WEEK 1

November 6-13, 2006

Yes, I have been asked many times recently why I would want to leave my family and friends and travel half-way around the world to work in a third-world country. It is not an easy question to answer especially since I really did not want to leave my family. Sure, there is that level of excitement, mediocre living conditions, and the concern of working in an area considered to be a combat environment. But, I believe the reason I agreed to this is because I needed to start a job with potential career opportunities that built upon my capabilities and provided a service to those who need it most.

I have spent the last couple of months training and preparing for this little adventure to Afghanistan to supervise the engineering, fabrication, and installation of polyethylene armor into civilian vehicles. These vehicles are owned by our own Special Operations Command and are used to conduct confidential missions within Afghanistan and Iraq. The armor that my company produces will protect American Airmen, Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers.

In any case, this job pays pretty well, I’ll get the traveling out of the way early, and I had Kristine’s blessing.

Kris and I talked frequently about dropping me off at the airport on the 6th. We promised each other that we wouldn’t cry or get overly emotional. We worked at preparation and seemed satisfied we were ready for my departure. We arrived at SeaTac and all was going according to plan until I hopped back in to the Suburban to give Cole and Nikki a hug and a kiss. They were both crying and muttering about missing me. I hugged and kissed them, said a few words, and jumped back out of the Sub to look at Kris. She had seen and heard the kids and was now crying as well. That hug, that kiss was the most difficult goodbye I have experienced. The walk into the airport was the longest walk of my life.

Most of you know Ed E. LifePort is armoring vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq. When in the initial stages of interviewing with LifePort, they were looking for another Armor Supervisor in addition to me. When asked if I knew of anyone, I could think of no one better than Ed. Ed came on board shortly after I did. At some stage, LifePort thought it prudent to have two folks at each location and through that process wound up hiring two guys with Auto CAD experience, Greg B from somewhere in Minnesota and Craig D from fabulous Puyallup.

We didn’t pick our teams or locations; LifePort did that for us. You know how business calculus works, so Ed and Greg were assigned to Iraq and Craig and I were assigned to Afghanistan. The reason Craig D is currently not with us is because he came late in the training cycle and is in training now.

Ed, Greg, and I found our way to security. The new laws governing liquids in your carry-on was a concern for me because I had purchased a ten-pack of 50ml Jim Beam bottles for that special occasion. The guy at the x-ray asked me if I had any liquids in my carry-on. I produced the yellow cardboard package and showed him. He took a quick look, put them into a round tub and ran it through the machine. The x-ray operator scanned my Jim Beam. She then asked me if I knew the total limit of liquids that I could carry on board an airplane. I said I was unaware. She told me that I would have to leave four of the bottles unless I wanted to share them with her now. Who was I to argue with authority? She gave a quick laugh and said maybe next time. I made it through with all ten.

Nine hours on a plane with free alcohol doesn’t sound like a bad deal until your back-side starts to complain. You can only sit there or lay back so much before you have to get up and do something. I know why they give you free alcohol. You are expected to have a couple drinks, watch one of the movies available, and fall asleep. Unfortunately I wanted to get up and move around. Where is the running track or the gym? There is only so much room to walk around and no matter how many times you walk from one end of the airplane to the other you still do not want to sit down again.

Finally, Heathrow International Airport! Since we landed at the international terminal, which is #4, you have to take the train to Terminals 1, 2, or 3 to leave the airport. Maybe it’s just me, or Ed, or Greg, but getting to the correct train to leave the airport was no simple matter. The signage and arrows in the airport really seem to make little sense. We asked several airport employees and although I know they speak English, we had a communication barrier. Needless to say, we found our way to Terminal 1 and to then to our hotel about one mile away.

We took a taxi to the hotel from the airport. Had we known it was virtually around the corner, we would have just pushed one of those baggage trolleys to the hotel and saved the 10 pounds it cost the three of us in one taxi. That’s almost $20 U.S. Dollars for a five minute ride. That’s ten more pounds I could have spent on beer! I would have gladly walked the mile for that incentive.

I know it had been five years since I was in London last, but I thought I knew my way around better that I obviously did. Like in any town, businesses come and go, but guiding off landmarks should be easy and London has many. We got a map of London and began perusing. Right away, we noticed there are hardly any street signs. Did London take down the signs during World War II so the Germans couldn’t find their way around and forget to put them back up? It’s been 60 years and the Germans are no longer a threat. Hey, London! It’s time to put the signs back up.


We did manage to find a few pubs and decided to try different brands at each location. I decided early on not to blow more than $100 large on beer. Fortunately, my consuming prowess is no longer at college level and I had no trouble staying below my threshold.

