Uzbekistan

Shortly after September 11 2001 and the destruction of the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon we at Ft. Huachuca began preparing for deployment. In November of 2001 we deployed to Uzbekistan Karshi Kanabad in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. I spent nearly a year there; leaving in October of 2002. While much happened while I was there Little happened to me as we were a rear area base and I was only permitted off the base on two days. The first was a tour that they army had set up to let us see some of the country, and to foster relations with the country by bringing money in, in the form of shopping. The second was a short trip into the local town with some of the civilian workers. The base was alternately mud, snow, mud, and dust depending on the season. In the muddy seasons there would be a green sheen on the ground caused by jet fuel seeping out of the ground from when the base had belonged to the Russian's. over the year that I was there they made many improvements, adding pavement to a few of the main roads, adding gravel to some of the other. The gravel did little good when it rained as the gravel would just sink into the mud, and the paved roads would be covered in either water or 6 inches of mud, but still it was an improvement. They got showers and bathrooms, and even an entertainment tent with TVs board games, and books. They also put up a tent with free weights and treadmills. The base had an airstrip that was in constant use by the U.S. Air Force as well as the Uzbek Air Force, the Army also liked to fly Chinook helicopters at all hours of the night. The airstrip ended just before Tent City (where we all lived) so you learned to live with the constant noise of all the aircraft, and you learned to sleep with Jets taking off a hundred feet over your head and the Chinook helicopters shaking your tents and everything else as they flew 50 feet or less overhead. After I had been in Uzbekistan for nine months I was sent on R&R for 4 days to Turkey, and then returned to Uzbekistan for 2 more months, and returned back to Ft Huachuca in Arizona.

It just seemed a little ironic.	A long way Home ← that way.
After a few days of spring rains a few of the flaws in the base layout started to show themselves, fortunately we had been provided with rubber boot covers to keep our feet dry, we had to get to our site from the other side, I would have had to swim to go this way.	We weren't permitted off the base too many days, in the year that I was there I managed to get off only twice. This day was a tour the army had set up. I couldn't really tell you where they took us, but they piled about 60 of us into a bus and took us around Uzbekistan.
Inside one of the Mosques.	Outside one of the mosques, no these aren't the main entrance doors, but I kind of liked them.
This is actually an ancient observatory.	One of the many out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere towns we passed. during the winter its a snow wasteland, during the summer its a desert wasteland.
Yet another town, the houses seemed to be mostly of adobe type construction.	Behind the HMMWV (Humvee) is a aircraft bunker covered in snow, behind the bunker are snow clouds, if you cant tell them apart that's ok, neither could I.
I lived in the 2nd tent from the left in first row, the tents were equipped with diesel heaters at first, and later with electric heaters. The electric heaters were much better as they would blow warm air and then turn off, the diesel heaters would cycle between blowing hot air and cold air.	That's our snow-covered system behind us, the snow wasn't so bad as long as it was dry, but it would build up on the camouflage covering our system and rip holes into it.
A defensive position facing the vast nothingness that makes us much of Uzbekistan.
Just another view of Tent City, everyone lived in this area and worked on other parts of the base, the Tent City area was surrounded by a dirt berm and defensive positions, making it in theory a safe, or safer place. Personally I thought that the bunkers would be safer, then later they found low levels of nerve agents in the bunkers so I suppose the tents were better.
	Each of those hills is a bunker.
Here you can see how tent city was isolated from the rest of the base, to the left is tent city, and again I'm the 2nd tent from the left in the first row, and on the right is where we worked.

Our Satcom system in the foreground and civilian Satcom that would replace us in the back ground. Ours looked cooler and could be moved easier, there's was nicer inside.	Inside the tent we lived in.
The deployment started out from Ft. Huachuca in a C-5 Galaxy airplane, its a little disconcerting sitting next to a 5 ton truck during takeoff and landing.	This was the greenest anything I had seen all year, it was nearly amazing just to see actual grass growing. It only lasted about 2 weeks and then everything was brown and dead again.