Back to Afghanistan

It's been some time since the last installment of The Seth Chronicles. When I last wrote we were anxiously awaiting Seth's arrival for a fifteen day leave. I can report that he arrived home safely and we spent a wonderful fifteen days together before returning him to Dulles Airport for a return trip to Afghanistan. Some observations from his leave:

1. He looks good (skinny, but good), sounds good and has a good attitude about the experiences he has had and the experiences he will have.

2. There's much more going on in Afghanistan than he has led us to believe during our telephone conversations. We heard many stories that began "Mom isn't going to want to hear this, but......." These stories included the occasional rocket attacks on the airfield, patrols into areas where intel predicted possible ambushes and insurgent activity and movement in and around civilian areas where everybody has a gun.

3. He's the same skinny, white boy we sent to Afghanistan. He has the same wonderful sense of humor, the appreciation for family and friends, and a firm faith in God and belief that he is doing what he should be doing.

During his visit we ate all of his favorite foods (we did the full Thanksgiving feast) visited with many friends and lots of family, played cards and enjoyed each others company.

Seth's return to Afghanistan took a little longer than it should of. He left the United States on March 12 and arrived in Kuwait on the 14th. There were a number of soldiers returning to Bagram from Kuwait and about 30 had to stay in Kuwait - Seth among them. This group ending up spending several days in Kuwait when no other transportation was available to Afghanistan. In the end, Seth traveled to Qutar, and back to Kuwait before finally finding his way back to Afghanistan - a process that took one week. He arrived back at Bagram on the morning of the 19th (his time.) Now, for the interesting part. During his absence, the Army has figured out how to pack more fun into a day. In an effort (misguided as it may seem) to get the soldiers more down-time they have introduced the 28 hour day! A day at Bagram now consists of 28 hours. Seth returned to a schedule that is 12 hours on duty and 16 hours off. He does this for four days, then spends a day on Ready Reactionary Force (Patrols) then back to the 12/16 schedule. I'm not sure the Army understands the concept of a biological clock. Seth's reserving judgement on this schedule although he doesn't seem completely sold on it.

It continues to look like he will move the Ghazni, the forward operating base sometime in the near future. At Ghazni he will only be involved in Patrols. They patrol for days, or weeks, at a time, before returning to base for an extended period of down-time. Seth is looking forward to that move, although Jan and I prefer the relative safety of the airbase.

Be sure to scroll past the next post to find pictures of Seth's visit home.