Road Trippin' and Tippin' Over

Joint ANP US Convoy on the way to Nawbahar district to take supplies

there. ISAF troops had not driven to Nawbahar in over 6 months, so the
SEAL team that was there was surprised that we made it without incident

Crossing a river - A Mine Resistant All Terrain Vehicle (MAT-V) crossing

a river. These trucks are really pretty good in all terrain, as
compared to the heavy MRAPs, not quite as good as an MRAP in taking a
blast but definitely better than an up armoured HMMWV

 Taliban country - driving through passes like this gives me the heebie
jeebies just waiting for the bad guys to spring an ambush on us.
Luckily that has not happened yet to any patrol that I've been on.

Barrett .50 cal. The SEALs at Nawbahar were more than willing to let us

play with some of their Gee whiz weapons, MP-5 submachine guns, SCARs,
and their Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle which you see me shooting here.

Snow in Nawbahar There was 2 inches of snow on the ground when we left

Nawbahar, a harbringer of things to come.

 Roll over - Due to the rain, the mud was very slick and the MAT-Vs are
top heavy. That equaled disaster on the minor slope we had to cross
here, the slope was bounded by a 3 ft drop off. We slid and when we
hit the drop off we tipped over. I was in the truck on its side.
Luckily no one was hurt in either vehicle and once we got my truck back
up on its wheels we drove it another 7 hours back home.

Recovery, this is how we got the truck that was on its top back up on

its wheels, a pretty good job by the wrecker crew to make this happen.
We did have to tow it all the way back home since it had leaked pretty
much all of its fluids out all over the ground.

Dab Pass - more snow. This is the Dab Pass, it's in the mountain range

that separates Qalat from the rest of Zabul to the South Southeast.
There was about 4 inches of snow as we negotiated the pass. We were
extra careful here since we'd already had a couple of incidents and were
towing the results of that incident.

Joint ANP US convoy, our truck with ANP trucks at a rest halt.

James and LTC Matin