Day 2

Day 2 of Bagram started with the my bed shaking like mad, I figured the guy up top couldn’t sleep because he tossed and turned for a good 30 seconds, it was accompanied by the sound of fighter jets taking off every 20 minutes or so, the sound of their after burners roared the whole valley. Fighter jets aren’y the funnest thing to hear at 2am but you can’t help but think how cool that is.  I got up at 4am and went to the PAX (airport) to see what the schedule was like for going to Shank, as I entered the airport building I walked through the luggage area where hundreds of bags, back packs and boxes are piled, the odd civilian contractor lay sleeping on a pile. The contractors slept there out of desperation to get a flight to where ever and regardless of their Rolling Stone concert ticket camp out their attempts are often futile. I was on the list and failed for all three flights that day, I hung out at the USO next door and fought with my laptop to connect to the internet, I went outside and started talking to random troops to get a lay of the land, I started talking to one guy around 25, social and also waiting to leave, his name was Midget, I started our conversation with “man you must get bugged a lot” he laughed. Midget was from Illinois and he wasn’t a Nazi in fact he was a wrestler, his cauliflower ears gave it away, I started to laugh and said to him “oh man your name is Midget and you’re a wrestler… a midget wrestler!” Midget was easy going and laughed too, he said he and his brother wanted to open up a school and call it Midget Wrestling.

After my socializing I walked back to check on the flight situation still not good, I talked to a soldier I had met the day before and gave him a cigarillo from Cuba and he was so pleased, he asked me what I did and he looked surprised and told me because of my fancy gear, top of the line clothes, unshaven dark beard and size that people were speculating that I was “out of shape Special Forces,” I burst out laughing and said that was a compliment.  I knew I had to bust that gut now, because in shape Special Forces would have been a really cool cover. I knew I looked badass and I made a point to walk strait and authoritative, hell it’s a game I would play while I waited. Finally my laptop was working and the battery was down to 3% so I scrambled to send out a Facebook message and a email to my handlers ie: PAO officers here in Bagram.

A while later I received word from my PAO people that they were just a little ways south down Disney, well what the hell is a little ways, 50 meters or 2 miles. I started walking and no one had any idea where their office was. Eventually I came across a office that dealt with media and they told me where to go, outside I ran into 2 older NCOs from Vermont, they were unloading a truck of brand new wheeled bins that are the size of small bath tubs, if I had this I could put my damned duffel bag that weighs 100lbs in there and my camera bag in there and wheel it from point to point instead of dragging it along the street like a out of shape Special Forces guy. The SGT and specialist both said come back in a day or 2 and they would see if they could give me one. I continued down Disney, past the other chow hall and finally found the WWII style hut that contained the Public Affairs office, I walked in side and saw that there was 6 desks with rather relaxed crew behind them, SGT Dion my handler looked up and said “oh it’s you.” SGT Dion was a short woman in 30 and 3 kids her boss a Major is a 6’4” tall heavyset black man from Atlanta, he talked to his staff like they were old friends and he sits at a central table where her would eat and oversea his staff. I could never figure out if the staff in there were talking to each other or me as they would just start talking and not look at me or address me by name, it was a little confusing and I just started asking who are you talking to? Sgt. Dion printed me up an ID card and gave me the pass code to my room that was in a identical WWII hut surrounded by old green sand bags, this place looks like Vietnam. The sign on the door of what they call the hotel reads Hotel California. I have a bunk and single bed in my room, a TV, refrigerator and a desk, finally a decent place to work.

The room next door housed a older guy Steve from Vermont Public radio we talked quite a bit he was heading to some other area with a whacky name and was attempting to get out of here to and cover some Vermont national guard bit. I was driven back to the PAX airport to get my bags that seemed lighter as I was now acclimatizing, but still these bags, vest and helmet were becoming an issue yet I needed all my stuff. In Germany the guy manning the counter for Safi Airlines wanted me to pay $200 because my gear was over weight I was pissed so I told him I would rearrange it and all I did was place my foot under my bag on the scale and held it up. The bag went from 35kg to 18kg wow a miracle, take that you Safi asshole. Maybe I will be able to get one of those wheeled bins and make life easy.

The guy driving me was my age and mentioned that I shouldn’t wear my multicam gear into combat, I brought up the fact that the Taliban or who ever don’t give a fuck and want to kill whom ever. If you are hard to see you are hard to shoot, the soldiers and other reporters from ABC news agreed with me, when you dress like a soldier (which my outfit does not look at all like) then you are 1 of 20 guys when you wear a blue vest and a black helmet you become a valuable target, they know if they shoot a reporter it will end up on the news for months. Plus being the guy who held all 3 shooting records in High-School I know if I have to choose between shooting a vague outline or a big black and blue dot I choose the easy one. Not to mention reporters have always worn olive drab or similar clothes.

I get my bags back and setup in my room and in no times it’s messy like home, ah what a relief. I drink a dozen bottles of water a day and that fills the garbage quick. I am spending more time on line and blogging thanks to Tom and Bryan. I have new neighbors who are a father and son team from ABC news in the US, Mike and Carlos is the son. These guy have seen some serious shit, I watched footage of pitched battles and footage of a rocket attack that hurt 2 kids during the election.  That night I went to bed at 730PM and woke at 330am.