August 19th, 2011

I cannot believe its been almost a month and I didnt write anything in my blog. All these days I could have written down pages of drama which went on during my stay here at FOB Pasab. Yes, I am counting my days now until I head back to KAF. I feel that I have done enough and its time to go home now. Also, when one sees that people are getting aggitated on smallest matters which involves food, its time to go.

I totally forgot to mention one of the most amazing facts of Kandahar, Afghanistan and that is the night scene. Besides the firing of big guns and feeling its thumping right in the heart, there is no need of light after midnight. I had noticed every night there is no clouds and full moon/half moon will emit enough light to see every stone on the ground. It is so beautiful and romantic. I have never seen anything like that in my entire life where almost 3 months had passed and I havent seen clouds/sand storms or any other climatic changes. The bad thing is even if I want to be without uniform, I cannot pull it off because somebody will see me. 

My patient load is decreasing day by day because of Ramadan. All the devotees are fasting or suppose to be fasting. I have seen some fakers but some do it religiously. The policies were changed by the command in order to respect the faith of the host country natives. As mentioned earlier the thumping of the big guns and loud roars of hellicoptors are still keeping me up every night. I wonder if I am going to have any sleeping problems when I get home to my family. 

Before I felt the need to exaust me and see every individual who might need my help. But for some reason due to the response of some of the jealous folks in my unit, I have decided to slow down a little. Afterall, people who take it easy or exaust themselves gets same kind of respect/honor right before they go home. But that doesnt mean I stopped caring, I just dont feel the need to drag me to exaustion no more.  

It is an interesting feeling when one knows that the time to go home is coming real close. This is when I feel that no matter what happens it would be horrible if I die while doing my mission. But then again life/death is in the hands of AkalPurakh. I hope I get to see my beautiful wife and enjoy her calm and soothing company.

July 31st

Some of the Sikhs think I am crazy when I say we got a lot to do. I can freaking proove it......wink

1. When a Private from Afghan Army thought I was a Talib.....lol

2. When a civilian from US working in a remote area called me Talib

Its very interesting dealing with  different kinds of people. My personal mission was to work myself off until I get exausted. I guess I am getting there but still got a lot of time left in my deployment. There are folks who are very thankful for what I do to help and there are those who after recieving their successful treatment still have the courage to question my existence in the Army. Its hurtful, but I believe in what goes around comes around and on top of that I have earned my share of selfless service.

It feels nice to accumulate selfless service points, I feel that God is watching over me just because I am being nice. I had the pleasure to visit another FOB(Houzi-m-Dad) for a mission. Its interesting to see how smaller the FOB's get people generally gets nicer or atleast mind their own business. What strikes me the most and I believe I have mentioned this in my previous blogs.  If people/soldiers have hard time dealing with my existence in the Army then how is their behavior towards the locals of Afghanistan. Afterall, our mission is to win the hearts and minds of people. But in the end I do realize that we are in the middle of a war.

At Houzi-m-dad, I was told to go check in for a sleeping tent. The civilian (American) lady who was suppose to help me called me a Talib and after I said excuse me, she had the audacity to repeat. I tried to contol myself and was very successful and asked her name with furious bottle necked eyes and went straight back to the Aid station and yelled at the poor seargent for not doing his job. There is usually an email sent out to places I visit which tells about my visit and my appearance being a Sikh. Anyhow, I worked from 5pm till midnight that day and it was one of my most exausting days here in afghanistan.

The month of Ramazan, the holy month for muslims is approaching and insurgents are suppose to go back to their families for a fulfulling, holy time with their families. Its interesting how people who like to kill innocent kids and women also end up going back to their families to rest and pray and relax. I wonder what Allah has lined up for them for all the innocent people they killed.

I have almost 2.5 months left until I get back home to my family. I can truly say it out loud that I have worked my behind off in Afghanistan and served my people as well as their people same.

July 14th- blog after almost a month

I am sure some of the reader of my blog must be waiting to hear new things. A lot happened since the last time I wrote in this blog. I manage to treat hundreds of soldiers (American as well as Afghans). I saw things I have never seen before and also enjoyed the hospitality of some Afghans living in the same FOB as myself.

