Leaving Afghanistan Behind

I am writing this week's email from Al Udeid Air Field in Qatar. I wrote an email to my family talking about what the process for leaving the country was like so I am going to include that below and then take up the story where I left off. Enjoy. . . . .

Let me spin you a yarn about what it is like to try and get out of Afghanistan. You may want to watch the show "Not Without My Daughter" for reference material! The military is enormous and has more employees than any other agency in the world. They do a lot of things well but coordination of things other than tactical missions is not one of them. The primary reason for this is that they put someone in charge of something and by the time they get good at it they move on to something else. The systems they have in place are anything but seamless and lots of things fall through the cracks. That being said let me walk you through the process as I have experienced it . . .

Step 1: Receive an email telling you to report to a meeting at 1800 hours an some particular day.

Step2: Attend said meeting. During this meeting you are told whether or not you have been 'hard frag'd' which means your name appears on the flight manifest. If your name shows up then you are told to come back 4 hours later at 2200 to find out when you go on lock down, they literally lock you in a room until the flight leaves. Usually starts about 3 hours before the flight is scheduled to take off. The first time I went to this meeting my name did not appear on the list and so I was told to come back the next day (today) at 1800 and try again.

Step 3: Get 'frag'd'. So the next day I showed up and my name was on the list and I was told to come back at 2200 to get flight information. The conference room where these meetings take place has no A/C and it is over 90 degrees in there. At 2200 we waited for about ten minutes in the sweltering heat just to have the person come in and tell us that they needed us to come back in a half hour. 30 minutes later we all came back and after sitting in there for another 10 minutes they came in and said come back in an hour. Finally an hour later we had our information. I have been told to report with my bags at the terminal at 1115 local time tomorrow. That probably means that I will be flying out of here by 3pm (1500). That being said they cancelled two flights that were suppose to leave earlier today for one reason or another so nothing is guaranteed . . . ever!

...............................................End of previous email.....................................................

I was able to make it to my last church meeting in Afghanistan and say goodbye to some of the friends that I had made there. I packed up all of my belongings and the stuff I was issued like my hazmat gear and bullet proof vest and helmet. One of my bags weighed over 80 pounds. I threw away my sheets and extra pillows and waited for the bus to pick me and the 5 other hospital staff that were slotted to leave that day up. The bus showed up and a small crew loaded our bags and we jumped on and started to roll. The hospital commander came out and stopped the bus so that he could shake each of our hands and thank us for what we had done. When he got off he joined about thirty people that lined the street and they all saluted as we pulled away. It was a pretty stirring moment.

The bus took us to the PAX terminal where we moved our bags into a temporary holding tent and then waited for the terminal staff to approve us for flight. Approval came through about fifteen minutes later and we had to take our bags to customs so that they could be scanned and searched. All together there were to be 142 people on our flight with a total of 450 bags to be scanned. This process was as tedious as it sounds and took until 3pm. After our bags were scanned and searched we went on lockdown in one of the terminal waiting rooms. We sat there for 40 minutes and then made our way on foot out to the tarmac. They then had us form up in six columns. Once formed up we walked on the flight line for about a quarter mile to where our C-17 was waiting for us. We were put on the plane one column at a time. On a C-17 not all seats are created equal. There are seats along both sides of the aircraft and then seats in the middle. The middle seats are incredibly uncomfortable and cramped with zero leg room for anyone over 5 feet tall. I was blessed to get the very last side seat on the plane which had ample leg room. I felt a momentary pang of guilt when one of the surgeons who is 6'5" walked past me to his seat in the middle but then it went away. It is incredibly loud on the plane so ear plugs were passed around. We took off and flew the 3.5 hours to Qatar. We arrived at about 7:30pm. From there we got on buses that took us to the Qatari airport where we immigrated into the country. Our bags were searched and then we started the in-processing procedures. After three hours of in-processing I had filled out all of my paperwork and returned my Hazmat gear, cold weather gear and body armor. Once that was done we boarded another bus with my considerably lighter bags. We drove onto Al Udeid Air Field and spent another two hours in-processing the base getting our 'room' assignments and being issued linen. When all that was done we went to our barracks which are just huge buildings with wall to wall bunk beds. We made our beds and headed out to get some food. While searching for sustenance we ran into a group of our cohorts that had left the day before and they showed us around. Al Udeid or 'The Deid' is not a dry base like Bagram was and so each person is allowed three adult beverages per day. People knowing that I am LDS sought to stake claim to my three drinks but I told them that I wasn't willing to part with them as I had signed an agreement as part of the in-processing deal that said I wouldn't do what they wanted me to. For the most part they understood, sort of.

