Crossing the 90 day threshold

Day 275 – I’m now crossing into the final quarter of this deployment. Based upon the 365-day “boots on ground” math, I have exactly 90 days remaining. That’s a milestone among the mental victories that guide a person through these experiences. I’m three flips of my calendar away from the month I redeploy. It just so happens that month will be September, which means for the first time since 2010 I’ll be able to watch football games without having to stay up until after midnight just to see the kickoff. But, unfortunately, I’ll miss another summer. I don’t mean that literally, as it is summer here. But there’s a huge difference between spending summer in Bagram as opposed to summer just about anywhere else. But I think I can hang another 90 days. Taking into account the promise I made to my Mom, the next 90 days will be the last ones I ever spend deployed in harm’s way. Does the time go by fast? Well, amazingly enough, it has already been over a month since I returned from R&R. That means my “days without a beer” counter is back up to 33. The last beer I had was a Carlsburg served on the Fly Emirates Airbus 380 on my return trip to Kuwait. That also represented the last glass of wine I consumed, which was a lovely red I had with my in-flight meal. 90 days to go – I’m in double digits.

But I can’t spend too much time focusing on the number of days remaining. There is so much work to do here. It’s getting hot now too. I was out walking around observing some of our current projects earlier today and found it amazing to see snow still adorning the distant mountain peaks. They are a beautiful sight. But they are a façade that masks the volatility of this place. The war continues. Our next major hurdle is to ensure the Afghan run-off elections are successful. This makes for seriously heightened tension around everything we do. Security and force protection are, as always, major concerns. But they take on even greater priority now. Those Taliban thugs are murdering terrorists who want nothing more than to cause mayhem and death. Their top priority at present is to do anything within their power to disrupt the elections and kill people who are helping the democratic process in Afghanistan. But when I put it in perspective I realize that nothing has changed. That’s always been a priority of the Taliban. We’ll make it through. We always do. And I’ll most certainly get through these last 90 days.