Shane In Afghanistan: Part 1

Here's the latest e-mail from Shane, that I received last Thursday:

Well, for those of you I haven't contacted since my last e-mail, I am here in Kandahar, safe and sound. I got in about a week and a half ago, and we have hit the ground running. We actually made it here in reasonably good time...we stopped in Ireland, Turkey, Khurgistan (sp?), Bagram, then finally here, and it only took three and a half days. For those of you who are/were in the military, that is record time.

I told you in my last e-mail that being deployed wouldn't hit me until I set foot on the ground in Kandahar. Not true. It honestly has seemed normal being here. I am in a large air base with excellent security, and it's mostly military forces everywhere. Given, a lot of them are British, Australian, Romanian, or Canadian, but it still doesn't seem like deployment. Life in an aviation unit is easy, as they say, and I would have to agree with them. Though the 'hero'/alpha-male part of me feels like I should be out there, in the thick of the fight, I really do have to thank God for the safety that a lot of us are able to have out here, and pray for the safety of those (some good friends) that don't get that luxury. Yesterday was the first day I actually woke up to the fact that I'm in Afghanistan, a foreign country, with a lot of people that don't want us around. "Why yesterday Shane? What happened that made you wake up to that realization" is what you might ask. "Wel
l, let me tell you" I'd probably say. I flew around all of yesterday in a black hawk helicopter, which was the first time I was 'outside the wire' as they say. My platoon is split between 4 locations, and I had to go visit the other three yesterday.
Realization 1) I love flying, I could do it all day, everyday...especially when we scaled the snow-capped mountains. AMAZING, esp. when we kept the doors open so I could look out the side.
Realization 2) What a different culture it is here. There are herds of sheep and camel everywhere. It could be by a decent sized city, or literally out in the middle of nowhere. Almost everything is made out of an Adobe hut(or whatever that stuff is called) and it's all sand and dirt. Every little are, you see women walking with shawls (sp?), and every town we flew over had one women in all red...Scarlett Letter theme coming into play??? It really feels like I took a time machine (a Delorean maybe, with a flux capacitor) and flew over people living in bible times. I saw old Alexander the Great ruins...I believe this area is around where he stopped and turned around, instead of invading China. Unbelievable.

It's hard being out here, seeing locals, and not having some sort of animosity towards them. To be completely honest, while we were flying, part of me was hoping that someone would shoot at us so I could see my door gunner cut them down where they stood. But then another part of me was hoping we would stay safe, nothing would happen, and these locals would find Jesus. The third part of me wondered 'when's lunch'. Too many mixed emotions/thoughts.

Well, that's it from the middle east. In a nutshell, I finally realize I'm here, I'm safe, and I'm staying very busy. These last two weeks have gone by quick, so I hope they continue to do so. Love you all, thanks for you continued prayers, and feel free to drop me a line, I will try to get back to you personally. That's right. Personally. Lucky you. :) God Bless y'all

Shane