Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!

We're definitely well into the winter operations now and also the winter season itself. I really miss the warm weather. We're in pile high deep of snow here.

Our thanksgiving holiday was pretty good. No days off for us but we did have good meals. We actually had REAL turkeys flown over here from the. It was a good morale booster for the troops. The pumpkin pies were delicious, though frozen. There were definitely plenty to eat!!!

The Christmas and New Year holidays also brought more good food for us as well; more turkey, roast beef, ham, and other assortments. I even got a chance to drink apple cider. Yummy! For Christmas and New Year Day, we officers gave the troops those days off and volunteered for guard tower duties. If anyone has ever done guard duty before, well, you know it's tiring and just plain old suck! I had to wear my kevlar and body armor for 8hrs straight and afterwards, my back was killing me since my body armor and kevlar weigh about. It's no fun having that extra weight on you for 8hrs. On top of that, around 4am the generator in my tower ran out of fuel. My goodness, we waited for over an hour before the generator got refueled and at 4am, can you imagine how cold it is this time of year inat 7000+ ft of elevation? Let me say it was COLD! Plus trying to stay awake at night during the early hours was pretty rough especially when your body is use to operating during the daylight hours. You'll rarely find lieutenants, captains, and majors doing guard duty but for those two holidays, it was good to give our soldiers the days off. It was quite a starry night inthat night too.

Even during the winter months when I thought things might get a little quiet, well, I was wrong! We continue to be reminded that we're living in a combat zone every day with the potential for dangers out there. Not too long ago, our Taliban friends fired more rounds of indirect fire to our FOB. Scrambling for cover under the bunkers is no fun when there is snow and ice around. Luckily, no one got killed or injured.   

Finally, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone (you know who you are) who contributed to the many care packages that were sent to me. I have gotten very positive feedbacks from the troops and they all appreciate Raytheon's continual contributions and kindness in supporting the troops.

Until my next updates.

Attached pics, 1- Christmas dinner treat, I was really stuffed after eating that turkey wing 2- Afghanistan snow... 3- Guard tower duties….HOOAH!

Michael <<P1010067.JPG>> <<P1010125.JPG>> <<P1010121.JPG>>