study new route planning, and generally less sleep for me.  Sir, I'd be nice if you gave me a better heads-up. 

Month 11 Day 4

Notebook entry

Seven reports given, one draft intelligence information report, antivirus installed Qias review and conference call preparation.

Journal entry

Happy Independence day.

In the morning GySgt K worked with Qais on the S2 computer.  He
updated the antivirus software.  I went over and tried to work with
Qais to try to get him to call the S2 officer.  I was trying to get
him to get guidance from the S2 on what to talk about at the weekly
teleconference.  Capt Fareed from 2nd Kandak was there in all of his
moustachioed glory.  I invited him to the conference as well.  I tried
to review with Qais some of the things that we had worked on before I
left.  He still doesn't know his cardinal directions, but his grasp of
the different places within the AO is getting much better.  It really
was a review for most of it and not a reteaching session as I had
feared.

I went to lunch with Sammy.  That was pretty fun.  I told him about
the history of his tribe that I had learned from Wikipedia, and he was
pretty interested.  He helped me out on some of the Dari problems that
I was having too. We talked about missing our loved ones.  I am not
sure if it would be worse to do one giant two-year deployment or two
smaller ones.  If I had the choice, then I think I'd do it all at
once, then you can skip the hardest bits (saying goodbye) get into a
rhythm, and you would have to deal with the readjustment when you come
back.

In the afternoon I allowed myself my 14:30 of LinkedIn time.  I see
how people get addicted to this stuff, and I am determined not to.

I tried to go to the Contracting Office and get my Assistant
Contracting Officer Representative Qualification that I need to
oversee the literacy program, but the damn thing was closed.  They
said that they had a day off on account of the 4th.  I'm like what? I
haven't had a fucking day off since we got here to include christmas,
but you guys are taking a day off for the 4th?  This really is turning
into a garrison base, and we are turning into an occupation force.  We
need to get out.

I came back in time to set up the conference call for the S2 guys.
While we were doing it Capt CJ Radin told me the great idea that he and
Maj Kraus had.  He told me that they had decided that we should
start giving basically all of the intel reporting the Afghans are
allowed to have/see to them. I said 'great, but who's going to
translate it.'  'that's a good question'
I then said "You can do that if you want" deliberately not committing
myself to the task that they were basically trying to delegate to me.
"I've already given them over 1100 reports, and they don't do anything
that remotely relates to analysis, they just want the answer, they
don't want to actually piece together the puzzle.  I have been trying
to get them to just look at the reporting, put a little thought into
it, start linking together some of the key figures with string, pins
and using regular old folders, and they have not been willing to do
it.  They just want me to give them the right answer. Reporting is not
the choke point, they need to learn to use what they have before we
start throwing more at them."  Then I translated a bit of the report
that Qais was getting on the telephone from first kandak 'now he's
telling him the number of enemy groups, now he's telling him the
'commanders' (none of which match ours' now he's telling him the
number of pkm, rockets, rpgs, pistols, now hes reporting the number of
friendly posts.' 'a lot of that is ops stuff' CJ Radin said. 'Yah I know,
but the problem is that they are asked to report these numbers by
their higher HQ, and the commanders and XOs are the only people who
don't have a phase progression.  The General was a Muj and has no idea
what he is supposed to expect, so a bunch of it falls to the XO, who
just spouts the same shit the Soviets told him to get, it is
completely worthless, but the 'general' is a 'general' and you can't
teach him because he is too proud, or that is the assumption at
least-a reasonable one in my opinion, at least to start off with.
'That is why I was so excited about the Major coming over here,
bringing Tawoos to the General with his new list of PIRs and talking
about how important they are, because it is the only way that I can
teach him without appearing to teach him (outside of deliberately
doing my classes in the combined briefing room which adjoins to the
General's sleeping quarters, and I know he can and does listen in
because he has commented on my classes).  CJ Radin gave me his glassy-eyed
stare clearly not comprehending anything that I said.  It was by now
the 2nd Kandak S2's time to brief, he had just finished up having
Sammy do the addition of all of the enemy in his AO because he lacked
the ability to add.  He proceeded to slowly read his entire report
line-by-line to Qais and 1st Kandak, 'The following are the
achievements of 2nd Kandak, we have captured the following number of
Dragunov rounds...'  he was done.  He handed the report to Qais who
dutifully signed for it in the log, put it in a manila envelope, and
no doubt would never look at it again.  He was very proud of himself
when he was done, and he assured me that in his report he had already
given the weather to Qais, so there was no need for him to get it from
me.  "It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter" he said
confidently.  While true, it lacked the level of detail that one hopes
for from an intelligence officer...

