Life Begins at Camp Phoenix

Below are bits and pieces of an e-mail that I recieved this morning at 2:40 a.m. (11:10 a.m. in Afghanistan) from Josh...

. . . (Another Soldier) and I went on a walk around the FOB this morning. It really is not as bad as I thought. Obviously, we found the computers, but we also found the post office, laundry, PX, the gym - which is very nice, real showers, and where we will be living when we move, which is a palace compared to what we are living in now. It will be a few more days until we are in our huts. I do have access to Coke which is really nice and the food is good. I went running in the gym today on the treadmill and watched of all things the TODAY show, can you believe it? They show it live in the dining hall, and then they must replay it . . .

As I get e-mails from Josh, I will share portions of them. Hopefully, when he has internet access on a regular basis, he will be able to post to this, or at least provide more frequent updates.

Moving right along... Afghanistan!

Josh's unit has arrived safely in Afghanistan. It was a bit of whirlwind. I woke up Tuesday, April 8 in the morning to an e-mail from another soldier's fiancee indicating that he called saying, "Guess what?...Afghanistan time: now!" This would have been roughly 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday here, but 2:30 p.m. in Afghanistan. I do not know that anyone was expecting it to happen that quickly. They weren't even in Kuwait two days. We had been given some idea of when it might happen, but obviously we knew to take it lightly. Safe to say, I had prepared for this move, but just not on Tuesday.

I waited (im)patiently to hear from Josh... an e-mail, call, anything. Sleeping on Tuesday was a bit difficult... waking up every hour to check e-mail and IM on the computer that sat next to my head and checking for missed calls on the house phone and cell phone that sat with the computer. Finally, at 1:55 p.m. our time on Wednesday, 10:25 p.m. Afghanistan time, Josh called! The phone reception was interesting - at times crystal clear and other times it sounded like morse code in the background.

Josh said several times how good the food was and that he actually enjoyed it. He does have access to a cooler with COKE when he goes for his meals. Are we surprised that this was discussed in the first call? Housing is temporary right now, but he said that it will be really nice once they are in their permanent location. He said the weather was pretty nice too, quite a bit cooler than Kuwait.

The whole transition has been eye opening from the minute they got off the plane in Afghanistan. Compounded with the fact that they traveled half way around the world between Saturday and Tuesday (hello, time change!) and sat through briefings all day on Wednesday, it has obviously been a very long five days for them.

Of course, it was an emotional call. Simply put, it is finally real, and with that comes a whole new wave of emotions, fears, worries and wonders. However, in true Josh fashion, he managed to make us laugh before we hung up the phone. It was shortly before 11 in Afghanistan, so Josh was heading off to bed. I told him to have a good night sleep and to get some good rest. His response was "you too... oh, but I guess you aren't going to bed just yet!" It's weird to think that when I talked to him today he was just going to bed, and as I am writing this today, it's already morning tomorrow where he is and that he is probably up and moving around.

I found this map online of Afghanistan, which might be helpful over the next few months...


Afghanistan runs along 34 degrees latitude (central location of country), which is equivalent to Columbia, SC or Los Angeles, CA in the United States. During DST, Josh is 8 1/2 hours ahead of us, otherwise he will be 9 1/2 hours ahead.

Message From Josh

Here is an excerpt of an e-mail that I received from Josh this morning. I thought you would enjoy hearing his words...

"We are alive and well in Kuwait. We got in early yesterday morning. It is very flat, dry, hot, and sandy here. haha. We were bussed to our camp after landing. It was quite the experience. Not really allowed to say where we are or what the camp is called, but suffice to say were are safe and in the middle of NOWHERE. It is actually really nice here. We have toilets, hot showers with curtains, and real sinks with hot and cold water. I have taken two showers since arriving. We still live in tents and cots, but it isn't bad. We have McDonalds can you believe it and Taco Bell, Panda, and Subway. The DFAC is good too, and all you can eat. They even have Coke, it tastes a little different, but still it is COKE. Life is not bad here. The only downfall is there are people here who are getting ready to go home too, and that is a little depressing to be around when you are just getting here. Not sure how much longer we will be here."

What is more important - coke or hot showers?

Where In The World Is Josh!?

At 5:10 a.m. on Saturday, April 5, my cell phone rang - it was Josh's ring! Just one last call before they boarded the plane to depart the United States.

Currently, they are here...

Josh left on Saturday morning en route to Kuwait. They arrived in Kuwait sometime on Sunday. I received a voicemail from Josh Sunday night around 6:00 p.m. indicating that they had arrived safely. To quote him, "it's a wonderland. The arches of McDonald's rise up in the middle of the desert and light up the night sky." Of course, where there is McDonald's, there is... Coke!

Prior to leaving Ft. Bragg, Josh volunteered for the baggage detail, which allowed him to load the bags on the plane! Josh loves to travel and anything to do with aircraft carriers, so he was thrilled with this opportunity. I believe from what he said, he even was able to get inside the plane to receive and stack the bags, which until then was uncharted territory for Josh.

