Shoutout: Afghanistan

[TransNone13]

After realizing my account was lost in the server SNAFU, figured I should shout out to those who rode with, raced against, and mentored me prior to leaving.

Specifically:

Wyeth
Casey
Kevin
Tamara
Katie
Mark
Scott

Trust me, the only thing that keeps me going is coming back to my passion, of which those who know me, know it's insatiable. Ten months left to go...

Strangely enough, there are more motorcycles here than in the US. Mostly 50s, 150s, and 250s; mainly Honda.

So, greetings from Kandahar, Afghanistan, so far so good. I'll start updating the thread with pictures to keep me distracted a little while longer throughout the day, and requests as long as they don't violate OPSEC of course.

Questions are great too, most Americans don't understand what's going on here and don't know much more than what Fox tells them lol.

[dragos13]

Great to hear from you Kyle. I look forward to you coming back and whooping some ass on that 1000rr :)

What you need to do is start some ghetto street races on those little bikes. Get the locals to come out and teach them how to drag a knee!!

Hit me up on FB if you ever get online. I appreciate everything you do for our country and the fact that its people like YOU that keep us safe and free :applause:

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Take care and be safe over there. I appreciate all those of you in the Armed forces do for our past and continued Freedom.

[TinkerinWstuff]

that would be awesome to see a local dragging a knee on a 250. Maybe if they had more tracks over there, they'd be too busy racing to waste time with fighting.

[TransNone13]

Thanks Casey, Facebook is hard to get on since I have no civilian internet and it's generally blocked.

Yeah, hopefully my work here does something. My entire job is teaching the Afghans how to run brigade staff operations on their own in addition to training their policemen on things like TCPs and patrolling. I never imagined I'd be doing this, but it's honestly a lot of fun. 99% of the Afghans are friendly and funny.

But on the note of motorcycling, the best one I've seen is like a 250 Hyosung or w/e. They also have these goofy trike things. My mom sent me a picture of me when I was 14 months to cheer me up; my rents have entirely embraced me racing and think it's cool as hell... finally. But here's a picture of that until I get some Afghan cyclists up lol.

EDIT: This is a good picture of what kind of bikes most of them ride. This is Kandahar City, near the governor's palace.

1988 and 2010

[Cap'n Crunch]

Thank you for your service. Sounds like you are doing some good work over there. Keep the pics coming!

[TinkerinWstuff]

Allah does not approve of helmets

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Allah does not approve of helmets
Actually, he does......but only on their women!;)

[TinkerinWstuff]

When I was in Saudi, we used to see old Datsun pickups with camels tied down in the back. Your mission is to collect a photo of a compact pickup with a camel in the bed.

[TransNone13]

When I was in Saudi, we used to see old Datsun pickups with camels tied down in the back. Your mission is to collect a photo of a compact pickup with a camel in the bed.

Yeah didnt have a camera when a herd of them crossed in front of us, or the goats. Seen some funny stuff, but camel in a truck? No, these guys are way too poor to afford both at the same time.

EDIT: Here's one for now, rogue camel.

[TinkerinWstuff]

file photo from LIFE mag I found. This is what I saw in Saudi:

http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xc/50699756.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=E41C9FE5C4AA0A141606C75723C1C7F99F09B1CC228C3DE5 9E06B0410E9D0087B01E70F2B3269972http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Strange/Camel_Pickup_Truck.jpg

[TransNone13]

Won't load here, but I posted up a pict of some camel toe for you.

[Sarge]

Haven't done Afghanistan yet, still have about 5 months left on this tour in Iraq, my second.

Believe it or not, you almost never see Camels in Iraq, mostly in Kuwait. You do see a lot of goat/sheep/dogs though. We're doing much of the same mission here in Iraq, for better or worse. Everything's so PC here these days it seems like you can't fart in public without being scrutinized. But whatever, it is what it is.

Be safe over there, brother. We need to get a few more Military types together and maybe start a CSC Military group. Not a separate club, just a group, like one of the regional ones they have sections for.

[TransNone13]

Haven't done Afghanistan yet, still have about 5 months left on this tour in Iraq, my second.

