a belgian submariner and afghanistan

We arrived here around midnight local time, about 9 hours after departing Kansas, for some fuel and crew change-out, and beer. I thought we'd be stopping in Ireland but the beer in Germany is just as good no matter what time it is. The flight so far has been pretty smooth, every one of us had two seats to spread out and try and make ourselves as comfortable as possible. I saw a couple movies, the one with The Rock as a quarterback who takes custody of some little girl ( a disney movie so not that great) and one with Juliette Binoche and Steve Carrell, not bad. Food was your typical airline food with plenty of seconds for anyone who desired some, plenty to drink but no alcoholic beverages (but I am having a few at the airport!).
We have another 3000 miles to go before we reach Kyrgystan and we should get there around lunchtime. The plan once we get there is to wait around for a military flight into Kabul, probably a couple days at most.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get another beer!

As I finally get to leave Kansas tonight I thought I'd reflect on the past few months. This all started on 17 October, 2007, had it started a couple weeks earlier things could be a little different.
I happened to be on vacation in Europe after quitting my first post-Navy job and before starting my second, so I was technically unemployed and would have hated to find out what would have happened had I reported to my new employer on 10 October with the news that I had to report shortly back to the Navy for a period of one year! Instead, I had been at my new job for one whole week, one I was looking forward to doing (as opposed to my first job) and where my co-workers were young (most around my age, and I am still young!) and fun to be around (as opposed to my first job), when during lunchtime on 17 October I received that ill-fated phone call. It went something like "Is this LT Betanoff? This is PS1 Mammana to inform you you have been tagged for involuntary recall. You must report to NAS Andrews in 4 weeks."
After some confusion (what does tagged mean, was I recalled or not?), it became apparent to me that as the person on the other end of the line was going through a bevy of questions (do you need a will, how about household good storage, medical, dental), yes, I had been recalled.
And so I reported to Andrews the week of Thanksgiving during which time I took care of medical and dental issues. I had four crowns installed in my mouth and let me tell you, worse pain I have yet to feel. I just about jumped out of the chair when the dentist pressed the crowns unto the exposed nerve of my teeth. How I did not faint is beyond me and I will definitely request to be numbed in the future and not try to play it tough.
The week of 26 November I was in San Diego, sunny but rather chilly. Nothing much happened there other than taking care of admin and medical issues, I was almost declared not physically qualified because of some headaches I have on occasion but I figured that I had made all these preparation to be gone for one year and wasn't going to let the Navy send me back after a couple weeks. I was so busy during that week that I had time to go see Shamu, and get wet, and eat at In 'n Out burger on a couple occasions.
I then showed up at Fort Riley, smack dab in the middle of beautiful and exciting Kansas, for our Army training that would prepare us to mentor the Afghan National Army. That was meant to be our mission but things have since changed and what we'll be doing over in Afghanistan is a mystery to all of us. Anyway, we learned to shoot various weapons, drive humvees, learn some basic Dari, identify IEDs, and some other training that wasn't too exciting and pretty much worthless. We also had to endure one of the alleged coldest winters Kansas has experienced in quite some years, to include an ice storm which was quite cold but made for great pictures.
I spent two weeks around Christmas and New Year's thawing out in Miami with my parents and younger brother, and was quite grateful for that time, then back to frigid and boring Kansas for more training. I went back to the DC area for Martin Luther King, Jr week-end and spent President's Day week-end in Austin, TX. We completed training a few days ago, it seems that the 60 days of training could have been compressed into probably 30, and that would have been a lot better because even with only one day off a week there is literally nothing to do for entertainment in Manhattan, KS, the town outside Fort Riley.
So now we are off later tonight, drawing our weapons around midnight then mustering in a building where we'll wait for busses to take us to the airport. The chartered plane (North American airlines) is scheduled to leave Topeka, KS at 0530 on Sunday, possibly stop in Gandor, New Foundland for fuel, definitely stop in Ireland for more fuel (and some beers!) then on to Manas air base, Kyrgystan. After a few day there we'll fly a military plane down to Kabul, spend a few more days there before being sent out to various bases around Afghanistan. I am slated to go to Herat, in the western part, but anything could change at any time.
Anyway, a new exciting part to my life begins. I will be looking to save up as much money as possible to buy me a home when I get back to Virginia, and I should have a few rugs to put in it!