About 2 weeks ago, I travelled to a FOB which very much looked like a COP about 40 minutes from my FOB. Initially, it was kind of nerve recking because getting outside the wire can mean anything. Being part of the medical staff here at my FOB, I believe I have seen a decent amount of trauma coming through and most of it deals with the war. I would consider the experience priceless because all the dentists who deployed with me are not going to get the same experience. My journey started early in the morning where myself and my assistant had to attend the convoy briefing. I got to meet the gentlemen who were running the convoy and the convoy commander knew I was a Sikh. He seemed excited to talk to me because he read about my existence in Army times, apparently thats a big deal in the Army community.

His welcoming nature was very pleasant and we all sat in a big hall and the convoy commander and NCO discussed the potential threats and dangers and few convoy manuvers. About a few hours after the brief everyone was assigned a vehicle and we all got to out assigned seats. Everyone was laughing and talking about our everydays business until the convoy hit the road and we were out of the wire. Everyone locked our magazines in our weapon and for some reason everything seemed caffinated and we were wide awake. Afghanistan is a poverty stuck country and the mud houses, literally the mud houses seemed like the houses we see during Christmas times which are made to reproduce biblical times. The terrain in Afghanistan is interesting, some areas are green and some are dusty. Whats cool about the houses is people actually got creative and started designed their mud houses with fancy doors, windows and from far they look very impressive and clean.

On our way to our destination we had to take a detour because the insurgents blew up a good chunk of the highway with improvised explosive device a few days ago. On our way the local kids were waving at us and there were orchards of pomegranate in the backyard which looked delicious. Unfortunately, there was no way we could get to those orchards. After passing a few villages we got to our destination. My unit made me a "Doc in a Box", connex which was utilized to take care of our soldiers and others. I met a whole bunch of our soldiers living in that facility which was kind of run down and remote but it still had showers. The food was horrible but you learn to appreciate it when you see everyone cherishing it. I stayed there for 2 nights and my command called me back to our facility because the line of patients was getting longer than usual.

It is humbling to see our soldiers work day and night when they are deployed. Some are staying within the FOBs but still working their tails off building and fixing stuff. Contrary to that Afghans are been here for years and years and they still were living in Mud houses and had handpumps for water.

June 15th,2011

I had to share today's experience with the readers of my blog. At the end of my busy day I was called in the trauma center for Role 2 facility. I was told the patient who was brought in was a 12 year old who had a motorcycle accident. He was definately in pain and could'nt speak because apparently he fell on his chin. Kid was pushed from a role 1 facility to role 2 facility in a vehicle. Apparently the doctor/PA who evaluated him did a bad job and considered him non-emergent. While examining him I found 2 fractures one on the symphysis and other on the angle of the mandible.

Everyone in the trauma room was surprised why was this kid sent to us, a role 2 facility instead of sending him to a role 3 hospital with an OR attached. I immediately went to my office and grabbed a syringe and 2 carpules of marcaine and locally anesthesized the patient at the site of the fracture.

Apparently, I pissed a lot of people off because I called in MEDAVAC (a hellicopter) to take this kid to a role 3 facility. Some people thought this was not emergent. I stuck to my guns and because of this gesture the kid will recieve good treatment and heal well. All together, I had a good day because my decision will better the life of this kid for future.

June 14th, 2011

Life is pleasant here, its a small FOB and there is not much going on. However, thats not true in the medical and dental world. We have a lot going on and I stay busy seeing the US and ANA soldiers. The Afghans have no concept of oral hygiene and they premake their mind befor ethey come to my chair. they want to get their teeth fixed even when they have very little or no tooth structure remaining. I look at it and have no words what to tell them. Hence they frustrate me to my bones. I am the officer in charge of this clinic at FOB Pasab. I am trying to make the clinic up to date by putting cabinets and organizing stuff around.

Everyone complimented that I have managed to change the look of the clinic. I ordered a television and DVD player from walmart so we can play and watch movies while working on the patients. People generally leave me alone and I get busy in treating patients all day long.

A few days ago the highlight of the day was the vetenarians caught a BOB CAT in a cage. It was a vicious looking bugger and kept on banging his head with the cage so it can escape. A few of our guys put the cat in the MRAP and took it out of the FOB and dropped it off. The vetenarian told me there are jackels, wolves and other wild animals running around the FOB at night. It was painful to hear that we live in the midst of these wild animals. They I imagined myself in the laterines and getting attaked by one of these vicious looking creatures.

