Anyone that has read this blog for any amount of time knows I never use anyone’s real name except for mine. The reason is for operational security reasons and to protect their identity. Not that I ever talk bad about anyone, but it is a courtesy not to throw their name all over the place. I have had several people ask me about why someone has a particular nickname, so this post is dedicated to that. How the nicknames came about and why. Some existed before I met them, some I came up with, and some of the others were thought up by fellow team members. All of them are in good fun and nobody takes it personally.

The first one is the team chief, my boss. I used to call him Maj D. a lot, but wanted to get away from the rank so decided to start calling him Big D. He is the big daddy of the team and the boss of all of us, so I gave him that one. I could call him the smoking man, after the famous smoking guy on X-Files, but it did not seem to fit (even though he is quite a smoker).

Loon is a shortened version of the name of a guy I called Arkansas for a while. He is the only one on our team from Arkansas, but Arkansas was not a good name either. Loon is short for this last name and it is easier to say. The thing about nicknames, they can’t be long and drawn out if you are trying to get someone’s attention in a hurry. Loon is a quiet feller who does not say a lot, but when he does he gets people’s attention. We have all adopted him as a honorary NYer, and he even wears our patch. Everyone likes doing missions with Loon because he has a cool head and a steady trigger finger. The ANA nicknamed him the “quiet killer” because he does not talk much, but can make a Machine gun sing when he needs it to.

I am not sure where Mouse got his nickname from. I think he was called that before and mentioned it to someone while we were training up to come here. Mouse is the only one here that was actually in my company back in the NY National Guard. The name comes from his looks, and he does not mind it. A great guy and a hell of an NCO. Since he is from the Buffalo area and a big hockey fan like myself, Mouse and I spend a lot of time talking Buffalo Sabres hockey and both of us are hoping to be home in time to watch the Sabres win the Stanley Cup this year.

Black Cloud got his nickname while we were here. He is from NY, and was on our team for a while until he just got moved up to the Brigade staff. The nickname Black Cloud or BC for short, stems from just a lot of bad luck. The guy just seems to have the anti-midas touch and has a constant run of bad luck. It is like a black cloud is always hanging over his head, hence the name.

Capt Bob or Bob the builder is for our engineer mentor. He recently moved to the Brigade staff also as the Brigade mentor, but since he is an engineer in civilian life and military life, I think Puss started calling him Bob the Builder or Capt. Bob for short.

Mardi Gras, or Mardi for short picked up his nickname from Face. Mardi is one of those guys with a very large cranium and one time Face said he looked like a Mardi Gras parade character, where they have the real big heads. So we started calling him Mardi for Mardi Gras. I don’t think he liked it at first, but got used to it and even pokes fun at his own cranium every once in a while.

Smoke, who is now back home as his tour is over, got his name from being in the Artillery branch. The chief of the artillery firing battery has always been called Smoke. I am sure artillery people know the history why, but I have no idea. So he has always been called Smoke. It kind of fit anyway, because he smokes a lot too. It is short, to the point, and one syllable.

Smoke’s partner here was Scooter (who is also home now). I am not sure where the name came from, but I think it is because the spelling of Scooter is close to what his last name is. When I first met him, I said “ Hi, Captain S———“. He looked at me and said, just call me Scooter. So it has been Scooter ever since. He is a funny short guy and Scooter fits him also.

BJ is someone I used to call CPT Ben. BJ are his first two initials and it seems appropriate and kind of funny to call him that. There were several other nicknames we had for him, but none were really that nice so we had to tone it down.

Face, whom I mention on here a lot is Face for a reason. I take full credit for this nickname. While we were at Camp Shelby, I tagged him with several nicknames trying to find the right one. Face fit well, and it has been that ever since. I gave him this one because of some of the funny faces that he makes. The guy does some hysterically funny voices too, and always has us cracking up. I love being on mission with him because he keeps me cracking up.
And here is the real one of him….

This brings me to my two roommates. The two guys I have been with since we got in country. The three of us were in a separate team together and moved to this one at the same time.

Prophet picked up his nickname while at Camp Shelby. He has had the most combat experience out of everyone. He has multiple combat tours in both the active duty and in the National Guard. In fact, when we started this deployment, he had only been back from Iraq 6 weeks. He has seen a lot and is good and predicting things and their outcome. I don’t remember who gave him the name Prophet, but I liked it and started calling him that. It stuck ever since.

