1990 — Full-Time

Very few of you have written to me in the past several months. Geez, you miss one column and then people forget all about Kellogg World. Maybe the extended Democratic primary season has exhausted everyone.

I've been connecting with classmates and others via LinkedIn.com. I'm sure you've read or heard about it, but I do recommend that you check it out. I don't have a Facebook page or a MySpace page (though some of my friends do). It seems that the social networking phenomenon is here to stay. LinkedIn is great for business networking and a way to keep in touch with our classmates.

One classmate who I connected with on LinkedIn is Ginna Zinke Martin. Ginna responded to me saying: "What a pleasant surprise to hear from you. Thanks for your note. We're doing well. I gave birth to our second boy, Dylan Michael Martin, on March 31, belying the odds of age and gravity. He's a sweet guy and his brother, Sean (4), is delighted to have a new best buddy. I'm on maternity leave at the moment from consulting but look forward to returning to work toward the fall after a summer of family fun and adventure."

I tried connecting with Scott Gode on his recent visit to Chicago but flight delays prevented that. Scott, Kelly and the boys still reside in the Seattle area but Scott no longer works for Microsoft. He has joined a relatively new company called Azaleos Corporation as their vice president of marketing and product management. Azeleos provides IT services including exchange hosting which, given Scott's role at Microsoft, he certainly knows a thing or two about.

Sandy Haviland was in town about the same time and, fortunately, we did have lunch together. Sandy's software business is growing. Confidant is the product and I can't say enough great things about it —I strongly recommend you check it out for your families' personal information needs. He and Kate are traveling to Greece in June for a much-needed vacation.

Bill Driscoll wrote to tell us that he has returned to active duty yet again. God bless you, Bill, and thank you again for serving your country and everything you do. He says: "Well, most, if not all of you know that I'm back on active duty with the Marines. I, along with and 10 other Civil Affairs Marines, am attached to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, which has been sent to Afghanistan for a seven-month deployment. This was a last-minute deal for most involved, including me. There are two Marine units working in Afghanistan at present. The 24th MEU is in southern Helmand Province and figures prominently in the news. My unit will be operating north and east of there. Our primary mission is training and mentoring the Afghan police.

"At present we are living at Kandahar Air Field (KAF) which lies at about 3,500 feet altitude, in the southwest quarter and right square in a very hot, dry and brown desert. Not too different in that sense from Iraq. KAF is a sprawling base with a mix of many, many nationalities. On the C-130 flight in, there were folks from the militaries of France, Denmark, Britain, Ukraine, Netherland, Canada and the U.S. From an American perspective there were Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force. Finally, there were a handful of contractors.

"Of course the accountant in me can only imagine how much more it costs in terms of redundant people and services to have so many nationalities and groups together. There is a huge sub-culture of people at the base who never even consider leaving it and probably spend six months without ever speaking to an Afghan. Everything I've heard or seen tells me this mix of nationalities all getting to choose what they are going to do and how they are going to do it is no recipe for success. It really is crazy. It's an odd metric that shows this to be a big success relative to Iraq.

"I spent some time with some Civil Affairs types from the Canadian and British Army. Both have six-month deployments and the Canadians also get a two-week leave block tossed in for good measure. When travel is included, over 10 percent of their force is home at any one time to say nothing of the additional people needed to track all that movement and fly them all over. One of the interesting things about being on the base is the incredible number of aircraft flying in and out. We see a lot of the huge old Russian transport planes – the tail of one was so big that I had difficulty figuring out what it was above the roofline. There are a number of fighter jets that are loud and really rattle the ground. Probably most interesting, though, are the drones. These odd-looking planes come and go frequently. They take pictures and apparently can be hooked up to shoot missiles at camels or Toyotas. They are also, per the New York Times, controlled by pilots who live at a base just outside of Las Vegas.

"At present, living conditions are a little sparse as we are a transient group. I'm in an air-cooled (not air-conditioned) tent with about 10 others sleeping on cots. The food is fine with plenty of fresh salad and an overall quality not too dissimilar to a Las Vegas buffet. Fine for me but not a place I'm taking the wife. Come to think of it, she might request a room upgrade as well.

"A big challenge is what's next. There is a big question mark whether our unit will be replaced at all. And, if we are replaced, will it be with an American unit? If we simply pull out and are not replaced, one can't be too hopeful that our efforts will be enduring. That said, there is a large ongoing effort here. I have meet several USAID folks who have been intelligent and committed and who have broad experience.

"I recently have had a good chance to travel. First I flew to Herat to meet with folks from Regional Command West. Part of our unit will be in their A.O. I then got in the back of one of the new MRAPs (the big vehicle which is able to survive IED blasts) and we drove six hours to Farah City. I didn't see much as that was from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. I spent a day meeting with the PRT at Farah City and then caught a flight back to KAF. The following day I flew down to Lashkar Gah (also called Little America due to our extensive efforts in the 1950s and 1960s) to meet with the PRT for Helmand Province. This PRT is run by the Brits. British bases have the best food by a magnitude of two or three. A couple of things I found interesting: First, the cell phone towers. These run up and down the valley and across most of Afghanistan. In some places phone service shuts down at dusk as the Taliban have threatened the phone company. The other interesting thing is the house construction. The building material is a mix of mud and straw. Advanced houses have concrete blocks as well. The rounded roofs are also generally ubiquitous in western Afghanistan.

"Anyway, all is well here. So far we have pretty much stayed on base or at least stayed on U.S. bases. Things do seem quite different from Iraq but that is for another dispatch. Cheers."

That is all the news this time from the Class of 1990. Please write in soon and tell us what you've been up to. Any news is good news! Enjoy your summer!