Believe it or not, you almost never see Camels in Iraq, mostly in Kuwait. You do see a lot of goat/sheep/dogs though. We're doing much of the same mission here in Iraq, for better or worse. Everything's so PC here these days it seems like you can't fart in public without being scrutinized. But whatever, it is what it is.

Be safe over there, brother. We need to get a few more Military types together and maybe start a SCS Military group. Not a separate club, just a group, like one of the regional ones they have sections for.


I agree, but I like to be very selective and discreet because like it or not the majority of sportbike owners in the military are a liability for various reasons. I also don't plan on riding the streets much anymore, the track is where it's at.

[Sarge]

I agree, but I like to be very selective and discreet because like it or not the majority of sportbike owners in the military are a liability for various reasons. I also don't plan on riding the streets much anymore, the track is where it's at.


Can't argue with you there. That's why we can keep on here, and just bring in people that we know. To be honest, I'm already planning a few rides with some Harley and other cruiser type riders that I'm deployed with. Maybe do a little convincing that sport bikes are a lot more fun in the mountains. :devil1:

The point is really just finding responsible people you can enjoy going out and riding with. The military aspect of it is just finding guys who works 12+ hours a day (with PT) and who might only be able to ride on DONSA and other random 3 or 4 day weekends and Training Holidays.

[SOCAL4LIFE!!]

I agree, but I like to be very selective and discreet because like it or not the majority of sportbike owners in the military are a liability for various reasons. I also don't plan on riding the streets much anymore, the track is where it's at.

The guys who scare me the most are the ones that bought a bike right after deployment. They usually do more stupid stuff than others. I do not plan on doing much street riding anymore either. I have a track only bike now and as long as the wife keeps her bike street legal I can ride street anytime. Other than that its all track all the time.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

See, I think the "all track" atitude is all wrong. don't get me wrong, track days are a blast, but to be honest I love riding in the mountains better. the scenery is second to none, and you're not riding the same piece of asphant over and over. Since the server died you might not have seen the pics I posted in Trips & Touring about the last 2 rides I did this summer, but I did 2,800 miles of AWESOME new road riding (at an...Ahem!...accelerated pace) those trips, with flat amazing scenery. Try THAT on a track!

[TransNone13]

Cycle, I love riding but my sport bike wont see the road anymore. I would like to get a Super Duke or some sort of v-twin or v-4 street fighter type for the road. I'd be too tempted to track any new sport bike I got. I test rode the S1000RR, I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to race it. It's more of a question of economy (I only have 1 motorcycle right now).

[SOCAL4LIFE!!]

See, I think the "all track" atitude is all wrong. don't get me wrong, track days are a blast, but to be honest I love riding in the mountains better. the scenery is second to none, and you're not riding the same piece of asphant over and over. Since the server died you might not have seen the pics I posted in Trips & Touring about the last 2 rides I did this summer, but I did 2,800 miles of AWESOME new road riding (at an...Ahem!...accelerated pace) those trips, with flat amazing scenery. Try THAT on a track!

I love riding in the mountains as well. But there is just to much unknown there. Maybe I saw to much crap in Cali with people in the Mountains. I like the controlled environment of a track. You can go balls deep, safely, and its all ok. But for the days I want to go to the mountains I will just take the wifes bike. :)

[TransNone13]

I used to go on the rides, then all but 1 of the people I rode with crashed. We weren't even doing anything crazy. Gravel and another rider were responsible for the crashes.

[TinkerinWstuff]

do you have the camel spiders in asscrackistan? Those things creeped me out something fierce. Was stalked by one on the flight line once.

[bornwildnfree]

Thank you for serving and we can't wait for you to get back to shred some mountain!

[Sarge]

do you have the camel spiders in asscrackistan? Those things creeped me out something fierce. Was stalked by one on the flight line once.


I did 15 months from 07-09 and didn't see a one. This time around I've seen like 15. This is Iraq, not Afghanistan though.

A buddy of mine was sitting at a guard post when one crawled up his leg, he FREAKED.

