31 Dec 2009:
I will be leaving in just over two weeks to return home to the US from Afghanistan. My 12 months here have been an adventure that I will not soon forget. I thank AnySoldier (and AnySailor) for all of the support you have been able to send our way.

To all who have supported us,

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you from myself and my unit members. Your packages and well wishes have lifted our spirits at a time when we are so far away from our friends and family. I wish you could have seen the bright eyed looks and utter excitement from the folks around the office when the packages are opened. It has been a true blessing that you made happen. It makes us proud to know that our fellow Americans care as much as we do. It makes the sacrifices we and our families make worth every minute we spend here. We Americans can stand shoulder to shoulder in unison on one thing - we're all proud of our country and we're all proud of each other. The effort you make on behalf of the troops is just as important as the work we are doing here and around the world.

V/R,
LCDR(s) Steven Deputy, USN

10 Dec 2009

The Today Show was here over the past two days and the items we received in care packages helped our department get on TV! I wore a Santa Hat and several people wore reindeer antlers. You can see us on the show if you go to the www.MSNBC.com home page and either look at the videos there, or click on the TODAY link up at the top of the page. I don't know how long you can access the links, but here are a few from yesterday:

Gym Piece

Intro Piece

Hello Back Home

Afghans on US presence

You might see me behind Matt Lauer a few times (I also hold up the GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY sign in the background (and the Texas A&M flag from a care package)).

Thank you to everyone who sent out care packages this Christmas time. I received a large number of small Christmas stockings and handed them out during lunch at the base chow hall (along with 100 minute phone cards to call home and say Merry Christmas). I also forwarded some items downrange to those who have less than us.

V/R,
LCDR(s) Steven Deputy, USN

21 Nov 2009
Well this week has been really fun. Due to the Presidential Elections here in Afghanistan, all traffic has pretty much been stopped for the inauguration and that pretty much stopped our poo-pumper trucks.
Unfortunately, that is the first stop in the domino chain. We lasted for about one day before the septic system filled up, so they had to turn off the water to the camp. When the water went off, we were no longer able to do laundry, take showers, use the toilets, or wash our hands. The water went off on Wednesday and it is now Sunday. A camp-wide message went out tonight that let us know that the water pump they turned off, won't start back up, so even if we had space in the septic system, we couldn't get water anyway. The workout facility was closed to try and keep people from getting sweaty and stinky any more than necessary. Lucky for us, it is below freezing now, so we don't have to worry about sweating out our clothes when walking around.

I am hoping that inability to wash hands will not lead to an outbreak of some kind of disease. We are going through wet wipes like a sick guy goes through Kleenex. I went down to the storage shed to find a wire and my hands were pretty much black after touching three things in there. I hope we can take a shower and clean up within the next few days.

I think Thanksgiving is next week, so I hope everyone back home can get together with their families and enjoy a day off. Thanks for supporting us over here.

V/R,
LT Steven Deputy, USN

23 Oct 2009

I just got back into Afghanistan after going back to the US for my 15 day R&R. It took me 5 months of trying to get my leave approved since it my leave requests were either denied, cancelled, or delayed 5 different times. I finally got out of Kabul two days after being about 300m away from an SBVIED that went off and killed 6 Italians. A piece of the car hit me in the head (I was out in the parking lot) and then was caught up in the firefight that started soon after. Thankfully, I was wearing my helmet and body armor to protect me, but I kept the piece of the car for show-and-tell back at the office. Since I still had my cast on my busted hand, it was hard to hold my M9.

I never really explained the reason I am wearing a cast on my arm in the picture on the site. I broke my hand in two places while on a mission for the President of Afghanistan on 8/10. The medical tent here in Kabul told me it was bruised and gave me some pain killers. Two weeks of pain later, I went to another base to get an x-ray and they told me that I had been running around for the past two weeks with a broken hand. Since it had been two weeks, they couldn't set my hand, so they sent me up IED highway to the hospital in Bagram. When I got there, they told me they were not going to rebrake my hand like it needed so they just put a cast on it and told me to get it off in three weeks.
Since the tent on my base didn't have any way to cut it off, I planned to get it cut off when I came back through Bagram on my way home for R&R four weeks later.

