Post Easter

To the Followers:

room take 2

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looking back from my desk

Well a few days have passed and I figured I would update the blog. Well it is currently 2:45 am and I’m once again working the night shift. I will be working it for the next few months and so far it is pretty good I have no complaints. I am the only one up and have no NCO’s yelling at for random stuff that doesn’t involve me. So Easter was good here, well as good as it could be.  We had a nice Easter dinner with all the good dinner foods that Easter has to offer.  Got to talk to everyone on dad’s side of the fam but for SOMEEEE reason couldn’t talk to mom’s side haha even though I was on Skype at the time the designated haha. But what else well the other night I got to witness something pretty cool.  If you remember that I talked about one of the things we oversee here is new afghan units getting put together and standing up for the first time. Well once the new unit has completed there training here they roll out and go to their new home for the first time.  So the other night I had the pleasure of watching what seemed like hundreds of vehicles roll out of the gate to start their new mission.  It was pretty cool and it took hours for all the trucks to roll out and it was a sight to see.  If you could think of it this way, it’s like the 82 airborne division getting put together for the first time and rolling out.  Pretty sweet.  So what else.  The other unit finally left so were in full control of the base now and it’s a pretty good feeling to see that Afghans finally getting their country back together. And it is happening contrary to popular beliefs. It’s the first time people have legitimate jobs and they are happy to work, most of them, yes there is a percent that is still bad but we are steadily eliminating that percent. Oh I think I found out the reason ford didn’t go under in the auto collapse. It is because all the police and army here have brand new Ford Rangers and I’m talking like hundreds here and that’s just at our base. I can’t imagine everywhere else. Again most of my entries to my blogs are all thoughts that come into my head and I write them down and I know some people are laughing but hey it works for me.  So also we have a new cammo specifically for Afghanistan that you won’t see anywhere else. They say it helps blend more to the environment and I agree but we are accountable for it and I think all together all the cloths and gear that was assigned to us was over 5,000 $ so ya and god forbid something gets lost they will take it out of ur next pay check but when you are due a promotion or you need a helmet for your safety they will drag their feet on that as long as they want.  So if you looked at any military picture of a normal solider back in WW2 or Vietnam you would usually see a pack of lucky strikes in there helmet band and my friend Kevin gave me a pack to keep the tradition going, mind you I don’t smoke at all but it was a good jester and I have already gotten comments on it from everyone and a few officers here and one of them stopped me and Said  “soldier …hey hold up a second, ….me : yes sir?....Him: do you know you have a pack of lucky strikes in your helmet? Me:  why yes sir, is it a problem I can take them out if you want?....Him: No absoluty not, PFC you are to keep them on ur helmet all deployment, that is got to be the coolest thing I have seen since I have been in country, 3 times!! Way to represent the soldiers before us, carry on. Me:  Roger sir will do” that was one of the highlights so far of being on Blackhorse. So I don’t have my mini fridge yet but I can’t wait to store all the “Rip its” in it when I do. It’s the army’s version of a Red Bull and it helps me get thus the long nights, but you can only get them on Fridays so I have to be tactical about getting as much as I can.  Well this about raps on this post, I have a lot of work to get done tonight.  Two eyes one mouth,

PFC  LATINO , next time I post I should be addressing you as SPC LATINO

An update from the front

a pic of my new living quarters

a look towards the mountians

the sign says it all

some tanks the afghan army uses rolling in

Well its currently 12:05 am, a wonderful Monday morning here at camp Blackhorse and I’m working the graveyard shift, 8pm- 8am sweeeeeetttt! Not really though, just as I got into the time difference here they say oh hey your working overnights for a few months!! So gahhh, well gotta do what ya gotta do any since I’m not an NCO well I don’t make the decisions I just follow them. So well were getting our self’s established at our new home and everything is going pretty well.  Were a base with in a base, surrounding us is an afghan army base and its purpose is to bring in just out of basic afghan soldiers train them up more so they can stand up a new battalion and serve in the afgan army. Its pretty neat were the only base in Afghanistan that does that so its pretty cool to see newly formed afghan battalion’s roll out for the first time and go to destinations around the country. I am just going from thought to thought so if this blog seems random it is. and I know someone specific is laughing at me right now but hey I need a way to stay awake tonight and this is one way to do it….. so the DFAC is nice as well and if u don’t know what at DFAC is, it is a dining facility and by the time I’m out of here all of you will know a lot of military lingo. So the DFAC is open 24/7 im pretty pumped about that and one of the best things they have after lunch and dinner is Ben & jerrys ice cream, it is a little slice of heaven, because we are a small base we don’t have all the enmities that bigger bases do like subway or pizza hut but I think that’s a good thing because I don’t need that stuff anyway. My only real expense at this point is the internet. But at the price I pay for it, it could be faster but ill live. I live in a 4 man room but it is sectioned off so I have my own little space I would say its 5x10 maybe? I’ll try to put up a picture or two. Have a closet and a desk with 220 power so I have a converter to bring it to 110 to run all my electronics. I still find myself checking my phone in the morning because I’m so used to doing it at home but I still don’t have any new messages or missed calls haha.  But I think it’s time to watch a movie and research my dream vacation to keep me busy, 

