Where in the World is Mike?
Page Last Updated December 28th

I uploaded my favorite of Mike's photos from Afghanistan.

HOME!!!!!
From right to left, Mike, Andrew and Mike's roommate Miguel Lopez. Home at Camp Pendleton on Monday, December 14.

Mike is part of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines (1/5) and is part of Operation Khanjar ("Strike the Sword") which started early on the morning of July 2 local time. The 1/5 is operating in the Nawa-I-Barakzayi District of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  Any updates we get from Mike I will put on top while below are maps and links to news sites.

Mike will not be able to get email for the next 6 to 8 months while he is in the field. Some of the places he is living in  are still in the middle ages. He should be back on the Internet by December 17.

Photos of Mike's life

Last Updates:

• November 20
  This article talks about a meeting that took place at Mike's new COP, Fielder. The meeting was on the 10th so Mike's group was part of the security team. Nawa Leaders, Marines Discuss Security, Human Services During Shura
   
• November 14
  As it seems to happen, we got a call AND letter from Mike the same day. He called Saturday morning about 1am our time. It was a short call but the gist is:
  He is doing fine. His section has moved from COP Fleming to COP Fielder (where ever that is) and will be at Fielder for two weeks. Then a week back at the "Mansion". From there to Camp Leatherneck and still back at Camp Pendleton on December 16!  The only bad news is that he probably won't make it home for Christmas. He gets four days off but can't start his full post-deployment leave until January 4. Which means our hope to have Mike and Andrew home for Christmas probably won't happen. Finally, he asked us to bring his car out to California so Anne and I will drive out there on December 14.
  
  Later that same morning we got a letter where Mike described his scariest night ever in Afghanistan.
  
  September 26

  Hello Mom and Dad,

  How are you guys doing? I am fine. Things still pretty much the same around here but we are finally starting to turn the locals around. There are still Taliban around but the locals are less scared of them now.

  I had the scariest night here in the Stand a couple of nights ago. On the night of the 24^th I left on a night patrol around 21:30 and got back around Midnight. I then had post until zero one (1am) in the morning. While I was doing all of this Norizaden, the COP to our south, they are in the 2^nd (2/8), was not answering their radio. So at 01:30 Main called us and told us to go down to Norizaden to see what was going on.

  Half way down to Norizaden we heard over the radio singing in Pashtun. This just freaked us out because we can’t really pick any one up besides Fleming, that’s my COP, and Norizaden when we are on patrol. Since Norizaden had been dark for about five hours, it was 02:00 when we heard the singing. We all thought that Norizaden had been overrun and we where going to find the place held by Taliban with all the captured heavy weapons or find the place empty expect for the bodies of everyone down there.  So for about the klick (kilometer) and a half we still had to travel we where flipping out. That time I was the most scared I have been here. I have been under fire and felt less fear.

  When we finally get down to Norizaden we tried the IR (InfraRed) flash, and when that failed we lighted up the over watch post with a one of our PEQ IR lasers. When we go no response from that we sent Obi and Hart in first to check the place out. As they were about to enter the post finally saw us. It turns out that the radio was unplugged that why they did not hear Main calling for them.

  We where relieved that everyone was still alive but pissed off that they were too stupid to realize that no was talking on the radio. That is not normal for the radio to be silent. We finally got back to our COP around 04:00 and proceeded to pass out. And that is the story of my scariest night in the Stand.

   

• November 12
  I found a couple of photos of what Mike's flight into Afghanistan from Kyrgyzstan would have looked like. They are at the top of the photo page.
   
• November 9 Some photos of a place Mike was at; Stuff that he does
  In a couple of Mike's earlier letters he mentioned a place called the "Mansion". His unit spent a week or two cleaning up and fixing up the place before moving on to COP Fleming where he is at now. Here is a recent article that talks about the "Mansion". Since Mike spent the last three months in a mud walled compound, I think he got gypped. Marines Inhabit a Taliban Fortress (To see a photo of the "Mansion" click and scroll down a bit)
  
  This article, Marines Uncover Weapons, Drugs in Taliban Stronghold, talks about a platoon in Mike's company (Weapons Company). I don't know that Mike was involved in this, but it gives you an idea of the type of work he does.
   