I was supposed to get my cast off in Bagram on my way back to the States, but when I got to the hospital in Bagram, they told me that the Othopedics group only works on Thursday. It was Sunday and I was not waiting around several days before I headed home, so I headed for the plane to get back to Dallas. When I got off the plane in Dallas, I called TRICARE to see how I could get my cast cut off my arm and they told me that since I was active duty, I only have TRICARE direct, so I would have to go out to the base for care. I drove the 1 1/2 hours out to base to be told that they are a satellite care facility for the Corpus Christi hospital, so they didn't have any specialties and would not be able to help me. They told me that I needed to go to an Urgent Care location (in network) and they pulled up the closest site as Las Colinas (two cities away from my house). Another 1 1/2 hour drive to get back home. Day one of my 15 day leave did not go well.

The next morning, I headed out to the Urgent Care location with all of my documentation (doctor's notes and x-rays) and explained my situation to the lady behind the counter. She looked at me a little funny and then said, "Could you please hold on a minute" and then went into the back. About 10 minutes later, she returned and said that she talked with the manager and lead physician and they made the determination that they can't really help me. Apparently, they are not "set up" to cut a cast off and she told me that I needed to call an Orthopedist. One more stop that was worthless.

My wife called an Orthopedist that we know and during the conversation, we were told that since they didn't put the cast on, they could not accept the liability of taking the cast off. I could set up an appointment and get a full check up with x-rays and all, but the earliest appointment was over a week away. I did not want to spend my R&R in a cast and I didn't want to pay the costs associated with getting documentation that I already had in my hands, so I declined. I called TRICARE back and told them of my latest strike-out. They informed me that my only option at this point was to go to an emergency room.

We arrived at the emergency room just after 11 am and signed in. I went to sit in the waiting room with all of the people coming in due to illness. I watched them come and go for a few hours before my wife had to leave to meet the kids coming home from school. I did not plan on going to an emergency room, so I had no book and no magazine, so my only way to pass the time was to guess the illness of the people coming through the door. I was amazed at how many people use the emergency room as a doctor's office. It was just before 5 pm when I was called back to the interview room to get checked out by a doctor. The doctor came in and almost immediately told me that I since I was going back to Afghanistan soon, they would not be able to follow up with me, so they could not cut off the cast. The whole day was a complete waste of time chasing the dream that healthcare would be available for a soldier injured in Afghanistan. After two days, I still had a cast on my arm and all I was trying to do was get it cut off.

After my fun in the emergency room, I went straight back to the house, went out to the garage and found my Dremel tool. I set it up and installed a cutting wheel and set about cutting the cast off my right arm. After a few minutes, I was finally free of the cast that was limiting my hand movements for over a month. Unfortunately, the medical people in Afghanistan did not set my hand after it was broken, so at some point I will need to get it rebroken - most likely on my way home in January. I called the TRICARE people and told them that I was unable to find anyone who would help me, so I helped myself. They told me that I needed to go back out to base and get an x-ray. I told them they had already had their chance, so I said I would be glad to get my x-ray done upon my return to Bagram on my way back to Kabul.

The next day I woke up feeling a little bad and ended up going down hill during the day. I soon realized that I must have picked up a virus from someone in the waiting room at the ER. My chest got all congested and I started coughing up phlegm. I had a low grade fever the next day and spent the next three days on the couch feeling really tired. So, ten days of my 15 day leave were completely trashed.

I can't wait for government-run healthcare to kick in. I guess me and leave time do not mix.

On a lighter note, we have been handing out some of the school supplies and other items we get in care packages to the locals. I have attached some photos of our trips out into town to pass out goodies.

