Jingle Trucks and Warlords

I still have trouble figuring out what day it is. I am on Zulu time, all the time now. That means I don't know what the fuck time it is in Afghanistan, or the US. But everyone uses Zulu time here. The world is divided into basically 24 time zones. For easy reference in communications, a letter of the alphabet has been assigned to each time zone. The "clock" at Greenwich, England is used as the standard clock for international reference of time in communications, military, aviation, maritime and other activities that cross time zones. The letter designator for this clock is Z. Times written in military time (24 hour format) are four digits, such as, 1830Z (6:30 pm) with the Zulu suffix. Note that the phonetic alphabet is used for the letter Z (Zulu). This time is usually referred to as Zulu Time because of the letter assigned to this time zone. Its official name is Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. This time zone had previously been called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but was replaced with UTC in 1972 as the official world time standard changed. While GMT is based on Earth's rotation and celestial measurements, UTC is a based on cesium-beam atomic clocks. The two clocks are rarely more than a second apart as leap seconds are applied to UTC. So the real fucked up thing is that Afghanistan time is something like 4.5 hours different from Zulu. So 1600Z = 2030 Local. Got it? Now, what day is it here? And what day is it in Nevada? I think I am one day ahead of the states. Or some shit like that. Today was an incredibly good day. I have two helicopter missions this weekend, back to back. One to the South of Afghanistan on a CH-47, then another on a Black Hawk into some combat in an undisclosed location. I wish I could say more, but it really is classified. I am also writing about the Jingle Trucks, which are art trucks the Army leases. They are very colorful and have jingly things hanging off of them. While setting this up, I was offered dinner with the local warlord, who owns the Kandahar Airfield, and leases it to the United States. So, dinner with the warlord next week, as well as trip into Kandahar on gun trucks. With all this combat, I wish I had a better bullet proof vest. Oh well. I don't die. Friday marks the first day of publication for the Northern NV News Wire. I have the front page of the newspaper in Pahrump, NV, hometown of Art Bell. Next week, I will be in the Battle Mountain Bugle and Humboldt Sun. I also have some stuff in the East Oregonian and some little paper in Milton-Freewater, Ore. Reno Gazette Journal is pending. Things are going well for me. I am in my element. Still broke, though. It will be weeks until I get a pay check and it gets into my account. Also, the person that was going to send me a care package flaked. Oh well. I guess I will go without Hunter S. Thompson to read, cigarettes and snuff. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! My missions are getting progressively more dangerous. I am aware of this. But that is why I am here. I'll let you know what it is like to rub elbows with Mr. Death. That's my job. Just hope I don't get the shit blowed out of me. OK, so I have up loaded more photos. http://rawfire.torche.com/~priapus/images/caleb1/
There are 8 pictures of a Jingle Truck. There are a few pictures of the hanger on the base that the CIA built during the cold war to house U2 spy planes. You can see lots of the bullet holes in the hanger from years of love and war. Also, pictures of the Kandahar international airport, which is supposed to open next month. It still has bullet holes, too. There is the Mosque on the base that is going back to the public, soon, and some houses that people live in, Russian barracks that were bombed, just outside the wire.