The next morning we took a shuttle to the airport (saved that 10 pounds) and proceeded to Terminal 4 and to security. The English-speaking guy by the x-ray machine asked me if I had any liquids in my carry-on. Once again, I produced my lovely yellow ten-pack. He looked at it inquisitively and walked it over to another security agent. The two of them looked it over, brought it back to the x-ray machine, put it in a tub and ran it through. At this point, I was walking through the scanner to the opposite end of the x-ray. One of the agents handed me a plastic Ziploc bag and told me to put the bottles of Jim Beam in the bag. He watched me as I did this and then snatched the bag out of my hands, walked it back to the entrance of the x-ray, placed it in another tub, and ran it back through the x-ray. At that point, it was OK for me to take my liquor with me.
Obviously the yellow cardboard carton that the Jim Beam neatly resided in could be used in some negative or people-harming way on an airplane, according to the Brits. I’m sure glad they are aware of this danger and hope they pass that information on to the states and places like SeaTac who let me carry that harmful device on an airplane.

Well, the flight from London to Bahrain and then to Doha was uneventful. I took a lot more advantage of the free alcohol during these legs and actually managed to snooze a little. Once on the ground in Qatar, we were paraded through the immigration and customs areas and forced to buy a three-week visa. The visa cost 55 Qatari Riyals or about $18 USD.

A U.S. Navy SEAL met us at the airport and was our driver to Camp As Sayliyah (CAS). What an experience. He put us in a Ford Expedition and careened his way through some of the worst drivers I have ever seen. I thought the Koreans held the title of the worst drivers in the world, but they take a back seat to the Qataris. After about a 20 minute drive we had to go through security which included looking through, under, and around our vehicle with mirrors, dogs, and electronic equipment. All told, an hour was spent being cleared by the three stages of security to get into a base that has had no attacks in the past two years.

We were housed in a giant warehouse that was approximately 200 meters long and 75 meters wide. Inside were 20’ connexes (containers, mil vans) stacked two high and aligned back-to-back in rows. Inside each connex was two wall lockers, two beds, a table, a 20” TV and a DVD player, complete with air conditioning. These were not too bad and had showers and toilets attached to the warehouse. We found out later these are referred to as CHUs or Container Housing Units. If this was the housing we were going to be provided in theater then things were looking OK.
We arrived in Qatar late on the 8th and by the time we got into our CHUs it was the 9th. We were given a general direction of where we should report around 0900 the next morning. Of course it was a mile or two hike in 90+ degree weather to get to the Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) location. I planned my clothing around Afghanistan’s weather which is very Tacoma-like. I was sweating more than a turkey the day before Thanksgiving. Anyway, once we met up with our points of contact (POCs), all became well.

The SOCCENT guys gave us a fully armored Toyota Land Cruiser to drive around CAS. They also wanted us to check it out and let them know if it warranted putting extra dollars into. We drove that thing around for four days and only put 42 miles on it. It was top heavy, the suspension was not designed for the extreme amount of armor weight, the engine (4.7L V8) was sluggish, the armored windows would not roll down, the doors were difficult to close because they weighed so much, however, the air conditioning worked like a champ. It was a 2002 Land Cruiser with leather and the navigation system. Yes, I think dropping another $5K into the suspension seemed reasonable.

I got to spend Veteran’s Day on a military installation halfway around the world with one of the single greatest Veterans I have ever known. I waited until 0530 in the morning on the 11th to wake Ed up and announce “Happy Veteran’s Day, Ed”! He wasn’t quite as excited about it as I was at that time of day, but warmed up to my greeting a few hours later. We spent the rest of the day walking around CAS and congratulating and thanking the U.S. joint forces.

Finally we received our flight assignments out of Qatar. I was beginning to go mad because of the monotony. Four days on CAS in Doha, Qatar with nothing to do was about three-and-a-half days too long. Obviously, our flight times were not close. Ed and Greg had a show-time at the Al Udeid airport (U.S. Air Force controlled) at 0400 on the 13th of November and my show-time was 2215 on the 13th. I took Ed and Greg to the armory at 0230 to draw their weapons then helped them put their equipment into another vehicle with a driver for the trip to Al Udeid.

I gave Ed a big hug before he left as I didn’t know when I was going to see him again and because we’ve spent the last couple of months working closely together, and I kind of like the guy. Although it was not as difficult as saying goodbye to Kris and the kids, it was still kind of hard.

I went back to my CHU and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. I wound up typing parts of this, playing a computer game, and repacking my stuff. I spent the remainder of the day screwing around, sending email, making some phone calls, and otherwise being bored. Finally at 1930, I went to the armory to draw my pistol and ammunition, loaded my stuff into my driver’s vehicle, and checked out with SOCCENT. By 2000 hours I was on my way to Al Udeid.

I’ll pick up with my Week 2 narrative from this point.

Because the fastest internet connection I have access to is a screaming 100 Mbs (some of the time), I have been compiling pictures and will put them on a CD. I should get that CD in the mail to most of you before Christmas.

Let me know if there are any questions.


Craig