OCT 27
My department head is a German Colonel. My commanding officer is a Royal Navy Captain. Our commanding general is an American Army four star. Welcome to the world of NATO. I've been on the job for only a couple days and my head is now spinning with dozens of new military acronyms, foreign rank insignias and people's names that contain 14 consonance and one vowel.
Forty-three nations make up the NATO forces in Afghanistan. Obviously, the United States comprises nearly half of the 51,000 troops fighting the Taliban here. It's an interesting lot and amazing to see how different militaries operate. One of the most interested is the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia. Their soldiers are charged .19 cents for every bullet they fire. Yes, I'm being serious.
Everyday there's a briefing and it's filled with atrocities you never hear about back home. Today, we heard about the Taliban hanging two young children... a 7-and-8 year old. They did this to intimidate the families of voter registration workers. Meantime, right now on CNN.com, you can read about the doughnut-maker who lost 170-pounds.
Getting me through my first turbulent days is LT Jessica Gandy who established my office, the Multi-Purpose Public Affairs Team or MPPAT. Jessica is an amazing Naval Officer and someone who I know will go VERY FAR in the military (if we are able to keep her). She comes from a family with a long and proud tradition of Naval service. She speaks five languages including Arabic and Russian, can multi-task like no one I've ever seen and is known and adored by EVERYONE on this base. I have very big shoes to fill. By the way, she's just 27-years old.
Our job is to document the war by churning out product; video stories, print stories, photos with captions. If this were a newsroom, I would be the news director. It's a job I'm comfortable doing based on my previous life in the media. But my most rewarding day in the civilian newsroom could never come close to the reward of working here and telling our militaries story.
But it can't be all work and no play. There's a pub on base and tonight there's a band. The band's name; The Tali-Band. This is something I have to see.
My department head is a German Colonel. My commanding officer is a Royal Navy Captain. Our commanding general is an American Army four star. Welcome to the world of NATO. I've been on the job for only a couple days and my head is now spinning with dozens of new military acronyms, foreign rank insignias and people's names that contain 14 consonance and one vowel.
Forty-three nations make up the NATO forces in Afghanistan. Obviously, the United States comprises nearly half of the 51,000 troops fighting the Taliban here. It's an interesting lot and amazing to see how different militaries operate. One of the most interested is the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia. Their soldiers are charged .19 cents for every bullet they fire. Yes, I'm being serious.
Everyday there's a briefing and it's filled with atrocities you never hear about back home. Today, we heard about the Taliban hanging two young children... a 7-and-8 year old. They did this to intimidate the families of voter registration workers. Meantime, right now on CNN.com, you can read about the doughnut-maker who lost 170-pounds.
Getting me through my first turbulent days is LT Jessica Gandy who established my office, the Multi-Purpose Public Affairs Team or MPPAT. Jessica is an amazing Naval Officer and someone who I know will go VERY FAR in the military (if we are able to keep her). She comes from a family with a long and proud tradition of Naval service. She speaks five languages including Arabic and Russian, can multi-task like no one I've ever seen and is known and adored by EVERYONE on this base. I have very big shoes to fill. By the way, she's just 27-years old.
Our job is to document the war by churning out product; video stories, print stories, photos with captions. If this were a newsroom, I would be the news director. It's a job I'm comfortable doing based on my previous life in the media. But my most rewarding day in the civilian newsroom could never come close to the reward of working here and telling our militaries story.
But it can't be all work and no play. There's a pub on base and tonight there's a band. The band's name; The Tali-Band. This is something I have to see.
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