Sunday, May 21, 2006

A FRIEND IN AFGHANISTAN Part 2

In an earlier posting, I wrote about a former student, Markanthony Meditz, who is now with the US forces in Afghanistan.

I had my second chat with him, and here is a summary of his life in Aghanistan. Understandably, the military is strict with information they can divulge, as well as pictures they can send or show.

He is with a FOB (forward operating base) in Afghanistan. He works basically as a communications specialist handling very sophisticated communications for both the US and coalition forces. Part of his duties is as gunnery support for patrols, usually on board an armored humvee and wearing IBA (interceptor body armor).

The patrols get attacked by small arms fire, rockets and suicide bombers, not too much of the IED’s (roadside bombs) prevalent in Iraq. Markanthony has survived his humvee being blown by a tank land mine.

There is practically no entertainment in camp other than watching movies. Many spend their free time writing letters and emails to family or reading.

Markanthony hopes to come home to the United States sometime the end of this year, after 18 months of overseas assignment. We agreed to meet in either Nevada or southern California sometime after that, insh’Allah (God willing).

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