An International Coalition

When I first arrived at Blackhorse, one of my roommates was LTC Frederick Schultze. He was the commander of the German unit here working with the only armored Kandak (Batallion) in Afghanistan. (“Armored” means that they drive tanks.) Today was his change of command ceremony. Their tours are only 4-5 months. Must be nice.

My other international friend is COL Fourmond, the commander of the French forces. He was present the day we placed Akhtar in pre-trial confinement. Ever since then he makes sure that I’m armed when I leave Blackhorse. He also asks me about the cases I’m working on. He even came to the first day of Akhtar’s trial. Since Braxton is taking French I’ve tried to have him teach me a few words but my brain just doesn’t function that way. He tried to teach me the correct way to pronounce “croissant” but I couldn’t get it right. I told him I’d rather eat them than pronounce the word correctly.

I’ve also worked with guys from Canada, England, Italians, and Romania. I know there are other nations out there but I haven’t had the privilege of working with them yet.

The other day a group of us went to eat lunch at the “Warehouse.” It’s mostly made up of international coalition partners. When we signed in at the chow hall, you had to sign according to your country. I was amazed at the number of countries that were represented on that post. Here they are (not in any order): Portugal, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Romania, Turkey, France, Germany and the good ole US of A.

The food was excellent. Great breads, several different kinds of meat; pork chops, roast beef, some meat I didn’t recognize, several different sauces (the one I got looked like a mushroom sauce but was very spicy and delicious), roasted vegetables, fried vegetables, exotic salads on individual plates, patte (it tasted like liverworst but I’m sure was something more cultured and refined), a plate of several different cheeses (OK, we actually got there too late for the cheese, but I’m told that the cheese is wonderful), a quiche bar (we were too late for that as well), tons of fruit, salad and lots of desserts. I’m sure I’m leaving more delectable’s out but suffice it to say, it was wonderful. It made our chow hall selection seem like school lunch.

Oh wait, our chow hall usually is the equivalent of school lunch. What am I saying? Braxton eats pepperoni pizza every day and we never get that. Oh well, it’s like the school lunch I got when I was in grade school. No comments on just how long ago that really was!!!