• Letter from October 2, received October 21
  
  Hello, how are you guys? I am fine. I am finally going to get my hair cut today. It is long enough that if I was back home you guys would be saying I need a hair cut. Things are still much the same here. It is getting to the point where it is beyond a grind into a rut. I have decided on more things to do when I get home. They will be mainly the little things that I can’t do here such as drive my car; go to the store; sit in your Lazy Boy and watch TV. I am also planning to play some video games that came out while I was in the ‘Stand. Two off the top of my head are Halo 3 ODST and Starcraft 2. Speaking of Starcraft 2 can you do me the favor of installing it on my computer? I believe it comes out in November. If it does besides installing it would you please bring the manual out with you? I like to read the manual before I play the game. Mail is still being slow. The last packages I got where sent from the end of August and it is now October.
  
  I forgot to mention that the ANA found a couple of kittens and adopted them as pets which is really good for the reason that they will help control the mice that live around here. I am wondering if you can say hi to a few people for me. The Lurkers for one, I don’t have an address so I can’t write them letters and maybe on my Facebook say hi to everyone. Also, could you tell Mr. Mick that I will invite him out for coffee when I get back? The call for me to go get my hair cut now. Will write more later and call if I ever get the Sat phone.
   
• October 10-19
  After 5 weeks without hearing from Mike we've gotten 4 phone calls and a couple of letters in the last week. The letters actually are a month old, but they still count.
  
  Some highlights on how he is doing.
  
  First of all, he is doing ok. Tired but ok. The best news is he now has an exit timeline. In late November his unit will be replaced. They will spend about 3 weeks at Camp Leatherneck and then return to Camp Pendleton and their barracks at San Mateo on December 16!
  
  The typical day has him standing watch for 3 hours and then sleeping for 3 hours over night then repeating. These day’s sunset is around 7pm local time and sunrise around 6am. So that means two watches overnight. Then in the daylight they go on patrol for four to six hours. In one of his letters from early September he wrote "Things are a little more interesting around here. We are getting attacked more often. I know you don't want to hear that but it makes my life here a lot more interesting".
  
  In our phone calls he gave us some details on some of the attacks. They had done security duty for a meeting of the provincial governor and local elders. On the way back they were going slow because they had a heavy machine gun crew with them. Mike was upset because at one point a homemade claymore type mine went off about 20 meters from them. He thought that if they had moved faster they could have caught the bomb team. He had no respect for the bombers, "rank amateurs" he said and you could hear the sneer of a true professional in his voice. On a later phone call I mentioned that. He said, "I know this isn't right, but if I'm going to come all this way to fight you (the Taliban) at least you can give it the old college try." Mike realizes that his view of the world is not exactly normal but he hopes he'll return to normal when he gets back.
  
  Though in September they were getting regular attacks, that has slowed down. Now they sometimes go several days without attacks. He attributes that in part to the cooler weather. It is now in the 40's at night and only in the 70s/80s during the day. Also, it is time for the corn harvest as well as planting the winter crops like wheat or poppies. They are trying to talk the local farmers out of planting poppies. A good sign is that the locals are warming up to them. They local people have said to Mike's unit that they wish they could stay. Not the Marines in general but Mike's unit in particular.
  
  Life in the compound at Combat Outpost (COP) Fleming goes on pretty much as always. We gave us details of life. There are eight men from Mike's platoon, or a half section. There is a half section from a sniper group and 20 Afghan National Army (ANA) men. Mike said, "You know the old saying about how fish and guests start to stink after 3 days? We are getting kind of tire living with the ANA." Though they work together, the cultural differences mean they get on each others nerves sometimes. Mike also said that among the Marines they are getting tired of seeing the same old faces.
  
  Right now they have a Human Intelligence Team with the them (HIT Team is probably not the best acronym). The team is doing surveys. One questions is to provide data back to a group like the Rand Corporation or Brookings Institute and asks "What would it take for you (meaning the Afghani’s) to trust and respect the Afghan National Police?" While the ANA gets respect from the locals, the ANP doesn't. The other question is from their commander. He wants to know what will it take to get the locals to leave the Taliban. Many if not most of the Taliban are local farmers trying to earn extra money (The rank amateurs that Mike disdains). The unit commanders would like to know what they can do to integrate those men back into their communities and wean them away from the Taliban.
  
