27.5 Acres of Concrete

At least, that’s what it’ll be when finished – at almost 28 acres of concrete, this expanse of apron is another project of mine at Shindand.  In the aerial photo above, it’s showing right about half-way to being completed although the contractor is “running and gunning” and nearer to 100% complete now.  What’ll this concrete expanse become in just another month or so?  Rotary Wing Apron.  GSAB Ramp.  In normal people terms, a place for the Army to park their helicopters like those in the previous post.

The paver used here is not new but the veteran of many untold placements, so no worries.  Most concrete is placed at night due to the high temperatures during the day…

This project is being constructed by one of the best contractors I’ve worked with in Afghanistan (TetraTech) and one of the best subcontractors as well (Yuksel), this combination of companies is managing to do something I’ve not ever seen in country (and rarely out of it) – they will not only finish a quality project before the contract required completion date, they will be finishing significantly earlier than required.  Wish I could be there for the ribbon-cutting!

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By the time this posts I should finally be home…

War Birds

More sights (wish I could share sounds) from Shindand…

War birds yet safely muzzled for the moment, and for the chinook below, a wee bit of maintenance (or a lot of TLC – hard to be sure which).

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I’m in transit back home but my first stop in the States won’t be Kentucky, but back to the USACE Deployment Center in Winchester, Virginia.  The trip so far hasn’t been an easy one…

The flight from Shindand in our little fixed wing aircraft was incredibly rough and hot and took more than three hours as we also stopped at FOB Farah (remember – just a dirt and gravel landing strip) and Bastion in the Helmand Province before heading to Kandahar.  Probably was dehydrated even though I had water during and after.  Was that the cause of my continuing “intestinal difficulties” or bad food at the boardwalk?  Who knows, but it is still working itself out of my system.

Several people have asked about the future of the blog – no worries, it will continue on.  There are many observations on deployment and other posts still yet to come.  Thanks for following The Sand Castle!

#200 and Lasts…

Last Chapel Service, last staff meeting, last project progress meeting, last trip outside the wire to the perimeter fence project, last weekly AFCENT/AFCEE conference call, last barbeque with a contractor, last report sent, last email handled, last box mailed, last meal at the DFAC, last time to dodge a crazy ANA driver, last hearing of the Big Voice announcing a drill or “incoming”, last pizza from the Italian compound, one last going-away ceremony at the flagpole in Kandahar, last goodbyes with friends and co-workers here in Afghanistan, one last hug, one last good-bye.  I hate good-byes.

The bears above are a chronicle of my travels here in country – Bagram, Kandahar, Shindand – the picture taken just before I packed them up to ship home.  The only thing missing was a bear from Kabul but one of my friends somehow managed to obtain a bear from Camp Eggers, giving it to me as a parting gift.  How awesome is that?

And where does the #200 come in?  Amazing though it may be, this is actually the 200th blog post for The Sand Castle.  The first few posts ever in February of last year (Wolf Creek Dam), and the 100th post it seems was merely a few short months ago in Bagram but it was back last August (Post #100).  Have I been gone from my real world as long as it seems?

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Since I’ve left Shindand and am currently at Kandahar (after an insanely hot and insanely rough flight via Farah and Bastion), thought I’d share some last few Shindand sights (as I suffer what I hope is one last bout of “intestinal difficulties”)…

I took the photo below while riding in the back seat of an up-armored SUV on one of our trips outside the wire.  The guys in the front seats are heavily armed and part of our security team, and I love the cap.  Glad they are on our side!

Concrete Aprons

White and crisp but not the aprons your mamma used to wear.

Aprons in the airfield construction sense are essentially massively large chunks of pavement on which to park planes and jets and helicopters.

Actually, the stretch of pavement shown above is for a taxiway and not an apron, but it will connect the runway to a couple of different aprons, also under construction here, as well as PAX (passenger) and cargo terminals.  The paver is new and pretty top of the line, belonging to the ECCI-Metag JV who are doing the work here.  I worked with ECCI and some of the same folks up at Bagram, so coming here was a sort of reunion.  The photo below is the area directly behind the paver, and you can get an idea of the massive amounts of concrete used to place this 22″ thick lane of taxiway.

