1st PLATOON
To all friends and families of First Platoon:
Well, we have knocked out the first month. The only problem is that after we got one month down they told us we are extended for three more months. Talk about one step forward and two steps back.
The first month was pretty eventful. It took us a while to get into Afghanistan, I think we flew through 5 different countries, but once we landed we hit the ground running. We had a bunch of in-briefs to go through so that we could learn the rules of the FOB (Forward Operating Base), the culture in our region, and some of the diseases and threats in the area. After we finished those we started getting classes from the unit we were replacing on our equipment and tactics. They were very helpful and defiantly set us up for success. We started riding along with them on missions and then slowly integrated in until we were running missions alone.
We live like gypsies a lot of the time driving from place to place living out of a sleeping bag. So far we have cleared about 2000 km of road. It gets monotonous at times, but we still have fun with it. We spend a lot of our free time watching movies and playing cards, video games, and volleyball. We are going to be road trip experts by the time we get home at the end of the year.
Your letters, packages, and prayers have helped us immensely since we have been here. I know the soldiers don’t get to the phones or internet as much as we would like, but they are working on the limited access issue here and hopefully it will get better. The good news is that it has only been taking about 8 days for packages to arrive from the states. Thank you for your support.
If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at: todd.j.severson@us.army.mil.
Grizzly 16
1LT Severson
Clearing routes and beautiful scenery
Mechanics conducting inventory on the equipment. Is that Todd sitting in the chair in the background?
