Merry Christmas Kelly, Taylor and Turner

Merry Christmas Kelly, Taylor and Turner. I miss you very, very much and wish I could be home to wake up with you on Christmas morning. Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers every minute today, and I love you very, very much.

I hope you like your presents Taylor. I love you buddy!

Christmas Eve Story

On Christmas Eve, COL Dolieslager read a WWII inspired message about what it's like serving America away from home over Christmas. It was really good.

Christmas Decorations

Thanks to a young female Army Sergeant, our office looks very Christmas-y

My Birthday

For my birthday, our director bought two cakes at the Serena Hotel Bakery plus, my boss had his mother send a cake from Illinois. I was also sung to via speaker phone from other ATFC workers at Bagram. Everyone in the office also signed a card.

ISAF Cat

One of many cats on our base. They are all well fed and will be depressed when we eventually leave because they won't be treated as well among the Afghans.

Office

Here is a long shot of our Admin office. That's me in the back corner.

Jared Donnelly and Afghan Kids Doing Push Ups

When we walk to Camp Eggers, we are swarmed by kids selling things and asking for things like food, etc. One night, one of my coworkers (Coast Guard Intelligence Specialist Second Class (IS2) Jared Donnelly) said he would give the kids Pepsi's if they did push ups with him on the sidewalk of the street. They did and he awarded them with the delicious soft drink! Jared left Afghanistan 15 December and will eventually join his wife and two Boston Terrier dogs at his new assignment in New Mexico

Me in the Office

Here I am trying to save the world and end the war one PowerPoint presentation and a chocolate mocha frappe at a time!

Kelly's Christmas Gifts

Kelly sent me some Charlie Brown Christmas window clings. We also discovered they stick to doors and used them to decorate our SCIF door. SCIF stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.

Christmas Tree

Nice having a Christmas tree and lights in front of my desk by the window!

Good Morning America

On 8 December, Good Morning America broadcast their morning news show live on our base. I watched some of the broadcast take place (about 100 feet from my office) and took some photos of George Stephanopoulis. The news crew was in Afghanistan for about four days doing various stories.

Army/Navy T-Shirts

On 11 December, we celebrated the Army/Navy game by making up some t-shirts. The back of the shirt reads, "When Army Strong Isn't Strong Enough. U.S. NAVY!" We wore these shirts with our regular uniform pants off and on during the day of the game which was broadcast at midnight (Afghanistan time).

Me and our Civilian Leaders

Here is me with our two civilian leaders: Left of me is Frank Calestino (with the beard), our deputy director and Treasury Dept. representative. To the right of me with the reindeer antlers is our director, Kirk Meyer, a DEA agent from Chicago. Kirk has been in Afghanistan four years and will leave July 2011. Frank has been here two years (Iraq for two years prior to Afghanistan) and will also leave July 2011. Two very smart people! Frank has an MBA from Georgetown (and was also working on a PhD at Georgetown). Kirk knows everyone in Afghanistan and really needs to write a book about his experiences here. I've been in a hundred briefings with these guys and every one is still interesting and amazing.

Coworkers

Here are some people I work with that include, front left to right: Florencia and Kirk Meyer and back left to right: Mitch Neal, Jim Gehringer, Ryan McDonald, Brian Johnson, Lacy and Dominick. Our department is a mix of military and civilian employees from various government agencies including DEA, FBI, and the Treasury Dept.

ISAF Gym Challenge Shirt

Every month, ISAF has a fitness challenge where one can earn a t-shirt either by participating or by earning it via a score. I earned this one doing a bunch of exercises that included a stationary bike, sit-ups, side box jumps, bench presses, shoulder presses, box step ups, treadmill run, and rowing under a certain time. My time for this one was 21:53. It's called the gym challenge and it's held every two months.

Welcome Winter!

Well this is our first big snowfall and it is only December 5th! I caught Taylor and Turner outside as Taylor was snow blowing the driveway. Turner was happy to be out in the snow and especially happy to find something to smell. It doesn't take much to make the dog happy! Not sure how Taylor is feeling about doing the snow blowing.

Aerial View of Kabul

As you can see from these three photos, the air quality isn't too good in Kabul.