Night in Farah

I flew into Farah today on the same helos that took me to Shindand. Meetings all day. I managed to get a haircut here. They don't have a barber in Shindand.

It's hot here. And the AC units around base vary greatly in effectiveness. My tent is reasonable. It feels to be in the mid 80's. The AC should be able to cool it down tonight.

Farah is a decent base. Very effective at partnering with the Afghans. The battlespace owner takes that seriously. They had the local ANP commander and the NDS commander at the base today for a meeting. I'm told people are constantly coming and going from the base on mentoring missions. That's a great relationship - exactly how it's supposed to be done. Unfortunately that model is not used by many battlespace owners. Also, the current battlespace owner, 82nd Airborne, is leaving to be replaced by 4th ID. So it's not known if the new leadership will continue the strong partnership with the afghans or retreat into the FOB like the RC-east battlespace commanders.

Army guys are slobs. They leave the tents completely trashed when they roll through. Not much else to say about that.

I have determined definitively that the M16 is preferable to the M4. For a long time I wished I'd been issued an M4. They are shorter and much easier to carry around. And they usually come with a scope. However, the odds of me shooting my long gun are pretty slim, so the real value of the weapon is judged by other measures. It turns out that the M16 is tall enough to function and a rack for my ACU top. This is significant because the restrooms often have all sorts of unpleasantries on the floor. I can lean my M16 against the wall and hang my ACU blouse on that averting a major cleanliness issue. So for all the Navy guys issued an old-ass M16 like me, now you know you got the better end of the deal.

My meetings are done so I'll be working my way back to Kabul. Probably via Bagram. They don't have many flights coming through here so I'll probably head back to Shindand and wait there for a Bagram flight. From Bagram it's relatively easy to get to Kabul.

One final thing. The winds died down this evening so you can see the sky clearly. It's very crisp and beautiful. It makes me wonder if any alien races are close enough to be admiring the crispness of our sun in their night sky.