Items we are currently wishing for:

- Liquid hand/body soap
- Wet Wipes
- Parts for some S'mores (marshmallows, graham crackers, Hershey bars)
- Little Debbie snack cakes - star crunches, swiss cake rolls, etc.
- Snacks

Thanks.

V/R,
LT Steven Deputy, USN

14 Sep 2009

I have found that the best way to keep my sanity here in the war zone is to complete woodworking projects. Some people watch movies, some people read - I build things. I was just finishing up the build on my new workshop at my house in the States when I was called up by the US Navy to complete a one year tour of duty in Afghanistan. I left home on Jan 2, 2009 and have been in Afghanistan since. I live in an old shipping container and when I was assigned the room, it was being used as a storage room. I cleared everything out and realized that there were no beds. When I talked with the berthing people, they informed me that it would take about a month to get me some beds and I was not willing to sleep on the floor for a month, so I started scouring camp for some supplies to build a bed. After a little hunting, I found a battery powered saw and drill that I could borrow, a few screws, some scrap wood, a few wooden pallets, and a magazine subscription card to use as a right angle/straight edge. A couple of hours later, I had put together a set of beds so that my new roommate and I were able to enjoy our first night of not living in a tent.
Since the bed was completed, I have outfitted the room and built many other pieces of furniture for people at my office since we don't have any real furniture here. I have a minimum of tools and all of my supplies either come from the scrap pile or I recycle items from the junk pile. Some of the stuff I have put together doesn't look like much, but looks are far outweighed by usefulness. I will post when I can, so enjoy.

Here are a few other project I have been working on since I arrived:

Pistol Cabinet

At one of the Afghan Ministries we work with, we are required to check our weapons at the front desk when we enter. They were taking our weapons and stacking them on a table, which did not make us very comfortable, so I built a locking weapons cabinet. I managed to scrounge a couple cans of spray paint, but the local paint did not get very far, so it was only partially painted. I had to make up the dimensions on the fly, but it turned out pretty good. I had to scrounge hardware parts from an old bed and wardrobe. The cabinet now hangs at the entrance of the Ministry and makes their security checkpoint look much more professional.

Recycled Government Spending

Well, everything the government buys is from the cheapest bidder and boy do they go cheap. Office chairs around here don't last very long when you have people in body armor sitting in them. My office was hurting for working chairs, so I walked around camp one day and collected 11 broken chairs. From what I found, I was able to create 6 working chairs for the office, but was left with a lot of odd parts. Someone challenged me to create a couch so that we could watch movies on the TV in the office. Of course I said, "no problem" and set about finding a few pieces of good scrap to use. Once the wood was scavenged, it was easy to take a few broken chair parts and create a three man couch.
Two issues - man is this thing heavy - it was a pain to lug up the stairs and get it in the office. The other problem is that we have almost 30 people jammed in the office - which is made of old shipping containers, so the couch took up the whole area between desks, making it very difficult to move around in the office. After one movie, it was relegated to the security shack and now hosts all the people from camp who visit our office. I have reports of people taking pictures of the couch so that they can try and get one built for their office.
New life for old chairs!

Coffee Mess

We one had a table to put out items from care packages and when we added a coffee maker, the food and coffee supplies were too much for one flat surface. I was collecting scrap boards to make a shelf for the table, but the camp ran out of plywood and the KBR folks came and took off with my wood. Since there was no plywood on camp, I had to come up with another design on the fly. I scoured camp and found a broken desk and wardrobe in a junk pile headed to the dump. I took the desk and wardrobe apart the best I could and hauled the pieces back to the office area.
I put together the basic shelves the first day and then over the next two weeks, I found a thin sheet of plywood scrap and some Plexiglas from a broken sign and made some drawers to hold the small stuff. We received a few more care packages and the shelves filled up fast. The broken desk gave me enough parts to make the drawers work.
Some of the wood was warped and considering I couldn't find a flat surface to construct the shelving on, I had to do my best in guessing how to keep it square enough to be sturdy.
The drawers hold wipes, drink mixes, utensils, popcorn, and coffee fixings.

