What’s new?

Let’s see. Last week, Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff flew into Ramrod to give out 5 Purple Heart Medals and meet the troops stationed here. It was great to meet him and almost everyone got coined by him personally.

On Sunday, the Ramrod Chapel held its first baptism. Some things you never expect to see out here, and that was definitely one of them.

Since then, I’ve been out on a couple humanitarian missions and another small mission involving a tunnel we thought was being used to store weapons. Turned out it was a cooking pit and a tunnel to get under a main road.

On the way home from that mission, we came across a civilian convoy that had just been ambushed. Five trucks had their tires shot out and then set on fire. Only one driver was injured. The Afghan drivers were taking U.S. supplies to the Marines in Helmand. Too bad they didn’t make it there. Our battalion was able to help secure the area until we could safely remove the remaining two containers. We then dragged the burnt out trucks off the road. It took almost 10 hours to finish clearing the highway. All this after being up since 1 a.m. in the morning for the previous mission. Needless to say, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and crashed as soon as we got back.

Enjoy the pictures. More to follow.

Busy

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I’ve had the busiest week since I got here. I’ve got some great pictures to post of the Soldiers and Afghans. I’ll be back in a few hours to load them up. Talk to you soon!

OPSEC

I’ve gotten a few posts from families and friends concerned about mentioning Soldier’s names on this blog. I’ve went ahead and taken most of the references to any of them off of here. Years ago, we were not able to mention last names of anyone deployed. Since then, the DoD has changed their policy.

Whenever we write any articles about the 1-12th, we include names and even hometowns of the Soldiers we write about. Typically, I’ll send those articles and photos back to their hometowns in hopes the local newspapers will pick them up. At a minimum, they are sent back to Fort Carson to be published. I recently loaded some photos of a couple of our Soldiers on their first major operation. I’ll probably be posting the link on here, but it includes some of their names as well. I wouldn’t go about putting full addresses out there, but you will see their names. If you look online at all of the branches of Service, you’ll see deployed photos and articles identifying Soldiers.

But, in the future, feel free to send me a private message and I’ll look into getting a message to a Soldier here at Ramrod or updating you on what’s going on.

Ramrod Q’s of the week

So, I’m opening up my blog to any questions you might have about FOB Ramrod, the surrounding area, the 1-12th Infantry Regiment or just about daily life in general. I have to take a quick trip up to Kandahar AirField for a few days, but I’ll answer any questions while I’m away. I know a lot of Soldiers families and friends are keeping up with this blog; and they just might have some questions about this place that I haven’t thought to cover.

On a side note, I received an overwhelming response from folks back home that would like to send care packages to our troops here. I’m going to get with our first sergeant and see what he recommends, but I think the best way to do it is to address it to our first sergeants here to disseminate to the Soldiers as they see fit. They know who might be “left out” and they can better distribute the packages than I could.

I’ll get back to you on that. For now, shoot me your questions and I’ll have an answer for you as soon as possible.

It’s the care from the package that matters

It doesn’t matter what’s in it. In fact, it’s more of the thought that counts. And, if you haven’t yet, finish reading this, go to the store, buy some “stuff” and send it off to whoever you know out here.

When you are deployed, receiving a care package is like waking up and realizing it’s Christmas. As soon as we hear the helicopter, or mailcopter as I like to call it, we dash to the connex and wait with eager anticipation of a care package. Alright, maybe we don’t dash their, but we certainly briskly walk to it.  Like I said, it doesn’t really matter what’s in it. It just means a lot to know someone was thinking about you stateside.

A church of my parents sent me about 20 letters thanking me for my service and praying for my safety while I was here. It was so thoughtful and made my day. I was sitting in the chow hall when someone walked in and handed me a bundle of letters. I felt loved.

So as much as that Soldier might tell you he doesn’t want you to send him anything — do it anyway. We can’t get anything much of anything in this dustbowl, so even if you raid your pantry and throw in some granola bars, some fig newtons and a box of cereal, it will make their day — possibly even their week.

Flyleaf

Flyleaf in concert at FOB Ramrod

The band Flyleaf touched down at Forward Operating Base Ramrod July 5 to the delight of hundreds of Soldiers and civilians. The band held a meet and greet with the Soldiers and then went over to the Canadian Artillery side of the base and fired off several 155mm illumination rounds. They can shoot up to 40 kilometers away with pinpoint accuracy.

After that, they held a two-hour concert on our makeshift stage directly between the chapel and our Rocky-style gym. It was a great time and a much-needed morale booster for everyone here. Who would have thought in Southern Afghanistan that we would be listening to an internationally known “Christian” Rockband?

