This week, I found out what happens when it rains here in Kandahar. It floods. And it stays flooded for days. We got a solid 12 hours of rain over night. It was fantastic to fall asleep to the sound of rain hitting the aluminum MOD. It was so relaxing that my roommate went to take a nap and slept through the night. As I was leaving that morning, she woke up shocked that it was 0630 already.
Preparing myself for work that morning, I heard the rain outside and it was coming down pretty heavily. I had faith that it would let up for my walk to work. That faith was not ignored as I walked to work in clear weather. My former NCO arrived to work an hour later soaked. I couldn’t help but laugh and rub in his face that it was not raining when I walked to work.
As I stepped outside, there was a moat of water surrounding the MOD, reminding me of my house after a good storm in Alabama. Luckily we have rubber mats leading out of the moat so I was able to get to the road without soaking my boots. Kandahar turns into one giant puddle when it rains, so my path to work was like finding my way through a maze, zigzagging left and right trying to find the driest route.
My work day was a busy one now that I am doing enough work for two due to my lack of a Battle NCO. (Can you tell I am still bitter about this?) Just when I thought my day couldn’t get busier, it did. Towards the end of shift we heard a loud boom and felt a thud as the entire building shook. I could feel my heart skip a beat and my stomach jump to my throat. Everyone in the office froze and looked at each other with wide eyes. Finally, someone made a joke to break the silence, “Did Big Fish fall?” Big Fish is a nickname we have affectionately attached to our large coworker whose last name is the same as a certain fish. We all laughed that laugh of relief until the alarms started to sound. We all threw our favorite four letter word out and grabbed our hats and eye protection. There were Soldiers lying on the floor as we moved outside to huddle in a bunker until given the all clear. This is protocol, but we already felt the impact so the best thing to do was move to a bunker. I started telling them to get to the bunker and that they were crazy. Two hours later, and multiple announcements stating the situation was ongoing, we received the all clear. Once in the building, we checked out the situation on our special network; a vehicle borne improvised explosive device exploded on the highway running alongside the FOB. Many were injured, few were killed. Before we could send our report higher, my boss noticed that the situation was already in print on ABC.com.
The worst part about this situation is that when I contacted home to say I was ok, figuring it was all over the news, no one knew what I was talking about. I am officially in a forgotten war. In the words of Dad, “Again this morning I searched all news sources and cannot find what prompted your "I am fine" comment yesterday. But, there were no stories about anything happening in Afghanistan. NOTHING. Yes, it is a forgotten war, and you are really on vacation in some exotic foreign country. Just be safe.” If only it felt like a vacation.
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| Me and my Boss |
I heard about it when I looked. the news this past 2 days has been all about a shooting at an elementary school in Conneticut. 28 dead, 20 kids.
ReplyDeleteI am aware of the recent tragedy in Connecticut. I did not mention it in this blog for several reasons.
Delete1-I wrote this prior to this tragedy because the events in this blog occured prior to this tragedy but I was not allowed to publish until the next of kin were notified.
2-I felt I did not have the right words to express how I felt and everytime I tried to write something, I found myself in tears.
3-I did not want to turn this into any type of an argument and detract from the seriousness of this event.
4-I feel that we need to mourn as a country before we start pointing fingers.