If anyone is interested how Scar is doing, I got an email from him last week and he asked me to post a section to the board. Someone please tell 42 and Brenna about this post, so they can come read it if they want.
Ethan Skarstedt
Firebase Gereshk, Afghanistan
06 November 2003
Hey All. I thought it might be appropriate to write a small missive to everyone letting you all know how I am doing here in Afghanistan among the rocks, boulders, mountains, dirt and dirt farmers.
I'm at a firebase outside a town called Gereshk in central southern Afghanistan. Our living conditions are better than could reasonably be expected. There are actual buildings, built to order by the locals from mud and sticks, behind the mud walls (3-4 feet thick), the triple strand concertina wire, claymores and trip flares and the local AMF (Afghan Militia Force) on the outer perimeter. It's better than it sounds as there are cement floors, the walls are painted and there are air-conditioning units in each. The ac units, however, have just passed the point of usefulness this year. It gets downright chilly at night and is comfortable rather than hot during the day. It has yet to rain during my stay here, even once. When the wind picks up the dust flys and you can barely see twenty meters. That doesn't happen too often though.
The food is actually quite good. Being with the Special Forces is great when it comes to food as they hire locals to buy and cook food for them. This means that we get fresh eggs and vegetables from Gereshk and Raouf, the cook, is downright expert at cooking the frozen and drypacked food that gets shipped in to us when the supply helicopter makes it out to us. He'll even cook the bacon for us, though he won't eat it himself, being Muslim and all. It's Ramadan right now, which is a month long religious holiday Muslims observe, during which they fast all day, from sunup to sundown, and feast after dark. Raouf makes a rice dish, with saffron and raisins, that is absolutely amazing as part of the feast for himself, the interpreters and the workers and he will occasionally slip me a bowl. I keep trying to remember to get the recipe.
There's a pelican wandering around the firebase. It's pink. It was a gift from a local warlord to the green berets that were here before the current ones. Odd I know, we're in the middle of the desert in a landlocked country and there's a pelican wandering around. Up until a week ago it spent all its time in a cage because we didn't know what to do with it. Last week we just opened the cage door and it bolted out into the yard only to discover that its wings were too weak to fly. It spends its time flapping and chasing the cats now. I expect that one day soon we'll wake up and find it gone. I wish it luck making it to the ocean without getting shot and eaten. Que sera sera.
We've lost one man from our firebase since I've been here. Last week he and his team were up north and they got into a firefight with some Taliban. He was using the radio to call the rest of the team and arrange for the Air Force to rain destruction on the heads of the bad guys when he took a round through the forehead. He died instantly leaving behind a wife and two children. Please keep them in your prayers, as well as the families of the others who have died over here trying too keep us all safe at home. Don't worry about the bad guys that got him though, we've got it covered.
Ethan
