OCD and Christmas!

I had been meaning to put this post in. It seems that Deb B from St B. sent us a FST Gingerbread Kit for Christmas. And well...as all good OCD people would do, my "peep" got just a little carried away with the project and build a whole FOB with the FST as the center point. GOOD GRIEF!!! But it was a pretty amazing creation!!  Pics is of the "FOB" and the two "Construction Engineers" in charge of the project.

Christmas in Qalat, Zabul Provience Afghanistan

Well it is Christmas day today and well actually it is Christmas eve now!  We had a pretty good Christmas, about as good as it can get out here I guess. A Christmas party with a lot of peeps, some gift giving and some nice weather.  Got to watch the "kids" open their presents. Again, not the same as being home with family and friends..but yes I would say it is close.

Getting ready for Christmas

Well it is getting close. We had one casualty today but fortunately not to injured.  We are also getting ready for the festive day! Pics show decorating group hard at work.

The View from Above

This last trip to APACHE we got to fly over with DUSTOFF, which is definitely the way to go! It is a short trip but the view was most excellent. As I have said before there is a definite beauty to this area.

Kids and the Holidays

Well, I had to post this pic of two of our Corpsman as we were getting ready to take our Christmas picture.  You do have to love it!  They are such a great group.

Its beginning to look a lot like....

Well yes…Christmas. Even with all that’s going on, people are still getting into the holidays. Pics are of our Corpsman opening up a Christmas decoration box from the USO (you have to love it), and the second is the Corpsman in front of all the boxes that my hospital at home sent out.  They sent out like 20+ boxes of stuff plus another 4 boxes of gingerbread FST that we can make. We will have to see how that turns out.

 

Change of Commands

There has been a lot of activity lately. Mostly it is the units here ripping out and their change of Commands. Two of significance for us are Task Force Arrowhead ripping out and the Romanian units here changing also. Picture is of the TOA for the Romanian 2nd Mountain Brigade and its CO giving an award to Gen Abrams.

The Army: Task Force Arrowhead

 

I know I keep making comparisons to Bastion and well here is another. Our relationship with the Combat entity here is much tighter than it was at Bastion. It may be the more "small town" nature of things out here. But whatever it is we are tight with the Army units out here, and I think that is good.  Picture if of the Task Force Deputy Commander giving the TF coin to our most junior enlisted at the FST (every one of the FST got a coin). He was a very strong supporter of our mission here.

Dogs are Fun Too

Recurrent theme out here seems to be the work dogs. They are definitely special and yes offer everyone some dog therapy. We can get to go down and see them train but their trainers also bring them up to the FST. Kind of like dog therapy but not for the patients.  Pic is of Bosco on one of those trips. He so loves to play tug of war. Not that he is a really BIG dog. Corpsman is putting everything into it and still not wining.