And a motley crew indeed standing in front of the paver in the picture below!  You may recognize the guy standing next to me – Eric worked with me at Bagram and shows up in the post Seven Thousand Words walking around in the bottom of a monster fuel tank under construction there.  The pile of concrete behind us is left there by dump trucks which back down the lane until positioned for plopping their load of concrete in the paver’s lap, so to speak.  The little green bars are actually 2′ long solid metal dowel rods.  They are nearly 2″ in diameter and weigh over 15 pounds apiece.  They are used to tie the paving lanes together to help transfer loads between the panels.

Construction is so cool…

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Yes, still in Shindand for now frantically trying to tie up loose ends, pack, mail things home and generally bring my thirteen months in Afghanistan to a close.  Lots of mixed emotions here – excitement at going home, sadness to leave friends and projects nearing completion…  But the temperature today?  110 degrees F in the shade.  And it’s not even summer yet.

First One Ever

No, this isn’t the first cool C-17 shot you’ve seen in this blog (remember C-17 Coolness?), but it is the very first C-17 to touch down here at Shindand Airbase. 

Yup, last week saw this big mamma-jamma come barreling in, the first of its kind to land on the new and improved runway although others followed in the days after.  We’ve had plenty of C-130’s, lots of helos, small fixed wings, large cargo planes and even a few secret squirrel drones flying about.  But nothing larger as the runways weren’t wide enough, long enough or thick enough.  Even now the wingtips of the C-17 are hanging off past the edge of the shoulders.

We have been placing a lot of concrete here at Shindand, both Corps projects and other projects, on runways and other areas, and I hope to go into more detail on those in future posts.  No big 1,000,000 gallon fuel tanks like we were building at Bagram, but lots of concrete in many forms as well as other goodies.  I’m currently administering eleven awarded projects here, compared to the five or six when I arrived back in November.

And then just a few hours later as seen below, the C-17 hit the road (er, airways) once more.  It pretty much had to as we don’t have any taxiways which will hold the behemoths.  Yet.

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Both photos are courtesy of Airfield Management here on the FOB – be sure to click on them for the larger version.  Sweet shots!

Another New Temporary Office

Yes, another new temporary office for us as we continue to build up the Resident Office here at the FOB…

For those of you who are faithful readers, you’ll remember the previous posts about our office space and its evolution over time.  First there was the tiny little office which I set up upon arrival here way back in November.  Prior to my appearance no office existed at all – the couple of guys here at the time just worked out of their rooms (Old Temporary Office).  That wasn’t going to work for me – it’s difficult to come together as a team if you never see one another, much less share information and all.  Not to mention, I wasn’t going to have a bunch of coworkers and contractors trying to have meetings in my room – can you picture it?  Three or four or five men (or more) crammed into my tiny living area with only one chair and a bed?  No way, nada, ain’t happenin’…

That first office wasn’t large enough with only four desks in a very tight space so a bit of minor construction yielded Office 2.0 – a significant improvement although still not large enough for the growing Shindand Resident Office (New Temporary Office).  Office 2.0 gave us more room for files and supplies even if still just four desks, but more importantly, we gained a conference room and MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation area) with a small kitchenette (fridge, sink, microwave).  Prior to 2.0 all our meetings were held either standing crammed together in the old office (Office 1.0) or outside on a picnic table in the wind, dust, cold, etc.

Behold Office 3.0!  The photo below shows part of the new construction.  Well, a few of the nine shiny new metal conex boxes which are not just office space.  Two “cans” for the office, two for the combination bathrooms/laundry room and five for living quarters.  Much room to spread out now with desks for everyone, a private office for myself (a tiny windowless metal cube – see above), billeting for the new people coming in as the office continue to builds up.  We’ve come a long way, baby…

But this is still temporary as we’ll need to vacate our space here in this west side compound and move over to the east side once the new expanded perimeter is secure, so one more fairly large construction project for a two-acre self-sufficient compound just for USACE.  The nine new cans will be moved over as well.  Trouble is, it won’t be complete until sometime in September so I’ll never see it.  A legacy though for my replacement, all those who will still be here for a while, and those new folks rotating in.

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The countdown begins…  Redeployment, here I come!

It’s the first of June.  The days are getting longer but my time here in Afghanistan is getting very much shorter.  By the first of July I will be home…