I'm SSG Frank Broncato from Buffalo, and I am Humanitarian Aid Coordinator in the Civil Military Affairs Section of 27th Brigade Combat Team, CJTF Phoenix VII Kabul, Afghanistan.
I keep track of all incoming and out going aid supplies. I distribute clothes, toys, food and school supplies, which are desperately needed here. We are opening up a lot of schools for the children of Afghanistan.
In the picture I am at the Aschiana School for Street Children near Kabul.
These children are really poor. They are beggars who live in mud huts, shanties, or bombed-out buildings. They beg for their parents and siblings everyday. The look on their faces when they receive school supplies is overwhelming. I could tell that they were very excited and that we are giving them a fighting chance at life.
— SSG Frank Broncato
Today is the first I've heard from Judy since May 10. Internet access from her base has been a problem since she's been there.
Every few days I'll send word, not knowing whether that word is reaching her. I try to keep her up on the doings around the house and with the kids. The boring, mundane stuff you might talk about at the dinner table.
In my latest post to her I told her we had the swimming pool opened earlier in the week and complained that the guys did a lousy job. After writing that, I had to laugh at myself. Here I am whining about a dirty pool filter and a solar cover that wasn't installed to a woman working 16-18 hours a day, seven days a week, with a culture of people for whom every day is a very real struggle just to remain alive.
I envision an Afghani child visiting our home with its refrigerator full of food, fresh, clean bedding, pure water and a waste removal system that keeps us free of human borne diseases with the touch of a finger. I can only imagine the wonderment he or she might feel and find shame in myself for taking all that we have for granted.
At work the other day I had a customer in the waiting room whose fiancee faces an imminent deployment almost immediately after their wedding early this summer. Dave out in the shop has a son who's home on leave after a tour of door kicking duty in Iraq-where he might soon be going back.
Also in the waiting room was another very good and dear customer with no ties to the military and with very outspoken opinions regarding the ongoing conflict. As I said in an earlier post, I don't have much of a political opinion on this war. Yet I found myself angry listening to the customer as she voiced her opinions, to which I might add she has every right to hold.
One could sense the tension rising in the room but thankfully we both caught ourselves before it got out of hand. Finally we finished our business and she left. The other woman in the waiting room who couldn't help but to hear this exchange expressed the same (unfounded?) resentment as I did. Later I learned Dave did too.
I realize now it was the same reaction you might have to people who don't have children telling you how to raise yours. There's a lot more at stake when you have "skin" in the game, a completely different perspective.
-- Phil Basinski
The other morning I participated in a DOD-sponsored blogger's round table
session with COL Brian Balfe, who is the Task Force Phoenix VII
Commander and the Brigade commander of New York's 27th BCT.
This was an interesting interview since I knew several of the other journalists/bloggers that were also on the round table and then of course my own BDE Commander was the
focus of the round table. I was privileged enough to have seen COL Balfe, shake his hand and say goodbye minutes before he left Fort Bragg to catch his flight over
to Afghanistan.
I was going to write about the interview, but rather
than paraphrasing and taking things out of context, DOD has posted the
entire roundtable session on its site. You can listen to the session in its entirety here.
1SG Troy Steward
www.bouhammer.com
Life here has fallen into a regular grind. We have a schedule that we follow with meetings, deadlines and daily/ weekly and monthly products that have to be produced. Forms are filled out, convoys are executed and missions are planned and done like clock work.
I truly believe that any job is just that, a job. The difference is that here a job can suddenly change into an adventure or a trauma. Thank God we have not had any real trauma close to us yet. With the poppy harvest coming to a close, we expect to see our little "friends" less interested in harvesting and more motivated to take over the world.
I often visualize Pinky and the Brain in turbans sitting in a shura with other Taliban folks telling each other how they desire world domination. They can't run a town of 2000 without abusing people and hurting the weak, but they desire world control. I think they may want to start smaller and work their way up for a few hundred years, so that they could learn from their mistakes. Oh well there goes my western education flaring up again.
The routine has gotten repetitive, so there are days that drag along. It has started the traditional homesickness that sets in when there is time to think. I am so grateful for the two guys here from Buffalo. Jerzy Galazka and Jake Benbenek help me through the times when I miss home. We sit around and reminisce about bars, women and food from home.
The guys here from Puerto Rico think that everybody from Buffalo speaks Polish and there are a few words not fit to print which may end up back in PR due to this deployment. We don't get vulgar at each other, just life. They believe that Kurva is an English word used up north, for instance. Please don't post any vulgarity, I don't want people at St. Adalbert's thinking I am a dirty soldier.
