News from Jeanie ....
Hi!!!
I've made it to Kabul in one piece!!! It's a pretty amazing area that the camp is surrounded by - I'll send pics after I unpack my camera:). Imagine the chilliwack highway area with less trees and more war devastation.
The last 24 hours have been crazy. I came over with one other CFPSA person (Andree) and about 38 military on the herc. We had to get our bags out of the transient quarters by 3:20am (monday morning) so it seemed logical at the time to not sleep .... rrrrriiiiigght. Good thinking.
Just a note...its really muggy still at 3:30 in the morning...seriously like walking in a sauna. And to travel we have to wear long pants and our golf shirts. Yikes. Anyway, I digress.....So the bags are out at 3:30, they do roll call at 4:15 and then we have until 5:50 to wait until the flight leaves. Andree and I go have some breakfast...dry toast...more to come on that. Then you get your briefing just before getting on the herc. You have to have your helmet and flack vest for the trip and that's it (I also had 3 gravol....yep 3). The flight was actually pretty smooth, that is until they start whipping the plane side to side on purpose for the last 10 minutes of the flight.
Tactical manouevering is mandatory for coming into either Kabul or Khandahar. I was so close to making it through...but alas the dry heaves won. Apparently some of the military said I did better than about 6 others on the flight who lost more than breakfast:). It was also freezing on the plane so one of the plane techs took pity on me and lent me his long sleeve shirt/jacket as a blanket. I probably looked pretty pathetic half wazooed on gravol, trying to get comfortable on a mesh chair.
So then you get into Kabul and have about 15 minutes to get your legs back and then into the bisons for the trip to camp. They are the armoured vehicles the guys patrol streets in sometime. I sat near the front because on of the soldiers is standing look out there and there's a breeze, but its still crazy warm in there (we still have the helmets and flack vests on since 20 minutes before we started the tactical stuff in the plane). It wasn't a bad ride..probably would be easier without the plane ride just before it.
Once I got into camp I got to see Tammy and Natalie and Sarah right away....and now I all ready feel at home. The tent is awesome, my bed space is great. The weather here is actually cool at night so its a welcome change after Camp Mirage where its just hot and humid. It looks like we might still do our full tour so Kandahar bound maybe I go! I won't count on anything until I actually land there and clear into the camp. The only reason I don't want to go is the tactical flying that we have to do from Kabul to Kandahar....screw my pride, I'll totally lose my cookies!
I hope you are all still enjoying summer! Send me stories! My stories may run out after I do all my initial camp things:)
miss you all!!!!
Jeanie:)
PS Scott, don't tell Gus about the plane ride, he gets nauseous pretty easy, but read the rest of the email to him and give him a huge hug!!!
I've made it to Kabul in one piece!!! It's a pretty amazing area that the camp is surrounded by - I'll send pics after I unpack my camera:). Imagine the chilliwack highway area with less trees and more war devastation.
The last 24 hours have been crazy. I came over with one other CFPSA person (Andree) and about 38 military on the herc. We had to get our bags out of the transient quarters by 3:20am (monday morning) so it seemed logical at the time to not sleep .... rrrrriiiiigght. Good thinking.
Just a note...its really muggy still at 3:30 in the morning...seriously like walking in a sauna. And to travel we have to wear long pants and our golf shirts. Yikes. Anyway, I digress.....So the bags are out at 3:30, they do roll call at 4:15 and then we have until 5:50 to wait until the flight leaves. Andree and I go have some breakfast...dry toast...more to come on that. Then you get your briefing just before getting on the herc. You have to have your helmet and flack vest for the trip and that's it (I also had 3 gravol....yep 3). The flight was actually pretty smooth, that is until they start whipping the plane side to side on purpose for the last 10 minutes of the flight.
Tactical manouevering is mandatory for coming into either Kabul or Khandahar. I was so close to making it through...but alas the dry heaves won. Apparently some of the military said I did better than about 6 others on the flight who lost more than breakfast:). It was also freezing on the plane so one of the plane techs took pity on me and lent me his long sleeve shirt/jacket as a blanket. I probably looked pretty pathetic half wazooed on gravol, trying to get comfortable on a mesh chair.
So then you get into Kabul and have about 15 minutes to get your legs back and then into the bisons for the trip to camp. They are the armoured vehicles the guys patrol streets in sometime. I sat near the front because on of the soldiers is standing look out there and there's a breeze, but its still crazy warm in there (we still have the helmets and flack vests on since 20 minutes before we started the tactical stuff in the plane). It wasn't a bad ride..probably would be easier without the plane ride just before it.
Once I got into camp I got to see Tammy and Natalie and Sarah right away....and now I all ready feel at home. The tent is awesome, my bed space is great. The weather here is actually cool at night so its a welcome change after Camp Mirage where its just hot and humid. It looks like we might still do our full tour so Kandahar bound maybe I go! I won't count on anything until I actually land there and clear into the camp. The only reason I don't want to go is the tactical flying that we have to do from Kabul to Kandahar....screw my pride, I'll totally lose my cookies!
I hope you are all still enjoying summer! Send me stories! My stories may run out after I do all my initial camp things:)
miss you all!!!!
Jeanie:)
PS Scott, don't tell Gus about the plane ride, he gets nauseous pretty easy, but read the rest of the email to him and give him a huge hug!!!
posted by Diana at 9:16 AM
1 Comments:
Jeanie's the niece of a co-worker and dear friend. Her team left for Kabul, then Khandahar in early August to meet up with other Canadian NATO forces.
I'll be posting stories and photos from her as they come in to us.
Post a Comment
<< Home