  On the upside they go shopping in the bazaar for food to vary their diet. He said the bazaar has 3 or 4 compounds that open off the main square. Each compound has several shops. There is a motorcycle parts store as well as several Mom and Pop "general stores". He also gets gift boxes and letters from the USA from time to time. In September he got three boxes from the girl scouts. He only gets boxes and mail every two to three weeks. One of our recent boxes had a can of fruit (pull top) that had broken and wetted down some of the stuff. He got a card/letter from his Sunday School at his church in California as well as letters from friends at our church here.
  
  In one of his letters he described a meal they made from local food. Here is a recipe for vegetables over rice a la Marines:
  "Last night we had an Afghan dish. We are tired of MREs so we went to the bazaar an bought rice, onions, pepper (like green jalapenos), cooking oil and beans in tomatoes sauce. We started out by making a small cooking fire, then poor the oil into the pot The ANA poor the oil until they thought it was enough which was a lot. Sautee the onions and tomatoes in the oil. First add the onions to the oil let them cook for a couple of minutes then add the tomatoes cook for about 5 minutes.
  
  Then add enough water to the onions and tomatoes to create like a soup. You will need this to cook the rice (we added about 6 liters but we were cooking for 15.). Then bring to a boil then add the rice. Cook until the rice has absorbed all of the water then sever.
  
  We also made two different toppings for the dish. One topping was sautéed onions, tomatoes and beans and the other was just chopped tomatoes and onions with salt poured over them and serve raw over the rice."
   
• September 2-5
  (Photos added 9/5/2009)
  Mike called three times this week. Wednesday morning our time, about 10pm his time, and then again Thursday morning our time and finally about 6:30 Saturday morning. Here are some of the highlights.
  
  The weather is better, the highs only being around 100 each day. He has gotten to the point now where it doesn't bother him to go patrol with full gear. Mike thinks that when he gets back to Camp Pendleton in December (we hope) with it's 60-ish degree days he'll pile on all his clothes. And he can't image what it will be like if he gets to visit home to Pierre in January or February. On Saturday he said that it was cool enough in the morning he was shivering. (AccuWeather said it was probably 53 degrees in his region.)
  
  They are still living in a compound on the edge of a bazaar. We got a letter from him that was mailed on August 4th. In that letter his unit was working on adding electricity and Internet to a drug lord mansion. While regular homes are made from unbaked mud bricks the mansion was made of concrete with tile floors. Of course once they got the place fixed up they moved on to the mud brick compound they are now in.
  
  At his compound they have a irrigation ditch where they wash clothes and take baths. Mike shaves about every third day and his hair is getting pretty shaggy as he is not able to get a hair cut.
  
  They are able to vary their meals by purchasing meat and produce from the local population. Apparently the local farmers take United States one's and five's. The landscape continues to remind him of southwest Iowa where his grandparents live. Right now the corn is getting pretty tall. He said "it is honest to goodness maize. Not this stuff with one ear but two or three ears on each stalk." Of course the corn makes good cover so he said he hopes they don't take any fire from the corn fields.
  
  They get resupplied every two weeks or so. However, their commanding officer visits much more often. Mike said it was "to make sure we are still alive." When the Colonel comes he often brings mail. They don't have power in their compound. However, there is a rather beatup MRAP parked at there which they use as a command post. They also use it to charge up their iPods and other electronics.
  
  Mike said there are about 20 Marines in his compound and also 20 members of the Afghan National Army (ANA). He said about half of them are "Ok. Not good, but OK."
  
  They go out on patrols pretty much daily. When he called on Thursday he had done guard duty from Midnight to 3am; got about 45 minutes of shut eye before being woken up to go on patrol at 4:30. They went to investigate a compound that was supposed to be making IEDs. Mike said about the place "it was like walking into a training scenario. There were bags of fertilizer, metal scrap for shrapnel and wood for making pressure plates." However, because there were no actual bombs, just materials, they could not arrest the people or seize the material. Mike was pretty disgusted with this.
  
