News From Afghanistan

My friend "Joe" called me from Afghanistan again yesterday. It took him three tries to get through on the satellite phone before we were actually able to have a conversation. I haven't heard from him since he was in India in October. When I asked him how his leave went, he said that he ate and slept a lot, and spent time with his family and a girlfriend who came from Canada to see him. He is still out in the field, in the desert somewhere, with the Taliban close by. They are getting hot, fresh food once a week now (steaks and hamburgers) and they've rigged up a shower after boiling the water in kettles. A far cry from his usual three showers a day at home but better than nothing. The weather has changed and it is winter there now. At night, the temps drop radically and it rains constantly. He said they are all sick with colds. And he's smoking again so that doesn't help. He says they all smoke. There is nothing else to do but smoke and wait ...

He said they are getting pretty complacent when the bombs go off. His sargeant will ask, "Was that one of ours or one of theirs?" As we were talking, there was a huge ROAR and I could hear his belly laugh through the phone. He said a Tornado had just flown by, about 500 metres over his head and dropped some flares about a kilometre away. It was "just f***ing beautiful Jewels!" He told me that an A10 Thunderbolt flew over so low the other day, they could see the pilot giving them the peace sign and the Taliban "The Finger". LOL All in all, he sounds good - healthy and happy but anxious to get home. He says they all feel that this "war" cannot be won. But, for the most part, morale is good and the conditions are better in some respects (fresh food and showers) and bad in others (rain and cold). Although he assures me that the colder temps will work to our advantage because we're Canadian and we're "used" to it.