Brian in the Middle East: Jalalabad

Left Fayzabad, flew back to Qalaa via Kunduz and spent the night there. Early the next morning flew to Jalalabad via Bagram. The base is called Camp Fenty. Turns out J-bad is pretty much the polar opposite of Fayzabad. It's flat, dusty, noisy, and the people in the office are unfriendly. The two ranking military people here are activily hostile to our presence, particularly the master sergeant, who is a sociopath and did everything he could to make our stay here unpleasant. Nevertheless the installation went off with only a few hitches, probably mostly related to stress more than anything else. I can't say I'm going to miss this awful place.

Below is the corp area office. The site is a bunch of metal boxes arranged in a grid with sidewalks between. It is located at the end of the runway (the entire base encircles the runway). This place has very heavy traffic, with helicopters coming and going directly overhead day and night. We are isolated at the end of the runway, everything is a mile away at the other end, so all travel is by vehicle. Naturally they won't let us drive the vehicles so we are forced to ask for rides to eat meals. What a ridiculous place.

This is the metal box where I set up and work, spent 90% of waking hours in here.

This is the metal box that functions as the server room, right next to my spot, where I set up my server.

FOB Fenty is a home to the famous 101st Airborne, 4th brigade (Battle of the Bulge)

A thing that is difficult to get a photograph of. The Air Force and CIA runs drones out of this base. Death from above brought to you by someone playing a very cool video game.

These are the corp assigned MRAPs that are used for trips to the field. Private contractors provide security.

Helipcopters taking off and landing all the time.

This is the area at the other end of the runway where everything is located. DFAC, px, lots of locally run shops, etc.

The Afghans really know how to pimp their rides.

Fortunately we don't rely on this for force protection.

This is pretty typical of a bunker at all sites. When the alarm goes off, you put on your IBA and helmet and run to the nearest shelter and hunker down.