Jalalabad Area Office Flood

Jalalabad Area Office was part of quite a significant flood. . . .

Danger - Elvis and Kevin are crazy!

I guess this gator is out of commission.

As long as you don't mind having wet feet and legs, chilling in the office isn't so bad.

The Area Office.

And, talk about water front property in your living quarters.

Promotion Ceremony

One of the CSTC-A Project Managers I work with on Border Police facilities was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain today! It was neat to be a part of the festivities.

COL Wehr, Capt Sean Warner, Lt Jacob Botello, and Capt. Noble.

Capt Warner and Capt Noble pinning the new rank on Capt Botello.

Capt. Botello taking his oath.

On behalf of the fellow Air Force Captains, Capt. Warner and Capt. Noble presented Capt. Botello with the Officer's Creed - too funny. . . .

Congratulations!

Just the ladies!

For Alisa's last day the ladies in Dani's office got together for some photos. Alan just kept clicking and got some great candid shots!


Alisa and Dani laughing at Rebekah, Sai and Sarah.


Sarah pretending to go over the railing.


Rebekah is just out of control, too funny but rock on. . .


Alisa, Rebekah, Dani, Sai and Sarah.

As the transition continues the next few weeks, the ladies of ANP will dwindle. . . Sai (on the right) will be the only chica remaining. . . .

Kittens at Qalaa

Our resident cats have apparently been busy and now we have KITTENS! I've heard about the kittens for over a week and hadn't seen any of them until breakfast this morning. . . . He was just so adorable I snuck him up to my office and tooks some pictures.




Not sure if you can tell, but Brandon was teasing the kitten with a taste of RipIt - the kitty was then entrigued.

Alan was the photographer, and Sarah was crinkling plastic to get the kitten to look at the camera. It was funny to see the production!

Going Away Parties

We've had 2 going away parties in the past few weeks. Within the next 60 days, Roy, Alisa, Rebekah, Dani and Carmine will redeploy; Alan, Sai and new team members will remain to carry the torch. So far, we've farewelled Roy, who took a job in Germany, and Alisa, who leaves in a week.


Ed and Mary at Roy's going away.


Dan and Dani.


Roy and Dani. Of course, Roy was eating cake and ice cream with a knife - no surprise to those of us who worked with him several months.

Carmine, the ANP Program Manager, and Dani.

Sterling and Roy.

Many of the PPMD ladies before Alisa's going away dinner. From left to right: Alisa, Sarah, Sai, Loan, Dani & Rebekah.

Wes, Carmine, Alisa and COL Magness.

Sai and Alisa.

Tuttle's Deployment

Check out an article about a co-worker of mine (even though he works on Afghan National Army projects instead of Afghan National Police, which we all know is the superior program - ha!).

http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/news/YE/2010/June2010.pdf

Start on page 4!

It's a small world. . .

One of the funny things about life is how small the world is - how you can be thousands of miles from home, and realize that home is right there with you. In December, Dani was in Herat and ran into a family friend - someone her parents worked with in the Nevada Air National Guard many years ago and knew Dani as a girl - Frank Turek. He is working in Afghanistan as a contractor. Recently he was relocated to Kabul and works at Camp Eggers. Dani has had the pleasure of seeing Frank several times week on Qalaa.


An e-mail Frank sent to Dani was very touching, and deserving of sharing for not only civilians deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and for those carrying the weight at home while we are deployed, but also for all the military whose support is required to allow the USACE mission to be successful. The e-mail is below:


"Thanks for your service both here and domestically ~ you're a member of a long line of engineers birthed by West Point engineers and surveyors who mapped out the entire country. Evolved into the USACE family, and has since the early years of the 19th century installed the backbone of our American infrastructure. Thanks, and .....God Bless."