Christmas in Kandahar

Today is the date that gives the name to my blog. To me December 25th is not significant in and of itself as a holiday but rather represents something more significant about military deployments. It symbolizes what makes military servicemen and servicewomen different from their civilian counterparts, namely sacrifice of the very comforts and freedoms they signed up to defend. On some level the ability for American citizens to have elaborate holidays and spend time with family members rests upon someone giving up that right. I am not talking about giving up one holiday to work/be away from family because after all, people cannot always travel to be with family for the holidays and many people actually have to work. I mean being willing to spend long periods of time away from home in order to do a job, a dangerous one at that. Deployment of course has been a fact in the military, particularly the Navy since their inception. However until the past eight year, deployment to a war zone for an extended tour relatively rare. Now a substantial portion of the population will have experienced six months to 12 months away from home in Southwest Asia. How that will shape our country in long run remains to be seen.
It cannot be overlooked that the vast majority of fighting forces here in Kandahar have customs based on Judeo-Christian beliefs. As such, Christmas is a significant holiday for most of the fighting forces. That is not so for the TCNs here who easily match the military forces in number. That makes for an intersting contrast for a few days here.
The American Forces make every attempt to bring a festive atmosphere to the base for Christmas. The amount of Christmas packages alone is staggering. Entire C5 aircraft are dedicated to bringing in mail. The post office has had to resort to asking for volunteers to help unload the pallets. Recently 34 pallets (capable of carrying 10,000 lbs each) arrived with mail for the holidays. Of note, service members are not just receiving a gift here and there from immediate family members. A reservist co-worker of mine received 19 packages from co-workers from his civilian job. In fact all of the US commands here receive an abundance of mail and packages from concerned/greatful citizens on a regular basis. Candy, snacks, and toiletries are the most common contents of these packages. In the middle of the night last night, stockings filled with just such items were dropped off in front of the barracks rooms of members of my regiment in a move organized by concerned citizens back home. Christmas meals are being served throughout the day at the DFACs. Each NATO member country seems to have reserved a DFAC for several hours for their troops to have a ahared Christmas dinner. As is apparently the case with every aspect of this war, no expense was spared.
For me being away from home for the holidays this year will no doubt make me appreciate future holidays when I can spend time with my family. When I do that I also know that my thoughts will be with those who cannot enjoy that luxury as I hope yours are.
Merry Christmas from Kandahar.

Food on Base

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" Of course that old adage needs can be adapted to my current circumstances "The best way to keep a service man or woman happy is through his or her stomach." There is lots of truth to that statement. Morale is directly linked to the availability of warm food and the quality of that food. A significant portion of discontentment that is noted at the end of a field exercise for example can be attributed to the meal situation.
The government has taken the rations issue to heart and allegedly
spends $90 per day per soldier on food here in theatre. Large bases
like Kandahar benefit more than smaller forward operating bases due to
being closer to the supply chain. Kandahar Air Field (KAF) boasts
four (and a half) dining halls. These facilities are free to service
members and all contractors on base. Unlike Iraq and Kuwait where the
food is the same regardless of the dining hall you visit, here on KAF
the dining halls have culinary themes. 'The Cambridge' features
cuisine from the UK, 'Niagara' has American/Canadian food, 'The
Luxembourg' has mainland European food, and the 'Asian DFAC' features
of course Asian food.
It is not hard to predict that most troops tend to gravitate towards
the DFAC that features the cuisine they are used to back home. The
Asian DFAC is a draw for the Third Country Nationals (TCN) on base and
those seeking stir-fry. (As an aside the title TCN is meant to be a
PC term for hired laborers. These workers are mainly from the
Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. They perform food
service tasks, laundry, housekeeping, and sewage jobs.) A menu is
sent out weekly via email to all personnel on base. Depending on the
day and meal time you can enjoy such dishes as Beef Bourginone, Lamb
Jhalfhrezi, Makhani Dal, Chicken and Fresh Mushrooms, or Prawn Chow
Mien. The American food is frequently an uninspired Burger with Fries
or BBQ Beef. In each DFAC you will have several entrée choices and a
soup and salad to chose from not to mention several deserts. Of
course the enticing names of the food can't really detract from the
fact that the meet is poor quality and everything is smothered in some
sort of generic sauce. In addition, the serving sizes are large and
you can tell that there is not an emphasis on calorie counting.
Unless you are intensely physically active (like soldiers out in the
field) you can easily gain weight (see picture). Four meals are
offered per day. The fourth meal time is 'midnight rations' for those
on night shift or night owls.
As I mentioned before, this base is significantly overmanned (and with
the recent announcement of troop increases it will be even more so in
the upcoming year) and this reality is most evident in the DFACs.
Overcrowding is rampant and utensil shortages are not uncommon.
However, with a little research peak times can be avoided and with a
little forethought you can stock up on items that can spare you a trip
to the DFAC for a meal every now and then.
Ultimately, despite all of the complaints listed above, the eating is
great here for military standards. I would rather be here than out on
a small FOB eating meals-ready-to-eat (MREs).

