Afghanistan, Day One

My final days at home were very happy. We spent a lot of time together, A, R and V, and did things that we all enjoy. It was not easy to leave all that behind yesterday. Even so, I felt strangely clear and serene at heart when it was finally time to leave for Afghanistan. The extra five weeks that I got to spend at home due to the elections only felt like postponing the inevitable. To get going was a relief – a feeling that most of my comrades shared at the airport. Furthermore, many of us felt that in the weeks after the rotation training much of the instruction had been forgotten, or at least a ‘feel’ for the operation had been lost. We were glad to see each other again – and to get going.

Yesterday A gave me a lift to the railway station in the afternoon, before going to work. From there, I took the train to Tampere, where I met up with J. We drove over to his home studio to record the vocals to a cover version of Iron Maiden’s “The Unbeliever”, but I don’t think it turned out so good. It’s never a good idea to do something creative like that with a tight deadline. My deadline was 2100 hours, when I was supposed to turn up at the airport, which I did, as J gave me a lift there.

The plane took off at about 2230 local time. I was surprised to find that Amsterdam Airlines was an airline of decent quality, although the seats were far from spacious. The meals were very good and the cabin crew friendly. We landed to refuel in northern Turkey in a town the name of which I had never heard before. The airport there looked what the airport in the movie “Midnight Express” would have looked like had it had an airport in it. All the passengers were crammed into a hall with stale air, an ambient temperature of at least 28 degrees and only one toilet. A can of coke cost 3,50 euros.

Some Danish K9s taking it easy at the Turkish airport.

Next stop was Kabul. The sun rose early, about an hour before we landed. From above, the city looked like a khaki jigsaw puzzle surrounded by mountains. As we descended to the airfield I could see how the air was filled with dust. Still the sunshine was very bright. Some passengers disembarked in Kabul and others came aboard. As soon as their baggage had been unloaded and loaded we continued towards Mazar-e-Sharif.

Looking down on Kabul.

I got a window seat in the now half-full plane and could enjoy the incredibly beautiful views of snow-peaked mountains and dry river-beds. After only 40 minutes flight we landed in MeS. Next we had a plentiful lunch at the German camp’s mess hall. Without wasting any daylight hours, we started gathering all the remaining equipment from the Finnish National Support Element’s warehouses. The Finnish camp lies inside the Norwegian camp Nidaros, which in turn is located inside the German camp. Sounds complicated, but it's not. The weather was hot and the sun roasting, although the Finns at the site told us that it was a cool day, only 30 or so degrees. In August they had had daytime temperatures over 40 for weeks!

After dinner I had a shower and withdrew to my bunk in the guest’s tent, which sound worse than it is: it’s a tent with a concrete floor, a refrigerator and air-conditioning. The night outside is very dark which makes the stars shine very bright, and the air is a little cooler. Surprisingly no-one of the about sixty soldiers sleeping in the tent is snoring. The only sounds come the German’s karaoke night, just barely louder than the humming of the air-conditioner, but loud enough for me to recognise the song: “Stummer Schrei nach Liebe” (oo-oo-oo, Arschloch!). There’s a transport plane taking off. I’ll have to use earplugs. Good night.

"Gear up and fall in!"