One of the other observations for me was the caliber of our enlisted soldiers. I kind of compared this generation with my generation. I consider them as video game playing and very lazy. They have no fear until they hear stuff from the commander or the NCO's. The morale changes if the commander and NCO's are doing their jobs and everyone is all squared away.

I have spent 15 days here in this FOB and I have 74 more days to go back to KAF.

Cont 13: Transition to a new FOB

I know everyone who is reading my blog is up for another good read.

Yes, a lot happened since the last blog thats why there is a bit lag in it. I moved from being a Fobbit to a smaller Forward operating base close to Kandahar. There is a war going on in this region, soldiers living within a 30 mile radius are living in a combat zone. I get to see them when they have Dental issues. Its interesting to see how infantry live when they come to a combat zone. Over all soldiers are very nicely behaved and know of my existence. When in a gaggle they whisper and wonder who I am and why I look the way I dress.

Highlight of my first day at Pasab, I got to see General Petraeus where a lot of 10th Mountain soldiers gathered in a formation and he gave out awards. It was an interesting gathering and we stood in formation for atleat 40minutes in a 102degrees temperature. Yes, I saw him looking at me using his peripheral vision.

I am the OIC of the clinic(Afghanistan Dental Clinic) and Yes super busy. I extract a lot of teeth and at a point where I almost feel a little bad about extracting teeth. The ANA soldiers are my patients and I am picking up on Pastu and Dhari. The oral hygine is horrible with ANA soldiers and they have no clue about keeping up with the oral hygiene. They come and say meshah, which means pull it. It seems like taking teeth out on Afghan soldiers is very easy, probably the lack of essential minerals in their diet. Hence the short stature and skinny built.

I was told by the 1SG to be careful at night where a lot of these soldiers drive under the influence of drugs. The terrain here is still sandy with hills all around this place. The hills have no green in them, they look like man made. There are hot showers and they are communal and they are at a walkable distance.

Part of my assignment is travel from FOB to FOB and treat our soldiers in a Dental Van. I will be accompanied by infantry and we will travel on road. My first CLP(Convoy) was from KAF to Pasab and it was a little nerve wrecking and my eyes were on the road 24/7. It is the pits on the roads, the locals on motorcycles/cycles/cars. I was put in a big truck called Hemmat, it was loaded with supplies. While talking to the brave driver from NY, he mentioned that his hearing is bad in the left ear. I asked him what happened and he looked at me and said sir nothing crazy but "we get hit by IED's often". For a second it made me numb and then I felt fearless for the rest of the trip.

My coworkers are stationed here for a year in support of our soldiers from all over the southern region. I salute them for their work they do in providing the care the soldiers deserve. 

Cont 12

May 21st, 2011:
I had to share my few hours of interaction with the locals at the "Chor" Bazaar, I call it. Some of the items were legitimate but a lot of them were fake. Like the 10 dollars I spent on a watch which was pretty much giving away my hard earned money. Oh well, I learnt to suck it up. I bought whole bunch of gifts for my family, especially for my wife.

It was super easy for me to communicate with these people because they all spoke urdu. Some pretended they didn't speak it but as soon as I mentioned my interest in their product it clearly jumped out of his skin.

What I learnt from one of the very young vendors (Daulat Khan) was that these people start lining up by the gate of KAF around 3AM and wait until given permission to come in and set up their products for sale. I saw boys from very young ages of 4 and 7 years old, some of the little ones were awfully cute.  It made me want to talk to these kids and ask them "do you go to school", The answer was, " Yes Sir, we study in a school at Kandahar". It made me wonder if these school were Madrasas or a proper school which offers education in a few different subjects. There were no females with these vendors, all men.

It makes the bargaining a little hard when one sees poverty stuck people asking for money. For some reason the whole "Bad Talibans" goes down the drain. It is for sure this kind of poverty which pushes these people to accept the money Talibans have to offer to them to blow themselves up or shoot a rocket at an American Base.  I saw many Americans and NATO soldiers buying a lot of things from these vendors and they interacted with afghans in a very respectable manner.

