I did a briefing shortly after arriving home from Afghanistan about my deployment on a PRT. This is a five-part series giving a little extra detail about what I did while I was deployed overseas and where I was. This is all about the province of Kapisa. If you missed Part 1: Defining a PRT […]
Part 1: Defining a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)
I did a briefing shortly after arriving home from Afghanistan about my deployment. You guys have been reading my stories, but may not know the full details of what my team was doing in Afghanistan. Here is a little bit about the PRT mission, where I was and what I learned. This is a 5 part […]
Cultural differences: Being Broken
Afghanistan is very different from America for many different reasons. One of the cultural differences we experienced was the fact we were female deployed to Afghanistan. But we were treated as females from Afghanistan were. The fact we had become Civil Engineers was more important and the people knew that we had authority. So they […]
A Moment of Acceptance
My friend Kathy was deployed with me on my Provincial Reconstruction Team. She was a civilian and worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and had a different perspective than the military members. She worked hard while she was there and was able to learn a lot about the culture and the people. She […]
Children Waiting for a School in Afghanistan
This letter was sent home during my deployment to Afghanistan in 2010: Last week, I went out on a mission and was able to see three construction projects, two roads, and a school. When we inspected the school building, the school was still in session. So we were able to see the children outside studying […]
Afghanistan Deployment: Hot & Jammin’
This story comes from my deployment to Afghanistan in 2010: Here is what is going on ‘work-related’. We got to go on a few missions over the past week. I went to Kohistan and Kohband to do inspections for schools and roads. I also went to meet with the Koband Sub Governor and we also went […]
The Adventures of Hank
Military members sometimes have crazy traditions when they are deployed. It may be a ritual done each time they leave the wire or a lucky talisman they bring with them to help keep them safe. My friend had a little guy she took with her everywhere. He was often tucked between her uniform and body […]
Welcome home from Afghanistan
I thought a new way to share my Afghanistan experience would be to see some of the responses I received from different letters I sent home. In this first addition. I am going to pick responses from when I sent the letter that I was finally home. I made it back to the United States […]
Learn How to Forgive from Unbroken
*This post contains an affiliate link. I finished Unbroken and it brought back a lot of painful memories that I thought I had forgotten. But it taught me an important lesson. I realized I needed to learn how to forgive. It was painful to read through his torture. I was looking at the dates and […]
Acronyms in Afghanistan
This letter was originally written in June 2010: While deployed to Afghanistan one of my relatives printed out all my letters home and then brought them to a dinner to share with friend. They enjoyed reading the stories, but did not understand all of what I was saying because of the number of acronyms […]
