22 March 2007, Finally back on line

If you are going to write to a lot of people you have an obligation of sorts to keep it interesting. Books that I enjoy reading typically start off like a shot and draw you in immediately. My Brother in Law would explain to you that I am not that quick in my natural communication pattern, but if you are reading this, you already figured that out.

I could write about yesterday like this....

The sun baked my face as I stood in the turret behind my machine gun, waiting for our fellow soldiers from the south. As I watched the horizon two helicopters came into view, these were the two helicopters that left our southern base by passing my temporary home on their way to Herat. Because they were run by a different coalition member country, they had refused to give the technician I was picking up a lift to our location. I have always admired the great amount of cooperation and common sense that exists in coalitions. The result of their refusal was that my friends from the south drove past an attempted ambush, surviving RPG and small arms fire to safely deliver their cargo, our Scottish technician to the spot on the map we had agreed to meet at. ....

I may have to give that a chance as time goes on. Reality is not much different. Two choppers did not cooperate, and that did result in a link up that took place after about our ANA and US forces were shot at.

I think that while our allies are well meaning, our policies and procedures, not to mention the politics that are involved conspire to make coalition operations difficult and actually more dangerous than they would otherwise be. I don't have experience with all our allies, just those we work with in my part of the world. I am not saying that we should go it alone; I am saying that Unity of Command has always been a Principle of War, and with good reason. Enough on that.

Happy Birthday to Ted, Michael, Teresa and soon Amy. If March is a busy month, so must have June been in the past.

There have been quite a few changes recently in our area, most of which I am going to not discuss for a while, as I have already gone on too long for today.

It is good to be back, I hope you are all well

Keith