191 days

John is bored. He has a cell phone, so he is able to call home sometimes twice a day. We can usually count on a call before he goes to bed, about 930-11am our time with the 11.5 hour time difference. The connection is muffled usually and he is hard to understand. I am glad we are continuing to homeschool, since Sarah never misses a call. If he has time off in the morning, he’ll call me before I go to bed. Internet is intermittent there and if he wants a good connection, he has to go to his office, which is only early in the morning for him. We haven’t Skyped since before our N.O. vacation.

His dad has been praying for him to be bored, and the prayers are working, much to John’s chagrin. John went out on a few missions to do stuff like this: (pics stolen from google images page 1 search:hesco) but he was asked to come back to the base, and promised a bigger, better mission. That was a month ago. He misses  being out “doing something”, making a visible difference, and saving lives. He discovered upon arrival at the motorpool that he had not been replaced as yard boss and that things had fallen apart during his three weeks in the field. So now, he gets to spend his days walking (or driving when he can steal a rig) from yard to yard, organizing equipment, hunting down people to ground guide him in the empty yard, as per navy safety regs, and wearing a hard hat under clear skies. He’s not bitter at all (snicker).

Autumn is coming in Afghanistan, slowly, but surely. The low right now is about 80, but the dust is what is really getting to John. His lungs are full of it. I reminded him that people that live there don’t have a problem with it: when in Rome. He said he would cover up his face with a cloth from now on, as the locals do. His command said that he should be home in March or so. That is as close as we can say. We knew that the deployment would last this long, and it looks like it will.  I can’t countdown days, I will simply rejoice when I get the call from the airport. As it is right now, we are about a month past the halfway point.

He loves getting mail and would enjoy hearing from you. USPS has flat rate boxes for APOs that are about a dollar cheaper. You will need to attach a customs form 2976a on any mail over 13 ounces (I’m pretty sure it’s 13 oz, anyway.) He also gets just about enough time to read messages on facebook. Mail takes 1-3 weeks normally.

NMCB-18 Main Body

EO2 John T Taylor

FPO AA 34099-1701