In the dark Qatar looked a lot like Bagram in that it was dry with sparse vegetation. However this morning when I woke up and went outside at 6am the sun was already so bright it hurt your eyes to even open them. You couldn't squint enough to make it bearable. Compared to Qatar, Bagram is like the Garden of Eden. There is no vegetation except where the A/C units drip condensation outside of each building where a small patch of nasty looking desert weeds spring up. The ground is cover with white gravel and sand. It has gotten up to 116 degrees here in the last week. There is a swimming pool but the heat is so oppressive that most people just sit under these huge pavilions. Qatar is totally safe with zero threat of rocket or mortar attack. If you die here it is likely going to be from dehydration or heat stroke. That being said it is good to have made this preliminary step toward going home. For us Al Udeid is a staging area where we await transport to Germany and then home. You never really know how long you will be here so you just try to make the best of it while you are here. Since I have been on nights I am awake during the night time which makes it much more bearable and will facilitate my transition back to San Antonio time. I will be home by Mother's Day for sure which also happens to be my oldest son's birthday.

That should bring you all up to speed on what is going on in my life. My last email should be written from my own home! Thanks for everything.

Getting Closer to Coming to America

I am happy to say that this may be one of the last Sunday emails that I write from Afghanistan.  My friend Brian Landreth welcomed his replacement to Bagram about 12 days ago and is just leaving today so I may have a similar experience but at least for now I am cautiously optimistic.  This week has been totally nuts.  You may have heard about some of the stuff going on in nearby Kabul where 3 American physicians were killed and another 10 or so people were injured.  The shooter was one of the Afghan soldiers we have been training.  He turned the gun on himself but only managed to shoot half of his face off.  I am not sure where he is now.  We were supposed to get some of the trauma from that shooting but they all ended up going somewhere else.  A couple of days before that shooting in Kabul there was a mortar that landed pretty close to the hospital near one of the dining facilities.  It was well timed because the area was pretty crowded at the time and the explosion killed 3 contractors and injured another 8.   We were busy in the OR all night stabilizing the injured.  It was the first time since Thanksgiving that we have seen injuries from rocket attacks on base.  It was unclear whether the C-RAM shot the mortar and it was the shrapnel that cause the injuries or if the C-RAM missed. We were told earlier in the week that intel suggested that the Taliban forces were striving to make a statement following the elections and recent incoming trauma cases certainly validate the intel.

I hesitate to proceed with my next little commentary not wanting to disrespect the lives that were lost in the bombing earlier this week but I feel there is an important lesson for us all in what happened.  On base we have a large mixture of active duty, guard and reserve military as well as civilian contractors and DoD civilians.  All of us are taught to hit the ground when you hear the ‘incoming’ alarm sounding across the base.  There have been many occasions when walking outside that the alarm would go off and all the military people hit the ground but everyone else just keeps walking and sometimes pointing and laughing at those of us on the ground.  It must look pretty ridiculous.  On the night of the attack the alarm went off seconds before impact but not one of the three individuals that were killed got on the ground.  Some of the non-fatal injured had gotten down and it was because of that that they survived.  The morals of this story are many but one I wish to mention is to heed the warnings you have received.  Listen!  Warnings will come before attacks and though we may experience pain and possible injury we will survive if we heed the warnings and take cover. 

It is nearly time to turn things over to the day shift folks.  My replacement will be here by the time I wake back up tonight.  Yeehaw!  Thank you to all who pray for me and for my family.  Please take the time if you can spare it today or tomorrow to call my sweet Cami and wish her a happy birthday (the 28^th officially).  I love you all.