I was standing outside in shower shoes (flip flops) when one just about ran over my toes. I went "holy shit" and a buddy of mine goes "that's nothin, the one I killed right over here was twice that big." And sure enough, not 10 feet away from me is one that's almost as big as a fist.

Evil little f*ers. :bat:

[Airreed]

I saw herds of hundreds of Camels in the Iraqi desert. We would usually give the bedowen some water to ride on them too!

As far as camel spiders I think I might have seen a couple, but they were typically the size of a quarter.

One 18 inch Viper that found a home in our camo netting and a hawk flew into my TOC.

OIF = petting zoo.

[TransNone13]

I don't see a lot of critters out here. Last night I did try to catch a kangaroo mouse thing, but he got away. Flies mostly... The stray dogs are nice, cats not so much.

[Think]

Nice to see more military folks on here. I head off to Ft. Rucker for flight school in a few weeks which I'm pretty excited about. Be safe over there.

[Sarge]

I don't see a lot of critters out here. Last night I did try to catch a kangaroo mouse thing, but he got away. Flies mostly... The stray dogs are nice, cats not so much.


Ever hit a dog at 40+ Mph with a Rhino? Hehe. It basically turns into 2 dogs. :devil2:

Anyway, +1 on the damn cats. We were living in tents with wooden floors for a while, and those damn cats would open doors and piss on beds and laundry bags, etc. One day one crawled under a tent and died, stank like a pig, so we sent a few Joe's down there to go fish it it, and found like 5 dead cats. Yugh. :puke:

[TransNone13]

Ew, yeah cats are mangy here. The dogs aren't like what I hear from Iraq; they're dirty but still friendly. Unless the dog was a threat to us, rabid etc, I told my driver if I caught him running one over I'd at a minimum give him an article 15 and have the shit smoked out of him. Senseless violence is rampant enough as it is, killing stray dogs for sport is sick.

[Sarge]

A few years ago there was an order to shoot dogs on site. The Iraqi's in Baghdad have been killing about 30,000 a MONTH on orders, because there are packs of wild dogs that are attacking children, etc. We aren't alowed to shoot them or anything this time, but a few weeks ago we had one jump in front of the convoy and the lead truck hit him with the Rhino. We were on a narrow canal road with no room to maneuver and it would have been unsafe to slam on the brakes or try to avoid it. The PSG was pissed at first, but we got everyone together and did an AAR and determined that it was the safest course of action.

The only time I've ever actually shot one was last deployment. It had been hit by a car and its back and/or back legs were broken and it was flopping around on the side of the road, unable to move, and it was the middle of August. I was the gunner in the lead truck and the first to see it. I called it up and the LT told me to leave it alone, but we were staged outside the FOB waiting on him to come back out, and my PSG, the TC of the truck I was in told me to take the shot. It was a clean shot and basically nobody ever spoke of it again, the LT didn't say a thing or ask about it. It was one of those thing where everyone knew it was the right thing to do, as it was 125+ outside, but technically it wasn't allowed, so the LT couldn't condone it.

[TransNone13]

Yeah, this isn't Iraq. And no, I wouldn't instruct my driver to slam the brakes on anyway; to be honest there are more Afghans jumping in front of trucks than dogs. The mercy shot is also legit, I wouldn't have hesitated to give it.

[Sarge]

A few weeks ago we had a donkey walking along the side of the road in this town. We were doing maybe 15-20 miles an hour and didn't have a lot of room to manuever, the lead truck tried to avoid it, but it got too close and he clipped it with the side mirror. Then the second and third trucks did the same. :wtf: The donkey wasn't hurt, but every time it got hit it just stepped back into the road, makes you wonder what's in the water sometimes.

[Wrider]

*thump* HEY WHAT THE *thump* HEY WHAT THE *thump*.....
Lol

[TransNone13]

Out here, the donkey owner's tie their front legs together so they can't wonder off. It's kind of sad to watch them hop.

[Marauder]

The dogs out here are friendly. Named them Hesco, Surefire and Rigor Mortis. Rumor has it that Rigor Mortis, or Rigor for short, was seen nibbling on dead "insurgents," hence the name. Flies are 100X worse here than Iraq.

