Dave in Afghanistan

This page last updated, 07/30/05

New!   It's over!!!  He arrived home on July 28th, 2005.  Here is his homecoming page.

Here's a direct link to the pictures page, where you can find the pictures and video clips that Dave has sent. 

Who'd want to mess with this guy?

Thanks for visiting and thinking about Dave.  This is where I'll try to keep everyone updated, so check it frequently while he's gone.  You can also leave a message for Dave in our guest book.

07/30/05:  Dave is home!  He has to return to Camp Atterbury for five days for out-processing, but that is nothing compared to the 13 months he was gone before. 

07/11/05:  Dave has left Jalalabad and is making his final preparations to return home!  We hope to have him here by the end of the month.  The boys and I can hardly wait.  To check on arrival information, check the arrival ceremonies page on the Task Force Phoenix III website. 

04/05:  Here is Dave's visit home page.

3/13/05:  We think Dave is actually going to be coming back for his two weeks of leave in about a week and a half!  He's been told it's definite, but I won't believe it until he's actually on the plane.  We can't wait to see him again.  He's been working really hard while everyone else was off on their leaves.  He's more than ready to come back.  

1/03/05:  I have new pictures!  The quality has greatly improved.  I'll probably stick some more on at a later date, but here are some of the best pictures and movies.  We're hoping that Dave is going to get two weeks of leave in February.  We can't wait to see him!

12/16/04:  Some members of Congress visited Afghanistan last week.  While they had news crews following them, not much has appeared in the media.  I did, however, find a picture with Dave in it on Rep. Chocola's site.  He's the soldier standing behind the Indiana flag in the kevlar gear and helmet.   The other soldiers are all from his unit over there:  Sgt. Knies, Sgt. Toth, Sgt. Lavender and LTC Jordan. 

Dave has a cold right now and is off doing all kinds of missions that I don't like to hear about.  He is going to be sending me 2 CDs full of pictures and movies soon.  I can't wait to get them.  They should be much better quality than the first set.  I will, of course, post the best and most interesting ones whenever I get them.

12/04/04:  Two of the guys in Dave's unit were injured this week when a mine went off by their convoy.  They are eventually going to be OK.  Here is an excerpt that he sent:

It looks like Jeff will be back here tomorrow or the next day. He was sent to Germany for tests. He has some hearing loss, but is expected to otherwise be fine, and is returning to duty (just in time for leave!)

Carl needs more tests in Germany, but I fear his shoulder injury will keep him out for the duration.

I don't remember if I told you, but I flew up to ****  to see them. There is a task force that investigates all IEDs in the country. They flew out just a couple hours after the blast. They had to stop by [my camp] to get the EOD (Explosives/Ordinance Disposal) team. 1SG Knies suggested I ride along. So, I hopped on board. I got some nice pictures flying up. We landed at the blast site, and I helped them with the investigation. I actually found the only piece of the mine that was recovered (the calibrated eye ball sees all!). We then flew on the ****, the base where Jeff and Carl were based, to talk to them. They had driven back to the base for medical attention, after some Marines had come to secure the blast site. Jeff was stunned to see me (" I didn't expect you so fast", "How did you get here so fast?"). I talked to them a little, and the doctor there asked if we could lift them to BAF. I checked and there was room, so they (plus an injured ANA soldier and a guy at **** who just needed a ride) packed and got in the helio with us. It was at max capacity then. We stopped in Jalalabad for me and EOD to get off, and the chopper headed back to Bagram airfield, its base and the hospital location. The trip covered 10 hours of driving, but took just 3 hours, including the on-ground investigation, packing, etc.

11/09/04:  I haven't gotten any new pictures lately, but Dave does have the new camera.  He should be sending some more soon.  Not much new is happening with them, but here are a few of the more interesting excerpts I've gotten:

From Nov. 2nd: Things are fine here. I didn't get alot of sleep, but today was interesting,so I'm feeling good.  The good news is that I am really understanding the local politics and the area situation. I am also in a position to affect it - to intervene at key places and suggest policy changes that affect the security of the entire region.

