Playing Catch Up

This week song is a band with whom I know the lead singer. I've known this guy since middle school and although haven't talked to him in years we had plenty of talks and laughs about WWE during the attitude era. Sean Ulbert is the lead singer of The Eiffels, hopefully I can catch a show sometime soon.
13FEB-19FEB2015 Weather is warming up cooler temps seem to be gone surprisingly despite it being February still. Temps have hit the 80’s and I’ve packed away most of my cold weather gear hopefully I won’t need it for the rest of the time here. We had a “Say No To Valentine’s Day” BBQ at the hospital which was nice since they gave us the option to wear our civilian clothes to it, although I didn’t. Played some basketball ate some good bbq for what we had and they tried to create a mini rave with the glow sticks and EDM music. I left early because the USO was raffling off a GoPro but I didn’t win.

 Cards Card games are one of those universal things that can bring people together for laughs, good times, and camaraderie. After the raffle a bunch of the guys stayed and played this game called 13 for consequences. It is somewhat similar to pusoy dos, the other Filipino and I had to adjust but we picked it up quickly. It was a good way to wind down from a long week enjoying each other’s company and laughing so hard at times from the consequences that some people cried. Next day played poker with some of the guys and came out on top for some beer money in Germany.

 20FEB-23FEB2015 One of the techs in the pharmacy had one of the most tragic news you can receive out here on deployment with news of the passing of her husband in a car accident. Things happened so fast when the news broke out it felt surreal. I’ve worked side by side with this tech and grew to know her and her family. To see her world come down like that out here my heart goes out to her and her family. Prayers and thoughts are with them. Unfortunately there is no time to take a break here and the command did a great job of support, comfort and getting her out of here with the first flight available to the states. We lost 1/3 of our work force in the pharmacy but we were more than willing to pick it up. We are each other’s support and family out here and it was beautiful to see us send her off before she left.

That evening I was able to attend the G3 party where most of the Filipino workers reside. They have a party on the last Saturday of each month and it’s everything you would expect from Filipino hosts. Party trays of abundant food, disco dance type music you’d hear in the PI, and Titas telling you to eat more and more. You could tell it was Filipino cooked with the sweet sugary bbq flavor. Bingo at the boardwalk with the USO. Word got out that they had not 1 not 2 but 8 IPads to give out for prizes and boy were there a lot of people. I was worried we were going to be late from the G3 party but we had more than enough time since they gave out the smaller prizes first. I won playing loser bingo where everyone starts off standing if your number is called you have to sit down. 4-5 numbers in, none of my numbers were called surprisingly. It came down to 3 players a number was called and myself and another player sat. Guaranteeing 1 winner but there was a tie for 2nd myself and another player. We drew cards for the winner with the guy drawing a jack I drew a king!

 SECDEF

 Sunday I find out I was to have lunch with the Secretary of Defense of the United States. This guy is the top dog when it comes to Department of Defense decisions and where some of your taxpayer dollars go. Ashton Carter was just recently appointed and it was great to see him make his rounds out here thanking the troops and getting a gauge of what’s going on. It was a small intimate lunch to my surprise with 10 other troop members from all 4 branches. I got a coin out of it and an experience of a lifetime for a service member. While in the compound I saw the control center and wow is all I got to say. Probably some top secret stuff in there but let’s just say big brother of the area and I’m thankful for the people who man that.

31 and I’m not done.

My bday was just another day out here. I worked some people found out through Facebook and greeted me. By mistake I was nominated to meet the general of the base. I had met the SECDEF the day before and I think they mean to send someone else but I’m not complaining. Enjoyed a cigar with one of my buddies and called it a night early. In less than 48 hours they were able to send another pharmacy tech from Bagram to help us out. He’s part of the Air Force but the thing with the military Is we use the same programs so it was a smooth transition for him to come in an pick up where the other tech left off. Small world in that I know his cousin and some of my readers know her as Sheryl V. Since middle school I’ve known her and vividly remember when Bretiti dated her in 8th grade.

24FEB-04MAR2015 Business as usual in the beginning of this period put in some volunteer hours at the USO. I’m so close to 250 volunteer hours I hope to finish in the next 2 weeks or so. Weather has warmed up again and spring is right around the corner. The winter period is usually too cold for the bad guys out here that’s why it was fairly quiet for a period of time.

With the warmer temps and spring upon us this is usually when action starts to happen. Little over a month to go it’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out. This week we had some patients come in who were injured in operations. They were ANA’s (Afghan National Army “the good guys” on our side) and it still amazes me how fluidly our teamwork functions when things get stressful and lives are on the line. Although we went through a period of no combat related injuries *knocking on wood all the training just clicks and everybody does what is needed to get the job done. Our reliefs are in training exactly where we were and started 7 months back we look forward to their arrival but in the mean time Lima roto will finish strong!