One more interaction with a kid who wanted me to buy one of his hand made bracelets. He asked me in Urdu,"Are you from India", I said yes and no. He clearly got the idea and replied back, it must be nice in United States. I didn't say anything and he asked me another question,"What are you doing in Afghanistan", he asked me that question in a tone that, America is such a nice country and why was I in Afghanistan. I replied, "to serve the humanity". I felt good about that answer and paid the kid a dollar for his hand made bracelet. 

Cont 11

May 18th, 2011:  Life in an environment like Kandahar is very interesting. One will get bored if there are no other things to look up to. I decided a long time ago to get the most out of this deployment. I accepted another assignment at Camp/FOB Pasab and will be heading that way in a few days. Also, there is an Afghan hospital just a little outside the wire (Camp Hero). I will be traveling there in a few days it will be a good opportunity to mentor Afghan dentist.

I am kind of looking forward to my new assignment at Camp Pasab. The living might be a little primitive as compared to KAF but it can't be so bad. I will be sharing Alaskan tents and running a Dental Clinic all by myself.  The best thing is I will be earning my 3rd combat patch "10th Mountain Patch" Yehhhh.

Another negative is I wouldn't  be able to chat with my beautiful wife as much as I do now. Oh by the way when she found out that I planned to go to that afghan hospital she freaked out and got mad at me. Dude, my love,  if I don't plan to do these extra activities I will go nuts in this sand pit. Its been a little over month and a half and I feel that I have learnt so much in my profession and will continue to learn more and more.

Yesterday I treated a SM and he mentioned that other NCO's saw be working out in the gym with my PT's and my black bandana. They were not happy with my outfit and myself in general. This SM explained to them that I was within the Army standards. What I fail to understand is that some of these NCO's have nothing better do to than complain and I am actually working very hard to make soldiers happy.

I dont really have anything else...........will write more soon

Cont 10

May 13^th 2011:  I believe if job demands dedication, hard work and lots of time then I should be excused for not posting anything in the last few days.  I want to make this very clear to the readers that this blog is my day to day emotions I am writing about.

Todays blog will somehow reflect on the amount of work necessary by the Sikh community in order to win some hearts and minds of fellow Americans.  I earned my combat patch today after having boots on ground for more than 30 days in theatre. Everyday is a mixed feelings of roller-coaster, it took me a long time to win hearts and minds of individuals working with and around me but unfortunately in theatre people rotate and soldiers change. It is overwhelming sometimes to see new faces and their reaction towards my existence as a fellow soldier. The feelings range from “What The Fuck” to whispers of “Is this guy legitimate”. Some refers to my existence in the military as the guy with relaxed grooming standards.

Let me take a step back, I do run into handful of soldiers who are very well read and they are excited to meet me as one of the only practicing Sikhs in the Army. It is very hard to control and I consider myself as “A master of Patience by being in theatre”. I think of my beautiful wife and my parents and keep my mouth shut if any remarks are passed towards me.

As an American I believe our current strategy “COIN” is not very effective. We are trying to win the hearts and minds of local nationals. I kind of want to laugh about that because if the military is having hard time with a Sikh who is working his tale of to spread goodwill, how in the world are we going to be successful in winning the hearts and minds of Afghanis.

I will definitely blame my own community for this problem. A few days ago yahoo released a story out of Queens, NY regarding the fighting in the Sikh Temple. I believe I am one of the only people who can feel the heat of that news because while spreading a good name for the Sikhs, many question were raised. I spend a lot of energy trying to explain a lot of things I had no clue about.

How can I explain to the people the golden history of Sikhs being a martial race when there are stories of fights in the temple published on the front page.  I send out an open warning to my community out there that we still have time to spread the word. It has to be done in a very strategic manner where a few people need to put their heads together possibly the younger generation and start living our lives with a Code of Conduct.

9 cont: hate to be treated like a 2nd class citizen

5-6-2011: I just found out that I need another letter of Accomodation in order for me to continue my next assignments when i get back to States. The deployment was never mentioned in my letter and nobody made a fuss when i deployed but now since i have to get to my next assignment I need a new letter. It is frustrating to manage all the internal and external elements of deployment and you know sometimes I feel like a 2nd class citizen.  Enough said about that.......steam released.

I miss my family........1 down 5 to go.......

Cont 8:

5-3-2011: Its not exactly a month yet but there is one thing for sure, time flies fast if you are busy. I was able to get in the OR and assist in some of the surgeries. Very neat and valuable experience especially when I know thats all I will be doing in future.

