October

While we were walking to the chow hall for "breakfast" (for most dinner) yesterday, I looked at my watch, double-checked the date, and asked my friend "It's October 10th...what happened to the last 10 days?" It still feels like we just arrived from leave, like we're still acclimating, still working our way into the schedule and groove, but we're already almost halfway through the month! It's surely not a reason to complain. There's definitely a powerful inertia pushing all of the gears and moving pieces that come with redeploying to the states...a momentum that keeps the days passing and time on our side.

October in Afghanistan means cooler weather, shorter days, jackets and hats and a pleasant crispness in the air. Minus the orange, yellow and red that normally dominate the landscape or the crunch that you hear as you walk on its leaves, it feels like October, like Fall, like change. We flew a few missions last night, and one of the missions involved an emergency resupply of water and food to an outpost on a mountain top. It was a chilly night (probably in the 30's), and we flew towards the grid, searching for a suitable landing area, only to see what looked to be white, fluffy caterpillars scattered across the ridgeline. Sure enough, the caterpillars were soldiers nestled into their sleeping bags, shielding themselves in a cocoon against the chilly mountain air. Although we "came bearing gifts," I felt like a Santa who makes a mess in the kitchen, tracks soot from the chimney, and forgets to close the door after leaving the house. I'm sure the wind chill from our rotor wash interrupted their sleep, and after trying to land our helicopter on the sloped, jagged terrain, we were forced to drop the supplies from a hover (like leaning over the sleigh, aiming for the chimney, and hoping for the best). In either case, the troops received their supplies and appreciated our help. Hopefully their time on the mountain is temporary.

There's definitely an excitement in the air towards going home. Guys are planning vacations, gearing up for changes in their careers and looking forward to the much anticipated reunion with family and loved ones. Of course, as a leader, you stress finishing strong, staying focused and resisting complacency - dotting i's and t's the same way we have for the past 10 months. There was a tactical expectation that things would have slowed down by now, that the enemy would start working its way back to the Pakistan border, that the fighting season would come to an end and the colder weather would freeze the aggressiveness that we'd experienced over the past few months. Of course, any scan of recent headlines begs to differ, and it's unacceptable to let an expectation or perception catch us on our heals. So for now, it's about leading by example, staying focused, squelching complacency, and driving hard towards the finish line. I think we'll be there in no time.

Back in Black

I finally arrived back to FOB Shank a few days ago, and it felt great to see the guys, catch up on their lives over the past month, and get back into the groove. The atmosphere in the company seemed to change a little bit while I was gone - probably stemming from a mass exodus of soldiers going on leave (myself included), a busy schedule and the countdown that many have started for our redeployment to the states. I spent the past few days playing administrative catch-up...writing evaluations and awards, attending meetings and trying my best to acclimate as quickly as possible. Tomorrow morning I'll give my lungs a test at the high altitudes during the Army 10-miler race. I managed to get 4 guys from the company to join me on the "Comanchero" team (I lured them into the race by offering to take them out for a steak dinner once we're back home). There's about 200 Soldiers from various units around the FOB running this satellite race, and I think it will be a fun, camaraderie filled event. I'll start flying in a few days (there's a required no-fly period after returning from leave); I'm looking forward to seeing things from the air again.

I received some great news upon arrival to Shank: orders to attend the Captain's Career Course at Fort Rucker in January. To sum it up in a few words, there's been a lot of discussion/concern for aviation officers in my year group trying to attend this course (which, after graduating, basically opens up your window for command). The deployment cycle over the past few years really constrained captains trying to attend the course, resulting in a huge backlog of prospective students. I graduated from college in 2006, and there's many officers, particularly in my brigade, who graduated in 2005 and still haven't attended. Obviously they receive precedence for a course date, and many of my year group officers were concerned that we wouldn't have an opportunity to attend the course before our next deployment (2011). This would place us behind our peers in career progression and really constrain those of us (like me) who hope to attend grad school after their company command. I joined many of my peers in voicing our concerns to Human Resource Command, but we always got the "we'll wait and see" or "hope for the best" response. I approached my command and explained the limits that it would place on my career progression if I didn't attend the course until 2012. I suggested, almost counterintuitively (and definitely wishfully) that I attend the course beginning in January. Most officers use the few months after returning from deployment to acclimate to their home with their families, but since I'm homeless and childless, I don't really have those constraints. Katie and I are flexible at this point, and my dog, Basil, will bark, howl, dig and whine regardless of my location.

So anyway, I left for leave with some frustrations and uncertainty about the next few years of my career, only to return with orders that honestly seemed too good to be true. It's amazing how things work out sometimes.

The other idea my friends (Ollie and Tyler) and I have been throwing around is trying to find a way to get more involved with the community once we're home. We organized a charity golf tournament last year, and we're planning on doing the same this spring. We're starting to piece together a pretty neat idea of using the money we raise to start a college prep service for Soldiers' and their college bound children at Fort Campbell. The service would be free, would basically focus on application prep, essay writing/review, and SAT preparatory classes. The funds from the golf tournament would be used to resource our services (mainly the SAT prep classes). I'm always helping people with essays and resumes, and I figured I (and my friends) have a great network of friends and families who are skilled writers and would love to jump on board to help. It'd be easy to delegate the workload (something as simple as sending a student's essay, via email, to a friend for review). We'll see what develops but I think it could make a positive, tangible difference for some people in our community.

Besides that, things are pretty much back to normal, with the same camaraderie and lightheartedness that make this place so bearable. It feels good to be back with the team as we make a strong sprint to the finish line and close out an important year in our lives.