The Marathon

Well the big news of the week is the marathon.  Seven weeks ago we found out that the Boston Athletic Association was going to put on an official Boston Marathon Shadow Race for us.  With only seven weeks to train only five of us from the OR signed up.  I followed a modified training schedule but had to continually ice my foot that has been giving me trouble.  I will spare you the details of my gastrointestinal problems associated with long training runs but suffice it to say if you need more info on the subject Google ‘runner’s trots’.  I felt like I was more prepared for this marathon than for either of the other two I have done, which is not really saying too much.

At 2:30 am on April 18^th three out of the five of us that signed up made our way to the starting line.  The other two had to regrettably fallout due to injuries or illness.  I had learned from past bad experience not to change anything on the day of a big race.  Many a blistered foot cursed the new pair of shoes saved for race day.  I was dressed in the Air Force PT shirt and shorts that I had trained in but was required to wear a reflective belt which I had not trained with.  We joined all 600 runners in a gym called the clamshell and received our safety briefing.  The safety brief was the usual war time race spiel about what to do if a rocket hit etc.  We had a group prayer and then lined up at the starting gate.  In preparing to run for four hours I had borrowed an arm band to hold my iPod so that I could listen to the book I have been using to distract my mind during these voluntary torture sessions.  A fire truck honked its horn three times holding the last blast to let us know it was time to go.  The race had begun.  The course was comprised of two 13.1 mile loops which crossed over the end of the flight line and traversed the entire base.  The first hour was quite enjoyable.  It was dark and cool with a very light breeze.  There was lighting rolling around in the far distance illuminating the clouds above.  I felt really good and was maintaining a pretty quick pace.  I had made a goal to finish in less than four hours but knew that if I didn’t make it I would still be just as happy to finish.  Every two miles there were water and Gatorade stations with lots of volunteers to cheer you on.  There were medical aid stations at 5 mile intervals. The medics would come right up to your face to see how you were doing.  By about mile 14 I was beginning to be acutely aware of my mortality as my hips and knees started to burn.  My feet felt like they were swelling up and filling my loosely tied shoes.  As I reported a while back, I had done my 20 mile training run mostly on a treadmill.  I ran the initial 7 miles on the treadmill then ran on the road for 6 miles and came back to the treadmill and finished off with another seven miles.  By the time I hit 20 miles during the actual race it became evident that miles on the treadmill are easier on your body than are miles on the pavement.  Exhaustion threatened to claim me at about mile 23.  My heart and lungs felt great but my poor joints were pretty unhappy.  There were different places on the course where you would get a different colored rubber band to prevent people from cheating (which I may have done given the opportunity—not really!).  As you would come to a checkpoint there would be tons of people there shouting encouragement.  I was very impressed that other runners on the course who looked worse off than me would also take the time to encourage each other on.  By the end it was not your body carrying toward the finish line but your stubborn will.  I crossed the finish line at 3:46:49.  As I crossed the finish a volunteer placed my medal around my head and another volunteer had me walk with her so she could decide if I needed medical attention or not.  I guess I passed the test because she let me go back to the clamshell where the morning had started and have pictures taken and eat and drink.  Official certificates were printed out showing our times and when I went to pick mine up the time had been put in wrong but the poor guy submitting the information looked so frazzled I didn’t have the heart to ask him to fix it. 

After it was over I stretched out and waited for my other OR friends to finish.  When they were all safely across the finish line, we took some pictures together and then I went back to the hospital to shower.  It wasn’t until the water touched my skin that I realized I had some fairly significant chaffing in some fairly significant locations.  Once I was clean and dressed I made my way back to my dorm room and got into bed at about 9am.  I must have had some significant adrenaline reserves because my temporal arteries were pounding away making it pretty uncomfortable to lie on my sides.  So for five hours I lay awake staring at the underside of the bunk above me and thought about the race I had just finished.  It was hard and exhausting but I had done it.  I felt good about the accomplishment and realized that there is great satisfaction in doing hard things.  Easy things don’t ever make you feel like that.  You never finish a 3 minute workout consisting of 3 pushups with a minute of rest after each one and have that sense of self-mastery.  Our desire to do better and be better than we were yesterday will be evident in the pace at which we each run this race of life.  It sounds cheesy but it is true.  The difference between an ultra marathoner and a couch potato is desire.

