Linking Up with the 1^st LAR

May 22, 2010

FOB Payne, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

6:10am

After 72 hours of traveling, we arrived at Forward Operating Base Payne in pain.

Television has come a long way as far as the size and bulk of our technology goes, but when you’re carrying cameras, computers, satellites and tripods from plane to plane, chopper to chopper through 100 degree weather… running only on naps… suddenly paring down to 11 total pieces of professional and personal luggage doesn’t seem so impressive anymore. Especially not when you’re also wearing body armor and a helmet.

We were excited when we saw we were flying south on an Osprey.  Rick Leventhal and I were the first broadcast team to report from on board an Osprey flight in Iraq, back in 2007.  It is always a thrill when the rotors turn and the bird-plane blasts off, turning a chopper lift off into a plane take-off in mid-air.

Working on board the Osprey were two guys who go to the same church back home in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  The flight aerial observer, Jake Korkian is a youth pastor at Crossroads Christian Fellowship. The Osprey crew chief Brian Freeman is a Sunday school teacher there.  When we landed the two guys took a moment to wave hello to our cameras. The video is embedded on this page (above).

After a series of technical and logistical problems that forced us to take all of our equipment on and off three different Ospreys, we finally made it to the 1^st Light Armored Division’s Area of Operation. But we were not done humping our gear yet… we had to take it all out of the Osprey, up a hill to Forward Operating Base Kanashin and then back down the hill to a truck for a 45 minute convoy to FOB Payne.  There was some nervousness expressed about convoying, due to fears of roadside bombs. But I was too tired to worry about it. I fell asleep in the back of the vehicle. I woke up when we arrived at Payne.

Friday, May 21, 2010

6:30am Camp Bastion, Afghanistan

We were packed like sardines on the C-130 flights from Kabul through Kandahar to the British base in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, last night.  In full body armor, we sat on canvas benches alongside civilian contractors and NATO troops from various countries.  Space is so tight, you have to interlock knees with the people sitting across from you, forming a zigzag zipper formation with your legs.

I sat next to a Danish soldier who was returning to Afghanistan after a couple weeks of R&R in Denmark.  This is his tenth tour. Two of those tours were back to back and his decision to stay in theater destroyed his marriage.  His now ex-wife, who works in finance, wanted him to come home and get a desk job.  But he couldn’t, saying “that just isn’t me”.  He said “THIS is me.”  For many troops, serving in the Middle East for months on end during these ongoing conflicts are driving a wedge between their careers and their personal lives… another casualty of war.

We arrived at Camp Bastion, which is attached to the Marine base Camp Leatherneck, at 1:30am.  We were greeted by a couple of guys from the public affairs officer’s office who told us we had an early flight and it would be best to just catch a few Z’s along side the flight line for a few hours, instead of wasting time driving to Leatherneck.  So much for midnight chow! (I’d heard Leatherneck has one of the best mess halls, and I was looking forward to it.)

We were taken to a building made of plywood where various troops were sprawled out asleep on all the cots.  So we spent the night sleeping outside on wooden benches made of widely spaced 2 x 4s. Planes, choppers and Ospreys took off and landed all around us all night.

This is where we slept, outside along the flight line at Camp Bastion

Nervous that I mis-set my iPhone alarm, I woke up early. Unable to get comfortable on the 2×4s again, I looked to the ground to put on my ink stained boots.  Yesterday, our London based photographer Mal James wrote to remind me to put my blood type and penicillin allergy on my boots, just in case something happens and I’m unable to speak with a medic. Because I don’t have dog tags, my name and blood type is also on my flak jacket and helmet.

Blood type and allergy warning on my boots

It’s now 8:30am. Rick, Keith and I just split a breakfast of champions: a peanut butter granola bar and a coconut and chocolate candy bar.  Today’s the day we link up with the 1^st LAR. We met many of them in March during their training at Twenty-nine Palms in California.  I’m excited to see them again.