After two and a half months of training I departed for Afghanistan. I'll have to go back and fill in some gaps from training, but let's just say that my favorite reply- when asked how it was - is that the Army did an AMAZING job of packing 14 days of quality training into ten weeks...
My Mom informed me that my family (I only have about 37 cousins and 25 Aunts and Uncles) were all asking about me and several had inquired about my address. Which, by the way is: 
Murphy, M. B.
ARSIC - N / US Navy
Camp Mike Spann
Mazar - e - Sharif
APO AE 09354
(in case you'd like to send reese's peanutbutter cups, twix, skittles and/or red vines, wink wink oh, and gummy bears... YUM!)
So, I drafted the following letter to my family with a brief (not) description of my wonderful travel itenerary... Here ya go:
Hello Everyone,
Murphy, M. B.
ARSIC - N / US Navy
Camp Mike Spann
Mazar - e - Sharif
APO AE 09354
(in case you'd like to send reese's peanutbutter cups, twix, skittles and/or red vines, wink wink oh, and gummy bears... YUM!)
So, I drafted the following letter to my family with a brief (not) description of my wonderful travel itenerary... Here ya go:
Hello Everyone,
I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to send an update, but here it is… I arrived in country about three weeks ago. My trip actually began in Kansas back on May 21. We boarded a tour bus at 2am and drove approx. eight hours to Dallas. Luckily I was able to get a few winks along the way. We were originally told that our flight was at 2pm, but check-in was at noon. This turned out to be incorrect, check-in was 1pm and the flight did not depart until about 7pm… Needless to say the ten plus hours spent waiting at the airport were less than stellar. Thankfully there was a USO which provided some food and drinks, and also had internet connections and movies for our viewing pleasure… I opted for the internet.
Our flight took us into Kuwait, where we arrived after a short layover in Budapest, but unfortunately we were not allowed to deplane. I believe this leg of the trip took about 13 hours, and again I managed a few hours of rest. The base in Kuwait is nothing more than a transient base, for people coming or going to/from theater. We promptly checked in and officially started our “time clocks” for our expected 365 days in country. Thankfully it was a little before midnight (I think it was a few minutes after 11p to be exact). I really would’ve hated to lose an entire day...
We then moved our gear into a 16 man tent – 8 bunk beds (metal, so they squeaked quite loudly) but at least I didn’t have a bunkmate. The temperature was a cool 115 the first day, so it was a refreshing transition to my days ahead. (That should read – holy cow it’s hot here!!) The base had a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and a Subway, but the food in the dining hall was actually pretty good, so I only grabbed a burger once when I missed dinner in the chow hall. There were several large tents there for “recreation” – two were MWR (morale, welfare and recreation) and the other was USO. The USO tent had a TV, several love seats and couches, about a dozen computers w/ free internet and some phones. One of the MWR tents had ping pong and pool tables, a large screen TV and phones and internet in the back. The other actually had a movie theater type setting with a pretty nice projection TV.
We spent three days in Kuwait before flying out to Baghram Air Force Base. We arrived at 11pm and were told that manifest for our flight the next day was 430am (sometimes referred to as Oh dark thirty…) so most of us just hung around at the USO building surfing the net, writing emails and watching movies. Of course, once we checked in at “Oh dark thirty” we were told there was no room on that flight, but we “should be able to get out on the 9am flight…” So, after another sleepless night we made another journey to Kabul where we waited four hours for our convoy to arrive. The convoy took us to Camp Phoenix where we spent three more days. Oh, by the way, the convoy ride to the camp was short, but one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. My understanding is that there are no “driver’s licenses” in this country… Never woulda guessed it. We actually had to drive in the median (not that the roads weren’t a complete disaster to begin with) and then pulled into oncoming traffic to get around several groups of other lunatic drivers… I found out that our policy is not to stop, ever… Wish I’d had my camera to take some video!