I guess that is all I have in me for today. I only wish the job was 9 to 5 and not 5 to 9, these long hot days just knock me out sometimes.
-- God Bless and stay safe, CPT Matthew Ryan
Tonight the annual military ball will be held at the Connecticut Street Armory. It has been in the past a chance for this soldier to don his dress uniform and escort his beautiful wife to an evening of fine food and laughs with our military family. Tonight I will not be able to, for I am a member of the 2-101 Calvary and currently deployed in Afghanistan.
This does not mean the Cav will be unrepresented. Within your ranks tonight will be the true heroes of the 2-101 Cav, our wives. These wives know, as does anyone who has served, that “families are deployed, not soldiers.” With my oath to serve this nation come the sacrifices shared by my whole family.
My wife, Patti, will tonight take on the added responsibility of representing my unit and me. Even thought I know Patti will have a wonderful time with our friends, all these wives wish their soldiers were with them tonight for just one dance.
I ask of those at the military ball tonight to look for the table with no one in uniform. A table surrounded by beautiful women with pictures of their loved ones on it, and to raise a glass with them and celebrate life, for we know how precious life is.
Enjoy Ladies, we are with you in spirit and you are always in our thoughts.
-- 1SG Patrick Treverton HHT 2-101Cavalry
The kids are really doing pretty good. Between school, sports and activities their schedules are pretty full, their routines in place. My nine year old daughter is the more difficult of the two to manage. She's just like my mom, fiercely independent and stubborn as a gear oil stain on a white cotton tee-shirt. Trying to get her into a routine not of her own design has been about the most difficult challenge so far. Since the kids get on the bus at different times in the morning, I used to delegate the challenge to Judy by heading off for work after getting Ed on the bus bright & early. When Judy left on her little trip, there I was alone with 50 pounds of Tazmanian devil.
Finally after four months I think I see a glimmer of hope. I've run through my complete parental portfolio of tactics to make the progress I boast of, talking softly, redirecting, screaming, stern looks, firm grips, and lots of hugs & kisses. I wish I could define the magic formula but I dare say her improvement is largely the result of many repetitions and lots of patience. She is still an active management project and would consistently miss her morning bus if not for vigilant time checks during the routine: 7:25-wake up/snuggle time, 7:30 shower, 7:45 brush & blow dry hair, 7:55 make bed & eat breakfast, 8:15 brush teeth, 8:20 pick out a snack & pack the school bag. 8:25 out for the bus. Again, each step requires active parental involvement.
We have similar routines for every part of the day when she's home, although the afternoon & evening are less structured until it comes time for bed, when the real battle begins. The fire-fights in the streets of Baghdad look like a picnic at the beach compared to getting her down by 8:30. I can't wait until someday when she has a kid who's just like she is! I'm going to give her that same knowing smile I've seen my mom give me.
Our son Ed can manage all of his affairs without my even noticing. He has learned to make himself very well organized for being 12 and requires nothing more than a general reminder about remembering a snack or packing a swimsuit for gym class. Generally my reminders are a waste of breath since he's already got it covered.
With routines however comes a sense of drudgery. Frankly I'm sick of our weekly menu routine and I'm sick of my own cooking. A quick dinner, usually two or three times a week means hamburger helper, tacos, leftovers or maybe cheeseburgers now that the weather is decent. I make a point of staying away from fast food, prepared meals from our grocers freezer case or dining out. At least once a week I try to make something that tastes halfway decent like a chicken or chuck roast in the crock-pot. Tonight we just made eggs for supper.
Dietary relief comes in the form of friends and neighbors. Sally from across the street brought over this huge pan of homemade lasagna last week with all the trimmings; fresh bread, Caesar salad, ice cream & homemade hot fudge sauce for desert. When she unloaded it from the back of her mini-van I thought to myself that she had enough food to feed eight grown adults and here we are just me & two kids. We were still working over the leftovers when Ed's best friend's mom said to stop by her house last night because SHE had made dinner for us. This time it was oven baked chicken with stuffing, fresh rolls, a vegetable "medley" (sorry Meg, the kids didn't care for it) with cake & brownies for desert. Oh my goodness how those meals tasted!! Guess what? Yup-more leftovers.
I mentioned in my last post how much we appreciated the help & support from friends and neighbors. If you know someone whose spouse is deployed and want to help out but don't know quite how, take it from me, one of those home cooked meals is mighty tasty & pretty hard to beat!
-- Phil Basinski
