It's going to be a long deployment

I started my Wednesday by having an Afghan colonel tell me that the coalition side--my side--of our combined US-AFG TOC wasn't working hard and wasn't doing it's job.  My side has four senior NCO's, a commo NCO, two analysts, three LTs, six soldiers and me doing 24/7 operations, including battle tracking the entire Brigade Area of Operations.  His side--a collection of rheumy-eyed fat afghan lieutenant colonels, take turns (one at a time for two to three hours) sitting in a chair and sleeping when they aren't talking on their cell phones.

I had to be pulled out of the combined TOC after I used "fuck-stick" "slap-nuts" and "If you know so much, how come Afghanistan isn't occupying FOBs in The US?" in one long tirade that (thankfully, in retrospect) wasn't translated.

I'll eat a lot of shit for the cause, but I won't be talked down to, or ever let my soldiers be talked down to, by some tin-pot wannabe who only moved out of his mud hut last week.

--Chuck