  Things had been pretty quiet for them, having not come under fire since August 20, two full weeks as of Thursday's call. However, on Saturday’s call he mentioned that on Friday’s patrol someone had taken a shot at them. As Mike described it, “he probably thought that he could take a few shots at us and then leave. But we all started running at him so he had 10 marines and 20 ANA running at him. We didn’t find him but we probably scared him.”
   
• August 20
  Got a call from Mike. He was tired as it was 7am his time and he had guard duty over night. Otherwise he was fine. He has moved out of the drug dealer's house. His platoon has 4 sections. His section, 3rd, has moved even father south in Nawa district. They are the southern most of the 1/5. There are 18 men in his section and the Mike's half is in a compound next to the local bazaar/marketplace. The other half of the section is about a mile awhile. Where they are at is really not a village as much as a spread out series of small hamlets. So the bazaar area has a few hundred people but there are lots of small farms and hamlets a kilometer to 1.5 kilometer's away (.6-1 mile).
  
  They go out on patrols. On Election Day, Thursday August 20, they went on patrol. He said all the locals kind of disappeared in the morning. Then in the afternoon as his section was coming back to their compound some mortar rounds were fired at them(IDF - InDirect Fire as he called it). No one was hurt thankfully. After that the locals showed up again. He said it is like any small town. Everyone knows everyone's business so the local folk probably knew an attack was going to happen.
  
  Quite a few of the local people speak English. The other day Mike talked to a man who spoke excellent English. Not a native speaker of English but college educated style. Turns out the man's son lives in the Washington DC area. Several times on patrol when Mike has given a greeting in the local language, Pashtun, the person has responded in clear English, "Thank you very much."
  
  They are still making connections with the locals. He said in their area are Afghan National Army (ANA); Afghan National Police (ANP) and Afghan Border Patrol (ABP). Unfortunately there is a lot of corruption. While on patrol they came across a group of locals and members of the ANP. There was some kind of argument going on. It turns out that the ANP where shaking down some locals. So Mike said, rather cynically but with much truth, that "our friends are corrupt, the locals might be friendly or Taliban and the Taliban want to kill us."
  
  The weather is better, not getting into the 130-140 range. But still hot. Sometimes on patrol they leave their body armor behind because it is so hot. However, it does cool off at night. When he called us it was about 70 degrees at 7am local time. Ramadan starts this weekend when the Muslims fast during the day. However, Mike said that due to the heat people kind of live in the nights any way. They are up and around in the early mornings, rest during the day and come back out for business and work in the evenings.
  
  Overall, though tired Mike was generally ok. So, things are normal, at least as normal as they can be living in a war zone and going on combat patrols.
   
• August 7
  
  Mike called twice this week on a satellite phone. The first, on Tuesday the 4th, he talked to Anne. His platoon is living in a house with brick walls and marble decorations. Still there is no AC and they have to go patrol in the heat. He sounded very tired and stressed.
  
  He called again on the 7th. He sounded a little less stressed and tired. He said the most exciting thing that has happened so far on patrol was being invited to join a wedding party. As of that day he had not been getting mail. (Though we did get a report from another source that on the 8th they finally got deliveries).
  
  We also got a letter that he had written from the field on July 10. I thought it was rather picturesque so here it is:
  
  "Hello from Camp Skillet. That is the name of our COP (Combat OutPost). The weather has not been to bad the last couple of days, only reaching 100-110 not 138 like it did a couple of days when we first go there. Sorry for the dirty letter but I am literally living in the dirt and since it is hot I sweat. So I am constantly hot, sweaty and dirty. Clean around here means that you only have a quarter of Afghanistan on you instead of half. Besides the dirt I am fine, finally getting enough so that I can get fed properly. The land all around us is farm land. Image the land near Grandma and Grandpa with a lot of irrigation ditches because the local do not have pipes to pump the water.
  
  Right now the watermelons are ripe. So that is what the locals are harvesting which is cool because we are able to buy them off the locals. I got to celebrate the 4th of July by eating watermelon in Afghanistan. I also have been able to try a honeydew melon, also today I tried pita bread with okra. The okra was actually pretty good.
  
  So far a typical day is wake up, stand post, get off post try to stay cool go back on post, sleep at night. Today, July 10, was a little different because I went out on a two and a half hour patrol. The purpose of the patrol was to escort Bravo XO (Bravo Company Executive Officer) so he could talk to some land owner of where we want to build a more permanent COP. I have to go now because the light is almost gone."
  