While in Kuwait, he is seven hours ahead of us. He sounded very chipper for a day and 1/2 of traveling and it being around 1:00 a.m. Kuwait time when he called.

They are in-processing in Kuwait for an unknown period of time. Once they have completed that stage of the process, they will be heading to Afghanistan, which is approximately 1,300 miles away (air distance, point to point).

Eventually, they will be here...

Another (calendar) month down...

I justified what type of month I was talking about when I named this post, since I seem to be operating on two different types - the calendar months and then the months that are formed using the 19th as a beginning and ending point, which I just wrote about two weeks ago. I guess in a way for us, we have managed to hold onto anything and everything that can help us get through this. For us right now, it is any measurement of time - small or large.

I remember talking to Josh back in February after a particularly rough day - one that was hard for both of us. We reminded each other that this was just one bad day, but that tomorrow was a new day. Whenever I think back to that moment, I always think of Dicky Fox, the mentor in Jerry Maguire, saying... "I love getting up in the morning. I clap my hands and say 'this is gonna be a great day'!" Some days that is what it takes to get up.

When I saw Josh last weekend, I gave him a stack of cards to read - one for each day to get him through to May 1, when hopefully he will start receiving mail. One of the cards that I gave him referenced the sun rising and wishing a you a great day wherever you are. As I prepared to write in that card, I was reminded of the quote that I posted below his picture on the left. "May every sunrise hold more promise and every moonrise hold more peace." I realized that with the 9 and 1/2 hour difference in time, our days are fairly close to being the opposite. I wrote in the card that when the sun is rising for me that I know the day is coming to and end for him and that hopefully he would have a peaceful rest. Likewise that when the sun was rising for him, I would be sleeping and looking forward to the promise of a new day, one day closer to being with each other, and the promise for what will come.

We still see the same sun and moon, just at different times.

Wishing us all more peace in the coming months...

A Visit to Ft. Bragg, NC

Josh was released on Friday, March 21 for the Pass Weekend. We had a wonderful visit. Of course, there as a lot of catching up to do and sharing stories that we never had a chance to share on the phone, in a letter or via a text message. He told me that he would never complain again about clothes being on the floor or the house being messy and I told him I would never complain about how much cleaning solution he used when he cleaned the bathrooms, as long as he took that job back when he returned. There were a lot of those little "discoveries" that we shared with each other, which made for a lot of laughter. It is amazing to think that it took something like this to make us realize what was important.


We stayed at the Sleep Inn in Spring Lake, just outside of Ft. Bragg. Obviously, this was no Hilton or Hyatt, yet he talked non-stop about how great the room was and how clean it was. It was nice and it was clean, but you really would have thought that we were in a 5 star resort the way he talked. Amazing how much living with sand and 16 others in a tent changes your view of what is really nice. He was VERY excited to take a shower with high pressure, hot water and privacy. Unfortunately, he had to wait until I arrived with his clothes to enjoy this "luxury". Here is a picture of him clean and in his first set of civilian clothes since January 19.



As you can tell from the above picture, same old Josh... no bigger, no smaller, still a big smile! He was very happy and enjoying the time away from army life for the weekend.

Josh's wish came true! We went to the Olive Garden on Easter Sunday for lunch. He has a pretty big smile in the his picture and we hadn't even gotten the breadsticks yet!! As you can tell from the picture, the weather was very nice while we were down there. It was 75 on Saturday, and a little cooler on Sunday, but it was SUNNY!!! When I left on Wednesday, the forecast was calling for temps in the low 80s for this weekend.

How could I not include a picture of this?! We went to Walmart on Friday night and Josh bought 2 cases of Coke. I do have to share that he was a bit disappointed that he had lost his "tolerance" for the beverage. The caffeine really threw him off and he even ordered water for dinner one night!

We went on post (base) on Monday afternoon. We visited the PX, which is like a Walmart, but with name brand/designer items at a really low (20 - 30% + off), tax free price. I found some "good buys" while I was there. Josh also stocked up on a few things that he needed or wanted to replace before heading overseas. We drove around for a bit and were provided with a handy map that showed the location of all the PX/Mini-Mall/shop locations provided through AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Services). I was highly entertained to see Josh follow the map - just as he has been trained with changing the orientation of the map to follow the direction we were heading on a particular street. Smart little soldier!!

I drove Josh back on Tuesday evening. The trip to the FOB from the hotel was about 35 minutes long. We entered on the northern side of Ft. Bragg and drove straight through the whole post/base and actually left one of the Entry Command Points. When he said he was "in the middle of nowhere Ft. Bragg", he was not lying. The last two roads that I traveled on were dirt (and very dusty) roads. They even had a sand-covered road that ran parallel to it for the tanks to travel on. I'll put it this way, his FOB is no where near any of the points on the map that I mentioned above. Miles and miles away from any of the places/services, with the closest being a car wash!

It was daylight when I took him there, but dark by time I left. It is huge. It was easily a 1/2 mile in length.