[Marauder]

Nice to see more military folks on here. I head off to Ft. Rucker for flight school in a few weeks which I'm pretty excited about. Be safe over there.
Congrats and good luck. There is a HUGE presence of CAS in this area and not a day goes by that I don't regret NOT going aviation. Does anyone ever get "tired" of flying?

[TransNone13]

Congrats and good luck. There is a HUGE presence of CAS in this area and not a day goes by that I don't regret going aviation. Does anyone ever get "tired" of flying?

Ditto; do you ever get tired of riding?

The flies are bad... lol

[TinkerinWstuff]

Out here, the donkey owner's tie their front legs together so they can't wonder off. It's kind of sad to watch them hop.

Hobbles. Common practice with the horses and have 2 sets myself. Of course mine are nice leather that won't hurt the animal. Those horses can run plenty fast hobbled when they really want to. They end up leaping kinda like a deer.

[Marauder]

Ditto; do you ever get tired of riding?

The flies are bad... lol

Until we're back on the bikes, let me know if you ever get West of the city towards Wilson or HEM.

[TransNone13]

Until we're back on the bikes, let me know if you ever get West of the city towards Wilson or HEM.

Oh yeah, you're out at Wilson? Crazy that you're so close.


Hobbles. Common practice with the horses and have 2 sets myself. Of course mine are nice leather that won't hurt the animal. Those horses can run plenty fast hobbled when they really want to. They end up leaping kinda like a deer.

Yeah, they're definately effective. The donkeys don't seem they've figured out how to do that yet.

[Marauder]

Oh yeah, you're out at Wilson? Crazy that you're so close.

Howz-E Madad, actually. Wasn't sure if you were familiar with this area and I know Wilson is more well known. You at Walton?

[TransNone13]

Used to be, now we're at the JRAC. It's nice, we're the only US soldiers living here.

[TransNone13]

Good news! I will be posting some motorcycle pictures up; before we get our own, the ANCOP S3 was kind enough to let me use his dirt bike whenever. WHOOT! It's a Hoysung or whatever 125D. Not bad for Afghanistan, was fun when I took it for a spin, tactically of course... :D.

[Marauder]

Good news! I will be posting some motorcycle pictures up; before we get our own, the ANCOP S3 was kind enough to let me use his dirt bike whenever. WHOOT! It's a Hoysung or whatever 125D. Not bad for Afghanistan, was fun when I took it for a spin, tactically of course... :D.

Don't be a squid!! Wear your PPE!!

[TransNone13]

Lol, thanks.

[Sarge]

Don't be a squid!! Wear your PPE!!


Does an ACH count as a motorcycle helmet? lol

[SOCAL4LIFE!!]

Depends on if you got one that was recalled or not.

[csmith]

Does an ACH count as a motorcycle helmet? lol

Only if you're also in full MOPP, then it counts.

[SOCAL4LIFE!!]

Oh and dont forget your PT belt. VERY important.

[Marauder]

Oh and dont forget your PT belt. VERY important.
Totally! I hear the IMPs are giving out tickets for not having your Sniper Identification Badge (SNIB) at KAF. Crazy!! Yet when someone loses their weapon here, they put out an email on NIPR. A 1LT left his on the boardwalk last night. We watched it sit there for 30 minutes before he came back for it! On a FOB, 1SG would have had a formation and locked that place down! Sorry...shifted focus from the motorcycle bit. As you were...

[TransNone13]

Oh and dont forget your PT belt. VERY important.

Yeah we're not on KAF. The Afghans don't require us to wear PT belts at night...

I also have a MSA MICH, so mine didn't get caught up in the recall.

[TransNone13]

Overlooking the Arghandab River Valley. I'm on the left...

[Marauder]

What is that, just a plate carrier? LUCKY!! (Napoleon voice)

[TransNone13]

Yeah it's a plate carrier. My IOTV is packed away, somewhat like my MICH lol. Basic load for me is 1 MBITR with short whip, 2 frags, 7 mags, IFAC, stuff pouch, and miscellaneous knives.