However, the bad news is that we may be replaced soon. We were sent here as filler ETTs, since our kandak had German ETTs who aren't allowed to deploy outside of Kabul. Now, our kandak may rotate back and Kirk White's kandack may come here. We aren't sure where we'll be sent next. it is possible we'll be staying, which I hope it true, just because we know the area. We shall see.
 

From Nov. 3:   Last night someone blew a hole in the wall of a UN compound here. It is kind of random - they blew a hole in an outer wall, but didn't follow up with anything. It was at night, so there wasn't anyone around to get hurt. The ANA reacted very fast - we had them on the road to the scene in less than 10 minutes, maybe 5, after we knew there was a problem. Oddly, there were guards near the area, who saw nothing.

Last week we blew up a bunch of old munitions, again. I wrote about when I did that the first time. Well, this was the 5th time we had done it in this area. The locals now knew when army trucks went into the desert there, we were going to blow and leave behind valuable metal. So, we setup the explosives for about 2 hours. Then, we had soldiers form a perimeter 2 km out, behind hills. We then set off the explosives (with a timer) and drove out of 2km. This first time we did this, the explosion was one load bang. This time, there were several secondary explosions as some smaller rounds blew up later. We have alot of old machine gun bullets and mortar rounds, and we could hear them shooting off. After the explosion, we raced back in the vehicles to check things out. There was still white phosphorous burning in piles here and there. Also, there were local villagers already looting the metal! They had been hiding in the hills nearby, and ran down after the explosion. We had to chase them out, since the white phosphorous could still explode as it burned. I waved my rifle and backed people away. Some of the ANA fired shots in the air, which worked, and then they drove a pickup around and chased people off. We also had a Psychological Operations vehicle with us - it had loud speakers and we used it to tell people to stay back.  They didn't work too well, until they started picking out individuals ("You in the green coat, go back!"). Then, they would run back.

I was walking some people out when a woman dropped her bag of metal and ran. I picked up her bag and carried it after her, and she turned and said something to me - I have no idea what. She wasn't wearing a face covering - that is a first time a woman from a village looked at me and didn't hide her face. Another woman looked right at me and went on gathering metal, until I got too close to her. Again, that hasn't happened before. One of the terps said it makes a big difference, that there was money involved.
 

From Nov. 7th:  I have an interesting mission, my first overnight mission. We went into the mountains of the Hindu Kush on recon. I talked to some interesting figures in the area, but the main thing was the neat scenery. We never really got up in the mountains, but we did drive up a river valley into them. I slept out under the stars - it was very dark and the stars were great. One guy (not an ETT) in a nearby convoy dislocated his shoulder when they hit a culvert. Of course, he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. I keep harping on my guards about wearing them!
 

10/13/04:  Here are some more excerpts from Dave:

(From 10/9) I just wanted to tell you that, from my perspective, the election went very well. We caught several bad guys before they could act, and, overall, it was a peaceful election. The people in Jalalabad voted and are happy. People were flying kites and listening to happy songs.
I am ticked about the ink situation that you have probably read about. There was not that problem here. But, it looks like the whole election may be a mess because of a stupid mistake by the UN. Then again, I suspect that once the analysis is done, the number of voting sites where that was a problem will be small. The result will still stand. We had a dust storm and rain. It is getting down to 45 at night now. We are getting cold weather clothing and heaters to the ANA.
 

(From 10/10) As you probably know, it looks like the international observers will declare the elections to be valid. However, we don't know how long we'll be around. We will be here for a few more weeks, at least.

As far as catching bad guys, it was mainly police. We did patrols and setup some checkpoints, and the police had a lot of checkpoints.  As a practical matter, we didn't catch anyone, the police and NDS (their FBI) did it. And that is good - the Army is supposed to be a last resort. But, it was exciting to be in the operations center and watch the reports come in.  If I wanted to be negative, we didn't do much at all. We patrolled around, but never found anything. That being said, patrolling around is what made people feel safe, so they could vote. Plus, it deterred some people who would have committed violence. Still, in some ways this is annoying. In other areas the ANA has more overt impact.

