Luke Update

Here is some of the latest news from Afghanistan.

A few days ago:

"Not such a good day today. I had my first serious injury, possible fatality, on a job I designed. Last night an MRAP rolled over off a culvert and into a ditch. The gun turret on the top of the vehicle was smashed, and there was a soldier in it. He got really banged up with lots of internal injuries and head injuries. Don't know yet how he will turn out. The good news is that they didn't build the thing at all like I designed it. At least 3 descrepancies between my design and what was built contributed to the wreck, but I still feel horrible. I saw the construction getting messed up, and told the air force personnel, but they didn't do anything to rectify the situation. Now this 19 year old private is all messed up."

Then:

"Great news, the guy hurt in the rollover is going to be OK. They flew him to Ramstien air base in Germany, and operated on him. No permanent injuries, though he is hating life right now with broken ribs and sternum."

Yesterday:

"It's supposed to get colder all week, and bottom out with lows in the single digits this next weekend. That's going to be fun. They have pictures last year of water bottles frozen solid inside the hut. I wish there was more to tell you. Lately I've been working on lots of housing projects, and an office complex. The office complex has us using the Corps of engineers design (done by somebody in Dubai) I think it would have been easier for us to start from scratch than go back and fix all the mistakes in it. The other big project we are working on is the new BTIF (no idea what that stands for) but it's basically the new Guantanamo where they are going to keep all the prisoners. It's kind of depressing, they get much nicer facilities than we do! Way bigger rooms, central heat and air, indoor toilets! What the heck."