Puss is short for Big Pussy, which was a character on the show The Sopranos. Puss kind of resembles the guy with his build and looks, and even though he is 100% Greek and not Italian, you would never know. He could easily pass off as a made man of a Family in NYC. Puss sounded better than the longer version of his nickname and he has been getting called that since Camp Shelby also.

As for me, everyone just calls me Top. Top is a nickname commonly given to First Sergeants in the Army and I don’t have a problem with it, since I have been a First Sergeant for over 4 years now. It fits, it is short and easy to say. Everyone in the Army knows what a Top is. I am called that by many people I see, even those not in our team.

So now you know the story and why everyone is called what they are.

Until Next time..

Top signing off…

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070219-1136-afghanarmy.html

I am so glad that someone finally started speaking the truth. When you read this article, you will see the Afghans claim one thing, yet someone from the coalition put it into a more realistic perspective. When I first read this, the one thing that stood out was the following, “…could defend Afghanistan without U.S. and NATO support in 10 years or less, military officials and analysts say.” This one also stands out “Officials say it will take at least five more years, and likely longer, for the ANA to stand alone, allowing the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces which currently number a record 47,000 and are still struggling to quell the volatile south and east.”

So they are finally admitting at the highest levels that this army is possibly10 years away from standing on their own.

That is 10 years more of NG units deploying over here and trying to train this army. There is a statement that says 5 battalions are ready to stand on their own. However if they cannot communicate securely, request air support or treat the most minor of wounds, then they that means they are not standing on their own. The three tenets of a successful armed force of any size is to be able to shoot, move and communicate. If you can’t do that, then you are not formidable in my opinion and the opinion of just about every other professional soldier I know.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

A week or so ago I talked about the milbloggies, which is the name of the milblog award presented to winners on the milblogging.com website. I was nominated by enough people to be a contender, and am now in the contest. You have to be registered on the site to vote, which I know is a pain but I hope all who read this and enjoy this blog will take the time to do this.

My buddy JP runs this site and it is considered the central place to view and read all military related blogs from around the world. They have blogs on there from people forward deployed in war zones, stationed at countries all over the world, back in the states, and even the families of those serving. If you want to know what is truly going on anywhere with the military, what they experience, what they feel and go through, this is the place to find it.

The specific link on how to vote is milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry070222-104747

Go here to vote after you have signed in. If you are not yet registered on the site, you can go here to register, milblogging.com/signup.php?p=1

The voting will end on February 27th, 2007 at 8PM EST. Be sure and vote for BOUHAMMER’S AFGHAN BLOG!!!!

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Well it took 5 days, some good weather, and a priority letter to finally make it back to my FOB. The weather here in Afghanistan wreaks havoc on flights, which in turn disrupts a lot since flying is the primary means of moving around the country. I came back from Emergency Leave early at the request of my chain of command because of some things going on back here. So it was frustrating to return early and then sit in Baghram for so long.

I found a tent just down the street from the passenger terminal and stayed there rather than the tent set up for our Task Force at the other end of base. I needed the flexibility to move back and forth to the terminal and check on flights. Back and forth every day, checking on flights, hauling my bags over there every time I thought I was manifested. Then hauling my bags back every time after having the flight cancelled, or something else. The terminal was packed with people trying to fly around Afghanistan, or out of Afghanistan to go on leave, pass or redeploy home. The bottom line is that people on Jet Blue should not feel they got screwed when there were guys and gals here that could not get out of country to get home to their families after their one year tour is over.

I got to know the civilians and airmen that work the terminal counter since they saw me so much, and they tried everything they could to get me on flights of which I am very appreciative of. They even snuck me on some small planes that were only hauling mail and not supposed to haul passengers….but those ended up getting cancelled too.

My last two days there only afforded me the opportunity to get about 5 hours of sleep. There were so many possible flights going out that I had to stay up and continue to try and get on them all night long. If you snooze, you lose when trying to get on a plane. There was one that had a roll call time pushed back to almost 2 AM, and when it came time there were so few people in the terminal as many had given up for the night, that they did not even look at the standby list and just asked who wanted to go to Sharana. They just took the ID cards and told us we were on. Well 4 hours later we were told the plane was broke and there would be no flight.

It was at that point that I took the recent advice of my man, Face, and searched out someone that could produce me a letter to make me a priority person to fly back. I figured having to return from Emergency leave early was mission critical enough to also get me pushed to the top of the list. I found the right folks and got the letter. At that point I was #1 on the list of over 70 people and within few hours was manifested on a flight. The skies were clear and sunny in Baghram and also in Sharana. As long as the plane did not break, then I was good to go.

