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In order to help people with ideas, here are some of the items we have to cook with and some examples of the types of food we get to cook.
We have a couple of Propane Gas burners, a microwave, and a huge brick-built outdoor wood grill. We also have several Fridge’s, a chest freezer and a walk in refer-conex. Some of the food we get to cook is 1 GAL canned staples like restaurants have (canned carrots, green beans, zuccini&tomatoes, corn, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, fruit cocktail, etc.), we also have dried pasta, frozen pies, rice-a-roni, cornbread mix, chicken, burgers, hot dogs, steaks, ribs, meatballs, and other pre-made stuff. Wave some spices like garlic powder, cheyenne pepper, salt/pepper, mrs. dash, and a few others.
As you may know, I am in a new FOB that is primitive and requires us to cook for ourselves. We are able to get food from another FOB down the road that has a Dining Facility, but we have to come up with recipes and creativity on our own. Something that would be great to get, and give us your personal touch would be spices, shippable ingredients, and favorite recipes. Probably not anything too elaborate or something that cannot have ingredients substituted with other items that we would have. If you have a favorite recipe that you think we would all like and that we could make, that would be a great personal touch from you.
Myself and one other guy are pretty good cooks and have done it for a long time, however I know many people have time-tested recipes that will knock your socks off and are easy to make. This could be breakfast or dinner items. Test us out, see if we have what it takes to make it and the skills to do it. I will gladly update you with how well it was received.
So to my family and friends the challenge is throw down. Send me those recipes in either regular mail or email at troysteward@yahoo.com, and if you have any good spices, non-perishable ingredients, etc, I will take them too. Keep in mind that we share who cooks for the entire FOB, so we are talking for about 50 people.
Well today was moving day. Myself and two of my NY NCOs moved from Orgun-E to Sharona. The guys showed up about 11 AM to get us. Once we chatted for a little bit, we started packing all our stuff in the trailer and Hummers. It has rained a little but every day for the last 4 days, but not much. Just a little shower for 4-5 minutes and that is it. Today it decided to pour for about 10 minutes and of course it did it right when we were loading everything. Luckily we had just about everything wrapped in plastic trash bags because of the dust that would get into everything on the roads. So everything was wrapped and dry, but we got soaked. About the time we finished packing the rain stopped. After everything was packed we took the guys from Sharona to the mess hall for lunch. See, up at Sharona there is no mess hall, so they have to cook all their own meals. This was a chance to be served and sit down and enjoy a lunch.
After lunch, some of them hit the PX which is only open 3 hours a day for 3 days of the week. Since they came and got us today, they were able to visit the PX and stock up on Skoal, Copenhagen and cigarettes. By the time we left the hot Afghan sun had already dried out the roads and they were back to being dusty as ever. I was hoping the rain would have kept the dust down a little bit, but not today. It took us about two hours to get here, and the ride was quiet and uneventful..thankfully.
Everything was downloaded into the temporary living space that we will be in for the next 2 days, until we move into our actual rooms on Friday. So for the next 2 days, we will leave everything boxed and just live out of duffel bags until we can get moved in and unpacked. Maj D then gave us a tour around the FOB to include the RPG holes in some of the buildings from the attack here 10 days ago…ohh did I forget to mention this FOB was attacked? Forget I mentioned that part, to anyone that worries a lot.
After the tour we had a meeting with the ANA Commander for introductions and to meet our terps and the rest of the team members. As that meeting was winding up someone popped in and said chow was ready. One of the NCOs from the team had cook duty tonight and they did a awesome job. We had grilled steaks, ribs and chicken. They had it seasoned up and it was awesome. Better than any Army mess hall has ever cooked anything. We also had green beans and yams. A very impressive first meal here at FOB Sharona.
The internet connectivity here is nice, as we have wireless all the way into our rooms. That beats having to sit in the TOC like at Orgun-E. Of course there are a lot more people on it here, so bandwidth is a premium. I think the trick will be finding the middle of the night times when nobody else is on so I can skype (www.skype.com) home.
So as I sit here on this first night, IM chatting with my brother, talking to Christine on Skype and typing this blog I can say today was not bad. There are a lot of challenges in front of us here, as this FOB is so primitive that there is no where to go but up. Those challenges and the mission we will be doing will help make the year go by fast.
On a different note, I guess I am getting quite a following on this BLOG. Between comments on BLOG entries and emails that I receive from people, this site is getting well known. To anyone reading this from Books for Soldiers(www.booksforsoldiers.com), I cannot thank you enough for all that you people do for soldiers all over the world. For anyone reading this that has not been to that site and are looking for something to do for soldiers, I highly recommend that site to you. If you have the urge to do something for soldiers deployed, this site is great at linking up soldiers and great Americans that want to do something for them. Don’t get misled by the title, there are lots of things that soldiers need besides books and it is not limited to just books.