Well that story sort of took all the time I have tonight.  My replacement gets here in a week but I have learned not to get too excited about any particular date so at this point I can’t say when I will be leaving Afghanistan.  I love you all and think of you often.  Have a great week.

Six Months Away From Home

My apologies for my email silence over the last two weeks.  Things have been picking up as the warmer weather approaches.  We continue to have consistent mortar attacks but fortunately they have not resulted in any human casualties.  We have a defense system called Counter - Rocket, Artillery and Mortar gun or C-RAMs that are stationed near the outside walls.  As I understand it they are linked in to the radar system and when an incoming rocket, mortar or other artillery shell is picked up it identifies the object and sends 75 20mm highly explosive rounds a second at the target blowing them out of the sky before they can do any damage.  The C-RAMs have a purported 80% efficacy against rockets.  Our system was not functional when I first arrived here but it is working now.  About ten minutes ago I heard the ‘incoming’ alarm and then heard the very distinctive sound of the C-RAM letting loose.  It must have been the C-RAM closest to the hospital because it shook the walls of the break room for about 5 seconds.  I am guessing that the target was destroyed because shortly after we go the ‘all clear’.   I am sure there is a YouTube video out there of what this sounds like but if you hear it once you’ll never forget it.  I for one am grateful for technology like this. 

It is easy to remember that you are at war when almost daily you see the casualties of the fight or hear things like the C-RAMs that let you know that the enemy is always out there waiting for you to let down your guard.  I see many potential analogies to our spiritual lives and the war that we are fighting every day against the darkness and evil of this world.  Unfortunately Satan is a much stealthier opponent than is the Taliban.  He has millennia of experience and specializes in distraction so that nearly all of his targets forget that there is even a war taking place.  He distracts our attention with worldly attainment and success leading us slowly but consistently away from the real purpose of our mortality.  God has given us things like the C-RAMs, weapons with which to ward off the fiery darts of the adversary but unlike the C-RAM God’s tools are 100% effective when appropriately used.  Our C-RAMs are mounted on huge watch towers that overlook the concrete barriers that form the perimeter wall.  Centuries are posted on the watch towers to warn of enemy movement.  We had an incredible opportunity to hear from the watchmen God has given us last week in General Conference.  I hope that we all realize what an incredible gift it is to have living prophets who warn of the enemy’s movements and what we need to do to stay safe.  The scriptures contain the words of the watchmen of the past and their words apply to us as much now as when they were originally spoken.  As we heed the words of the prophets both ancient and modern we will feel the spirit in our lives guiding us on our individual missions to build the kingdom of God and prepare the world for the return of Jesus Christ.  Most importantly the spirit allows you to see through the fog and Siren’s song of Satan so that you can steer your course through the obstacles he will throw up in your way.

I don’t have a lot of time right now but wanted to get this email out even if it is short.  I want to end with something someone said in church last week that I have been thinking a lot about.  It is this, “We need to minimize the gap between what we believe and what we do.”  This is not a time for fence sitting or being lukewarm (Revelations 3:16).  We are at war our spiritual lives are threatened every day and we would do well to remember as we awake each day that all is not well in Zion. Start each day by putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).  Never do anything that would cause you to lose the sword of the spirit as it is the only weapon you have to actively fight against Satan’s power.  I have great hope for the future because I know in whom I have trusted.  Have a great week one and all.  

Real C-RAM

The previous Bishop of our ward (or church congregation), Bishop Troy Mitchell, sent Brett a pecan pie from a famously good restaurant in Galveston, TX. Brett said it was the most amazing pecan pie he's ever had and he ate almost 1/2 of it himself!!! Thannks, Bishop!!!!

