Peanut Butter

We recently held our first “Jam Session” at the Boardwalk. Despite sandstorms and cut-up hands, it was a rousing success. Participants came from US Air Force, Marines and Army; Canadian Army, British Army and RAF, contractors and civilians. Nobody played Peter, Paul & Mary (they had never heard of them), but there were some melodies I recognized (sorta). I found out that my friend Joe is an outstanding singer.

Run, Don't Walk

I volunteered to hand out T-shirts at the 5K/Half-/Full Marathon this morning. Despite the 0445 call time it was fun. It was a typical run, with people leaving their belongings lying around, waiting for pick up after the race.

550 Cord Crafts (Images)

I really enjoy making 550 Cord cuffs and keychains. It's so relaxing, therapeutic, friendly and fun?

Unit Appreciation Events (Photographs)

It's easy. We show how much we love them with doughnuts and coffee.

Game Night (Illustrated)

We're actually having more fun than it looks like we're having.

Typically, Weekly - I Love My Job

I've been here almost six weeks, and am finally getting into a routine. One reason I have not been posting on my blog is because I'm in charge of keeping our new Facebook page up to date. "Like" us on Facebook at USO Kandahar. (The other reason I have not been posting on my blog is that I'm lazy.)

A typical week looks like this:

On Sundays we like to go to brunch at Harvest Falcon. It's not the Ritz-Carlton (or even the Holiday Inn, for that matter), but the breakfast at HF is still my favorite and they serve brunch until 1400 on Sundays. Sunday evenings I meet with some friends at the CMC (Chaplains' Ministry Center), where we hang out and talk. I like the CMC a lot; partly because USO Kandahar holds some of our programs there, but mostly because it's air-conditioned, has abundant snacks, magazines and books and a lot of nice people have offices at the CMC.

Monday evenings USO Kandahar sponsors Game Night*, where we gather a group to play Scattergories, Taboo, Cranium, Guesstures, or something similar. We hold this in a small English coffee house. Lately there's been so much fun and laughter that other customers have been joining us and the crowd is getting bigger and bigger. Recently KAF was in "Dress State 2," so we had to wear our IBAs during the games, but we still managed to have a great time.*

Tuesday evenings USO Kandahar sponsors United Through Reading in the AFN (Armed Forces Network) offices. At AFN Army (Reserve and Active Duty), Marines, Navy and Air Force work together in close quarters and (not surprisingly) they all seem to get along. Who knew? The people at AFN are so nice and helpful and they always manage to keep us entertained with personal stories and anecdotes. It's fun being there. (I've promised a bigger article with pictures. Hope to get that on here soon.)

Wednesdays USO Kandahar supports United Through Reading at the CMC. We've recently began to bring 550 cord so that we can make crafts while people wait their turn to record a book. Eight to ten of us wind up sitting around a table, chatting, telling jokes, shooting the breeze and just having a lovely time while we make bracelets (aka "cuffs") and key chains for ourselves, families and friends.* It's one of the highlights of my week. I love my job.

Usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays we hold Unit Appreciation Events, where we bring doughnuts and coffee to the troops at their work.* I continue to be staggered by the graciousness, gratefulness and absolute wonderfulness of our armed forces. We are treated like royalty -- because we bring fresh doughnuts! It's gratifying to tell our military how much the people of America apprecite their service. I just love my job.

On Fridays USO Kandahar also supports United Through Reading at the CMC. I recently put out a request for volunteers to assist on Fridays and was rewarded with ten responses. Seven of those ten were able to fit us into their schedule. Every one of the seven showed up and every one of the seven was an awesome volunteer. I really love my job.

Saturdays are reserved for Movie Night. The chaplains pick the movie; USO Kandahar supplies the snacks. Despite the recent Saturday evening attacks, this is a fun and growing event. We recently saw "The Blind Side," "Up" and "To Save A Life," which were all excellent, despite the recent attacks. (Oops; sorry. Did I repeat myself?)

Every day of the week, every person I meet is outstanding, friendly, gracious and considerate. It's all fun; I love my job.

*See lots of pictures in separate articles.

And the Rockets' Red Glare

There have been entirely too many rocket attacks on KAF.

Some time ago I was sitting in an office with a friend when we heard the siren. About 2 second later we hear ka-boom in the distance; 5 seconds after that: KA-BLAM!! Too close. Turns out one mortar had hit one of the service facilities. We heard sirens and helicopters and found that two workers had been injured. Pick-up services were unavailable for a few days due to "incident" and part of the building was missing, but when I was finally able to collect my clothes I found that my jeans, T-shirts, underwear and socks were clean and unharmed.

USO Kandahar's recent Movie Night was interrupted by rocket attacks and the first ground assault in anyone's memory. About eight of us are watching "The Blind Side" when the alarm went off. We didn't stop the movie, but we did slither off of the chairs and couches, down to the floor. We hear ka-boom in the distance, wait two minutes and then get back onto our seats. A couple of minutes later the alarm goes off again, so we glide back down to flat on the ground. We watch the movie from the prone position for two minutes then crawl back up to our seats. About 15 seconds later we hear KA-BLAM!!! (very close). I yelled "GOLLY DARN!!" (or something similar) and we all slide back onto the floor. That was about as loud as I've heard. Turns out the mortar landed in a public place, across the street, about 150 yards away. The structure was damaged, there were quite a few injured parties, and worse.

The rockets and ground fire continued for at least 5 hours, with us sliding from our chairs to the floor and back up, several times. There were garbled announcements every ten minutes, including parts or all of:

KAF is being attacked from the north.
Seek shelter indoors.
Force Protection is monitoring the situation.
Stay away from the perimeter.

After the end of the movie we stayed where we were for awhile, then decided to make a dash for our MODs (bed, computers, restrooms) just 200 yards away. On the first try we stepped out and were met by a car of MPs who told us to GET BACK INSIDE! For our second attempt we walked very quickly and made it about 90% of the way before we were stopped short in our tracks (and I mean STOPPED) by troops with guns aimed at our heads, shining bright lights in our faces. When we identified ourselves as USO they became much more friendly and directed us to the nearest bunker.

After about 30 minutes in the bunker the announcement came that everyone (except Force Protection and Marines with weapons) were allowed to go back to their housing units. The broadcasts continued all night. The next couple of days there were troops guarding the fences and scores of helicopters and drones in the sky. We had to wear our battle gear twice for 12 hours at a time. The "All Clear" finally came in the middle of the night (at 0300), 55 hours after the attack had begun.

Since then we've had about six attacks a week. People tend to take the alarms seriously after they've seen a missile flying 30 feet above their heads. It's not unusual to find everyone on base hitting the gravel, street or floor, lying in the rocks with our hands over our heads, then running for the bunkers or a protected area. Unfortuantely, we know from recent experience that the mortars can penetrate the tents and modular units.

I'm intentinally omitting a lot of specific events and numerous details due to OPSEC, but I think you get the picture.