A few days ago, our ANA had to escort some Ministry of Defense personnel to another town a few hours away. So I loaded up a company of ANA and two of the new Rotation V guys to run this little convoy up the road, grab some supplies that would be at this area along with another new guy and then come back. The whole mission should not have taken more than 6 hours tops. Well on the way through this mountain pass, I noticed the ANA driving slower than normal which was nice because normally they drive like their butts are on fire and someone is putting Tabasco on it to try and put out the flames.
It was a good thing they were going slow because as we were getting through the windy pass that I noticed my HUMMER starting to make some weird noises as I gave it gas. At first I though the transmission was acting up and that scared me because there is no way to recover that without a wrecker and we were several hours from any US wrecker. But then I noticed the steering getting very unresponsive and not turning. I was thinking either broken tie rod or power steering pump going out. Finally I stopped and got out, and noticed that some puddles of fluid were building underneath the truck. I opened the hood while the ANA started to gather around me and saw fluid sprayed everywhere underneath the hood with hissing and steam coming from the engine as the fluid sprayed on it. I could tell from the color and smell that I was losing power steering fluid. I looked to try and find the source of the leak but could not locate it. The ANA offered to get some tools and start working on it in the middle of this windy dirty road in the middle of nowhere canyon. I declined and told them no, there is nothing we can do here. I told them that I would drive it on to the destination and it would be fine. Thinking that I only lost power steering I figured it was just be a test of upper body strength versus 6 tons of armored truck. As we got going we went down a little hill and I pressed on the brakes to notice that I had none. See I guess there is a certain device that helps with providing pressure to both power steering and brakes and when one of the hoses on this device breaks, then you are screwed to put it nicely.
I had not only lost my power steering, but also brakes on a 6 ton armored HUMMER with 4 people in it while trying to drive through mountain passes and canyons. There was no choice but keep going as the ANA Ford Rangers don’t have what it takes to pull this thing. So at that point my day became much more interesting trying to control the speed of the vehicle with downshifting and the emergency brake, control the steering wheel that was getting pulled left and right as it hit every rock and depressing in the dirt road and do all the talking on the radio because the new guys just were not up on it yet. Luckily I was able to keep the ANA slow as I navigated the rest of the trip until I could get to a US FOB that had maintenance. The ANA continued on to the ANA FOB and I spun off to get the truck fixed. They found the blown hose and after removing a lot of parts to get it and then putting them back on…it was about 6+ hours later.
When I drove out the front gate, there was my ANA. Waiting on us, knowing they could not go back without making sure we were with them. They had waited a while, but that is ok because they got to relax and have lunch without rushing back. I kept them there, while I raced to the ANA FOB to get the new ETT guy. We loaded him and all the bags we could fit and then raced back to our ANA who were so patiently waiting. After getting there we hit the road and hit it fast. We were racing sunset as we did not want to get caught in the pass at night, as this would not be a good thing. So the truck did great going back with no more problems thankfully.
Besides I figured that was enough for one day. Losing one part of the truck was one thing, but losing two critical items together was a bit much for the nerves. The sad thing was I was kind of optimistic about the day because it was a special day for me. It was my 19th anniversary in the Army on that day. It means that I only have to give one more year and then I am done and can retire if I want. After 19 years I can start that final countdown, so that was why that morning when I got up there was a little lift in my step. I was thinking 364 and a wake up and I can call it quits for good….of course I had no idea what that first day of what could be my last year in the army would present to me. I hope that was not an omen to what the rest of this year will be like.
Friday nights are always good here at this FOB (something I will miss at the new one), because the cooks spend all day getting ready for dinner. At lunch you can smell the T-bones on the huge grill they have. They cook them all afternoon getting them ready for dinner. See the dinner on Friday is always a special time. We have T-bone steaks, and very good ones at that, King crab legs, lobster tails, fried shrimp, corn on the cob, and many other things to complement. Fridays are always looked forward to, especially after smelling the steaks cooking all day.
So that is the setup and here is the story….Myself along with my other two NY NCOs are sitting in there enjoying dinner. It just so happens that tonight I am having king crab legs with my t-bone. For the last couple of weeks I have been eating lobster tails because there are no crab crackers and it is a pain in the butt to eat those spiny crab legs. But tonight I am tearing them open with my leatherman and doing quite well at it. I started with one crab leg before getting into the steak. I figured I would wait until after the steak and finish up with the last crab leg. As I was eating the steak one of the 10th MTN Platoon Leaders stopped by our table and asked if we could head into the town of Orgun-E because there are shots being fired. The rest of 10th MTN was occupied, so they asked if we could take some ANA down there. At that point we grabbed our trays and threw everything away and ran out the door. Everything included that last big juicy crab leg too.