The band left early the next day, but they stayed after the concert to sign everything from scraps of paper to Soldiers shirts. I’m sure we’ll see some of the items being auctioned on E-bay.

I’d like to personally thank Flyleaf for coming out here. For two hours no one thought of fighting, or worried about their next patrol; they just stood their smiling and singing along with a band who wanted to show their appreciation for all the military does. Thanks Flyleaf!

1-12th’s first operation

The 1-12th Infantry Regiment conducted their first operation in the Maywand District area late, last week.

The battalion moved out at night using night vision goggles to guide their way. The goal of the mission was to disrupt insurgent activity and to uncover any enemy caches. We also met with village elders to discuss their needs and help determine we can help them stabilize the area they live in.

The overall mission was successful. We did have a couple of heat casualties, who were quickly given IVs and taken by medevac. The long walk back in 100 plus temps certainly played a toll on everyone.

Last night, the Christian Rockband, Flyleaf, came out for the day and met with troops, followed by an hour-long concert. I’ll post some of those pictures later today. They definitely were a boost to morale out here.

Don’t drink the shakes

A friend of mine sent me this article in hopes it might be related to our “plague” that hit us at Ramrod earlier this week.  I wish it was the cause, then we could throw the rest away. Unfortunately, we have a semi-decent chow hall and don’t typically eat the MRE’s unless we go out on a mission. But, if you know a Soldier who is deployed, you might want to pass this on to them. I personally am going to be eating out of MREs for the next few days and the shake was the first thing I threw away after I read this:

Salmonella concerns prompt dairy shakes warning

By Matthew Cox – Army Times Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 1, 2009 20:26:34 EDT

Don’t drink the dairy shakes. They might give you diarrhea.

Defense Department officials are warning all military personnel to temporarily avoid drinking dairy shakes found in Meals, Ready to Eat and Unitized Group Rations-Express because they might contain Salmonella.

“There is a remote chance that we might have some dairy shakes that could have some Salmonella,” Gerry Darsch, director of the DoD Combat Feeding Program, told Army Times on Wednesday.

That means that potentially there are about 12 million dairy shakes in MREs that could be affected, Darsch said.

Salmonella is a group of bacteria that can cause diarrheal illness in humans, according to the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention website.

The Salmonella was detected in late June during routine testing of a single lot of dairy shakes, said Darsch, who became aware of the issue June 21.

The shakes in question affect MRE fieldings for 2008 and 2009, Darsch said.

The shakes are found in MRE menu number one: chili with beans; menu nine: beef stew; menu 21: tuna in a pouch; and menu 22: chicken and dumplings.

Menus one and nine will be found in MRE boxes marked Case A and menus 21 and 22 will be in MRE boxes marked Case B.

The dairy shakes are also part of six out of the eight Unitized Group Rations-Express menus, Darsch said. Darsch did not have the specific menus, or specific numbers of how many UGR-Es are affected but said personnel should not drink the dairy shakes in UGR-Es for 2008 and 2009.

Some pics around Ramrod

Sand ravaging the base

Incoming sandstorm

Patching ceremony for the 1-12th Battalion

A view from COP Rath

Chapel

Here are just a couple pics from the past week or so. I’ll add some more at the end of the week.

Contain the plague

Like locusts ravaging a harvest-ready crop, the plague set in. First one, than two, than a dozen. And, that’s just the ones that went to the aid station.

Some say it was the non-potable ice water the Gatorade marinated in at the chow hall; others say it was from certain individuals not washing their hands, and some would even say it was food poisoning.

Whatever it was, myself and about 20-25 other Soldiers were out for the count for the past couple days. I haven’t felt this bad in years, but thankfully the docs here had some good medicine to make a world of difference. Goodbye locusts!!

So, that about sums up the past couple days for me. The weather here has been quite hot. We’ve been peaking at about 105 degrees during the day. At night, it settles around 80. Keep the Soldiers and civilians here at FOB Ramrod and throughout Afghanistan in your prayers. It’s not easy going out on patrol everyday in these temps — toting 50 plus pounds of body armor and gear — fighting an enemy that uses dirty tactics to undermine our efforts of re-building this country.

The elections are coming up in just less than two months and if the Taliban or Anti-Afghan Forces have anything to do with it, they’ll be trying to cause as much chaos and destruction leading up to the elections. Reports say more than 80 percent of the Afghan population disapprove of the Taliban, but they are too scared to stand up to them.
Hopefully this surge of military will prove to be the weed killer needed to help this country flourish in the right direction.