Learning to Be Still

Well hopefully you all agree with Gary Gnu in that “no gnu-s is good gnu-s” because this week has been fairly uneventful.  I did run my longest training run on Friday which was a total of 20 miles.  One of the nurses in the OR is training for the marathon too and ran 20 miles on a treadmill (she calls it the dreadmill, wonder why after 20 miles).  I however with my attention deficit problems can’t stare at the inside of a tent for that long and so I had to break it up.  I ran 7 miles on the treadmill then went outside to run on the main road that follows the flight line.  It is called Disney Drive named for a fallen soldier.  It is a three mile road so I ran it twice and then got back on the treadmill and did another 7 miles.  All in all it took me just under three hours to do 20 miles which puts me on target to finish the race in less than four hours.  I don’t know about the rest of you runners out there but if I am doing anything over about ten miles I have to pre-medicate with some Imodium or else I get into big trouble at about mile 18, must be something in the constant bouncing of my innards. Disney used to represent the ‘happiest place on earth’ but now I just associate it with bubble gut. 

Enough about my gastrointestinal distress, moving on to a different tragedy, my laptop bit the dust.  I actually purchased a new laptop to bring out here before my better sense (named Cami) kicked in and I took it back and brought my oldie but goody.    There are certain things you cannot do on government computers like access personal blogs.  You can however get on Facebook which I don’t really understand but that is not relevant.  Anyhow, I used my laptop each week to update my blog and write my emails.  In the anesthesia office there is a set of bunk beds that we use as shelves and storage for anything we don’t have a place for.  A co-worker and I keep our laptops plugged in and charging on the bed and have for the last five months.  Thursday night when I got in to work the girl that keeps her computer by mine said, “I have got to show you something.”  She picks up her MacBook and opens it to reveal a shattered screen.  There was a round indentation on the top of her computer where a bowling ball or helmet with 40 pounds of bullet proof vest on top of it bashed it in.  I went over to my computer and opened it up.  The screen was intact but there was a popping feel to it when I lifted the screen.  I pushed the power button got a weak blue flash before it flat lined never to stir again.  On closer inspection the same blunt force trauma that shattered the computer screen hit the back half of my laptop and severed the power connections so it will not charge or recognize it is plugged in.  Luckily I backed up the whole thing before coming here so nothing was really lost.  No one has yet confessed to doing it. 

On a more exciting note I shipped my last box home this past week.  I packaged up everything that I don’t think I will be needing, including my laptop’s battered carcass, some clothes, books, souvenirs and other miscellaneous junk and sent all 57 pounds of it home.  The motto here is ‘you pack it you carry it’ so we all try to pack as little as possible.  It is one of those milestones on the road to going home so I was excited to send it off.  Today we also had our squadron medal presentation ceremony and re-deployment party.  I was awarded the NATO medal and the Afghan Campaign medal along with everyone else that came here.  They pin a medal on you, you salute then march down a line and then they take it away from you to pin on the next group.  If you want to keep it you have to buy it, budget cuts I guess.

Well that is about as much news as I have for you.  As per tradition I will end by sharing a brief thought that has been swirling around in my mind.  After last week’s lesson on Noah and listening to a book about the end of days (The Great and Terrible for those interested) I have been thinking a lot about how hard it is to really tune in to the spirit to receive guidance and comfort in this crazy, loud, obnoxious, hectic world of ours.  I think often in terms of my children and all that they have going on and how much more they will need to learn to master the art of listening to the still small voice.  As I have been thinking about this a line of scripture repeated in Psalms 46:10 and D&C 101:16 kept coming into my mind. 

‘Be still and know that I am God.’

This small but profound idea is the answer to keeping ourselves tuned to the Spirit.  Years ago I started a habit that has helped me to put this into practice.  Driving home from work I used to listen to talk radio or music.  I found that often I would get worked up listening to Glen Beck talk about the government or Dr Laura chastising a young man for getting married too young (inside joke).  One day I just turned it off.  At first I would just drive and enjoy the quiet.  After that I started to go through my day in my mind and put things in their proper places so when I got home I felt more engaged in what I was doing there.  After that my thoughts turned into prayer;  a report to God on my day, thoughts about how to do better, how to be a better husband, how to be a better father, employee, scoutmaster, whatever.  I would feel the spirit whisper to my mind in those quiet moments in the car and I would get home filled with love and joy. 