We mobilized our ANA, grabbed our gear, loaded up the vehicle and took off. It was dark by the time we got there, so our ANA locked the streets down. There are 4 main roads in the downtown area, and they blocked them all off, establishing an outer cordon security zone. We then moved with the ANA PL and some soldiers through all the streets searching everyone, searching vehicles, and talking to people. We asked everyone we saw if they heard shooting. To no surprise 99% of them heard nothing and said everything is fine there. We ran into the Afghan version of rent-a-cops who guard the bazaar and they were all legit and very friendly. The gas station area proved interesting as there were a lot of vehicles, and I had given one of my high-powered LED flashlights to the ANA to use in order to search vehicles. In one truck they found a PKM Machine Gun Ammo can. Needless to say this got my interest. I asked a local man who’s truck it was and he told me it was the owner of the station. He said that he did not have the keys since he was not the owner. I told him he better open it or I will open it, and if I open the truck it won’t be pretty. Amazingly he found some keys and opened it. The box was padlocked, but I peeled back the metal corner to see nothing but tools. The guy then told me he thought it was the owner’s toolbox for the truck, without knowing what I saw. I told him that was legit, and bent the metal back and then handed it back to him. I thanked him for opening it and cooperating with us. We then walked down to the last street asking people as we went, without any leads. At the last corner I ran into a man who used to be a LTC in the ANA army and understood English well. He pointed to where the shots came from, gave me the exact time they were shooting (which corresponded exactly to what intel I had already), and what types of weapons he thought it was. Since it was out of the town itself and in more of a rural area, there was no reason to try and chase it down. It had been several hours since it happened, and trying to find who did it would be impossible. The important thing was that nobody was shot and nobody was running around in the business district shooting stuff up.
We met a few other interesting gentlemen during the night, talking to them, asking them questions and then thanking them for their time. Everyone that I questioned was re-assured that we are here to make sure they stay safe so it is always important that they told us the truth. Of course all of them said they would, but who knows.
Honestly I don’t trust any of them as far as I can throw them. The bottom line is you always have to be sober to the fact that everyone that is not U.S. wants to kill you and would if they had the chance. You have to blanket all of them with that suspicion, otherwise you will let your guard down and then they will kill you when you least expect it.
So, we did not find the shooters, but we got to conduct a good search of the business district of the town, we were able to show everyone that saw us that we can cordon and search anything. We were able to show that we are concerned about their security and that they never know when we might show up. It was a good exercise for the ANA, and for us. Of course the only downside was that big ole long juicy crab leg that went into the trash.
You may have noticed the other day that I posted a new address for mail. The reason for the move is because the 41st BCT is now taking over and they want to try and bring all of the state teams that trained together and deployed together, back together. My entire NY team was broken apart when we got to Gardez. So, now we are all being brought back together. They are doing this as they are pushing out the new Rotation V personnel. This caused no new people to be sent to my new unit which makes them extremely short on personnel. So myself, along with the other 2 NY NCOs that are with me will join the other 3 NY team members in the unit and that will put the 6 of us together. By the 2nd week of July, we should start seeing the rest of them show up and I guess all will be back together by October 1st. I am sure that I will be back down to Orgun-E every once in a while, because it is not that far away from here.
Quite honestly I am sad about leaving, because the 10th MTN treats us great here and there are a lot of amenities on this FOB. We have a free barbershop (not that I need it), free laundry service with less than 24 hours turn around, a free java shop, free vehicle wash point, awesome gym, and all the support from 10th MTN we could possibly need. The new place I am going has nothing, including no dining facility. Yes we have to cook all our own meals. I am also going to miss this area as we are very busy right near the Pak border always hunting for bad guys and getting tangled up with them on occasion. The ANA soldiers we have got to know over the last 6 weeks along with our terps have become our friends and they are not happy to see the 3 of us go, as we are not happy to have to leave them. However there will be new troops and new terps at the new place that I am sure we will establish friendships with soon enough.
Today the 10th Mountain did us well. At the end of the BUB (Battle Update Briefing), they called all the guys rotating out along with myself and the other 2 NY soldiers to the front to give us coins as a token of appreciation. Also during the meeting, the CSM gave me 10th MTN combat patches for everyone that had been here and serving with them. So after we left the TOC, I held a formation outside and handed all the guys rotating out along with the my NY guys their 10th MTN combat patch to put on their right shoulder.
So we are spending the next few days still running missions, training up the new guys and packing up our stuff.
Scott Kesterson is an embedded reporter with Oregon’s 41st BCT. The 41st is the major command that is in charge of the Task Force Phoenix V rotation. It just so happens that Scott Kesterson was an officer in the 41st a long time ago. So when he came in, he knew a lot of the people and the organization when he was embedded. Over the time training at Camp Shelby along with the flight over and some of the time in Kabul I have become friends with Scott and respect him, his opinion, and writing style very much. Being a soldier, he sees through the BS, calls a spade a spade, and writes with complete honesty. I cannot encourage the readers of my blog enough to also follow along with Scott’s. I look forward to his entries every day just as much as I am sure people look forward to mine. The site for his BLOG is:www.beloblog.com/KGW_Blogs/afghanistan/ .
Again, bookmark it, read it and check out the pics. The entries he has written since being in country are dead on the money. When I last saw Scott in Kabul, he told me that he promised to come out and see my team soon. So I am sure one day our blogs will cross with him writing about us, and me writing about his visit.