A Porch Swing

Well, on a mission for the President of Afghanistan, I managed to hurt my hand. Medical said it was bruised and gave me some Motrin for the pain. Two weeks later, it was still hurting and I could barely hold a drill, so I went to medical over at another camp and got an x-ray. Turns out I broke two bones in my hand and had been working for two weeks with a broken hand. They can't set it here, so they just put a cast on it. I will have to get it rebroken when I get back to the US. Before I went into my cast, I managed to finish a porch swing for the office that could use the space left when they took away a broken port-o-pottie. We don't have running water and some times it is nice to just sit outside for a little while to decompress. With the space, I was able to build a porch swing where people in the office can sit outside in the shade, look up and see birds in a nearby tree, and feel the breeze as it blows the smell of the port-o-pottie across your face.
But seriously, I had some scrap 2×6 wood, a piece of plywood, and the trunk of a tree that was cut down a while ago. I didn't have a scroll saw, but I was able to find a sawsall. I learned very quickly that it is very difficult to follow a cut line with a sawsall. The main design requirement was that it had to be able to hold up two people wearing body armor. This is a heavy-duty swing. One problem is that I didn't have the proper hardware to hang the swing. I found some chain at the motor pool, but I had to 'go out on the town' for some 'S' hooks. Trying to explain the concept to people out at a store was a challenge. Finally, the shop owner's eyes got bright and he ran off. I heard some banging in the back of the shop and the owner walked out with two nails beat into the shape of an 'S' hook. The nails worked for about 10 minutes before the soft metal completely bent and dropped the chair. We puzzled over the issue and lucked into some locks (that were the right size) at the exchange, so now the chair hangs without worry of dropping people on the ground.

I have attached pictures of the projects so that you can see what they look like.
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V/R,

LT Steven Deputy, USN

21 Aug 2009
In the end of January 2009, I was leaving Camp McCrady in South Carolina on my way to Afghanistan. We arrived at the airport late at night in the freezing cold, so it was a huge surprise to hear a bunch of people cheering for us when the door to the airplane hanger opened. Since I was part of the baggage loading crew, I was only in the warmth of the hanger for a few minutes, but while I was inside, I did pick up a couple of support package items, one of which was a "Military Personnel survival kit" with several items including a "shiny penny" at the bottom of the list. At first I was thinking, "Great, something else I have to carry," but when I read the story about each piece and what it stood for, I thought it was a great idea. I was looking at the penny during the flight and I realized that I managed to get rid of all of my coins before I left, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a lucky penny in my pocket and dropped it in. Well, it seems that my lucky penny has come through for me several times since my arrival over here, so I figured I write a quick story to explain how a care package has helped me here in the war zone.

Right after I arrived in theater here, I was put on a team that was responsible for counting every weapon donated to the country of Afghanistan. We were taken to the warehouse on an armored bus and we got our first glimpse as to what we had awaiting us. The entire yard was lined with shipping containers containing almost 80,000 weapons of various types. We had to count them all and it ended up being a 12 hour a day inventory fest. We called out over 900,000 serial numbers and when we hit the end of the second week, we were seeing double. On the next to last day, we were just about finished and people were telling me to "take a break and we could finish up tomorrow." I had a weird feeling and told everyone we should just push through and knock it out.
We stayed a little later that day and finished the rest of the count.
Since we were finished, the convoy out the next day was cancelled. I was following message traffic the next afternoon and found a message concerning the arrest of an insurgent found along the road to the warehouse armed with an RPG launcher. The insurgent said he was waiting for a bus that had passed on the road at the same time each day for the last two weeks. An RPG hit on the bus would have put many people in harms way, so the fact that we had finished a day early was literally a life saver.

In May, I was out driving in one of our vehicles and when I finished, I handed the keys over to one of the ladies in our office. She left to go out on a mission and on the way out of town, her vehicle was hit by an IED. The lady that sat behind me and another person from our office were both killed in the attack, but I was driving the vehicle right before she left, so I consider myself lucky to be alive.

