The eagle has landed

Well sportsfans, I have finally arrived at my deployment location, pretty much an "undisclosed Southwestern Asia location." It is undisclosed because we are not really here. But we are, but we are not. Makes little sense I know, but its political.

Anyway, to my faithful three followers and my myriad of FB readers, first let me apologize for not posting recently, but the last several weeks prior to now and since my last has been filled with training in Wyoming, which was awesome, out processing and traveling. Actually it was pretty boring and exasperating and therefore really not worth mentioning.

SO, now I am here. First let me paint a picture of what it is like here. Imagine the air temperature about 110 degrees. Now throw in a nice stiff wind, not a breeze, but wind blowing on you constantly, making it feel even hotter. Its like walking, standing in front of a hair dryer. Do that for a while and you will understand. Looking around, its very flat. There are no mountaings, no hills, not nothing. Flat. Everything is tan. From the earth to the color of the buildings, its tan. It is actually weird what that can do to your vision. It makes colors so much more vibrant. But that is it, tan buildings, tan sand, tan everything. And its dry and humid all at the same time. We actually have a lot of humidity, but with the hot dry wind, they work together to take all of the moisture out of your body. There is really nothing like walking the mile to work and dying for a bottle of water, despite the fact that you drank an entire one during the trip!

But, with that all being said, I really cannot complain about the facilities. I live in a dorm that is actually great, just a step or two below how I live in Turkey. The only bad part is how far I am from my office. There are lots of places to do things and there is always something for us to eat. I can get anything I want. That is actually the best part of deployment, well that and the people, but more on that later. We have access to great food all the time, along with sodas and water and snacks. Pretty much anything we want. Along with that there is a movie theater playing 24 hours a day, and we have BXs and shops and the like. All we need. They do do a good job of taking care of that here. I guess its to make up for taking pretty much everything else away from us, like families and children. But for the most part, there is a sense of everyone dealing with it. We are all in the same boat and each of us is here to do what we can and get back as soon as we can. Its not like this is the first time we have been here. Many of the people here have been here at this location multiple times.

Ultimately, its the people who make or break a deployment. While the majority of it falls on our own individual shoulders. Coming here with a decent attitude and a willingness to get along with others and build those relationships will help us in the long run. We all come from different places with different experiences, but we all find ourselves in the same boat so to speak and well, no one likes the guy who rocks the boat. You can actually have a decent time here if you make friends and try to get along and help everyone out. Be a thorn in peoples side and you can find yourself with a long row to hoe by yourself.

I personally have a great group of people that I am working with. I get to see my old buddy Buzz again. We met at Camp Shelby in Mississippi a few years ago and deployed to the same location in Afghanistan. He is pretty much the yin to my yang and we make a good team. He is on the team ahead of us and has been here for a couple months now. He has given me a great deal of insight to how things are and has been very very helpful. I also got to meet others in the Combat Camera squadron along with another fellow PA type, Stacia Zachary. She has helped me tremendously too, getting me situated, up to speed and outfitted with gear. Her husband is in the Special Operations side of the AF and therefore, I could speak the language. Thanks to her, I have some contacts in the "Black" world now.

Well dear Readers, I leave you now with the beginning of my journey. There will more to read in the future, I can assure you. Thanks for going with me, I promise you that you will no regret it!