I would say I was born before some of the killings occurred in the name of religion in the world and it happened repeatedly. At the time, when killings were happening in the name of religion, in India, I was very young. I never understood why people cannot live happily at that age but it seems picture is becoming more and more clearer. It was the hatred between the Hindus and Muslims during my younger years and now its between Muslims and Christians. The hatred is such that its starting to look like war of religions where muslims abuse the profit of christians and vice versa. I mean there are people out there who never implement the principles of these religions in their life and take every teaching in a radicalized manner.

I heard one of the Chaplains discussing the negatives in the faith of the enemy but he failed to understand the hatred he might be spreading among our own soldiers by discussing it loudly. May be I am failing to understand that the chaplains are also human beings and expecting a lot more than they can offer. The war in Afghanistan is a tough one because we are dealing with completely uneducated people of villages who have no way of knowing whats right and whats wrong. Thats where the Imams/Mullahs take advantage of the situation and recruit their Jihadis. The only way to win the hearts and minds of these brainwashed souls is by showing them our kind gestures. Like what we are doing in our hospitals and care centers. Medical providers are working very hard to provide the very needed services.


just a personal opinion, it might change as my time progresses in Afghanistan.

 

Cont 7

4-29-2010: A lot happened since the 24th from seeing the local nationals to politics within the services. One of the pleasant experiences was dealing with a canadian soldiers who lost her ring finger while fixing her HumV. She told the physical therapy doctor that she likes to play hockey and was interested in getting a hockey glove for the job of a goalkeeper. The physical therapist came to the dental clinic and requested for a dentists services so we can possibly fabricate an impression of her hand so it could be sent to a tailor. I used alginate and made an impression of her hand and poured stone in the impression. I believe both the therapist and the patient were happy.

Another interesting experience was dealing with a 13 year old kid who was involved in a bomb blast. Again one of the doctors came and asked for our assistance to get this kid checked for sheared off teeth due to the blast. He had lacerations on the left side of his face, the lip, the cheeks and some on his neck. His limbs were intact. I was told that he belonged to a Taliban village and was taking care of his grandfathers poppy seed growing business. The blast sheared off 4 of his permanent teeth but only the canine in the mandible was still attached and was annoying if touched with his tongue. We took that tooth and 3 of the existing roots in the maxilla which were going to be a potential infection hazard for future. He cried and grabbed his head with both of his hands. The interpreter said "Khulla Khulast" and he opened and it took us about 2 hours to get those broken teeth out of his mouth. What a brave little kid but God knows how long he is going to live in this IED sprayed country. I felt bad about the young kids who had to live in this hell hole.

Politics within the different services of the Military. I learnt that there is fine line between NAVY, Air Force and the ARMY not to mention the off shoots like the Special Forces and the Marines. I guess the need to correctly use or abuse the power is always been a Man's Passion. May Waheguru give me calm mind and patience to deal with this Mess. 

Cont 6

4-24-2011: What an interesting, chaotic and difficult to understand country. 3 reasons we are here in Afghanistan: Taliban, Lithium and Threat from Iran. Today a linguist told me that everyone is a Talib here in this country. Now how can we fight every uneducated soul in this country. He also mentioned that Quran burning in US didn't help our mission of winning hearts and minds.

It is poppy growing season. Talibans are busy growing poppy so they can earn gzillions of dollars and buy their weapons to fight our Army. They grow poppy this month and collect their harvest in a couple of months. The linguist was an Afghan who grew up in england. He felt the need to mention the Afghans looting India. However, when I mentioned Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruling over Afghanistan he had no clue about it. He kind of gave me a general impressions about Afghans from outside Afghanistan to be bark dogs who like to show off like many of my fellow Sikhs brothers. He kept of mentioning Afghans as fierce warriors who are not very well trained but if trained can be lethal for human kind.

All Afghanis have seen is wars and they grew up fighting many wars. Infact thats all the kids grew up hearing in a normal household. He mentioned Talibans era to be the best because everyone was happy there were no thefts or crime. But he failed to mention the crime these people committed by not educating the kids and beating their women and being a menace for the other religious communities residing amongst them. 

