Quick Note

Just a quick note to let you know I'm alive :)

I've settled in here at Bagram, and am working away in the firearms lab. Seeing a lot of interesting stuff come through, especially as pertains to the age of ammunition being used.

Just the other day, we had a case come through where I actually had to go searching and look to figure out what kind of ammunition it was. It turned out to be Short Chamber Boxer-Henry .45 Caliber Rifle cartridges, originally designed for the Martini-Henry rifle. That's Martini-Henry rifle, as in the rifle the British used against the Zulus, way back when. And speaking of way back when, as far as I was able to ascertain, these particular cartridges were manufactured, sometime between 1910 and 1930. Looked like they'd been hanging around here since then too. How often do you see a commercial black powder cartridge, with paper patched lead bullets?

Fun times, and interesting to say the least. Random alerts and running to take cover in concrete bunkers also keeps things interesting as well :)

All in all though, life is pretty easy over here. I think my wife ended up with the short stick, having to go to work, and take care of the house, the kids, and the dogs too.

Anyway, I'm doing good, hope everyone is ok back Stateside.


Take care all!!



Casey

Heading Out

Finally got my papers, and I fly out tomorrow night for Dubai. It's a thirteen hour flight, which leaves at 1o:30 PM tomorrow evening, however, due to time zones crossed, I will arrive in Dubai at 8:30 PM the following day. Talk about screwing up the old internal clock :) The company will then put me up in a nice hotel, for less than twelve hours, before I catch another four or five hour flight into Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan, where I will spend the next year of my life.

Wow, sounds kind of weird when you say it like that. I'm hoping it passes quickly. I already feel a little regret at the things I will miss in the lives of my wife and daughters. However, the things I will see and experience seem very promising. In addition to the forensics work I was hired to do originally, it looks like I will be involved in training members of the Afghan National Police in aspects of Crime Scene Investigation, Firearms Examination, and basic Forensics. I've never taught before, so this should be an interesting experience. Hopefully, my passion for Forensics will make up for any shortfalls I might have as a teacher.

I'm still kind of mind-boggled at the opportunity I have here. I don't know how or why I was selected from among all of the other applicants, but I am certainly thankful. I look forward to finally being able to do the job I'm getting paid for.

I think that posting will be lite, but who knows, with less distractions(i.e. beer), I may actually get more posting done while I'm over there. I should certainly have a large pool of things to post about.

Anyway, I'm heading out tomorrow. Hope you're all doing well. Stay safe.


Casey

Updates

Just an update for those who are interested. Not in Afghanistan yet. Currently in Jacksonville, NC trying to go through some training at Camp Lejeune. As soon as I get that done and signed off on, I can deploy. We've run into one little snag there though. The snow.

Who would've thought that snow, could or would shut down a Marine base? It was snowing as I drove in this morning, eager to get the process going, and was informed upon arrival, that the camp was on a 2-hour delay. Only about a third of the group scheduled for processing showed up, so we started to get a little paperwork done, when about 0830, word came down that the base was being shut down.

I hopped in the car, after brushing the 3 inches of accumulated snow off of it, and proceeded to head back to the hotel. The 20 minute drive to get there, in the snow, was increased to a two and a half hour drive to get back to the hotel. Every 'non-essential' person on the base was scrambling to get off base at the same time, what a cluster. I will say that everything proceeded orderly, if not quickly. I don't believe I broke 5 MPH on the way off base, but then again, I only saw one fender-bender on base, and no uncontrolled ditching of cars, though I did see several who had apparently pulled off to the side and secured other transportation.

So I'm sitting here, looking forward to getting started tomorrow, when the alert comes across that the base will be on a 4 hour delay for 'non-essential' personnel. Funny that, I can't hardly remember the last time I was considered 'non-essential'. That generally goes out the crapper when you strap on the badge. Heck, even when I was just doing fingerprinting in the jail, they sent a truck with chains to come and get me during a bad ice storm.

The civilian world is a little odd, and is taking some adjusting to get used to. Will probably be even worse when I get back from a year on a military base. I still feel like a cop, and apparently still act like one, judging from some people's reactions. However, I get a little pang when asked for ID, and I reach for my badge wallet, that's not there anymore.

Also, carrying nothing but my P3AT when I've been home for Christmas, has me thinking and re-evaluating carry choices. While it's a perfectly fine gun, and does exactly what it was meant to do, I'm thinking that when I get back, I need to look at purchasing something a little larger. At least 9mm, if not bigger, for daily carry. That, in and of itself, is going to start a new line of thinking as well.

One of the big advantages of the P3AT, is that it slips into a pocket, no muss, no fuss. Something larger, will necessitate a belt rig. I've heard good things about IWB carry, but have never done so, nor even handled an IWB holster. So that will take some research and experimenting.

Anyway, I'm doing good, though anxious to get going, and feeling like everything that can happen to slow me down is going to happen. Hope everyone is staying safe out there.

I'm going to have another beer, and step outside to ponder the oddity that is snow on the Carolina coast(even if it is North Carolina).

Take care all,


Casey

Leaving on a Jet plane

Big changes going on here in Carolina. I turned in my badge and duty gear this week, and am departing this morning on a new job.

Turning in the badge was a really weird and uncomfortable feeling, but I think I've made the right decision. I'm starting a new job with a private company to do Forensics again.

Forensics has always been my love, and it will be good to get back into it again.

Lest you think I'll of me, I'm not leaving LE to go work for the defense attorneys. I'm actually going to work for a defense contractor, and will in a lab, on a base, somewhere in-country.

I leave today for training at a Naval base here in the States for about a month, then get to come home for Christmas. After that, I should be making the big hop across the pond for New Years.

