Friday morning

On my way to drop off my laundry, not much else to do right now but
find new pictures to take from around Camp Phoenix, and with the
scenery around here sunrises and sunsets are always good candidates.
I have never felt as close to being an inmate in a correctional
facility as I do now, trapped in a compound with high walls and
concertina wire and guard shacks, very limited activities available,
spending most of my time on my bunk doing what an inmate might do,
listen to music, read, play games, and that's about it. Oh, I could
also spend 1 hour a day working out as an inmate would but I live out
of my seabags right now until we finally make it to Herat (scheduled
for sunday) so I don't want to unpack and get more dirty laundry than
I have to. The only consolation is that the days spent here count
towards my boots on ground counter but if I am as bored as I am now
it'll be a very looooong 9 months!
Anyway, here are some more pictures (another way to spend my quality
time here).

departure for Herat

Our departure for Herat has been delayed by two days to Sunday 2
March, 2008. This is most likely due to the unavailability of air
assets, not that I mind staying in Camp Phoenix a little longer as I
have nothing to do here yet my days spent here count towards my boots
on ground counter. I added a 270 day countdown to a calendar I have
and Day 270 falls on 20 November, 2008. It's never too early to look
at the end, but as you can imagine the happiness factor right now is
fairly low. What is the happiness factor you ask? You divide the
number of days already spent on deployment by the number of days
remaining on deployment, it starts at 0 and goes to infinity. As it
gets higher, I will be happier until I become ecstatic, not quite the
case right now!

the newspaper that never gets old

We've been carrying this paper around to take pictures in as many
places as possible (look at the headline)

camp phoenix sunrise

I woke up this morning and was on my way to answer nature's call when
I saw a few people taking pictures of the sky. I looked in the
direction they were shooting and went back to get my camera, nature
could wait a little longer. The problem with nature calls is that
because of the elevation here, if I don't stay hydrated I get this
painful headaches. Luckily there is free bottled water (tap water is
not safe for human consumption) readily available throughout the
camp. The only negative aspect is having to wake up a few times in
the night. Luckily the weather is quite pleasant and I am able to
walk outside in shorts and a t-shirt. And it is even nicer during the
day, sunny with blue skies, temperatures in the 60's.
Link to the sunrise:

http://flickr.com/photos/ericbeta/sets/72157603997801688/

greetings from camp phoenix, kabul, afghanistan

I arrived here on Tuesday after a comfortable ride in a C-17, a
fairly lengthy length at the airport, and a short ride in a bus right
out of Mad Max. Kabul is surrounded by humongous mountains, and there
is very little vegetation. Other than that, I haven't seen too much
of Kabul and I am leaving on Friday for Herat, near the Iranian border.
I have included a link below to pictures I have uploaded on flickr.
What you'll see are pictures of the sunrise from Manas, our luxurious
plane ride to Kabul International airport (flying in a windowless is
an interesting experience, and as you'll see the lights turned red
when to indicate we entered Afghan airspace and had to remain in our
seats, the landing was also interesting and fun), the bus that took
us to Camp Phoenix from the airport (a 15 min ride), and a few
pictures from Camp Phoenix.
Internet in Herat will be near dial-up speeds so it might be a while
before I can share more pictures. Like I said, you'll want to jump on
the first flight to Afghanistan after seeing the pictures, or you can
join the Navy reserves!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericbeta/sets/72157603998505359/

Note: blog update sent via e-mail, you might have to highlight the
link and paste it in your favorite browser.

Moving on to Kabul

We woke up around 0430 to load our bags on palettes that will go onto our military flight to Kabul, then offload them to reload them again. Such is the military way I am accustomed to by now. We are scheduled to depart Manas around 1000 and should arrive in Kabul a couple hours later. Manas isn't all that exciting, landscape is fairly impressive though, flat to the north with huge mountains to the south, part of the Himalayas I believe.
Anyway, more to follow from Kabul and/or Herat, where I am scheduled to be.

journey to manas

The link below includes a few pictures taken between Topeka, Kansas and Manas, Kyrgyzstan, with a layover in Leipzig, Germany for fuel, crew change-out and beers.
What you'll see is us leaving a wintry Kansas, flying over one of the great lakes (Lake Michigan?) with some ice partially covering said lake, spending a few hours in Leipzig sipping the aforementioned beer, having a bad view of the sunrise as it was right in front of us, seeing many mountains and weird landscapes, tracking the shadow of the plane as we landed, and a few shots from the air base and sunset.

pictures