Afghanistan Diary Part 13- Moving Day- 5 November, 2011

     A few days ago we convoyed up to what is to be the Super Bowl of our missions. Whitehouse, as the Patrol Base is named, is where we are to build two HLZ's from scratch. Moving even further north has seemed to up the potential for enemy contact. We are up with 3^rd reconnaissance battalion and 1^st battalion, 6^th Marine regiment, so we are in the area of the frontlines, if you can even call them that in today's unconventional warfare. 

     Building a new camp again each time we move is somewhat of a pain. Packing things up just to unpack them again and rebuilding everything is annoying, but everyone works together and in no time our camp has been set up. Day two and our engineers went quickly to work to create all the needed amenities. They built two of our very own wooden thrones to sit on and fill wag-bags, complete with blanket covered hesco fences surrounding them for privacy. Two PVC pipes were dug into the ground, protruding a few feet for our urinary purposes, aptly named, “piss tubes,” and a couple other Marines, including the Doc built a pullup bar for our physical fitness purposes. Day three will bring a resupply convoy with many necessary items, the most important of which will be my cigar resupply.

Afghanistan Diary Part 12- Duty...Or Is It Doodie?

     Today the wind is blowing in just the right direction to present me with the lovely aroma of burning excrement. Yes, out here away from the lovely invention of plumbing and septic systems lies the land of burning pits of poo. This is our way of continuing our “doodies” without creating disease and plague. Some may not find this topic particularly tasteful, but I shall tell it nonetheless, as I have been tasked to give you an idea of what it is like out here, and I would be robbing you of a large portion of our environment if I were not to write about it. 

     Yes, out here the closest you'll get to a toilet is the seat, if you're lucky. A toilet seat sitting atop a wooden box of some sort with a cut-out hole. Need to call a meeting with Mother Nature? You go get yourself a “wag-bag” which is made by a variety of companies. I am partial to the “Dispose-a-John” myself, but to each his own. Each is made a bit differently, but all utilize the basic concept of a plastic bag which fits over the toilet seat and hangs down through the hole. I will trust that I need not describe the rest of the process as I am sure you get the idea. When finished you close up your wag-bag by whatever means the individual creator provided you, and you take it to the burn pit, which is a large dugout pit for burning garbage and wag-bags. There is nothing like carrying around a bag of your own poo. Everyone should experience this. It is very humbling.

Deployment Diary Continues Tomorrow

I have had a busy Spring with the trip to Ireland, along with 3 1/2 weeks of much required maintenance on my home in Missouri, but I am now back and will continue posting entries from my Afghanistan Diary tomorrow.