I'll have to look into whether or not I'm allowed to make posts and such while over there, however, I should be able to squeak out one or two while I'm stateside.

Really looking forward to this new opportunity.

Take care all,


Casey


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Nuns With Guns

Just thought I'd share a favorite pic. :) It's floating around the internet on too many different sites to list. Google Nuns with Guns, and you'll turn up literally hundreds of variations...



Casey

Sitting and Thinking

One of the nice things about hunting, is that it gives you time to think about things. I mean, what else are you going to do, strapped to a tree, 20 feet up off the ground. You sit there hoping that a deer is going to come ambling up that path any second now, so trying not to move, and almost holding your breath lest an unanticipated nose whistle, or the smell of the coffee you drank this morning on your breath spooks the deer off.

So thinking is about all that's left. One of the things I frequently consider while hunting, is how in the devil can a bird that small, produce a noise that ear-shatteringly loud?

Now I'm doing my part, sitting still and quiet, so the bird doesn't seem to know I'm there, when it lands on a branch of the tree next to me, just below my feet. I'd kind of forgotten about it too, as it just sat there quietly, waiting for whatever the signal was.

Boy I flat out knew when it got that signal though. It let out this ear piercing, trilling shriek that told every living thing in the woods that it was damn well time to wake up and get moving.

I damn near jumped out of my stand trying to dive for cover from whatever evil was about to latch on to me. This movement startled the little bird, and it flew off, squawking it's displeasure.

Now that my heart rate has settled down, I think I'm going to ease on out of this tree. I've been hearing a buck, a couple hundred yards East of me, that I just can't seem to lure over here. I'm going to see if I can't sneak down through the woods, and come up behind him. This never works for me, but sneaking through the woods hunting for something is always fun :)

Who'd have thought I'd be able to blog from twenty feet up a tree, in the middle of the woods?


Casey





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Change of Seasons

The seasons are finally starting to change. We've been broiling hot here this summer and into fall, with my first deer scouting trip in September, being conducted in triple digit temperatures. Things are finally cooling off, though now they tend to get confusing. Last week, morning temps were in the 30s, with highs in the 60s, this morning, it was 70 degrees as I left for work, and 80 degrees on the way home. Add in the rain we've been getting(thankfully), with humidity in the 90+ percentages, and it makes for some miserable times. Everything is sticky with condensation, and the only thing air conditioners do, is attempt to remove some of the moisture from the air, which tends to freeze up AC units. Profitable time to be in the HVAC business.

The only changes at work are for the worse, which confirms predictions by the long-timers, who say that things are still going to get even worse before they get better. Caseloads are still going up, with no end in sight, and we're being asked to do even more with less. Just today I spoke with another Agent who I thought was a fixture at the office, but he has an interview on Friday with an agency a little ways up the road.

To that end, I've been doing a little negotiating myself, trying to develop a job in the private sector, and may have a contract coming up for some good, enjoyable work. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

One of the things that has been bedeviling me lately has been a case a little north of us, up in North Carolina. I'm sure you've all seen it on the National news. Young Zahra Baker, 10 years old and already a cancer survivor. Lost part of her leg and a good bit of her hearing to the cancer. Then her father up and moves her from their native Australia to rural NC to marry some woman he met on the internet. She's currently missing, and presumed dead.

I am not ashamed to admit, that I was moved to tears when I first saw this story several weeks ago. This beautiful child who had already been through so much, and yet still was full of smiles in any picture you see of her. The indefatigability of youth I guess.

Then the ugly rumors started the next day. All of the neighbors came out to the news to say how they'd seen the Step-mother beat her any time they stopped by. How she went to school with black eyes from one of those beatings. How they new she was going to come to a bad end because the Stepmother was jealous of the attention her father gave her.

At that time, she was just missing, and I turned to my wife and said, "If they find that little girl, I'm calling the Sheriff up there and telling him she can live with us." No argument from the Wife on that one.

Then the angry started. All these "neighbors" who just knew something was wrong, and had seen the child beaten by the stepmother, and just knew she was going to come to a bad end. Every blessed one of them needs to be brought up on charges for failing to report abuse, and complicity in whatever they finally determine happened to that poor child. A few rides on a cattle prod wouldn't be amiss either for these lazy slime balls.

But as the seasons change, people forget, and the news moves on. Two weeks later, and you have to search for updates on the story, what they're doing, what they've found, what they're looking for, etc.. I hate that she's being forgotten already, mostly in favor of what some politician said about another, in the run up to November 2nd.

I don't know why I felt such an immediate connection with this little girl, but I hope it doesn't go away. I pray for her every day, and I think that it's particularly apropos, that on Sundays, I pray for Zahra Clare Baker, in the Monastery of St. Clare. I pray that she receives mercy, and I pray that those who have harmed her are brought to justice.

I pray that as the seasons change, I continue to remember that one little girl who overcame so much, suffered the ultimate indignity. I pray that maybe today, putting one slime ball away, might spare one little girl from a similar fate. That calling DSS about drug abuse in a home with children, might get the children out safely, before things get bad. That threatening one knucklehead with prison, who's not quite beyond redemption, might get their feet on the path they need to tread.

I try to hold my head up, and believe that what we're doing matters, but then one of these cases comes along, where we weren't able to protect the little child, and my head hangs with sorrow. This was not my case, not my jurisdiction, not even in my state, but the failure on our part wounds me all the same. It also stiffens my resolve. I will redouble my efforts here, to see that no such thing happens on my watch.

The seasons change, my badge is a little heavier, a little more worn, a few more nicks and scratches, but as yet, there is no tarnish.

Take care all,


Casey