                Distraction is one of Satan’s most powerful tools.  It is not a sin to be super busy and involved so it is easy to ensnare the righteous in the ‘thick of thin things’ as President Monson put it.  It is easy to be rushing from sun up to sun down getting in a quick scripture study here and a hurried prayer there.  Take the time to be still. Why is pondering mentioned so often in the scriptures?  Take the time to be still and quiet, to listen.  Who says your nightly prayer has to be offered right before you jump into bed exhausted?  Pray hours before you plan to sleep.  Lie in bed and be still.  Turn off the radio when driving alone.  Learn to take time to be still.  Don’t fall into the trap of distraction. So much of life is illusion, smoke and mirrors meant to draw our minds away from its true purpose.  When you take the time to be still it is then you will know that He is God!

                I hope you all have a glorious week.  Thanks for everything!

Here are some pictures for the week:

This is a picture of the flooding Brett mentioned a few posts back! Pretty crazy!

Our cute niece, Michelle, and  her 4th grad class all sent Brett some cards! Isn't that the coolest thing!!!?

Brett's running route in Bagram! Pretty good pace, there!

The crew training for the marathon

Another Week

As another week closes and another begins I once again find myself typing another email.  When I first sit down I typically think that nothing noteworthy happened during the week but after thinking about it a while I remember little stories or insights I had that helped my perspective. 

This past week I talked to several family members at home that asked me how I feel about our being here in Afghanistan and if I thought that we were doing any good.  I have been asked that a lot.  It is a difficult question without a straight-forward answer.  My personal opinion is that yes, we are doing good here.  I believe that fundamentally our goal as the United States of America is to improve the lives of those we help.  Throughout history, with the possible exceptions of the Revolutionary War and our response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we have fought for the freedom of others. Despite incomprehensible costs measured in dollars and lives we have entered the fray to stop tyranny, slavery, genocide, and oppression of all kinds.  Many will say that the US only sticks its nose in other countries’ business if we stand to benefit from the outcome but while to a small degree this may be true for the most part we fight for the defenseless and come to the aid of those who are unable to help themselves.  Particularly for those of us with boots on the ground there is no other motivation than to offer up all that we have and are capable of giving.

I believe that many of the people here want the freedoms that they hear about but could not imagine how democracy would work in a land so steeped in tradition.  We have put a lot of effort into training the Afghan National Army and police forces but have seen that when left to themselves these forces abuses their power and become something like a mafia, supporting those who pad their pockets, walking through markets taking what they want and threatening or in some cases shooting those that oppose them.  I don’t know what the right answers are.  I have seen individual lives changed dramatically for the better through our presence here but when it comes to effecting lasting change in this country I am not sure that is a prize we can win.  There are many reasons why I say that.  The lack of education and natural resources make it incredibly difficult to set up any kind of stable infrastructure.  There isn’t any oil. The land is arid and mountainous.  For hundreds of years the only cash crop they have had success with is the opium poppy which is purchased primarily by those that support the terrorist cause with the money they make. 

The people generally are good-hearted and kind.  They are satisfied with so little of what the world offers.  Their existence is about daily survival.  Death is something with which each person is intimately acquainted.   Their lives are so tenuous and fragile that they have no extra energy to pursue democracy.  Many of the local village leaders have reported how much better their lives have been since we arrived but they have also said, “But you will leave us and then it will go back to the way it was before.”  Afghanistan has a long history if occupation and abandonment, its people have little confidence in the world’s concern for them.    So while I think we are going good, we are making things better and safer, we will eventually leave and when we do the rats come out of their hidey-holes and the infestation begins again.  A few armed men can easily take over a village of hundreds of unarmed simple farmers.  Many will be slaughtered for accepting help from or supporting the United States.  It is the way things work around here and the way it has been for thousands of years, I don’t think our 14 or 15 years in the area is going to fix that. 