In June, I finally got my first four day pass (my first days off) since starting in January. On my way to and from the pass location in Qatar, I had to pass through Bagram Airfield. On the way back, I was number 106 on the waiting list to get a flight back to Kabul. While we were waiting, we went over to an area of camp that had a Dairy Queen to get a milkshake. We sat at a table in front of the Dairy Queen and discussed coming back the next day if we didn't get a flight out. We don't have a DQ at our base in Kabul, so our first milkshake only made us want more.
We left and were told by the air crew that the next flight out was after 2:45 pm the next day. At breakfast in the morning, we took a chance and checked with the airport to see if anything changed. Lucky for us, there was a new flight that had been added to the schedule and was leaving at 10 am. Only people who were sitting there ready to go at 10 am could get on the flight, so we were hoping that no one else would show up. Our luck held and they blew through the first 50 names with no takers. We held our breath and sure enough, our names were called and we made the flight back to Kabul. That night, Bagram Airfield was attacked with rockets and a rocket landed right on the table we were sitting at enjoying our milkshakes. Who knows if we would have been sitting there enjoying a milkshake awaiting a flight out? The penny came though again.

The one that really made me a believer is when I was down in the southern area of Kabul at a base that was once the big Russian base.
When I arrived, someone told me of two French soldiers who were off the main road when the first guy stepped on an old mine and it exploded.
His battle buddy was with him and was so impacted by watching his buddy get blown up, he just sat down. Unfortunately, he sat down on another mine and the explosion killed him. While I was there, I was out on patrol in the back area of camp and at the top of a hill, I stepped on an old land mine. The mine turned out to be a dud and I didn't even know what a bad position I had been in until one of the guys in my group pointed out that I just stepped on a mine. The penny came though again.

This past week was lively because a suicide bomber exploded his car just outside our camp. I don't know if our camp was the primary target, but the suicide bomber ignited himself far enough away from our camp that we didn't sustain any damage. The explosion did shake all the buildings on camp, but no one at our camp was injured.

I am hoping that I don't have to test the penny again, but I know that with almost six months of duty still ahead of me, I will have that penny in my pocket at all times. I hope my story doesn't bore anyone too much. I just wanted to let people know how the contents of a care package have impacted me time and time again. Thanks again for all the prayers and support you give to the troops serving overseas!

Very Respectfully,
LT Steven Deputy

23 Jun 2009
Hello, I finally made it back to camp from my first four days off since January 2nd. We have to transit through Bagram airfield to get to/from Qatar from Afghanistan, so it takes several days on each side of the pass in order to get to/from Kabul. As I was transiting through Bagram, I was stuck in a transient tent with over 150 other people on cots about 4 inches away from each other. Somehow, I picked up viral bronchitis, so I arrived in Qatar sick as a dog. My four days of vacation time were pretty much spent lying in bed with a fever. The average temperature in Qatar while I was there was about 115 degrees, so the walk from the living area to the chow hall was a sweat fest in the 30 mph, superheated wind. Also, the coldest water available was about 110 degrees, so the showers were blistering hot. The story is much longer and probably funnier (in a Murphy's Law kind of way) than what I can type in a few lines. If you want more, let me know and I will give you the full story. Right now, I can only look forward to my second 4-day pass which is only six months away...

May was a rough month for our unit here. One of our convoys was on its way for a meeting and the second car in the convoy was hit with an IED attack. Two of the people in our shop were killed in the attack (one female and one male). It is amazing what an IED can do to a vehicle. Neither of the people killed have been replaced yet, so I have taken on two new positions to cover for those we lost. I good chunk of our personnel will be trading out over the next two months, so we have a lot of new people hitting the ground. (Right now we have 23 folks in the office (with 2 Asian and 1 African-American females)

Some items we will most likely need for the new folks:

- Sheet sets
- Liquid Shower Soap
- Toiletries (Shave Cream, razors, etc.)
- DVDs
- snacks, candy, etc.
- Phone Cards (we can't get any here and need them to call home)

Some other items which would help:

- microwave cooking pans (we have a few cans of soup and some microwave mac&cheese, but no way to cook them)
- wet wipes (still no running water here)
- Windex

That is everything for now, I hope things are going well over in the good ol' USA.

