Merry Christmas!!!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support! Although I may not be there with my friends and family over Christmas, please know that I think of you everyday and hope you are all doing well. I can't wait to break bread and share a drink with all of you when I get home!

For us here in Afghanistan Christmas routines will vary. My gang here C troop of the 1/71 Cav had a feast! Most of us a got a well deserved day to rest and contact family. We have been very busy of late and a quiet day is just what we all needed.

So before I start to ramble on I will leave you with a Christmas card and few Christmas photos of today!

Merry Christmas All!

A Virtual Christmas Card. (Thank You PowerPoint!)

Who says we don't have a sense of humour? Would you like to mess with Santa and his Reindeer on Christmas?.....I think not!

OC C Troop & Acting First Sgt Serve Christmas Dinner from the field kitchen.

A Few Photos For My Loyal Readership

Here are a few pictures of the last couple of days... Enjoy.

Well this shouldn't be too bad...... nice weather, beautiful view..... Fast Forward...sometime later ................Fuck My Life.

Leaf Nation taking our frustrations out on the insurgency. (Note: Chin Strap Undone for Yvan to comment on :)To succesfully fight an insurgency one must shape and change the ways of a generation. The most malleable people of course are the children. How do we reach them: M&Ms, Pop Tarts, Water, Pens and a few phrases in Pashto (Our Language Assistant Lucky in the middle).

Almost Home.....

Apologies!

Sorry for the lack of fresh content folks, I have been busy lately and that is a good thing. Busy generally makes time fly by and in this particular case it has! It hard to believe that it has been a month already since I left Canada. Although my first month on the ground has been eventful I can really only comment on one particular change since my previous tour; the temperature.

From 11am until 4 pm the temperature is ideal, it may even reach a high of 20 degrees Celsius! But when the sun goes down so does the temperature....drastically. It gets well bellow freezing every night and I can assure you it has made for some unpleasant late nights and early mornings. I would never have imagined I would be worried about freezing to death in Afghanistan!

This afternoon 2 of my buddies played a game of cricket with our interpreters. I will post some pictures of the game as soon as I edit the photos (I will need to black out the faces of our interpreters for their protection). I highly doubt there are any terrorists reading this blog........

A few pictures....

My new girlfriend"Aggie" keeps me company in the back of U.S. Army Combat Vehicle. Aggie is a working dog who is trained to sniff for explosives. She protects the lives of many of us on a daily basis... the price for such selfless loyalty? Nothing more then attention and maybe a small treat! This particular road move was long and terribly cold. Not a happy camper!

No Christmas Music Here.....

Apparently Christmas is right around the corner, Afghanistan didn't get the memo. Its actually kind of refreshing to not be bombarded but the commercialism of Christmas, in fact there is absolutely nothing about Christmas in this far off land. Winter although a beautiful season is actually quite shitty in the city, dirty snow, slush and more traffic. So needless to say besides the obvious family gatherings and breaking bread with our friends, there's not much I miss about Christmas. So on that note, happy Christmas shopping (suckers!). Me & The Doc Kids never really know what to do in Photos. They are either extremely frightened or creeped out.
Info Gathering Leaving under the cover of darkness.

So here we are again!

Tonight I will be posting a few pictures that were taken on our patrol today. I have only been on the ground now for about 2 weeks but already I am noticing some huge differences. The most obvious difference is of course the amount of ISAF presence on the ground. There are Combat Out Posts and Strong Points everywhere. This is what keeps the "dushman" on his toes. For those of you who do not know my team is working exclusively with the American Army, specifically the 10th Mountain Division. The Americans are amazing and have completely adopted us 5 Canucks, I couldn't be happier! These photos were taken while speaking with villagers from a small village a few kilometers from our Strong Point.

Enjoy! Some of the more typical terrain you will find in the winter. Open fields usually freshly worked which makes for some tough walking. Taking a break before getting on with it.

A shura with the locals at sundown. In the fore ground you can see me (middle) with the American squad leader and the Doc (Combat Medic)

A Few Quick Photos

Here are a few quick photos, enjoy! Long Halt outside of an American Strong Point
Sundown on the Road....

And Last but not least a quick msg to my sister Kassandra and her soon to be Husband Oliver Moh who are getting married today the 27th of Nov 2010. I wish I could be there! Photo taken outside of my new home.

New Address!

Here is my new address for those of you kind enough to send this young man, a letter, a post card or maybe even a care package!

N29 829 168 / McNair / BA / CPL
TFK PSYOPS
PO BOX 5058 STN FORCES
Belleville, Ontario
K8N5W6

Bye For Now!!!