After my three days in Kabul I finally boarded a plane for a short one hour flight to Mazar-e-Sharif (MeS). Let me back up a moment so you can get the full grasp of my travel. To begin with, we each had four “seabags” and if you are not familiar, this is a large green duffle bag about 1 x 1 x 3 feet, and depending upon what’s inside it can weigh up to 100 lbs. Then we each had a “ruck sack” which is about 1.5 x 1.5 x 2 and typically weighs about 50 lbs. Mine of course had two of my armor plates in it, so was a tad heavier. We each had at least one backpack, a rifle case and a computer (laptop)/carry-on bag. So at each stop along the way we had to move all of these bags, sometimes two or three times. Not much fun, especially when it’s in the 100s…
For example, on my last day of travel, I got up at 3am, and after “the three S’s” ($h*t, shower and shave) we loaded our bags onto a truck and drove to the rendezvous point for the convoy to the airfield. We then unloaded the bags. Then we reloaded them onto different vehicles. Upon arrival at the airstrip we drove out to the plane and loaded them onto the plane. When we got to MeS airport they were driven on a pallet to the parking lot where we unloaded them, waited fifteen minutes and then reloaded them onto a truck. Once we arrived at camp, we carried them to our “temporary” barracks. Only to find out that permanent rooms were available, so we loaded them onto a truck, drove them across camp and unloaded them into our rooms. That was just the last day, and much of the rest of that week’s travel was quite similar.
Our flight took us into Kuwait, where we arrived after a short layover in Budapest, but unfortunately we were not allowed to deplane. I believe this leg of the trip took about 13 hours, and again I managed a few hours of rest. The base in Kuwait is nothing more than a transient base, for people coming or going to/from theater. We promptly checked in and officially started our “time clocks” for our expected 365 days in country. Thankfully it was a little before midnight (I think it was a few minutes after 11p to be exact). I really would’ve hated to lose an entire day...
We then moved our gear into a 16 man tent – 8 bunk beds (metal, so they squeaked quite loudly) but at least I didn’t have a bunkmate. The temperature was a cool 115 the first day, so it was a refreshing transition to my days ahead. (That should read – holy cow it’s hot here!!) The base had a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and a Subway, but the food in the dining hall was actually pretty good, so I only grabbed a burger once when I missed dinner in the chow hall. There were several large tents there for “recreation” – two were MWR (morale, welfare and recreation) and the other was USO. The USO tent had a TV, several love seats and couches, about a dozen computers w/ free internet and some phones. One of the MWR tents had ping pong and pool tables, a large screen TV and phones and internet in the back. The other actually had a movie theater type setting with a pretty nice projection TV.
We spent three days in Kuwait before flying out to Baghram Air Force Base. We arrived at 11pm and were told that manifest for our flight the next day was 430am (sometimes referred to as Oh dark thirty…) so most of us just hung around at the USO building surfing the net, writing emails and watching movies. Of course, once we checked in at “Oh dark thirty” we were told there was no room on that flight, but we “should be able to get out on the 9am flight…” So, after another sleepless night we made another journey to Kabul where we waited four hours for our convoy to arrive. The convoy took us to Camp Phoenix where we spent three more days. Oh, by the way, the convoy ride to the camp was short, but one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. My understanding is that there are no “driver’s licenses” in this country… Never woulda guessed it. We actually had to drive in the median (not that the roads weren’t a complete disaster to begin with) and then pulled into oncoming traffic to get around several groups of other lunatic drivers… I found out that our policy is not to stop, ever… Wish I’d had my camera to take some video!
After my three days in Kabul I finally boarded a plane for a short one hour flight to Mazar-e-Sharif (MeS). Let me back up a moment so you can get the full grasp of my travel. To begin with, we each had four “seabags” and if you are not familiar, this is a large green duffle bag about 1 x 1 x 3 feet, and depending upon what’s inside it can weigh up to 100 lbs. Then we each had a “ruck sack” which is about 1.5 x 1.5 x 2 and typically weighs about 50 lbs. Mine of course had two of my armor plates in it, so was a tad heavier. We each had at least one backpack, a rifle case and a computer (laptop)/carry-on bag. So at each stop along the way we had to move all of these bags, sometimes two or three times. Not much fun, especially when it’s in the 100s…
For example, on my last day of travel, I got up at 3am, and after “the three S’s” ($h*t, shower and shave) we loaded our bags onto a truck and drove to the rendezvous point for the convoy to the airfield. We then unloaded the bags. Then we reloaded them onto different vehicles. Upon arrival at the airstrip we drove out to the plane and loaded them onto the plane. When we got to MeS airport they were driven on a pallet to the parking lot where we unloaded them, waited fifteen minutes and then reloaded them onto a truck. Once we arrived at camp, we carried them to our “temporary” barracks. Only to find out that permanent rooms were available, so we loaded them onto a truck, drove them across camp and unloaded them into our rooms. That was just the last day, and much of the rest of that week’s travel was quite similar.
