A nice change of pace. Left the British and Marines and shipped out west to Farah- where we enjoy the hospitality of the Navy…go figure. I’m in RC West now, which means that instead of battling the Canadian medical staff who prioritized our MEDEVAC requests and forward them to us from Kandahar, we have the added headache of the Spanish RC West medical staff, who have to request our support through the Canadians, down to our Task Force, forwarded to the Navy and then to…us. Twice already (in only 5 days that we’ve been here) we’ve been spooled up, ready to take off, and been called off, saying ‘the Spanish are taking this one’ only to get sent back to the aircraft 20 minutes later because someone changed their mind! That’s 20 minutes that someone is hanging on to life. I’m glad that this isn’t a US only mission out here- it’s good to see so many countries involved in the efforts over here. Unfortunately, it also means multiple layers of bureaucracy, different priorities, different national charters etc, etc, etc. It has been good flying, though. We have been doing most of our flying at night out here. The full moon makes the desert landscape glow beneath us. It also offers a clear silhouette against the monstrous mountains we have to fly over, and that makes it considerably less stressful. Other than mountains, there’s nothing on the map for miles and miles. Just sand, rocks and the Iranian border.
Was pleased to find another LDS congregation all the way out here. A civilian with the Dept. of Agriculture, one Navy Petty Officer, and one contracted mechanic- a man from Kenya, I’m sure they were just as pleased to see me as I was to see them. Under the direction of the Area Seventy, a military district was established in Kabul Afghanistan, with four branches to be created within months. It would be an understatement if I said that it’s hard for me to visualize the growth of the kingdom is such a desolate, uncivilized region. This seed may take some time to grow…