Kajaki Highlights: Part 2

August 19, 2010
Camp Lejeune
17:20

(Cont'd)

The Brits
The mission at hand when I arrived in Kajaki was to replace the Brits and bring in an American artillery unit. When I think about this, I'm actually kind of honored to have been there. I was with the first group of landing support marines to represent the United States in Kajaki, and that's something I can take with me for the rest of my life, although I'm not getting any medals for it. It doesn't really mean too much to anyone else either; no one knows what Kajaki is.

Naturally, there was a group of British servicemembers assigned to help with the outgoing materials. They weren't Royal Marines like the others, rather they were soldiers. They had a Staff Sergeant (SSgt W) with them, who I was honestly really inspired by. I'm not sure if I've met someone in the military who has more common sense, or someone with more deployment experience. He has that combined, and then some.

SSgt W (one rank away from sergeant major) had deployed for the 13th time when I met him, and had spent a total of 16 years in the military. He led a rotating group of about three other people at a time rigging up the outgoing cargo in the British cargo nets. So, through them, I was able to learn a lot about the British military and get to know them personally. I was also able to do external lifts for the first time with CH-47 Chinooks and the two seperate types of Russian civilian helicopters. I was also able to supervise them during their first external lifts with CH-53E Super Sea Stallions. It was a pretty rewarding experience.

Boredom
One of the ways to cope with boredom (we had no electricity in our house) is to figure out new things to do that you don't normally do. I read a lot of books in a row, that's not exactly abnormal, but I didn't really have the chance to do that before this time. We spent time breaking a huge rock with a sledgehammer, and then afterwards considered the consiquences of the pulverized dust entering our lungs. I started listing my high school classes with the teachers and surprisingly remembered about 95% of them.

Mail
Sgt B (my platoon sergeant at the time) arrived in Kajaki to sort of survey the area after we'd been there for about a week. He brought some mail with him and I had a few envelopes, a couple Moto Mails, and a larger envelope. I opened it and it turned out to be an election ballot for a Champaign election of some sort that expired in February. Keep in mind this is June, and the ballot was issued in January. This is one of the reasons the actual postal service should be handling mail, and not the USMC.

Swimming
Yes, you read that right. Swimming. The Kajaki Dam was a prominent feature in the area, and of course, right behind it was a gigantic lake. The Brits made a regular activity of going out to the Dam (a couple miles from the FOB) and swimming, granted one person, at least, always was providing security while the others were swimming. So, one day, after ar really long morning at the LZ, I decided to stay and show the Brits how to rig a load with one of our US nets that had been lying around. Afterwards, it was just me and one other guy from my detachment and we went swimming in the lake. One of the more surreal experience of the deployment no doubt. It's not often you go swimming with a guard watching for the Taliban right behind you. Plus, it was a good way to make people jealous when I returned to Leatherneck.

Radio
One of the more frustrating things during my time in Kajaki was to listen to the idiots in the artillery battery talk on the radio. For about a week, I was required to always have our radio on in case they needed us for something. These people were probably the most unprofessional people speaking on a radio I've ever heard, and they actually had a serious mission to accomplish. You don't say "Repeat" on the radio, and they should know that because it has to do with artillery. If you say it, it means you want the next fire mission repeated. You say "I say again" not "I repeat," which they did...constantly. You also DO NOT say "over and out," because saying "over" implies you're waiting for a response and saying "out" means you're done talking. I couldn't believe that in the middle of a serious mission, these fools couldn't even get the simplest of radio etiquet correct.

ICOM
ICOM is the name of the radio network that the coalition forces use to listen in on Taliban radio conversations. Yes, we can always hear them. They refer to us as "The Sons of Bush" apparently. One day at the LZ, the afghans up at the house were listening to the ICOM really loud, and there were no patrols out that day. So, I was hearing actual Taliban voices conversating. Except it really sounded like they were just getting high and laughing over their radio.