Bagram Arrival - and Tragedy

Bagram is in a time zone an hour and a half earlier than Manas, so we adjusted watches accordingly. We were outside waiting for bags to be unloaded when some Air Force personnel inside the terminal began to shout that the base was under rocket fire. Three rockets landed inside the perimeter, unfortunately killing a US civilian contractor (also see Taliban Strikes At Main US Military Base In Afghanistan).

These are typical of the attacks on Bagram. Too large by far for any kind of ground attack - Stars and Stripes reports more than 24,000 military and civilians are stationed here - the Taliban like to shoot fire-and-forget rockets in as harassment. Typically at night to cover their actions and wake tired people up, the only counter are Kiowa helicopters who fly out with night sensory devices to try and spot the bad guys.

Much to our relief we were met by Sergeants Liery and Douglas of the 95th Battalion's liaison team. It was great to see familiar faces after a long haul through replacement depots. We were headed to wooden buildings called B Huts clustered around the 95th Battalion's offices.

The Soldiers from the Military Intelligence (MI) unit were on their way to Warrior Base, described by a briefing sergeant at the airport as "District 9" after the film. "We'll be bringing cat food and tires over to you shortly," he joked.

After loading our bulky gear onto their vehicles - PFC Dailey temporarily lost his rucksack and duffel bag which were mistakenly loaded on another unit's truck; the Air Force lost 1LT Lanika Van Borkulo's ruck before it got to Manas and it hadn't shown up yet - we motored over to Task Force Sheriff's base in time for a big breakfast at the Dining Facility (DFAC). (Pictured at left: PFC Dailey and 1LT Lanika Van Borkulo trying on hats)

Then we crashed for four hours.

That afternoon we did admin stuff, including getting 1LT Van Borkulo a new issue of equipment to replace some of what was lost. Unfortunately a lot of personal comfort items she had packed for a year-long tour were probably gone forever.