Fishing is more than fishing

This photo was taken on May 6, 2011 on the Smith River in Montana.  Six wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan with a community of fishermen, saints and sinners supporting our soldiers.

All Quiet On The Western Front

The following is the preface to the brilliant war novel All Quiet On The Western Front.  "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it.  It will try and simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war."

We just finished a trip with injured warriors on the Smith River.  Five days of fishing and floating knowing they have lived and seen the shadows of their souls.

Mr. Big

For over a thousand years...



...Roman conquerors

returning from the wars...


...enjoyed the honor of a triumph,

a tumultuous parade.


In the procession came trumpeters

and musicians and strange animals...

...from the conquered territories...


... together with carts laden with

treasure and captured armaments.


The conqueror rode

in a triumphal chariot...

... the dazed prisoners

walking in chains before him.

Sometimes, his children,

robed in white...

...stood with him in the chariot,

or rode the trace horses.

A slave stood behind the conqueror..

...holding a golden crown...

...and whispering in his ear

a warning...

... that all glory...

...is fleeting.

the best things about being in afghanistan

The best things about being in Afghanistan:

I missed the Oscars.
I missed Joan Rivers for five wonderful months.  She looks like the Joker in Batman.  Who pays to look llike that?
I missed the Screen Actors awards.
I missed the Peoples Awards and don't really know what they are.
I missed the NBA All Star weekend.
I missed the Grammy's.
I missed everything that has to do with someone named GAGA.
I missed everything that has to do with Charlie Sheen.
I haven't heard from Rush Limbaugh in five months.

I might sign up again.

John Shaft to the Hindu Kush on the double

Who is the black private Dick that is a sex machine to all the chicks?
Shaft?  You damn right.

Who is the man who will risk his neck for his brotherman?  Shaft



Who is the cat who won't cop out when there is danger all about?  Shaft. Right on.

Who is the man who will risk his neck for his brotherman?
Shaft.  Can you dig it?

They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother.....Shut your mouth.  But I'm talking about Shaft. Then we can dig it.

We need John Shaft on the double

He is a complicated man but no one understands him but his woman.  John Shaft

60 months out of 120 months

He is wiry, alert or just looks caffeinated. He comes in every morning to return movies and pick up a couple more. 110 straight days of movie watching for him. It is more than a diversion. Yesterday, I handed him the Quiet American with Michael Caine. The movie is about America’s slow dance with Vietnam or the start of the dance.

He came back today and gave the movie a thumbs up. “I’ve been deployed five times in the last ten years,” he said. “I used to be a truly believer and now…I think we are here so contractors can get rich.”

Ten years means you can start to feel the pension. “I think I am getting out,” he said.

Where are they?

In December we had three or four rocket attacks in one week.  This was up from the year before.  We went to the bunkers and looked up at the sky as if we could interpret meaning.  We played it cool.  Rocket attacks are like lightening storms.  When you see the lightening and hear the thunder in the distance you're fine.  When it cracks right next to you then you become something else.

January has come and gone and so have the attacks on Bagram.  I would be in my B-Hut after dinner waiting for the Big Voice to broadcast "Incoming, Incoming" and now nothing. The Big Voice will come on in the afternoon letting us know there will be a controlled detonation. Eventually, you hear a boom and maybe the room will shake. 

Now I wait in my B-hut wondering what are they doing out there.  They don't take vacations.