207th RSAC Navy ETT-L Redeployment - VIDEO

Hello from LT Miller May 5 2007 Kabul

Hello all from Kabul Afghanistan.
I am no longer in Herat. We are on the first leg of our long journey home. We were carried out of Herat by our Italian Air Force friends and we are thankful to them. The US Air Force had us at such a low priority that we would not have been able to make it out of Herat in time to catch up with the main group of Navy that we are traveling back to the U.S. with. We are now collecting our various Navy teams in Kabul. It is good to see a lot of our friends from training in Mississippi that we have not seen for a year. We are in the paperwork-processing mode now. In typical military fashion we attend lots of briefs telling us what to do, not to do, what to expect and get a signature from everyone you can think of. We will have to do the whole process twice once for the Army then for the Navy. It is better going out of Afghanistan since most of us do not really care about the hassle because we all know that we are moving in the homeward direction. Our next step will be to get all of our gear through customs at which point we will be down to our weapons, one uniform and a small backpack for a few days supply of underwear and toiletries. We will not see the rest of our stuff until we are back in Virginia. We will arrive in the U.S. smiling but more than likely smelling pretty bad because the travel will take more than a couple of days to complete. I will let you all know when we reach our next destination if I am able. If everything stays on track I will be off of active duty toward the end of June. I have attached a few pictures of us in our last days in Herat. One is at the Minarets of Herat built in the 13th century. The man to my right is Far Deen (I just had to say his name one more time hopefully you all get the joke in his name if not just say it a few times then put I am in front of it). There used to be around 30 of the minarets making up a large cultural complex with universities, museums, religious buildings and tombs. There are now only 5 towers left and one tomb. The British started destroying them in the late 1700's, then earthquakes claimed a few, looters and the Russians took down some also. Then under the Taliban all schools, museums and libraries were destroyed. It is hard to believe that they were more advanced in the 13th century than they are now. This lends credence to the song War what's it really good for nothing absolutely nothing. We will be the first country to conduct a war here and leave it in better condition than when we arrived. Another picture is the Afghan version of Charlie's Angels, and the last one is a few of us with some of the local children that were at our farewell picnic. This will most likely be my last update from Afghanistan so I will leave you with my favorite quote from the last year. This has helped me keep things in perspective. In Herat when our Colonel saw someone that needed to be reminded of the big picture he would say "Stop tripping over mouse turds". Some of you may have to think about that one for a while. I know I did the first time I heard it, but it is something to remember the next time you find yourself worrying about something that is not all that important. I will use it to remind me someday when I am worrying about something trivial and then think of some of the children I had the pleasure of meeting in this place and their problems. I am sure my issue will seem much smaller compared to theirs.
Take care.

LT John Miller USNARMY