   
• July 22
  Mike called around 4pm on Tuesday, July 21, which was about 1:30am on the 22nd for him. He had just gotten off watch so he was a little tired but otherwise in good spirits. They had spent the last couple of days loading trucks with supplies. Some for their Area of Operation (AO) and other gear to be dropped off at various AO's on the way. He thought they would be leaving for their AO on Thursday.
  
  Their AO will be in the Southern part of the Nawa district. Apparently the platoon is setting up in a compound that belonged to a drug dealer who is now in jail. The guys have already nicknamed it "the Mansion".
   
• We also received a letter from Mike written while he was in the field. He said he's now a combat veteran because on their first day some RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenades) where shot at them. No one in the unit he as in was injured. He said that conditions were about like he thought. Little food, not enough water, plenty of Ammo and hotter than H _ _ _! He also said the area reminded him of his grandparents because it was flat farm land.
   
• July 17
  Mike called on July 17. His platoon was back in Camp Leatherneck to reorganize after two weeks in the field. His platoon had been part of Bravo company. However, in a few days they will be sent out to take control of  their own "Area of Operation" (AO). In the meantime he is enjoying being able to take showers. He said some days the temperature got up to 130. His platoon saw some combat but not much. A few times they came under fire but never a lot. No one in his platoon was injured.
  
  I mentioned a mutual friend who is now in Boot Camp. Mike said that he would prefer to be in boot camp! Given he had to force himself to attend Andrew's Boot Camp graduation in April that gives you an idea how tough it has been.

• July 11
  In a letter dated June 24 (we received it July 11),  before the operation started he mentioned that he probably would not be able to get mail for awhile. The priority for supplies would be ammunition, food and water with mail squeezed in. As Mike said, "If they are delivering mail instead of Ammunition, food and water then someone is not doing their job."
   
• June 30
  Mike was able to make a short phone call on June 30. He requested prayer that he would be able to move in the peace and grace of Jesus even in combat and that he would be able to help his buddies find the same peace.

News and photo links:
News Reports via Google for the general Marine activity in Helmand
News Reports via Google for the 1/5 (For the last week or so there has not been any real news of the 1/5. Which is good because it means things are peaceful.
Photos from the 1/5 are often used to illustrate unrelated articles)

Here are some photos that illustrate Mike's living and working conditions

Photos from the Defense department filtered for Nawa, Helmand Province. Takes a bit to load
And here is the Defense Department Flickr Account filtered for Nawa. Quicker loading: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nawa&w=39955793@N07
And the Marine Corp Flickr Afghanistan set http://www.flickr.com/photos/marine_corps/
Photos of the 1/5 via Yahoo  Lots of photos now that people are pulling them into their own flicker accounts.
Photos via Google (Seem to have more extraneous photos)

Cryptome.org
http://cryptome.org/info/afpak-archive/afpak-archive.htm This link takes you to the latest photos with links to pages with past photos.
Lots of photos from the Associated Press and Defense department. If you want a good pictorial overview, these pages are great. They cover all parts of Afghanistan and the NATO forces. The pages are listed in reverse chronological order.

 

Maps and general info

Taken from Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawa-I-Barakzayi. According to Wikipedia, Nawa-I-Barakzayi District is located south to the Lashkargah District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The villages are located along the rivers, where the irrigation is possible. The drought has affected this district also, especially the number of livestock. The population is 79,100 and 99% of all inhabitants are Pashtun, with 1% of the population consisting of other ethnic minorities (Hazaras and Balouchis). The district center is Khalaj. Health care and education need improvement.

Map Source New York Times article dated 2009 07 26

The Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS) has many maps.

Here is a more detailed map of the district and Helmand (Hilmand) province:

For those wanting to see Gamser and Reg districts and how they relate, click here. http://www.aims.org.af/maps/provincial/hilmand.pdf

Detail maps by district: http://www.aims.org.af/ssroots.aspx?seckeyt=413 This lists each district in Helmand
Nawa: http://www.aims.org.af/maps/district/hilmand/nawa_i_barakzayi.pdf