Afghanistan +31

Hello there readers of my blog been quite some time since I've connected with the group here, but inspired by a good friend of mine Shawn to update my Blog, I decided to do it. So far I've been deployed in Afghanistan for 31 days, and I've thrown up twice, and had the shits for 48 hours now. Average night of sleep is relatively good whilst back here on the main bases (8+ Hours, usually), however while out on the Patrol Bases sleep is somewhere around 4-5, which isn't terrible, so I've got nothing to complain about there. So far I've gone on a handful of patrols into towns and villages, I've seen Marijuana fields that would put any High Times submission to shame (20+ acres of pot) and as a highlight to the 9/11 tribute we decided to climb the highest mountain peak down in our AO in hopes of finding some people doing some not so good things and sending them out in a ball of fire just like their fathers had done to ours.

Overall though the deployment is going by with some good bit of speed, it's hard to imagine that in 38 days I'll be 21, I would enjoy my first legal beer on that day but oh well, I'll save that for another time. I must say, Afghanistan is not that hyped up as everyone seems to make it, and being in one of the more dangerous places in Helmund Province, I can say first hand that I think the enemy doesn't have much else to throw at us besides having their children throw rocks at our armored vehicles as we drive through the bazaars. Obviously the IEDs are still hitting around here quite frequently, but the enemy lacks courage, they know if they try to stand toe to toe and fight us they'll be squashed like bugs, to be honest, that's probably how I would fight if I were in their shoes as well. The small arms fire attempts to lure you in, but you've gotta be smarter than that because they've got IED's waiting for you on that wall you want to run to.

As far as the actual ways of 8404 life goes, I've done a minor surgery on a guys face that had an ingrown hair and I've handed out maybe a handful of meds while here. My main job now is to take care of the Afghan soldiers here, but it disgusts me that I literally had to stand there and listen to a guy asking for meds because he has to burp and fart after he eats food. I shit you not.

Well, that's about all for this (Enter week/month/some other time line I probably will forget to fulfill). I'll try and update this thing more often, please note that if I'm not doing weekly updates it's likely because I'm out at other locations with no internet or something to that effect.

-Michael

New unit, new friends, new life

Well... Like I said a few days ago, I was moving to a new unit. A week later of checking in, getting everything to get me going, and all that jazz, I'm finally settled in (Read: About as much as I can be). Went to the gym today, I haven't had time to even keep up with the Shaun T's insanity workout, but alas I'll still be doing Crossfit and the basics to keep myself in relatively good shape. The Afghan deployment is scheduled for a few months from now, so I'm exited to get over there and do some good work. But we'll see.

Right now I just finished cleaning the room, been finding my addiction to Elton John is growing stronger, seeing how I haven't stopped listening to the classics (Eagles, John lennon, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Kansas, Ect...) so it's all good stuff.

Gosh, I don't have loads to chat about. I'm still awaiting my tax return, which is slated to be in my bank account in about three days, so I'm stoked about that. Rumors are that we might not be getting paid next month, so I'll have to save up and hope for the best. Good to know Congress will still get their paycheck though, while the men and women that are overseas risking their lives for ours will be doing it for free.

That's about it world, keep it classy.

Insanity workout, day: 1 (Military style)

So, recently (Around the time of my last post) I ended up getting the Shaun T insanity workout. Let me tell you guys that don't go to the gym a lot, this was a good breather for me. So far since it was only day one the only thing I could do was the fitness test. Right now my legs are hurting more than anything else, I noticed a lot of workouts being orientated around the legs, and not a whole lot on arms or chest. That's fine though, because I'm trying to slim down and lose a few more pounds of just pure fat. Right off the bat of me turning this on I noticed a small asian girl and some bigger looking dude. Naturally he is now my enemy, so I made it my personal goal to beat him in every one of the small events. I succeeded in all but one I believe, the suicides.

Anyways, for those of you who have been doing the workout, here are my results. Note: I made sure to do them with perfect (Read: Near perfect) form. So here is what I ended up with just for the baseline fitness test:
Switch Kicks: 115
Jumping Jacks with a jump in the air afterwords: 51
Power knees: 73
Power Jumps: 34
Glove Jumps (4 part rep): 12
Suicides: 18
Pushup jacks: 25
Planks with knee alterations: 55

Note these were done in a 60 second timeframe, with about 60 seconds in between each workout to catch breath/get water and write down your scores. Overall it was pretty good, and lived up to the name. By the end of the workout I was hating life, but I'm happy to say now that I feel better like I did something productive today (Not to say I normally don't, but alas when it's weekend time most of us Marines/Green side sailors just shut off our brains... And turn on our playstations).

Eh, all in all not a terrible start to a day. I've only been awake for about two hours and I've learned a new song on my guitar (Come together - Beatles), did my first section of the Shaun T's Insanity, and made myself a cup o' noodles. Tomorrow morning I'll be doing my check in stuff for my new unit that I'll be going to for Afghanistan, but today the day is mine and I'm going to take it one cup o' noodles at a time.

