BRB

Well I'm heading out for a bit - be back before you know it. Pretty much the first question everyone asks on learning this is "how do you feel" or "are you excited" so here's how I feel: excited.

This is after all what I signed up to do. Out of the five other people I shared a room with at TBS (to pick a random sample of newish Marines) I'm the first to get to go, and I feel lucky to have the opportunity. I think we are doing far more good than harm in Afghanistan, both for Afghans and for our own interests, and I hope we can maintain our initiative there long enough to make our positive impact a durable one. I respect others' opinions but that's mine.

A little background info: I'll be in the 'stan for 13 months or so, arriving around the end of this week. Things will be intense at first but should ease up after a few months. I'll be in Helmand province, which is in southern Afg where the recent push in Marjah took place.


Hopefully I'll be arriving just in time to have the Pesach Seder in country. A Rabbi comes several times a year for the holidays, but when he's not there I've volunteered to be a Jewish lay leader, which will help keep me connected to my Judaism in a place not overflowing with Yiddishkeit.

Things I'm having a hard time imagining:

• no weekends for a year. war's a 24/7 kind of thing, apparently.
• the wind of 120 days
• life without my car
• missing the 2010 season (and #28)

Things I plan to do in my free time:

• Learn some Pashto
• Eat some authentic Afghan cuisine
• Finish my book
  
• Start a Kandahar branch of jdate

Things I'll do when I get back:

• Take a one month vacation
• Take a two month shower
• Rock the House harder
  
• Volunteer for a MEU (not right away)

Best show on TV

Many of you have generously asked how you can send me stuff while I'm there. I'll have all the basic necessities and then some, but if you think a tin of home-made cookies will raise my morale and that of my friends, you're probably on to something. My address:

2ndLt Me
MWHS-3 Det A (G-3)
Unit 41007
FPO AP 96427-1007

Packages take 3-6 weeks to arrive I'm told. Letters take from a few days up to ten. As for what to send me - use your imagination. The more personal it is, the better.

You can send me "instant" letters via www.motomail.us. I think this is more for Marines who don't have regular access to e-mail, which I should have, but hey if you want to use it, go nuts. Someone in Afg prints your message and it gets delivered to me like regular mail.

My cell will be shut off for the next year. If you call it you should get forwarded to a voicemail service which I'll be checking, but we'll see if that all works like it's supposed to.

I think that's about it. I'll post again next chance I get!

No better friend, no worse enemy.