That being said let me move on to some of the events of the week.  With all of the flooding recently the septic tanks in the dorms backed up flooding the ground floor with raw smelly sewage.  When the dorms were designed the male dorms in an act of chivalry were placed on the second floor so they would take the worst of a rocket blast were it to take a direct hit.  However, being on the second floor has had its advantages this week!  On Tuesday we had a couple of traumas come in.  The guys looked pretty good externally, some minor cuts and bruises.  Their MRAP had been blasted by a roadside bomb.  The vehicle took most of the damage but the blast wave obliterated the jaw of one of the soldiers who must have clenched his teeth as the bomb went off.  The other soldier had a burst fracture in his low thoracic spine from the incredible upward force of the blast.  He is paralyzed from the waist down.  The next day we got two more trauma patients that were attached with a vehicle born IED.  They were both in the local police station when they saw a vehicle coming straight for them.  One guy was at the window when it exploded and got a face full of glass which penetrated both of his eyes, blinding him.  Another man was on the second floor and when he saw the vehicle he jumped out of a second story window landing on his left leg.  He also broke his back and is paralyzed. 

Aside from the trauma we have seen, I had an active duty kid come in with half a chicken breast stuck in his esophagus.  He said he could feel it there but it just wouldn’t go down.  One of the GI docs took a scope and ran it down there to take a look.  Sure enough there was a half chewed chicken breast just sitting there.  He had to pull it out a tiny piece at a time.  It was pretty disgusting.  The moral of that story is to chew your food. 

Today at church we were talking about Noah and living in the world without being of the world.  I was reminded of an analogy that a former stake president had made using the instructions the Lord gave Noah on how to prepare the ark. After the ark was built the Lord commanded Noah to cover the outside and inside with pitch (tar).  This would seal the wood ensuring that the water would not be in direct contact with the wood.   Wood, no matter how strong, when soaked in water becomes soft and easily warped.  The ark had to be able to be surrounded by water and to be able to withstand the effects of the water on the wood.  The pitch served as a protective barrier sealing all of the cracks so that the boat could survive unharmed in the watery environment.  We, like the ark, have to live in the world floating amid the filth, vulgarity, immorality, evil and hate that it generates.  If we are sealed up we can navigate the waters of life unchanged by the buffeting waves of worldly water.  However, if we allow the cracks to let the water in, our strength begins to fail and little by little we become warped by the influences of our surroundings.  This process can be almost imperceptibly slow. Like the Trojan Horse that finds its way inside the heart of the city, the influences of the world that make their way through the unsealed cracks can have catastrophic effects upon our eternal progress.  To seal ourselves His we must do those small and simple things that day to day seem so insignificant but when accumulated over a lifetime form a thick protective coating from the influences of the adversary.  Temple attendance, Sabbath observance, Family Home Evening, Home and Visiting Teaching, meaningful personal and family prayer, personal scripture study, and service are the things that together keep us on the straight and narrow path and pressing forward toward Christ.  It isn’t rocket science, as Alma said,

O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. Alma 37:46

I hope that your week ahead is full of light and that you enjoy your life and view each day as a precious gift from God.  I love you!

March Madness

This is the photo of our group which is all the people who work at Craig Joint Theater Hospital.  

This is a picture of all of the OR crew.

The night shift crew.

Me and Stacy, both CRNAs at SAMMC.

Moving a Blackhawk with a John Deere

This is the muddy path to the North DFAC where we eat breakfast in the mornings.  This shows how the dust turns to mud when it is wet.

Singing in the rain.

The horrible ice bath.

This is my brave face that I wear while soaking my foot.

The elevation of the RICE formula.

Back to the workroom.  Foot healed I ran 14 miles on that treadmill.

Afghans don't make kidney stones they make kidney boulders.  This is an example.  The kidney has to be cut open to get them out.

One night the OR nurses swapped roles with the techs.  This is Freisen driving the laproscope.

Capt Gabucan scrubbing in.

Landreth turning over one of the ORs.  Such a dedicated dude!

We play a lot of cards at night.  I have learned to play Nerts and Rummy.

Sometime playing cards with a bunch of people on high protein diets has smelly side effects.

Some of the crew playing Texas Hold 'em or whatever that is called.

