Stuck in Sharana

Remember the line from Apocalypse Now, "Never get out of the boat"? Well I can extend that to "Never get out of the plane". I got off the plane in FOB Sharana, a place I had reason to be in, with the expectation of getting a ride to where we needed to go. Eight days of snow storms and general bad weather later I finally getting out of Sharana and headed back to the base camp, missing two sites on our itinerary in the process.

This portion of my Afghanistan adventure has been a perfect example of Army ineptitude, there has been a parade of errors, the weather just enhanced the bad situation. All that being said, Sharana is a nice office, the people are friendly and helpful.

Sharana is an odd place for telecommunications. My blackberry never worked when it was dark out. I came to find out that the Taliban went and turned the cell towers off in the area from about 6pm and 6am every day, and that has been an ongoing problem for some time.

Below is a picture of the plane I should have stayed on and taken the loop back to Kabul.

While we were standing there on the runway while the pilot made phone calls to see if we would be able to land at the next stop on our route, Salerno, I saw this helipcopter take off. I guess it lulled me into a false sense of security and I took my chances and stayed.

FOB Sharana USACE office, in the snow storm.

Once again, my co-worker, being a girl, got a room to stay in and I got whatever else was available. In this case it was a mattress on the floor of the conference room, where I slept for over a week. I had to vacate every morning so they could have meetings with the contractors.

This is one of the terminals that let me down again and again as we went up there daily to see if there was any flights. This one is the fixed wing terminal.

This is on the main entry road. I have never been anywhere that part of the road everyone has to drive on at some point is technically part of the runway.

Picture of the mountains during a morning run before all the snow started. I didn't realize when I stepped off that plane that Sharana is over 7000 feet in elevation.

I'm thinking all these various MRAPs are for clearing IEDs

I followed directions as I ran by.

The entry bridge into the USACE compound before the snow storm.

And after the storm.

This is a perfect example of US military hospitality from the DFAC.

We went down very early the second and fifth morning to try to get a flight on Space A, which basically means any transport heading anywhere close to where you want to go, you take any available seat. I went outside the terminal the first time a few hours when the sun came up and saw these helipcopters on the runway. At this point I figured we weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Various pictures from some morning runs in the Sharana white out. The base covers a vast area and there is much more open land than development, pretty much the opposite of the other places I have been.

From the northernmost tip of the base, the scenery is fantastic.

On my last cold morning run, the sign says it all.

There were a bunch of cool blackhawks taking off and landing while we waited for our ride out of here.

And finally, after 8 days, our rescue chopper arrives, taking back to Kabul where I hang out for a couple days before venturing out again, this time up near Uzbekistan.