As far as the weather, it is in the 40s at night here. It has been in the low 80s during the day - I just had a meeting outside, and it was very
pleasant. In other parts of Afghanistan, they have 2 feet of snow. Our building here is fine. Its a real building, with A/C and a heater. However, when we go back to Camp ******, we'll be in wooden huts, which should be heated and will probably be fine. My only complaint here is that my bed it too short. It was built for short Pakistanis, and my feet hang over the end when  I stretch. Still, it's not too bad.
 

09/25/04:  I added another video clip to the pictures page.  Here's an excerpt from a message Dave sent me:

Things are really busy here, with the election coming up soon (Oct 9). Last night I went out with a patrol to destroy an anti-tank mine that someone put out. The Explosives/Ordinance Disposal people had a little robot that scouted out the mine, found it, and checked it out. Then, we used a bullhorn to warn people nearby of what we were doing, and we blew it up. I use 'we' is a general sense. I really watched while EOD did their thing.

Actually, I wrote that two days ago. The last two days I've visited cache sites with probably 100,000kg of ammo, mostly stacked up in boxes or heaped in piles all over. I had tea with a minor warlord yesterday, and talked about the nice view and the election. All good fun, I guess.

09/20/04:  I have pictures!  The decent ones are from some of the other guys' cameras, the not so good ones are from Dave's.  I am going to be sending him a better camera, so hopefully the quality will improve.  Dave's photography and video skills are another matter... Warning:  if you watch the video clip, you may well feel motion sickness!

09/15/04:  There are pictures of some of the guys in Dave's unit and of where they are in Afghanistan posted on the Task Force Phoenix III website (www.tfphoenixiii.org).  Unfortunately, Dave is not one of the soldiers in any of the individual photos, but he has mailed me a CD with pictures and video on it that I am expecting shortly.  I'll post the best ones whenever I get them.

They've been really busy lately, and I'm lucky to hear from Dave every couple of days.  He e-mails when he can, which hasn't been very often lately and calls once a week.  He had a cold last week, but he was OK except for a stuffy nose the last time I spoke to him (Monday evening).  He got a bunch of mail the last time he was in Kabul, and I think it made him feel good.  So, if you were thinking of writing to him, please do!

08/30/04:  Dave and the other guys have been settling in to the base they'll be operating from for the next couple of months.  It is very hot and humid where he is... it is usually above 100 F.  They've taken over from the Oklahoma unit that used to be there, and are already going out on missions and so forth.  Dave is enjoying meeting the new people and talking to people from the United Nations, the Afghan National Army and so forth. 

Many people have asked what they can send to the soldiers.  Dave hasn't mentioned too many specifics about what he needs, but he did say the guys can buy almost any DVD they want over there for about $2.  They probably would like to get some American magazines to read, and apparently Immodium AD is in demand as everyone's systems are having trouble adjusting to the food and sanitary conditions over there.  Things like pop tarts, candy, crackers, snack mix, etc are things they miss.  It is taking letters over a week and packages about 25 days to get to the guys at the more remote bases, so don't send anything that would spoil, and keep in mind that the packages will be exposed to extreme temperatures (so I doubt chocolate would be a good thing to send!).   

08/11/04:  I received the following e-mail from Dave.  It is edited so we don't violate any Army policies.

Hi Honey!

I'm sorry I haven't written for a couple days. Things are hectic. We have been in (city deleted) for three days now, though some of my group were one day late, due to plane maintenance. I had a little head-ache the first day, due to the altitude, but am fine now. I ran 3 miles this morning and it wasn't too bad.  The food here is good - I will gain weight if I don't watch it! It is very dusty and dry here, but the heat is not too bad. (City) is right out of a National Geographic special. New construction next to a blown-up building, people selling in the streets, people washing in the river downtown. I was driving through downtown, and kids are walking through traffic, people have carts, a kid was leading an ox through traffic, etc. People drive aggressively - but, I haven't seen too many guns. Just police, really. In the smaller villages, apparently most people have guns. We had to turn in the satellite phone, but we may get another in a couple days. I am not sleeping well - I wake up after 5 1/2 hours, and can't get back to sleep. Hopefully, I'll settle in soon.

