My Name is Dennis P. , I grew up in Connecticut, and I am a Major in the United States Army currently serving at a Camp near Kabul, Afghanistan. I have almost 28 years of service in the U.S. Army, 12 of those years are active duty the rest I served as a member of the Army National Guard. My cousin Karen asked if I would write a little something about being a Soldier over here so what follows is my experience so far.
I arrived just over two weeks ago. I spent a about a month and a half training in preparation for this mission which will last 6-9 months. This is my first trip to Afghanistan. I am part of an 18 Soldier team that will work as trainers and mentors for the leadership of Afghan Army K*****ks (equivalent to US Army Battalion, approximately 800 soldiers) as they prepare to deploy to their areas of responsibility. This is in preparation for turning all security responsibilities over to the Government of Afghanistan.
The trip to Camp ***** started from Fort Dix NJ and took 6 days with several stops along the way. One of our stops was at an Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. My brother Andy is a contractor there so I was able to visit with him for a couple days. Camp ******* is 8.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time and the elevation is almost 6,000’ above sea level. With the jet lag, climate change and daily malaria pills we all felt like a soup sandwich for at least the first week making our RIP (Relief In Place) challenging. During the RIP the team that was on mission turns responsibility over to our team. Within 2 days of arrival at Camp ***** we were actively mentoring our Afghan Army counter parts. For me that meant joining up with the Afghan Battalion XO (Executive Officer), an Afghan Army Major, and mentoring him utilizing an interpreter. Adding to the challenges I already mentioned was the culture shock. Fortunately our training prepared us well for the cultural differences. Getting thru the first week was mentally and physically very challenging.
Afghanistan is a completely different world. The climate is very dry, lots of dust and smoke in the air. They burn everything, no EPA here so breathing includes lots of coughing even for the non-smokers. The streets are very congested with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, mules, school kids etc… Many of the children come out to the street when we are around to ask for water and treats occasionally the kids throw rocks at us. Over all it seems that the population supports what we are here for. The Afghan populations living conditions are very different than ours, most of them living very primitive lives compared to what we are accustom to.
“home”
Life over here so far is like a different planet. I don’t go anywhere without at least one loaded weapon at my side. Everyone carries a gun over here, including civilians. As you can imagine you don’t have much privacy. The food is OK. We have a small gym on the camp and a Morale and Welfare (MWR) building with TVs, pool tables, books, movies etc… The internet is very slow, 256-512K, but it is our lifeline to family and friends back home. The post office is open about once a week for a few hours if there is someone available to man it and the roads are open for travel. We have a Post Exchange (PX) trailer to get little items like toothpaste, soap, snacks etc… The PX has had pretty low inventory as a result of certain boarder closures. The camp is setting up a Green Bean, the Army version of Starbucks, soon which is a good thing because the Mess Hall coffee is a bit rough. Well I hope I have painted a good picture of my first few weeks in Afghanistan, I’m sure my cousin Karen will include some pictures.
From Karen: I hate war, but I fully support the troops who are giving up big chunks of their family time, their “civilian” careers, their normal life, and for some, their actual life… for our country, for our people, for our safety. Through my cousin’s generosity in sharing with us, I’m hoping to provide an outlet to honor what they are doing and to show them our gratitude. I’m hoping Dennis will keep us posted now and again. Please feel free to use this comments section to send a message to Dennis and our troops. I know he’ll forward the sentiment.