That was the plane I finally got out on. I lost count of how many I was scheduled on before and it really did not matter anyway. It took 4 days to get out of Sharana to go on E. Leave, and 5 days to get back. I never thought I would be happy to see this crappy little place again, but I was. It was not so much as seeing this place as it was seeing my guys.

One other bad thing that happened was that I tweaked my knee again. I did this back in August and it took about two weeks of keeping it wrapped and eating 800mg Motrin to get it back to normal. Somehow the day before I left I stood up and twisted wrong which irritated my MCL and caused it to swell. I have tore my MCL twice in the past so it comes back to haunt me every once in a while. It is not anything I can’t handle, as I have dealt with it enough. It is just a pain (literally), and causes me to move a little slower.

So the end result it I am back….but not for long. I will be writing more about that in the coming days, but I have less than a week here. If anyone reading this was about to mail me a package or something, please hold off. My address is changing again and I am not sure what it will be.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Well after a week at home in New York that in itself saw some record setting snowfall (12’ in 7 days) and getting a fair amount of snow in Buffalo itself, I was thinking I would return to nice budding-spring weather in Afghanistan. When I left a little over a week ago the temps were in the mid-40s and climbing.

I flew into Kuwait City Int’l airport and sat there for a few hours waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the airbase we stay at there. They told us we had about 2-3 hours at the airport so hang out and then to link up at a particular rendezvous point to leave. I found a comfortable place to sit in the caribou coffee shop, which offered 1 hour of free wireless internet for every purchase made. So after buying what turned out to be a $5 medium café mocha (I guess airports all over the world rip people off) I sat down to relax and get online. I was able to link up with home via IM and chatted with Christine for a while. I also surfed the web and knocked out some emails. The place stays active all night as flights come in from all over the world. The bus showed up and we left as scheduled.

I spent less than 24 hours in Kuwait, before finally being able to fly out of there. I was there long enough to get some sleep, some decent chow and enjoy all the amenities that place has to offer. Since I slept most of the day, I was not tired that night during my flight. So what better way to spend the time flying from Kuwait into Afghanistan then to catch up on the latest episodes of 24. While I was at home I downloaded all the latest episodes to my ipod. So now I am up through last Monday’s 2-hour special.

I landed in Baghram in the middle of some nasty weather, which turned out to stay nasty all day long, eventually canceling every flight trying to leave. The whole day was a mixture of rain, sleet and then snow which lasted well after the sun set. I was wondering what happened to my nice warm weather that was supposed to be here? Anyway, I was going nowhere so I signed in with the personnel folks, drew my body armor, helmet and weapon back out of storage and spent the afternoon still trying to sleep off the jetlag. Of course I called my team and told them I was back in country and of course asked if anyone needed anything. Big D asked me to pick him up 3 cartons of smokes, which I did and then I realized why I was glad I did not smoke. Having never smoked, I never kept up with the prices of those things. I thought the guy made a mistake when he told me it was almost $90 for 3 cartons. I looked at him and said “What? What is the price of those things?”. When he told me, I realized why the tobacco companies make so much profit. Holy COW!!

Well I was up at 4:30 AM this morning to work on getting a flight out. I am still waiting and hoping to go soon. Since I had to wait this morning, I decided to head down to the PX to walk around and eat up some time. I am glad I did, because as I was walking up I saw lots of familiar faces. A whole bunch of the guys I served with over the last year, whom are leaving now as their tour is over were there. I saw Scooter, RJ, and many others to include my man Smoke. When I left Sharana last week I said my goodbyes to Smoke thinking I would not see him again. So it was nice to see those guys and BS with them for a little while more. Smoke promised me he and his wife would be doing some cruising around the country a little on his big touring bike, so I told him he is always welcomed in Buffalo. I told him to bring his wife to come see the falls and he has a play to stay. I hope he makes good on that as I consider him a true friend and always will.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Well my time is up and it is time to return to my duties in Afghanistan. I flew out of Buffalo yesterday in the afternoon and I am now sitting here typing this in the KLM Airline club in Amsterdam. A benefit of being a platinum member on Northwest, which is a partner of KLM.

Yesterday I woke up knowing that I did not have to leave first thing in the morning but nevertheless I had to leave that day. We enjoyed sleeping in on Thursday, and tried to relax most of the day and just enjoy our last few hours together. Jon had to work early in the morning and then he had a class at the University, but the other boys were with me. Hunter is still recovering, but is back to almost full speed. I spent the last few days trying to keep him from running or falling and getting hurt. Jordan spent the morning finishing off a PS2 game that I bought while I was home. I told him that I was taking it with me, so he was doing his best to finish the game.