I went to dinner, the chow hall workers had carved a 5 foot tall
helicopter out of foam and a statue of liberty out of foam.  We ate
steamship beef, steak, shrimp creole, mashed potatoes, candied yams,
salad, and 'holiday cake' which looked mysteriously like Army birthday
cake.  Are we still in a war zone?

I came back and the meeting had been postponed because the Maj and
LtCol wanted to play volleyball with the ANA.  None of the Capts want
to play because the LtCol is hypercompetative, that's not all bad if
you have a chance at winning, but when the Afghans wipe the floor with
you every single stinking game it's no fun because he gets all pissed
off and starts trying to play every position.

So here I lie, on my bed typing this out, just killing time waiting
for this damnable meeting, whenever it may be.  I'm trying to download
an audio book.  I don't know how much longer this 30 day internet plan
is going to last.  A bunch of the other guys were complaining that
theirs just conked out this morning, so mine is not far behind.  In
need to get the downloads while the downloading's good and it seems to
work best when you are working on something else for some reason.

That's about all for now I suppose.

From Left to right, Yours truly, Capt Brawney, Capt Arthur

Month 10 Day 6

Notebook entry

Garmsir governor no vote, leave flight, unauthorized absence rates, liaison officer, continue with old aid, Lieut. Col. Valquist reporting, Salim didn't show up, teleconference, roster, drivers course 33, instructor cadre, $100 million facilities regional command Southwest

Journal entry

One thing I forgot to mention from the last journal entry was that the Garmsir district governor is from a well-connected family in Kabul and is too young to vote in the elections which will bring him into office. 

Capt Arthur told me at lunch that the leave flights came up in the daily operations and intelligence meetings.  They brought up the fact that the UA rate had actually increased, not decreased, and the CO Col Schmitt then said, ‘this kind of shoots a hole in my theory that if we give them regular leave that they will come back on time.’ He then launched into some odd logic about how we need to make sure that they are getting back onto the flight, talked about establishing an additional LNO up in Kabul to make sure that they get there.  It was all a little bit stupid.  Because they already have a roster, what is an LNPO going to do?  Go to their house and force them to get onto the flight.  LtCol Valquist was also resistant to the date that I graphed for him on UA rates, when it didn’t show what he wanted he blamed the leave flights moving back by a few days and the guys leaving.  He also said that it was a result of him leaning on Col Kareem to stop overstating the number of guys present so they can get extra chow money.  Sigh, it’s another example of wanting to believe something and finding facts to support your case.

In the morning I worked on fixing the roster to get the perstats for ANSF. Perstats that are really now pointless because I know that the data is going to be ignored.

I told Salim to show up at 1400 for class.  I found him in his room still asleep at 1445.  We had a teleconference at 1500, that was all kinds of fucked up, only two kandaks showed, we only had the one SVOIP phone because Maj B converted the other one to a NIPR so that ended up coming off late.  CJ Radin came over, he is a lot easier to deal with now that I am a Capt, he seems a lot more relaxed.

Maj Kraus came back in the evening and said that RC(SW) is going to invest 900,000,000 in facilities for the ANA.  Awesome.

River City, Marine in N Marjeh stepped on an IED, why?  What for? For all this?