This is just our gear - 14 bags, 2 rifle cases and 2 laptopsThe camp here is relatively small. I’ve heard that it is 200 meters x 350 meters, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I will try to take pictures this week and post them on a Kodak.com photo album along with pictures from training. My initial job was going to be a roving LNO, or liaison officer, for two of the outlying FOBs (forward operating base). Luckily that changed, and I will now be working in the TOC (tactical operations center) where I will be dual-hatted and be responsible for portions of the Air/Ground operations and Intel. Luckily this will not require me to leave the base often, but unfortunately our hours are 8a-8p, seven days a week. Most of the camp only works a ½ day on Thur and has Friday off – and by this I mean that they change into PT gear (physical training) or shorts and t-shirts for you civilian types and are more or less “on call.”
We were much luckier than the team before us with regard to travel. Most of them had to stay in Kuwait, Kabul and Camp Phoenix for quite a bit longer than we did. This meant living out of their luggage for over two weeks, vice our 8 days of travel…
So what would everyone like to know??? Please drop a line w/ whatever questions you have, but I’ll try to cover the basics. Camp Mike Spann is small, as I mentioned, but lies on the NW corner of a medium sized ANA (Afghan National Army) base. We have our own landing pad and about a mile to the SE is a dirt runway. I took some video yesterday of a C-130 coming in and landing. Please let me know if you would like to see it, and/or if you have the bandwidth to support it.
We’re actually in a region that falls under German command, but we also have Swedish, Dutch, Croatian, and Finnish troops here locally. The last few days have been a nightmare, as I’m not only trying to learn my Air/Ground operations job, we were tasked to host a “Commander’s Conference” here in MeS. This is a monthy or quarterly Conference that moves throughout the country's regions. We expected some 100+ coalition forces and 50+ Afghani troops. It became a massive debacle because the people that were in charge of arranging inbound transportation (specifically this one ________ [insert bad word here] Air Farce Colonel) that did not do their jobs effectively. We were expecting four aircraft to come in at two different locations. Then one flight was cancelled at 8pm the night before. An additional flight was added at 545am the day of, so we went out the dirt strip and waited for an additional hour and the flight never showed. Several Generals were not confident (gee, I wonder why!) and made their own arrangements – however, no one bothered to notify us. We had one General’s aide call us and say, “we’re at the airport, where’s our ride?” We said, “Who are you and what airport are you at, and why weren’t we notified of your itinerary?” Then a flight of three H-60 Blackhawks (same helo I fly – broke my heart… I won't lie, I considered hijacking one of them.) flew in and one landed at our pad and dropped off a passenger (PAX). They arrived overhead during our scheduled “live fire” artillery event was supposed to be going on. Luckily it had been postponed, but seeing as how their flight path took them directly over the range several times, it would’ve been nice had somebody, ANYbody, bothered to contact us w/ their flight plans?!?!
Then, to make things worse, our entire network; land lines, internet, Siprnet (secret internet), Citrix, half the cell phones – we operate on two different systems and one was out, everything we needed to coordinate this mess, went down. We got lucky a few times w/ having vehicles in the right place at the right time to snatch people up, like the General and his jerk of an Aide, but we’ve had to turn a lot of people away w/ unanswered questions about when they will be able to return. The system was down for 24 hours, but just came back up about 2 hours ago. We’re still trying to sift through the carnage to see what’s left for us to coordinate. Too many fires to put out, several hiccups and boo-boos that just needed a quick “band-aid” but I am anxiously awaiting for the end of this conference.
The weather here is still getting warmer, and we’re already in the 100s. I’m told that it can get up to 120s in the peak summer months. AND, that it gets as low as the 20’s in the winter. Now normally that wouldn’t be such a big deal, cuz we’ve got plenty of pretty good cold weather (WX) gear. But then somebody reminded me that I live in a PLYWOOD building… Yikes, hadn’t thought of that… Guess I’ll be sleeping in all that cold wx gear…
There are about 60 people here on the base, mostly Army, but also Navy and Air Force. Turns out the Commanding Officer is also a UW grad (go DAWGs – beat WSU!) ha ha ha. Don’t remind me, I know our football program is in the crapper currently... At least we won Apple Cup!
I guess I’ll wrap it up, hopefully you weren’t bored too badly (hey, wake up!!) and I’ll try to send shorter, more frequent updates… Fair enough? Hope you’re all well, and I do appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers.
Much Love, Michael