Christine made my a great breakfast of something I never get on my FOB. She made me biscuits and sausage gravy, along with good patty sausage. We get sausage patties in our FOB, but they are literally as hard and tough to eat as hockey pucks. The taste of them is not far off of a hockey puck either I believe.

I held off on packing until the day I had to leave. I only traveled home with my backpack and my laptop briefcase and planned on going back that way, but I had acquired a lot while I was home. When I left my FOB, I had a shopping list of things to get while I was home. I had picked up computer games, gaming controllers, ipods, tactical gear, etc. etc. I spent a good hour trying to shift and re-shift things in my bag and trying to make stuff fit. Once the bag was packed in a way I thought would work, I set it by the front door and ignored it until it was time to leave.

About an hour before we needed to head to the airport, I finally got out of my sleep clothes and took a shower. I spent the morning bumming around in relaxing clothes as I knew I was about to spend the next 24+ hours flying in the same clothes. Once that was done, the computer was packed up, and the kids were dressed in coats and gloves, we were then on our way. Of course I kept checking the airport website until it was time to go, hoping that my flight would get canceled due to the weather. But I was not so lucky, so we headed to the airport.

Since I have spent so many years flying out weekly from this airport, I tend to get to know people. One of the people I got dear friends with was my friend Joyce. She only works a couple of days a week at the security screening area, and I had not seen her since I left for my deployment last February. I was so delighted to see her working as we walked up. When she looked up, her face just brightened and we hugged. My family had met her before and she is always so sweet to all of them. I think the world of her and have only chatted with her through email since deploying so I considered it a real blessing to be able to see her. After taking off the boots, and having to perform all of the other security necessary tasks we got through the detectors. On the other side I was able to run into one of my soldiers from unit who works for the TSA at the airport. He was one of my best NCOs and it was good to run into him. Once the hand-shakes and goodbyes were said, we started that long walk.

The long, slow walk is something that many a military family has done as their loved one heads back to war. It was something we did in December as I returned to Afghanistan from my normal R&R leave and was something we did again now. As Jordan carried my laptop, and Jon carried my backpack I held hands with Hunter and walked. We got to the airport a little late, and after getting through all the security and taking the slow walk we happened upon the gate that was already boarding. I waited until the last possible moment to board and for the first time while leaving home during this deployment, (when I originally left, when I left to return to Miss from my train-up leave, when I left to return to Afghanistan from my R&R leave) Hunter broke down. All the other times he was the strongest. He always held his composure and never really let a tear fall. His lips never turned down or looked overly sad. He always took it in stride and always served as a pillar for me not to get emotional.

This time as I looked down at him to say I had to go, the tears were flowing. It ripped my heart out as his normal smile was turned completely upside down with quivering lips. For the first time, and maybe it was overdue, he started bawling on me as I was leaving. Every other time I was impressed at how well he did and very glad he did. This time I was still impressed but saw the fear, anguish and hurt in his eyes and heard it in his voice as I had to leave. I hugged everyone, and could barely hug my boys or Christine without him squeezing me. I had to pick him up, and when I hugged Jordan, Hunter hugged us both. He did this with everyone. He wanted every hug out of me he could as he begged me to stay. This was also the first time I wanted to get on the plane. I had to get away from him before I completely lost it. He was pulling my heart out of my chest and I could not take it. I said one more quick round of goodbyes and was trying to get out of there so fast I almost forgot to kiss Christine goodbye. Thanks to Jon for reminding me. Once I did that, I handed Hunter to Christine, grabbed my bags and took off for the jetway. I turned around one more time to get one more wave in and tell all of them I love them. Christine was sitting down and Hunter was on her lap, so I could not see him because of the ticket counter. But he leaned up and waved, tears streaming down his face. That was all I could take. I turned around and darted down the jetway.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry070214-115926

The following entry is copied from Milblogging.com. JP runs the milblogging site and is someone I consider a friend, even though we have never met in person. I know his brother and have talked to JP on email and the phone. My blog is listed on there and you can find it by looking it up under Afghanistan Frontlines. If you logon to vote for my blog (which I hope all of you do), be sure and vote make my blog one of your “favorites” on the milblogging.com site.

The Milbloggies Award recognizes military bloggers for their contribution to blogging, news and information, and to the military over the past year.

(note: We are currently fixing the standings, so that you do not have to be signed in or a registered user to view the current standings)

Be Sociable, Share!

•