V/R,

LT Steven Deputy, USN

08 Jun 2009
(From his alternate):

Hello Any Soldier Inc. LT Deputy will be here for quite some time--he's currently on 4-day pass. When he returns I'm sure he will update his information.

Regards,

LCDR Bond

19 Apr 2009

Sorry that I have not written in so long. I am now working three jobs each day, so I am at the office by 5:30 am and usually get to go back to my rack between 10 pm and midnight. It is starting to warm up now, so there is a threat that spring may be around the corner.

I am representing the CJ2 shop, and many other sailors I know on base.

I live in an old shipping container, so I have me and one other person sharing a 7 x 16 foot room. My office is a stack of old shipping containers with no windows and we don't have any running water.
Bathrooms are port-a-potties (You can see in the attached pictures). I use hand wipes all the time because everything is covered in a layer of black soot. I clean my desk, go to lunch, return, and wipe my desk down again and the cloth still comes up black. It is amazing.

We have laundry service on base.
We have a microwave and fridge, but no cooking supplies.
We have 2 black, 2 white, and one Chinese/Korean female in the unit.
We don't need extra clothing - we can only wear uniforms on base.
We do not have running water in the office, so we have to use bottled water for everything.

I am from Texas, but the people here are from all over - CA, NJ, VA, GA, FL, ME, OR, MD, HI, CO, AZ, MN - sorry I don't know them all and some are out of the office right now.

I asked the crew what they needed and here is what people are
requesting:

Post-It Notes
Nasal Tissues
Cheese Wiz
Ritz Crackers
Double Stuffed Oreos
Swiss Cake Rolls
Skittles
Hand Wipes
9V Batteries
Jujifruits
Mike and Ikes
Gobstoppers
We would appreciate any type of small snacks (M&M, Bite Size
Candy Bar, Hard Candies, etc.)
Microwave Mac&Cheese
DVDs (old comedies fare well since we need a laugh every once
and a while)
Cookies and Chips work well too (Pringles)
8 x 10 photo frames (for creating friendship gifts for the
Afghani people we deal with)
Work out socks (White, Ankle High - male and female)
Sun tan lotion (I have a feeling the summer here is going to be
hot)
Microwave Cooking Pots

Every Thursday is our "movie night" here at the office, so it you wanted to put together a 'movie watching kit', I think everyone here would love it.
That is all I can get out of people here right now. Enclosed are a few shots of the office, the chow hall, and a picture of our team during an outing.

When care packages come in, the entire office goes crazy. Opening a care package is like Christmas has arrived - each and every time.

Hope all is well back home

26 Feb 2009
We live in converted shipping containers.
Electricity is 220v with two round prong. plugs - we need lamps so that we can turn on a light and not wake up our roommates (up to 20).
We have laundry service on base.
We have a microwave and fridge, but no cooking supplies.
I am representing the CJ2 shop, and many other sailors I know on base.
We have 2 black, 2 white, and one chinese/korean female in the unit.
We don't need clothing - we can only wear uniforms on base.
The PX here is bare due to our convoys getting attacked. We would appreciate any type of small snacks (M&M, Bite Size Candy Bar, Hard Candies, etc.), microwave popcorn, cookies, chips, microwave Mac&Cheese, Red Vines, box candy, crackers, etc.
We do not have running water, so we have to use bottled water for everything. Some wet wipes for our hands would be nice as well.
I am from Texas, but the people here are from all over - CA, NJ, VA, GA, FL, ME - sorry I don't know them all and some are out on convoy ops.
Toiletries are hard to find, so liquid soap, toothpaste, etc are welcome.