On the Road

A nod to Jack Kerouac for providing that title. Next time, a nod to Willie Nelson.

There's a first time for everything, and yesterday was my first time outside the wire here in Kabul. LTC Bill Eger and I headed down the road for some meetings yesterday morning.

We rode in a three-vehicle convoy from North KAIA to ISAF HQ in downtown Kabul, then went to Camp Eggers for lunch and more meetings. We suited up for the drive in full battle rattle -- darmor and Kevlar helmets. Four passengers in each up-armored SUV, along with a driver and vehicle commander, for a 10-15 minute drive. After the meetings at ISAF, we walked ... yes, walked ... outside the wire to Camp Eggers. During the round-trip drive, it was abundantly clear that, a), we're in a combat zone; and b) we take force protection very seriously. I won't cross the line into OPSEC violations about our specific tactics and capabilities, but suffice to say that no one will be driving a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) onto any of our bases anytime soon. Security is tight, and it's taken seriously.

In fact, the biggest threat I observed was the swarm of Afghan kids on the streets between the bases trying to sell us stuff, anything from scarves to cheap jewelry to you-name-it. We got off scot-free this time, but I suspect that sometime in the future, I'll be unloading Euros into the local economy on future trips.