Here is the FOB Sign. In case you can't read it clearly it says Forward Operating Base/ Patriot/ 189th Infantry Brigade/ Ft. Bragg, North Carolina/ "Train Like You're Gonna Fight"

Here is the signage in both the Afghani and English languages. These were all over the place - in particular, this sign! I thought these were really neat to see. Makes it seem a little more like where they are going to be, which is obviously the whole point, but it did make you do a double take when you saw it the first time.

Again, Josh returned on Tuesday night. He had his new laptop and a case of coke with him as he entered through the gates. A bus was returning a group of soldiers just as he entered the gate, so it made for a lot of dust floating through the air. He walked up and over the hill. The way the lights were shining and the dust was moving through the air, it honestly looked like he was walking through a sand storm in the desert, no different than what you may have seen on television or in the news of soldiers actually overseas. It was quite a moving sight to see and I only wish that I had my camera with me, as I stood on the other side of the chain-link/barb-wire fence. He looked very confident and ready to go.

Pictures from Josh

Here are some pictures from Josh's Camera of the FOB (forward operating base).


This is Tent City. All of these tents house the platoons on the FOB.


Inside the tent...



A couple of Josh's buddies...



Training...

Month 2 - Check!

Today marks another month milestone... two down! This one comes with a little extra excitement, as Josh and I will be reunited in a few days before he leaves for Afghanistan. I am packed and have been so since Sunday. It makes it pretty easy when you are traveling from 30 degree temperatures to 60s and 70s. Though packing still proved to be a challenge, when I realized that I needed to pack all of Josh's clothing as well. Good thing we have a big suitcase, though it is forcing me to pack on the "lighter side", which means that I still probably overpacked. Josh is looking forward to getting in some good meals at his favorite restaurants while he is on pass. The Olive Garden has only been mentioned in every conversation for the past month! Hint, hint! Wink, Wink!!

I will be sure to post an entry, pictures and maybe even a video of Josh from the Pass Weekend once I return to NY.

Training Complete

I know that I haven't posted here in quite awhile, so I will try to cover everything. First things first...


I heard from Josh on Saturday - the training is OVER! They were busy cleaning weapons, washing and waxing the humvees, and "taking care of business"! They were in some intense training since March 1, so it had been a long two weeks. They were at another forward operating base (FOB) for several days this week. It almost sounded like he was glad to be back to their tent and in his bed, even though it is just a cot with a sleeping bag.

The real deal with the cookie arrival... The boxes came a little damaged and wet, so when they arrived to the "mail room", they could see what was in them. They radioed Josh's platoon and told him that they needed to come and pick them up and suggested bringing a vehicle. Josh and another soldier drove the humvee down, picked them up and brought them back to the tent, but before they could do anything they had to return the Humvee. When they returned, everyone in the platoon was sitting on their bed staring at the cookies, with cookies in their eyes! Josh said, "go ahead!" and they went nuts. By the sounds of it, Josh's platoon really capitalized on the arrival of them, but there was still more than enough to share with the other platoons. He said that they started opening the cases of cookies and dumping the contents to use those boxes to "fill-up". It was a huge hit with everyone and they arrived during the first part of the intense training, so it was well received. As expected, Josh went for the Thin Mints!


The flag... simply put, I found it buried in the snow last weekend. Hopefully, the third time is a charm! Looks a bit odd right now that we have a spot light on the house, but I am sure the neighborhood is used to it by now.


Pass Weekend... I have not really mentioned much of this, since as the saying goes, "It's the Army!," we were not sure what to expect. Josh will get a pass this coming weekend (Easter Weekend) for 4 days. I am flying down to Ft. Bragg and his family is driving down from Virginia to see him. We are all excited for the mini-reunion before he leaves for Afghanistan.


Departure... They are not releasing much information about the departure. Most likely, I will be posting after the fact with details of how they got there and when. I will send out a mass e-mail to everyone when I find out that they are there, but will also post additional details, if I know any, here on the blog.


This time obviously comes with a lot of mixed emotion. Excitement knowing that the training is over, but the very opposite knowing what happens next. Please continue to keep Josh and his unit in your thoughts and prayers. Godspeed!

10,392 Cookies Arrived!

The cookies arrived on Tuesday, March 4, as expected. I received a text message from Josh that night... "Oh my gosh the cookies arrived today everyone loves them we had them broken down and in the other platoons in less than 30 minutes"

Based on the picture, there were actually 37 cases of cookies that were delivered. I did not realize that the other Girl Scout Troop also contributed about 13 cases to the cause. And yes, I did figure it out to be 10,392 cookies! (Give or take a few hundred!) I am looking forward to talking to Josh on the phone to get the full story of the arrival. I will be sure to post more then, when that happens. They are in some intense training right now, so the cookies were certainly delivered at the right time. A lot of long days - late nights and early mornings - for them right now. They will be in this heavy training until approximately March 14th and then will do some more soldier readiness checks.