Initial Entry

SPC Bailey Bullock
166th Engineer Company
2nd Platoon

The members of the 166th Engineer Company have now been in country for two weeks, and it has been an interesting transition so far. Our entry began on the 29th of March when we left Camp Atterbury, IN and began our trip to the other side of the world. We flew out of Indianapolis that morning and about 25 hours later we arrived at Manas Air Base in Krygyzstan, which is a main entry point for troops into Afghanistan. Our flight was broken into short layovers in Iceland, Germany, Romania, and finally Krygyzstan. This probably sounds odd. It did to me at first, but all these stops were necessary for refueling due to the added weight of all of our gear that was on the plane with us.

Manas: We spent a total of about four days in Manas and after that time I believe I can speak for the company when I say that “We love the Air Force.” It was a nice place to transition into Theater. The accommodations were pretty nice; the food was good; the recreation was nice; and there was ample access to phones and the internet. The time spent there was focused mostly on R & R. We were able to relax a good bit, contact family and friends as much as we wanted, clean our clothes, and more.

April 2: The mission begins. On the morning of the 2nd we boarded an Air Force C-17 and flew from Manas to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. For a lot of us it was our first experience on a military flight. I will say this: it is quite different from a commercial flight. Just think sardines. It was actually a good flight and we arrived at Bagram safe and sound.

Our time at Bagram can best be described as a holding pattern. We did do some more training on Counter-IED tactics, but mostly we were there awaiting our flight farther in country to where we would be doing our missions. A key change that we experienced at Bagram occurred the night we arrived. We were issued rounds for our weapons. BAF, and every other base in Afghanistan (as far as I know) was on a constant “Amber” status. This means that everyone on base has a loaded magazine in their weapon at all times. At this point we knew the training period was over. This is the real thing. I have to say this has taken some time getting used to. For a lot of us, especially those who have never deployed, the only time we have ever had live rounds was on a range. Having them in your weapon at
all times is quite a change.

Bagram itself was okay. There are a lot of people crammed into a relatively small space so it is crowded to say the least. Also, there was very little to do. All we could really do was go over to the PX and "AAFES town" and look around to shop a little - too much shopping in some cases. We were staying on the other side of the base from most things, so going anywhere involved a 20 minute shuttle ride around the base, which got old. Needless to say, by the time we left, most were ready to go. On the bright side, the regular schedule of take-offs and landings of the jets made alarm clocks unnecessary.

Sharana: From Bagram our company moved on to FOB Sharana, which will be our base of operations for the duration of the deployment. We have now been here for about a week. Most of our time has been spent settling in and continuing with some final training. Most of the unit is being housed in K-Span buildings which have individual rooms in them, which is better than we expected. Many people have been busy putting their carpentry skills to the test, creating the best setup they can in their rooms. In short, we have been making it home, or as close to it as we can get. The training we did consisted mostly of more Counter-IED training, First Aid techniques, communications systems, and more. Most we had already covered before, but all are important to have fresh in our minds.

2nd Platoon: Second Platoon is the first of our company leaving FOB Sharana for a mission elsewhere in country. It is going to be a challenging one and is something that has been on our minds a lot over the last week. We are preparing ourselves and realize it will be tough being apart from the rest of the company. We have all been together now for the last month and a half, but more than that, we know we can rely on them if we need them. We will be on our own. It will take some getting used to, but we can handle it.