2010

I found the following two quotes on the wall of the gym at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait last year.

"Use your health even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for spend all you have before you die . Do not outlive yourself."  George Bernard Shaw

"He who has health has hope.  He who has hope has everything."  Arab Proverb

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women in uniform

One out of three people in the military on Bagram are women.  They wear the uniform of the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force.  Everything over here would stop if it wasn't for the women in uniform.  They are incredible.  Lt. ... works in Craig Joint Task Force Hospital at Bagram.  She has been here for a year and leaves for home in a few days.  She has three children the youngest is two.  I asked, "Was it hard.?"  She said, "It gave her the opportunity to serve her country."  She dwarfs the surrounding peaks.

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Day After

      I am in Bagram Air Base and it is the day after Christmas. I don't want to be here today. I want to be home with my girl, my dogs and my TV. We work everyday at the Red Cross and this will be 53 straight days of work. It would be nice to cast a fly line or swing a golf club. I've got 2 1/2 hours before I go to the hospital and walk through the ICU. Those people really don't want to be here. They will be off to Germany in the next 24 hours and some will be going all the way back to Walter Reed or Bethesda or Brooks Medical Center. Their lives have all taken a sharp turn and not for the better.
    Here we are all footnotes to some history book in the making. Joy is fleeting. It might come in a pick-up game of basketball or revealed in a movie or a book. There are enough men and women over here that someone is falling in love. Life is a little closer to the bone.
     I don't get the news or much TV so I don't hear the debate or the noise. Besides, the people that argue and form policy are all too distant. They appear to be more like the Gods that toy with us from the surrounding peaks.
     Christmas is the birth, and Easter is the Resurrection. Christ rising from the dead. This is something to ponder. All of Christianity hinges on this miracle. I wonder if he will make happened this year.


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Christmas Eve

Some of the soldiers pray before the eat.  Some will make the sign of the cross while others bow their heads then they close their eyes to pray.  They pray with humility, to give thanks or to seek a blessing.  In the silence of their prayers there is power.  I wonder if the enemy prays the same way.

Tis the season to be in Afghanistan

Welcome,

I am a fishing guide who happens to be working with the Red Cross in Afghanistan for the next four months. There is a war going on over here and it overshadows most of what I do. Although I would like everyone to commit to Smith trips in 2010. I will try and give you as well as myself some understanding of life at Bagram Air Base.

Mike Geary
Lewis and Clark Expeditions