Until next time,

Nick

The journy to Afghanistan

So now that I have slow Internet that I currently pay 80 dollars a month for (and that's the cheapest one) I can finally report to you how i am doing and how I finally got to Camp Blackhorse. for starters we left from Fort Hood Texas and as they say it is the only place that will make you WanT to deploy to Afghanistan. Well i can put that myth to the test: TRUE. it was fun while it lasted but we had enough of that place! For starters chicken every day gets pretty annoying after 50+ days there. And the 100 man bays didn't help either, and i rather not talk about the bathroom faculties. But i digress; yes we left in the afternoon and flew to Maine where i got to make some phone calls to my family and wonderful girlfriend. After a quick hr refueling stop there it was off to Germany!. About an 8 hr flight and my time zones later we landed in Leipzig! Could i tell you where it was in Germany? No but i was there and it was cool! i think it was in the morning that we landed if I'm not mistaken. From there about an hour later we lifted off again this time to Kyrgyzstan. Honestly can you be real for a second? Have you ever heard of Kyrgyzstan? Because i never have before but hey the army pays for my travels so I’ll go where they need me to. We landed at about midnight at Manas air transit center i believe it was called and it was really nice to know we were going to spend 2 nights there and get some actual sleep until i stepped off the plane. The first thing that hit me was the smell of something burning in the air, like a constant fire burning wood and trash. I was partly right, about the trash part. Not the wood. Apparently a lot of countries in the Middle East just burn there trash and it’s pretty disgusting. anyway from that point we stayed in about 50 man tents for that night and then another, not much going on just getting our body armor checked out and waiting for our flights. But the whole waking up at 3 am thing was not fun because it was really like 2 in the afternoon back in the states. From there we loaded up the entire company on a C-17 which is an air force plane. Anybody from western mass might know, there a bit smaller than the planes at westover that fly over your house all the time. It was a two hour flight a KIA, Kabul International Airport. Once we got there reality still hadn't really set in yet until we had to convoy our 10 people to Blackhorse. Getting in a convoy for the first time in a war zone is pretty nerve racking even if they said "this area is safe" let’s be honest war is not safe no matter what. As we drove i sat as close to up front as i could to get a look around. It was not a good site. Exactly what a third world country you would imagine looking like looks like. Rundown buildings, people everywhere on the streets, just pretty bad so we have it really well in the states. After a few miles we safely got to Blackhorse and it is a camp with in a camp, of many camps. We run the entire base but surrounded by us is units from all different countries, like Bulgaria, the turks, Spain, Canadians, and much more. That is our main mission at blackhorse, to run the base, think a small town; we are the mayors of a small town and have all types of responsibilities. But again i digress, it is time to stop writing and take a break for a bit i will try to put some pictures up with this post.....the pictures with this post were taken on the way to blackhorse. none were taken in country.  Until next time,
PFC Latino

4 days left until we hop the pond

This is the 1st post of many that i am going to put up on this site. it is my first time and i literaly just started this site about 5 minutes ago so this wont be long. it has been a long MOB here at Fort Hood, TX and i think its the only place that will make you want to go to Afghanistan as a very wise man once told me. we just had a cook out and some how mccarthy, king, fuller and I ended up serving the company, it was cool tho because it was very relaxing and we all had a good time. now I'm back relaxing in the bay and about ready to get to chow. the 5 min warning just sounded so it looks like I'm going to wrap this up and head there and see how this comes out. until next time. Two eyes one mouth:

Nick Latino