Being Diesel

 Excerpt from 4/11email:

From: Mike Nixon [mailto:mnixxon@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 3:07 AM
To: Michelle Nixon
Subject: Safe, sound and snug in AF

Hey hey,
Just wanted to let you know that we arrived safely at BAF this morning.  We were scheduled to leave last night around 630pm but you how this stuff works.  Instead of the cushy C-17 passenger jet we ended up on an old four prop C-130 cargo plane.  Sat on cargo nets and tried not to go deaf or mad for 5 hours. We arrived around three AM and the gave us two cots in a warm dry tent (with about forty other guys).  No blankets, linens or anything ( and we still don’t have our sleeping bags and such) but they really weren’t necessary.  I put on hearing protection and my eye mask and slept until 830 am.Chow was about what you’d expect, hot and high calorie. This base is a bit like a circus.  A really big circus; with OD Tan tents, and big military weapons - instead of elephants.  Lots of construction, lots of mud (it covers everything) and very wet at the moment.  It has been raining for three days straight and is expected to continue for the next month.  Wonder what it will be like at my final destination.Anyway, I’m using a public computer in the MWR building so for now, Skyping will have to wait.  Just wanted you to know that I am very safe and half way to my destination.  I’ll be in touch soon.
love,
Mike

Excerpt from 4/15 email:

From: Mike Nixon [mailto:mnixxon@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1:52 AM
To: Michelle Nixon
Subject: Re: Hey from B-town 

The equipment is here but I’ve got to work out a few snags.  The boxes they shipped some of the stuff got thrashed and are unusable.  I’m going to try and get some folks to DHL some very large pelican cases.  that’s what they should have used in the first place.  The earliest I can leave here and move on to my next stop is Monday, next week.  That assumes there is space on that flight for me and my gear.  Hopefully I’ll have over come my transit case challenge by then. I’m leaving my laptop and several other non-essential items, including that wheelie duffel bag, with a friend who is assigned here at BAF.  He has proper (more or less…) living quarters and has room under his bunk for that stuff.  I’ll pick it all up on the way back through. I went to the gym again this morning - easy to do because the cot is not soft so there is no incentive to laze about.  Then I went out to this site where my gear is and it’s a pretty good drive to get there.  Well as it turns out it has been raining so much that the road is washed out and completely flooded.  I crossed a portion of the “river” and made it to a dry island but there was a larger, and presumably deeper, section that I wasn’t confident the truck could manage.  So I turned around and found an alternative route.  Normally it takes about ten minutes to get to that site, today it took over an hour.  I took some pictures which I’ll share when I get home. Don’t let those dogs bully you

 - be the pack leader!

 Love you,  -M. 

 ————————————

Excerpt from 4/17 email:

From: Mike Nixon [mailto:mnixxon@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 12:18 AM
To: Michelle Nixon
Subject: Re: photos  

Had a very long day yesterday and was so tired at the end that I fell asleep fully dressed on my cot.  Didn’t even manage to write in my journal.    Things are going smoothly and it appears I am set to depart from here tomorrow evening.  Getting bumped or having the flight cancelled is a real possibility but I also have a decent shot of actually moving on.  If so, then I will be temporarily staying at another location and won’t arrive at my work site until Tuesday at the earliest.  Theoretically, I should still be able to get access to Internet so I should be able to let you know how things are progressing. If all goes well then it is possible that I could be home within a months time.  Don’t get your hopes up too high but it is a possibility.Love ya,  -Mike

 —————————-Bermel, Af & Beyond

4/19/09 email excerpt:

From: Mike Nixon [mailto:mnixxon@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 4:10 AM
To: Michelle Nixon
Subject: Good morning 

Hey Babe,We’ll it’s been an interesting couple of days but I’m back on the scope.  I have finally arrived in Bermel, the site I will be working for the next several days.  It was a difficult journey but it definitely could have been worse.  I spoke with some guys that said they had been trying to get here for three weeks.  Somehow I managed to make the journey in less than three days. 

The trip involved flying on a “Casa” which a small, two prop airplane similar to a C-130.  It looks like somebody shrank the 130 and took off two of it’s engines.  I travelled with some special forces guys the first night (they only travel at night) and they dropped me and all my gear off on a very dark, gravel runway.  The plane was only on the ground long enough to off load the passengers and my gear.  I was literally standing on the pitch black runway with all my gear and the plane (less than 100′ away) taxied off and flew away.  Fortunately I had made arrangements for a pickup which arrived about :20 minutes later.  I stayed in a tent with two other guys - one of which snored like a chainsaw.    

Later that evening, I was extremely lucky to get manifested on a flight to this place for the flight out this morning.  I flew in a two prop Chinook helicopter and I had the best seat in the house.  The helo flew with the ramp down and I had an end seat which gave me a front row view of the Afghan country side.  Awesome. 

The place I’m at now is very small.  This place is what you would call remote and austere.  Hopefully things will continue to go as smoothly as they have been.  I’ve really been extraordinarily lucky in the travel so far.  Lots of people have had a much more difficult time.” 

    4/21/09 Gmail Chat - excerpt from a chat with Mike the second day after his arrival at his final destination (very rugged hut environ is all I know): 

“Mike:  Just had dinner with some Afghans in their hooch.  They are very good cooks despite their limited access to resources.  The food was really spicy and flavorful Michelle:  that’s pretty cool Mike:  These guys are Terps - some even lived in the states for a while.  Nice guys. The SF guys I’m hanging with introduced me.  Dinner was rice with raisins; spiced with cumin and tumeric.  Also, potatoes and chicken with red chiles and some other spices I didn’t recognize  Michelle:  yumm making me hungry  Mike:  Then we had tea and they put some spice into my tea. Michelle: oh sure spice…  Mike:  I asked what it was and they said what it was but I didn’t recognize it.  They just laughed and asked if I have to take drug tests.  Their idea of a joke Michelle: yeah a little joke that’s what I was thinking…drug test flunky.”

——————-more from Afghanistan 4/22-6/9/09

This photo was taken on the helicopter on the way in to Mike’s final destination in AF and a picture of Mike with a different plate holder (vest) on.   Plus a few more random shots from big guns to the fun creatures that occupy this area.

——————If all goes well Mike will be home soon - 6/9