Junior is leaving for Afghanistan.

Ram,
How about an update on how your son is doing?

 

Sorry, I haven't visited the Forum recently.
Junior is home on leave at the moment, he arrived Sept. 1st and will return on Tuesday 14th. I picked him up at the military terminal at Gardermoen Airport and drove him to the camp where he had his car parked. He has been visiting his mother and other relatives so far, but he will arrive at my place tonight.

Except for being fired at from a distance a couple of times, the trip has been uneventful so far, in average one patrol per week and escorting convoys now and then.

He has taken a lot of pictures he says, I hope he will share them with us.
The one below is taken when he arrived at the airport.

 

That's good news! Hope the rest of his tour goes as well!
I hope you get to spend a great deal of time with your son on his leave.

My youngest is in Afghanistan now, also. I've heard from him once, he's in Helmand Province on detatched duty with the British. We really spent a lot of time with him and enjoyed his pre-deployment leave. Unfortunately, at the moment the wife is not dealing well with Ryan being deployed.



The wife and son's on Ryan's pre-deployment leave. L to R, Ryan, Wife, Chris. Ryan is in Afghanistan, Chris served in Iraq.

 

RAM, my friend, how are things going with Junior? This has been a bad month in Afghanistan and I have tought of you often and wondered how your son was doing. I haven't heard from mine in at least two weeks, probably closer to three.

 

Hopefully both are doing well didn´t heard good things from my mates at there!
All the luck to your boys!!!

 

Thank you. Do you still have mates in country? If so what part? Would you care to share their take on the situation? It varies so from area to area.

 

Hi, my mates are up in the north in the province of Baghlan. They had some sort of strong activities from the Talibans. Some are saying it is like in Vietnam, A enemy that you couldn´t see and a lot of boobie-traps and ambushes, no rules and all at day temperatures of more than 50°C!
Others are at an other place and had losses by an suicide bomber.
All in all it seems that the Talibans would show more presence.

 

Add another to the prayer list. Hes gonna be in mine.

 

Hello again and thanks for your concern. I haven't been around for a while now, I had problems with the forum, it was sort of unstable. I tried to upload some pictures but I ended up getting my computer locked every time. Now I see there is a new design and I will give it another try.

Junior was on leave about a month ago and he's now back in Afghaniatan on the last leg of his tour of duty. It has been comparatively calm, even if they have been fired at from a distance regularly on their patrols they have not been attacked directly. They have also experienced a couple of IEDs, with no casualties and only minor damage to the vehicles however.

I will upload one image and see if it works, it shows my son at the firing range outside their compound.

EDIT: Looks like it didn't work this time either......

 

Looks like it worked this time, I had to crop the pics below 1 MB!
The picture to the left shows the situation after what was probably a remote controlled IED went off when they passed by. They are driving at 50-55 mph on the highway, which makes it difficult to calculate the timing for setting off the device so the explosion will hit one of the vehicles.
The cars to left are civilian cars belonging to afghans and they barely escaped the explosion, my son is still sitting in the vehicle taking pictures from the driver's position.
The one in the middle shows the vehicle he's driving, it's a Finnish Sisu AWD terrain vehicle. The long bar up-front is a wire cutter.
The last picture to the right shows my son at the firing range outside the compound.

 

Good to hear that your son is doing well! As i see they have mounted wire deflectors, very usefull accessoir at there.

 

Thanks for the pics RAM and glad to know your son is doing well. I haven't heard from mine but a couple of times, his brother got to chat with him on Facebook one day and we have recieved maybe three e-mails. The last one on Novenber 13th contained this; "Last month was really bad for 3/5 and thats why i havent been able to contact yall for awhile. We tend to go into River City alot here so if you dont hear from me for awhile dont get worried. Well I love and miss you all. Talk to you soon."
I wasn't really sure where River City was, I did an internet search and it's not a place, it's a thing.
Here:
You won't find 'River City' on a map in Afghanistan – Afghanistan Crossroads - CNN.com Blogs
Here:
Unholyland News: River City

 

I believe the full name of that little berg is Sh*t River City

ask your kid if his Bn. Sgt. Major is named Cruz; David Cruz

 

As the articles state "River City" is a communications blackout to prevent family members from finding out there loved one has been killed or wounded.

Here are a couple of articles/photo essays that show why being in "River City" sucks. Not because you can't communicate with family and friends but because your friends and comrades are hurt or dead.
Photographer flies with medevac team in Afghanistan - World news - South and Central Asia - Afghanistan - msnbc.com

Battle Rattle - A Marine Corps Times Blog

 

I hope I won't embarrass him, but I'd like to give a pat on the back to a fellow forum member, Roger/Biak. In the finest traditions of the civilian on the homefront supporting the soldier in the field, he volunteered to send mail to my son and his fellow Marines in Afghanistan. He recently sent a care package to a young Marine LCpl. whose name I gave him. I heard from this young man today on Facebook and he posted a picture of himself in the 'Stan. I thought I'd like to share the picture with Roger so he could see the Marine he's supporting and to thank a good man (Roger) for doing a good thing.

 

So, finally junior returned from his service in Afghanistan, luckily the unit managed to return home without casualties. During a ceremony in a hangar at Gardermoen Airport last Friday he and his fellow soldiers were awarded medals for their service. Unfortunately I went down with a swineflu last week but I managed to get on my feet to watch the ceremony, with fever and a running nose, I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Despite all the cheering and welcome-home commotion, my son said it felt like a sort of a downturn to return to ordinary duty. It's strange, when the mental stress and the ordeal is over you kind of miss it.

 

Glad the young 'un is home safe and sound from the tour.