-Michael

Goodbye 1/4, hello 2/4!

Well, today was a day not uncommon to any other day in this retarded deal of a unit. I'm happy to say I'm officially no longer a part of it, which makes me pleased because I loathed almost everything about it, except for my guys of course (Please, spare the homoerotical remarks). To be honest, I'm a little nervous. I'll be moving from the original war dogs known as the "Alpha Raiders" to H&S Company in 2/4, but working on the Embedded training team, or ETT.

From what I've gathered in my short two weeks of really comprehending the fact that they exist is this, we go in, teach Afghani dudes how to shoot, drive cars, and not kill themselves defending their country. Or at least the part of the country we'd like them to defend. Once that mission is done then our mission is done. I'm expected to leave within the next seven months, so of course I'm already thinking pre-deployment leave and jitters. I've only used about 20 days and I've got about another 20 something in the books that I can use for leave, which I'd love to do.

For the most part, I'll be working on making sure my gear is more up to speed with where I believe myself to be. It's easy to go out and buy the best gear out there, but when your battalion has retarded policies and red tape up the ass about how to go about doing things, it really slows you down more than anything. Sure you can say it's more professional, but things like a shooters kit loadout should be dependent on the shooter themselves, not the SOP. Anyways, I'm working on acquiring an Eagle Industries RRV that I'll be piecing together with the back plate and throwing a MAP on the back of that. Overall I've seen how they look when they're completely done and I'm pleased enough that I'd want to move forward with the idea.


Anyways, I don't talk much about my personal life on this blog, mainly because it's about 8404 life. Life being an actual 8404, and not just going to the school and then working a desk job, or with engineers, or LAR, or Tracks. I'm sorry to you docs that do work with those guys, but in my opinion (And the entire 03XX Field) If you're not a grunt you're not shit. Ground pounding, long hair, dirty cammies, and the constant harassment of being told your out of regs, only for that motivated Marine to see that you're in fact a Corpsman, and more than likely did surgery on that toenail that they had to get removed. Or maybe because you did an accurate SOAP note on them, the Doctors were able to diagnose that he in fact had developed serious knee problems, and wasn't just faking the funk to get a few extra bucks from the VA.

Enough about my rant with being with Grunts, and all that. I'll update this again when I've got my own internet service hooked up in my new room, god I hope I don't get a room mate.

-Michael

Day two, barbeques and basketball

Well world, I spent majority of this fine day passed out on my bed, to be awoken by my good buddy Chris. He invited me to throw down a few of uncle sam's hard earned greenbacks on this barbeque that him and his friends were going to put together, so naturally I jumped on it and put $10 in the pot. Then I proceded to fall back asleep and awoke about an hour later to my neighbor playing insanely loud rap music, oh the peril of living in these prison like barracks. It doesn't help that half of these guys are piss drunk by noon anyways, but at least it gives me a good morning of sleep, so I won't dwell on that too much.

Around noon I find myself craving the insatable food that is McDonalds, I drove out there and got three McDoubles w/ Mac Sauce, which I have found is the cheapest way of getting a Big Mac for nearly $1.00 . The only difference being a piece of bread between the meat and the little lettuce shredding, but I don't complain when I'm saving $3.00 for a burger that all does the same job of filling me up.

Ended up heading back to the barracks and saw the grill was being prepared, so me pulling out my macho iron chef abilites decided I'd help out, turned out I ended up cooking over half the days burgers with my buddy Ryan. I don't mind at all, but when I have 4-5 Marines leaning over my shoulder telling me "hey man, flip that one there" or "Hey you're cooking it too hot". It's charcoal people, not like I can really set the exact temp here. All critiques aside I got my fix of burgers and beers and had a few laughs before I got a text from the Fiance. She tells me she got a new tattoo on her shoulder blade so naturally I have to see a picture of it. Overall I'm very impressed with the design and I think it looks good, something of like a family tree.

Anyways, we end up spending the next hour on Skype talking about looking at houses out here in California. It's insane for a State this fucked up with poverty that they're wanting $1500+  for something like a 770 square foot house with 1 br / 1 bath. The government is only willing to give me $1900 a month for housing, and if I'm paying those prices that only leaves me with $400 for all the utilities that are bound to come with the territory. What a headache.

Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll be awake at 0530 again, getting ready to suck that days dick and hit the ground running with my Marines.

Day one

Well, it's the 5th or March. I'm creating this blog now to see what my life looks like farther down the line, also to try and make sense of things. Who knows. Right now I'll just start typing and see where my fingers take me. My good friend Brandon brought me over a bottle of Absolut Vodka and some red gatorade. We'll see how well "Vodka Saturdays" go. I'm nothing of a writer but I would like to think I can scribble and write down words in a format that is hopefully pleasing to you all.

Anyways, that's about all I got for today, maybe tomorrow or the next day I'll think of something better or interesting to tell the world.