I can't really believe that it is already time to write another email.  Time is plugging right along.  Today (17th in Afghanistan) marks 5 months in country.  I have started to receive information on my redeployment which to the normal person sounds like getting deployed again, re-deployment, but in the military that it is what they call going home.  We have checklists for everything.  When I got here I was handed a checklist and told that I would be strung up by my big toes if I didn't complete it in a timely manner.  Once the threats were over I talked to others that had been here longer and they ALL said "Ahh, I still have mine, they won't ever ask you for it. What are they going to do, send you home?"  However everyone completes the re-deployment checklist because they have no qualms about keeping you here another two weeks to let you think about what you should have done.  I won't get my checklist for another four weeks but I have been getting emails about it so I am moving in the right direction.  There are all kinds of meetings and briefings we have to go through with Combat Stress and the Chaplain's Office to make sure that we are mentally OK to go home.  We have to stop in Germany for a three day decompression group therapy session before they put us on a plane to fly home.  As of now, and this is all subject to change with or without informing me, my replacement gets here on April 28th.  We are required to have 4 days together for training purposes.  At that point we are placed on a list to get shipped out of the AOR (Area of Responsibility) out of harms way to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.  You can sit in Qatar for up to a week and from there you fly to Germany where you are trained how to be normal again and then you take a commercial flight home.  If all goes according to the current plan I should be home around May 12th.  Once you get back to your home base you are required to check-in and accomplish another checklist before you are released for 2 weeks of R&R.  So once I get back I will have two weeks of R&R and then we will leave for Europe on the 29th of May and will be gone until June 25th.  Not too shabby!

    Cami has given me the go-ahead to plan the majority of our European Adventure and it has been pretty fun.  I have talked to Cami and the kids about the things they want to do and I have researched the best, cheapest, safest, way to make it happen.  For those interested I will list out our itinerary, for those that are not interested, sorry, I really don't have too much else to write about this week.

May 29th Fly from San Antonio to London

May 30th arrive in London at 9:40am spend the day recovering from the flight and seeing whatever we feel like seeing on our own.

May 31st--Guided tour of London on a Double Decker red tour bus stopping at Buckingham Palace, Parliament/Big Ben, ride the London Eye, take a cruise down the Thames, London Bridge, and Westminster Abby. It is a thirteen hour day but the kids requested a ride on a Double Decker bus.

June 1st--Sunday activities, attending the ward in Hyde Park where many prophet's taught the restored gospel, and take it easy enjoying a calm day.

June 2nd--Another guided tour of Stonehenge/Windsor Castle and the town of Bath where some of my ancestors are from

June 3rd--Tour of Warner Bros studio where Harry Potter was filmed, then train to Paris.

June4th-11th--Meet up with the Texas Children's Choir group and participate in tour activities in Normandy, Notre Dame, and the Louvre

June 12th--Train to Marseilles, day in Marseilles

June 13th--Board our cruise ship and get ready to go

June 14th--Genoa, Italy where we will take a tour of Portofino and Genoa

June 15th--Rome, Italy, guided tour of the sites and possible visit to the square where the Pope will deliver his weekly message, assuming he is in town.

June 16th--Palermo, Sicily where I plan on eating pizza all day

June 17th--Tunis, Tunisia--Tour of Carthage and Medina

June 18th--Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Catamaran tour of the coast

June 19th-- Valencia, Spain hang out on the beach unless of course it is not a family friendly thing to do and then we will figure something else out. 

June 20th--Back to Marseilles, train to Geneva, Switzerland where we will stay the night

June 21st-  Train to Gimmelwald, a tiny town in the Swiss Alps

June 22nd--Gimmelwald

June 23rd--Head back to London

June 24th--Fly home

June 25th--8:13pm get home

Well that is the plan.  We are super excited.  My kids have been working very hard for nearly a year to cover their own way and I am very proud of their efforts.  I know that many of you have purchased candy bars or cards and made generous donations for which we are exceedingly grateful. 

It has been raining continuously for the last four days and I am reminded of the days of Noah.  The parking lot I normally cross to get to church was impassible being under a few feet of water.  The rain seems to have slowed the attacks so some good is coming from all the mud.  That is pretty much all I've got for the week.