Shocking Discoveries on FOB Salerno

Well we found out this week that we will not be replaced with the follow-on team from our unit. It seems that the Army believes that this Facilities Engineering Team (FET) function here at Salerno needs to be relocated to FOB Shank. That's a pretty good way off from here, and not nearly as cushy. So the next group of guys from my unit will be going there, living in tents, eating MREs, learning to like port-a-johns, freezing their butts off in the winter (Salerno's at 3800 feet and Shank's at probably double that), and helping to build a base from the ground up. Jack sure is glad he got pegged for this rotation rather than the next one.

The really good news here is that we don't have to worry about any required overlap with them to leave. That means we'll leave on time in late July.

Now, back to the adventure. Don't worry Wannabes, there will be more videos to come, but this week I found another couple of shocking photos. First, I was really glad to find out that the Afghan laborers really know what hard hats are. As you can see below, they are used to their full potential:


And after having been here this long, I had no idea what this was. I took a picture of it because I've never seen it on an Afghan jobsite before. Someone in the office had to remind me that it was a welding mask. I said, "Well that's silly. You don't need one of those. All you need is a pair of sunglasses!" Then I snapped out of my hypnotic trance and realized that this is an actual piece of safety equipment that one of my contractors was using----NO WAY!


Everyone needs to stay tuned, because I think next week I will be providing a special video----remember how I talked about "playing" with the working dogs?---Jack out!