Melissa Dawn Dillard Family Photos page 2


Tim Pendley in Afghanistan Husband of Melissa Dillard Pendley
Tim Pendley, Nov 18, 2007 Things are going well here in Kabul, Afghanistan. The weather has been taking a turn towards winter. Something the Floridian in me is dreading. So far, it's just been cold in the mornings and at night, but I know snowfall probably isn't too far off. Hopefully I'll adjust well to it. Thanksgiving is a few days away. It won't be the same as it would be at home, of course, but I expect it to be a little nicer here than what I have gotten on the ship in the past. We'll have a buffet set up with turkey and everything for our little maintenance group. We most likely won't work on that day, but I'm not a hundred percent on that. Friday is our one day of the week off here, and to be honest, it's more than enough. Too much free time around here just makes the time drag by. The days are slow, but the weeks seem to fly by. . . . Continued below... AE1(AW) Tim Pendley with translator, Abu Tim Pendley (R) with C.O. :: Afghanistan, 2007 Tim Pendley (L) with Sergeant Major :: Afghanistan, 2007 Flight Line, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007 Copter maintenance, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007 Tim Pendley, Nov 18, 2007 (Cont) Work is going well for me. I enjoy what I do. The records and planning part of my job has been an interesting change from what I'm normally used to. When I'm not busy doing that sort of thing, I also work advising the Afghans who work in avionics, since they don't have an adviser of their own. It's been interesting because the guys here who do the sort of job I do back home are actually much more formally educated than we are. Most of the key players are officers with engineering degrees from Russian universities. They are not the backwards people that most people in our country seem to think they are. Most of what limits these guys is a lack of a supply system and any sort of state of the art equipment. I've seen these guys in their spare time repair everything from televisions to palm pilots. Most of our guys will bring their broken electronics to the Afghans to fix. I watched a guy the other day build a power converter going from 220 VAC to 27 VDC out of spare parts laying around the shop, so he could test radios in the shop. It also served as a battery charger. Sometimes I feel like I can learn as much from them as they can from me. Of course, I can only speak of the intelligence of the aviation guys. I would venture to guess the army guys aren't as sharp. I'm slowly expanding my Dari vocabulary. I can at least now give normal greetings and ask how their families are doing, that sort of thing. It's a tough language, but it goes along way with them when you put out the effort to learn. The translators here are very good people. They are very intelligent and would give you the shirt off their back if you asked for it. I missed meeting Bill O'Reiley (probably misspelled that) by minutes the other day. It was cool he stopped by here though. I don't know how much of what happens here makes it onto the news, but our security is pretty good here for those who may be concerned. I won't lie and say we don't have our exciting days every so often and that they don't try, but since I've been here our security has been very good a preventing things from happening. It also seems like we get pretty good intelligence based on the briefings I get, which is a new one for me in my career. The two most exciting events going on right now around here is the completion of our new barracks, which will allow me to have a room to myself, at least for awhile if not permanently. The other big development is that we are getting our own post office. The mail has been getting here fine on the convoys, but the post office on the FOB here will mean that I won't have to don the 50 pounds of body armor and convoy to another base to mail off a package. OK, I'm going to wrap up this marathon of an e-mail. I'm attaching some pics. The first is me with my translator Abu; the second two is with my Commander and Sargent Major (Army's version of a Command Master Chief), and the last two are just a couple of things I see every day on the flight line. Thanks to those of you who have stayed in touch and sent packages. It's appreciated. Take care and stay in touch. « Pendley family photos, Page One

Tim Pendley in Afghanistan
Husband of Melissa Dillard Pendley

Tim Pendley, Nov 18, 2007
Things are going well here in Kabul, Afghanistan. The weather has been taking a turn towards winter. Something the Floridian in me is dreading. So far, it's just been cold in the mornings and at night, but I know snowfall probably isn't too far off. Hopefully I'll adjust well to it. Thanksgiving is a few days away. It won't be the same as it would be at home, of course, but I expect it to be a little nicer here than what I have gotten on the ship in the past. We'll have a buffet set up with turkey and everything for our little maintenance group. We most likely won't work on that day, but I'm not a hundred percent on that. Friday is our one day of the week off here, and to be honest, it's more than enough. Too much free time around here just makes the time drag by. The days are slow, but the weeks seem to fly by. . . . Continued below...

Tim Pendley with translator Abu in Kabul
AE1(AW) Tim Pendley with translator, Abu

Tim Pendely with commanding officer
Tim Pendley (R) with C.O. :: Afghanistan, 2007

Tim Pendely with Sergeant Major
Tim Pendley (L) with Sergeant Major :: Afghanistan, 2007

Flight line near Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007
Flight Line, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007

Copter maintenance, Afghanistan 2007
Copter maintenance, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007

Tim Pendley, Nov 18, 2007 (Cont)
Work is going well for me. I enjoy what I do. The records and planning part of my job has been an interesting change from what I'm normally used to. When I'm not busy doing that sort of thing, I also work advising the Afghans who work in avionics, since they don't have an adviser of their own. It's been interesting because the guys here who do the sort of job I do back home are actually much more formally educated than we are. Most of the key players are officers with engineering degrees from Russian universities. They are not the backwards people that most people in our country seem to think they are. Most of what limits these guys is a lack of a supply system and any sort of state of the art equipment. I've seen these guys in their spare time repair everything from televisions to palm pilots. Most of our guys will bring their broken electronics to the Afghans to fix. I watched a guy the other day build a power converter going from 220 VAC to 27 VDC out of spare parts laying around the shop, so he could test radios in the shop. It also served as a battery charger. Sometimes I feel like I can learn as much from them as they can from me. Of course, I can only speak of the intelligence of the aviation guys. I would venture to guess the army guys aren't as sharp. I'm slowly expanding my Dari vocabulary. I can at least now give normal greetings and ask how their families are doing, that sort of thing. It's a tough language, but it goes along way with them when you put out the effort to learn. The translators here are very good people. They are very intelligent and would give you the shirt off their back if you asked for it.

I missed meeting Bill O'Reiley (probably misspelled that) by minutes the other day. It was cool he stopped by here though. I don't know how much of what happens here makes it onto the news, but our security is pretty good here for those who may be concerned. I won't lie and say we don't have our exciting days every so often and that they don't try, but since I've been here our security has been very good a preventing things from happening. It also seems like we get pretty good intelligence based on the briefings I get, which is a new one for me in my career. The two most exciting events going on right now around here is the completion of our new barracks, which will allow me to have a room to myself, at least for awhile if not permanently. The other big development is that we are getting our own post office. The mail has been getting here fine on the convoys, but the post office on the FOB here will mean that I won't have to don the 50 pounds of body armor and convoy to another base to mail off a package.

OK, I'm going to wrap up this marathon of an e-mail. I'm attaching some pics. The first is me with my translator Abu; the second two is with my Commander and Sargent Major (Army's version of a Command Master Chief), and the last two are just a couple of things I see every day on the flight line. Thanks to those of you who have stayed in touch and sent packages. It's appreciated. Take care and stay in touch.

« Pendley family photos, Page One