5 cont

4-17-2011: I finally landed in Kandahar, the home for the resilient Talibans. The previous team here was welcoming. They were excited to see us since it was there time to leave and hand over the race to us. The young SGT gave us the tour and placed us in the MODS. I prepared my mind for a possible CSM attack but surprisingly except the looks, I was very much left alone. The dinning facility was very much enjoyed after smelling the Poo Pond everywhere we went.

4-18-2011: We were given the tour of the Role 3 and I was introduced as a new team member. All eyes were fixated on me in the room where every other doctor from the hospital was present. The role 3 is commanded by a Naval team.

My first interaction with a local as a doctor and I was asked to work with him since he spoke urdu. I surgically drilled his 3rd molar out. I hope he liked me after that meeting. Amenities are present on this base due to the presence of the NATO. I have some privacy in my room where 4 people are residing. They all seem nice and considerate.

4-19-2011: My day started off listening to the call for Muslims (Azan) to pray early in the morning. Being a Non-Muslim I have to say it was kind of soothing. Me and my roommate went to the british Dfac for some breakfast and them we headed to the clinic. One thing I noticed was the treatment process for the NATO forces. There is some give and take, I worked on a Slovak soldier and the soldier gave me a patch of his unit as a thankful gesture. The NATO gym is huge and very clean but they require everyone to bring 2 pairs of shoes so it remained clean. So on our way there I saw a lot of different kinds of folks with different backgrounds walking around with an extra pair of shoes.

Evening was interesting where the doctor before me treated some UAE soldiers and they invited him and the new doctors to their little compound for special treatment. Man, these guys have it best, they are loaded with every possible amenities. We were greated and taked to a room with bunch of Sofas. There was a tent which kind of looked like a gzebo. They had hookas and pillows settings on the ground. The doctor before me was given certificate and one too many little gifts as a nice gesture. He felt overwhelmed by the nice gesture. The food was not bad followed by some chocolate eating spree by me and my roommate. I learnt the culture and also there are 7 little united Arab provinces in UAE and trust me they are loaded. 

4 cont

Its time to move to my final destination. Finally got the say and I have few more hours till I move.

will write more when I get there...........

Cont 3

April 14th: Oh boy what a day. Hot and lots of learning. I guess it never stops. Highlight of the day was the CSM apologized and came out to be a nice individual. Everyone knows about my existence and everyone kind of leaves me alone. 2 more days of training and I go about my ways to my final destination. Its very nice to see the Army in action where everyone has their own responsibilities. In my training I was told that the locals are not that bad of people, they just dont have a choice when bad guys wants something from them.

There seems to be no value for life. Currently, I cant put 2 and 2 together as far as floating information is concerned but as time will progress I will be able to draw my personal opinion. It is very clear that we are here to relieve the innocent from bad guys cage. As soon as this happen our forces will be out of here. God Willing.   

cont 2

April 13th @ 1300: the weather is hot here but it was kind of cold last night. I was able to take a tour of the base and its huge and very dusty. Except the beautiful and mezmorizing mountains everything looks kind of chaotic. There was an email sent out to my guys informing them about my existence and people seem to take interest and accept.

stay tuned for more

From April 8th to April 12th

Oh boy what an experience

4-8-2011: take a 2 hour bus ride from CRC to the Airport. Wait at the airport for another 2 hours. Got on the flight and the flight took me to Leipzig, Germany. Waited for 2 hours in Germany

4-9-2011 to 4-12-2011: Waiting game in Kuwait Ali Al Salem for 3 days 2 nights. Sand everywhere but in the sandy conditions of this crapy country I had the pleasure of seeing MacDonalds, Subway, Green Bean Caffe, Local Bazaar where everyone spoke urdu....spooky.

4-11-2011: got a flight out of crapy kuwait city into Qatar where we had to go through customs and drag our duffle bags everywhere. Tired but still smiling a few colonels got a flight out of qatar within 5-6 hours of our stay in qatar. It was a C130 but very comfortable.

4-12-2011: I am definately in love with the sight of Hindu Kush mountains. Makes me wonder why always the most beautiful places in the world have problems. Any how, with in 2 hours of our arrivals while sitting in the chow hall a Command Seargent Major confronted me for wearing my turban. His eyes were furious with lots of anger and hatred. I told him I had the authorization of wearing my turban but that didnt cut it. Bottom line he spoiled my first day in the beautiful Parwan Province of Afghanistan.

stay tuned for the rest..................