My name is David O’Shea but I’m usually just called Bobby by everyone in my company. I’m in 2nd platoon, A co. 2-4 Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade of 10th Mountain Division. I am a Specialist, I carry M249 machine gun in Jaghato, Afganistan. I’m already 6 months in to a 12 month deployment but we finally got internet to our rooms so I have decided to create a blog for the remainder of this deployment. A cliff notes version of the first 5 or 6 months goes like this: Got here as the winter started to set in. we live on a combat outpost that did not have heat for a very long time through the winter. we had a few contacts (engagements) with the enemy who are the Taliban. we were the first American forces in all the war to be in this area. some people thought we were the russians, some thought we were aliens. No bullshit. we had one man in our platoon get shot in the ass and go home for the rest of the deployment because of it. We also lost one member of our company to enemy fire about 2 weeks ago. The spring is here which also means the riff raff are as well. this blog WILL be as honest of a blog as I can legally write without violating Op/Sec (operational security). I thoroughly hope all who read this enjoy it. I will try my best to write every day that i can so maybe those of you who have wondered what this war is like may understand better.