I hope everything is well with you guys. I'll try to email more, but the next few days may be chaotic - I am finding out more this afternoon. Please trust that I am OK, even if I can't write. I love you all! Dave

08/08/04:  Dave is safely in Afghanistan.  He said it is very hot and exceedingly dusty.  It looks just like it does on the news.  Commerce interspersed with bombed out buildings.  He said he could smell the dust when they were still on the plane after they landed.  He's already feeling filthy.  Dave is checking into the official rules, but I may have to strip a bunch of details off of this page or password protect it. 

08/07/04:    Dave has arrived safely in Kyrgyzstan and is waiting to ship out to Afghanistan.  We got to spend some extra time with him before he left as he was able to spend both Wednesday and Thursday nights at home.  We went to the airport to see him off on Friday.  He looks very handsome in his desert fatigues. 

8/04/04:  How I Spent My Summer Vacation 

In mid-June, I mobilized with the 76^th Infantry Brigade as part of an Embedded Training Team (ETT). My mission is to coach, mentor and train the officers and sergeants of the Afghanistan National Army. I’ll be working with the Executive Officer (2^nd in command) and staff of an Afghani Light Infantry Battalion. This is part of a new army formed to support the Afghanistan national government, currently headed by Interim President Hamid Karzai. Some of the soldiers fought as insurgents against the Soviet occupation of the 1990s, against  the Taliban, or as part of inter-warlord fighting. Many are young men who want a job and are patriotic about their new nation. However, they have never been part of a formal army. Many are good warriors (physical courage), but not good soldiers (discipline, organization).

I mobilized at Camp Atterbury in southern Indiana. There were a few days of paperwork and medical checks, and then we started training.

Much of it was standard Army stuff – first aid, marksmanship, radio use and the like. We also practiced combat driving, (see the video – yes, I did get a HMMWV on three wheels), ground controlling helicopters, working with the Air Force and artillery, searching for land mines, and  basic infantry tactics. We also got some basic life-saving techniques, like doing IV sticks.

We learned about Afghanistan culture and history. There were briefings from Special Forces soldiers who had already been there, the State Department, USAID (United State Agency for International Development), and US reps to the UN for Afghanistan. Afghanistan actually had voting rights for women before the US did. In many ways, it was a modernizing nation before the last 20 years of war.

Finally, we did a bit of physical conditioning. Each morning we usually had a 1 hour workout (calisthenics, runs and road marches), with another hour workout before dinner (usually lifting weights). I put on some muscle mass, but lost a net 10-15 lbs. After a few weeks, a 1 hour long, 4 mile road march, with 50lbs of gear, in the heat of the day, was not a big deal.

The food is pretty good, if monotonous (healthier and better than Big Dave’s). I live with 20 guys in a 45’x15’ room. We had no air-conditioning, which I found to be good. My allergies have gone away, and we have climatized to the humid summer very well. The picture was before we had most of our gear and footlockers. It got crowded after that.

 Every two or three weeks, we got a couple days pass and I got to see my family. Being away from them will be the hardest part of the deployment.

This Friday, August 6^th, we’ll fly to Kyrgyzstan on a commercial airliner. Then, we’ll transfer to a military plane and fly to Kabul for a few days of final training before we take over from the soldiers we are relieving. Then, a short 12-13 months later, we come back. It should be an interesting year. I get to live in and experience a different culture, and help a people who deserve better than they've had. More to follow…

7/05/04:  Dave is reporting back to Atterbury to continue his training.  We already attended the official send-off ceremony on Thursday, July 1, 2004 at Atterbury.  Most of the support troops for the mission are leaving this week for Afghanistan so they'll be ready for Dave's group when they arrive in several weeks.  We had a nice weekend at home with Dave when we celebrated Evan's 5th, Daniel's 1st and Benjamin's 8.5 birthdays (and Data's 13th!).  I'll try to post pictures from that soon. 

  Back to our Homepage