On the road...

Starting the 30th, I am going on a couple of trips which could have me on the road for more than a week. As this is the only way many of you keep tabs on me, please do not worry if you don't see this site being updated. I expect to be back around the 6th or 7th.

It's working

Readers of this blog know I have been working hard to establish a network of media teams across Afghanistan. I now have in place crews in two of the three regional commands and as expected, they are turning out stories like hotcakes. ISAF has never had so much product coming into the headquarters from the outlying areas like this before. My boss Captain Windsor recently sent me this short e-mail, "David, excellent work. I am impressed with this new direction. Thx!" I'll take credit for deploying the crews into the field, but the results belong to my teams. You guys are doing a GREAT JOB out there. Many thanks for the hard work.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you're going to be away from your family on Thanksgiving, this was the place to be. While this is an international base with people from 43 different countries, yesterday the main dinning facility was closed to everyone but Americans so we could enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with our fellow countrymen. And boy was it a feast! The menu included 27 roasted and deep fried turkeys, sweet potatoes, green beans, mac and cheese, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie and Baskin Robbins ice cream. The room was decorated with American flags and traditional Thanksgiving colors of orange and brown. I didn't have my family at the table with me but I was surrounded with my Public Affairs family and we shared plenty of laughs as well as a great dinner. And while your dinners back home probably started with a prayer for us, we said a prayer of thanks for our great families, our supportive families back home. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving starts with a bang

It was right around 9 AM that a giant explosion shook my building. Most people I've interviewed during my TV days would say, "It was like a bomb went off." Well, in this case it was a bomb. Just over our back wall no more than 200 yards away from my office a suicide bomber in his car detonated himself and took four innocent Afghans with him. This was right between my office and the US Embassy. I took a picture of the smoke which hung in the air for a minute or two marking the spot. If you look very closely, you can see his disappointed soul discovering there are no 70 virgins awaiting his arrival.

Trivia answer of the week:

And the answer to this week's question is: 29,000. That is the size of the Afghan National Army or ANA. These guys are out there doing the same stuff we do and they're becoming a legimate force.

This from a story I took off the web:

Afghan National Army and police units “are leading in the fight here today,” said Army Maj. Gen. Robert W. Cone, chief of Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan. The Afghan army units take the lead “in about 60 percent of the operations they participate in,” Cone said, noting Afghan soldiers have proved themselves to be “an effective fighting force.”