21 April Update From Afghanistan

Life continues to move along with the various construction projects, dust storms, smell and occasional rocket attack. Due to the massive rains and yep I thought they were massive, the new perimeter fence project was delayed, however will still be finished by 10 May so I still roll out the gate daily to check on the progress and ensure that there are no questions from the contractors.

As you are aware I'm also the POC (point of contact) for all of the T-Barriers (large concrete T-walls) which come onto the base. The deliveries of T-Barriers tend to occupy a lot of my time due to the shear size of the order and how slow they are to offload and place. We struggle daily with the contractors as we strive to get them to place the T-Barriers where we want them rather than just in a big pile. So here I am managing Fence projects, T-Barriers and a massive Gravel order (180,000 Cubic Meters).

Anyway the other day I had just returned from checking on the perimeter fence (off base) and decided to quickly drive over to check on one of our T-Barrier contractors. My escort and I proceeded to drive to the location where these barriers were to be placed just to notice that the contractor was in the process of placing them in a different area. Sometimes it is simply frustrating as how do we communicate over and over things just to have them ignored. So I walk up to the contractor and quickly strived to explain that the barriers were not meant to go here but rather over there as I point and use hand signals to get across my directions. The contractor was basically ignoring my directions as it was easier for him to place them where they were versus where I needed the barriers.

All of the sudden my Marine escort says hey I think we forgot to clear your M-9s (handguns) when we came through the entry control point. We always lock and load our weapons when we leave with the knowledge to clear our weapons when we return. We had taken care of our M-4s (rifles) but had forgotten our side arms. So I turned away from the contractor and proceeded to eject my magazine and the round in the chamber as we are taught over and over. Having finished I replaced my side arm in its holster and turned around to re-engage with the contractor who was wide eyed and all of the sudden very cooperative. He basically had no idea whether I was clearing my weapon or loading it for him and thus it scared him a bit.

So, we were able to get our T-Barriers placed in the positions we needed with no further problems. Later my Marine escort and I talked about it and realized that the clearing of our weapons had to have been the reason for the sudden cooperation and laughed a bit about it. I can only imagine the contractor's thoughts as he sees us pull out our sidearms and all he hears is a racking of the slide assuming we are loading when in reality we were doing the opposite. We however won't let them in on our secret since it got the results we wanted. Thus life goes on with its occasional interesting tidbits and the days are flying by.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon. Love Lincoln