Beer Bust at the Boardwalk

I know, I know, I went an entire blog entry without referencing a McConaughey flick.  I promise I won't let that happen again.  So while my Friday night in Kandahar didn't quite rival a 70's high school kegger it was a pretty good time, all things considered.  KAF has a main central area with coffee shops, and souvenir stands.  This area, called 'the boardwalk', even has a KFC and TGI Friday's (complete with the 'It's Always Friday in Here' sign).  There are even a few shops that serve non-alcoholic beer that complies with General Order #1 forbidding consumption of alcohol. 

CPT Dickman, 1LT Maffey - my Headquarters XO(executive officer) and I sat down to enjoy some 'Near Beer' and stop talking about the responsibilities of a battalion surgeon and instead catch up on old times.  We toasted to a successful and safe deployment for Mike and his unit of stryker cavalry. Mike spent the last 11 months here in Afghanistan,  not far from where the unit I am assigned to will be working.

Dr. Dickman has been a great help passing on lessons learned as I have been working to plan medical operations, and it has been nice to see another friend so far from home.  He also happens to be the guy who helped me get into and out of a bunch of trouble during our time together in residency - which means we spent the bulk of the night laughing about the good times DeWitt Army Hospital afforded us.

In fact, if it weren't for the F-16's taking off and landing every 20 minutes(and that the beer contains 0.3% alcohol), it wouldn't have been that different than grabbing a drink and catching up back home.  We had so much fun that we decided to make a pact and meet back in Kandahar every year on May 6th at that exact same spot.

Dumb and Dumber

That last part was made up, sort of.