Communications with Home

I am writing this as I am on hold with a Neiman Marcus representative back in the USA. As I am waiting I am entering my 5th minute on holdI am hoping that this call will not cut off after 20 minutes as is frequently the case when making what is called a 'morale call' back the States on the Defense Switched Network (DSN). DSN is basically a military telephone network. The purpose of the 20 minute cutoff is of course to allow the largest number of troops to call home on this free network. DSN telephones are not readily available with most phones being located in the offices of important ranking officials. Unfortunately that means that the lower your rank, the less likely you will have access to this free service. That is an issue because a) a junior service member might need more contact with home (due to inexperience/lack or previous deployments) and b) they have less income to spend on telephone charges.
One alternative to DSN in theatre is calling card call (AT&T or SPAWAR) used at a phone bank. With the AT&T card you are getting 1/3 the minutes you paid for e.g. a 550 minute phone card gives you 180 minutes. The call quality is hit or miss with frequent echoes and dropped calls. Also, the calling centers are invariably converted shipping containers where you sometimes have to talk over 20 other folks making calls. The cubicles are full of graffiti and the phones are beat up. I'm sure a large part of the communicable diseases here can be traced back to the phones.
A third alternative to call home is to get a local cell phone. The local vendors will issue prepaid calling cards to go with the phones which have Afghan telephone numbers. Texting someone in the states costs 50 cents per text so you can imagine the minute charge for voice calls. I had a patient last year in Iraq who had a $900 monthly cell phone bill! Rumor has it that the cell phone company has Taliban ties and that they can essentially monitor cell phone communications.
Given the time difference with the US (9.5-12.5) hours the evenings and nights are the busiest call times here. It is not uncommon for the lines to be jammed so you have to try many times to get through and the likelihood of a dropped call is high.
A final method of communication is Skype. Despite our poor internet connection speed (64-128kb/s download; 32-64kb/s upload) one is able to do video calls with home during off peak times. The image is grainy and prone to getting bogged down but it nonetheless offers the ability to see family once in a while. Voice over Skype works well. Mind you, internet is not universally available on the Kandahar Air Field and is virtually non-existent on the smaller bases.
Of note, most communications (aside from cell phones) are one-way i.e. family members back home cannot reliably call the service member when they need to. That brings up the issue of whether instant communications is a benefit or detriment to the war effort. Already the military has to enforce a communications blackout for 12-24 hours after a US fatality so that news of the death does not reach family (via instant communications) before the military has the chance to make the formal announcement. What I see as a problem for some soldiers is being expected (self-generated or generated by family back home) to communicate daily. When the long work day ends here (depending on your job and location it may never end) the day in the US is just beginning and soldier may be expected to switch hats from forward-deployed war fighter to spouse, significant other, extended family financial supporter. In that role they often need to tackle problems back home from bills, to home maintenance, to relationship problems. The psychic toll of not being able to unwind at the end of the day can be significant. In fact the majority of 'combat stress' cases I saw in Iraq last year were not combat related at all but rather 'home-front' stressors.
Could fights and stress be reduced if folks had to wait to weeks to exchange correspondence? Would people back home be more independent if they couldn't rely on daily communications from the deployed family member? Would writing a letter (instead of an instant message or a phone call) lead to less conflict by eliminating impulsivity?