Mat says it looks like the wasatch front without the population

Mat's room with a view

Ok check out all the shells falling from this gun! They were just having some fun! I think some of the boys were just showning off! Oh yeah, it was for Timmerman and his Birthday! But it sure had all of their attention. I guess as long as it has to do with being a piro or blowing things up you can get their attention. Boys will be boys. Or should I say men will be boys!

I put so many new pictures in and a video so make sure you check old posts!!!

Here is Mats Mailing address If any one wants to write him a letter, or send him a package. If you send a package, get the apo boxes from the post office, they are free! They also have a flat rate and it doesn't ship by weight. It is pretty cheap.

Mathew B. Adams
B Co. 3BN 214th AVN
TF ODIN/TF Thunder
Bagram AB
APO AE, 09354

email from mat

I was woke (@ 0445) up by Infantryman who had just come from the North and needed a place to sleep. They turned on the lights, made lots of racket, etc..., we were not happy!!! Some one just told them to find a tent and a cot, but failed to realize that our tent is nearly full and there are 7 other tents with no one in them.

Where we live now, I don't need an alarm clock to wake me up, just wait for the Infantry to come out of the hills, their timing is impeckable!!! I can almost sleep throught the jets leaving at all hours. I don't sleep with earplugs in because I was concerned that I wouldn't hear my alarm going off, can't hear it anyway because every morning since we arrived a bunch of Infantyman come into our tent looking for a place to sleep. We really need to remind whomever is dropping them off that there are 16 other tents they can put these guys into.

I sent a postcard to Scott and told him that we were living in a circus tent, and all that we were lacking was the circus animals, then outa nowhere in comes they Infantry, I commented -- never mind the Infantry just arrived, lol.

I politely remind the smokers where the smoking area is, if I don't they smoke right in front of our ginormous swamp coolers, and it fills our tent with smoke. I talked to one of them that came crashing in this morning, I feel for these guys, they've been in the mountains getting shot at, IEDs, fire fights every night for the last 12 months. I thanked him for doing his part.

Mat is either having alot of fun, Or he is worried someone is about to push him out of the helicopter! What would your guess be?

email from Mat

7/14/09. Well I got a bit of a surprise today. I walked into the office this afternoon, and the Platoon Sergeant asked me if I wanted to go on a flight -- right now, she didn't have to ask me twice. Myself and another guy had to beat feet in our LPCs (leather personnel carriers) down to the other end of the flight line to board the aircraft. I forgot my camera though, dangit.When we got there we had the usual brief, then took off. Wow, there are a lot more people in the village/city that surrounds this base. It really does look like Utah Valley, but without the traffic and roads, big buildings, and they dress differently too (but I couldn't tell that from the air). As we climbed to 23,000 feet, I could see nothing but mountain tops for what seemed like forever. Many of the mountains still have snow on the tops. The valley below is covered with homes built from mud (and whatever else), with a courtyards, and a mud fence that is at least six feet high surrounding the properties. Many of the courtyards have livestock in them or they have gardens and orchards (the poppy is grown South of here). The size of their property may be dependent on how much effort they wanted to put in to building the fence/compound wall.As we flew West I could see small villages that are built in the small narrow valleys where the streams exist, much like a narrow draw. And up a lot of these draws (throughout the mountains) are more and more villages. From the air it looked like they built their homes as far up the draw as they could go, and built outward going down the draw. It was interesting to see how much vegetation there is in each of these draws where they live, but the mountains in our area are pretty bare.We flew for about an hour and a half, then returned to base. Our initial decent was fairly steep so I asked the pilot what our rate was, and he said that it was 3000 feet per minute. Well that explained why it felt like we were falling out of the sky, lol. We were basically circling above the air base when we started the decent, now we were coming down -- like right now. I could see a few large irrigation canals and a few large roads that had traffic moving about, a large body of water to the South and West of Kabul (we are just a little North of Kabul), and there is a wide, shallow, slow moving river that meanders through the valley near where we are.Next time I will have my camera for sure. Sure was nice to get up in the air again.

swearing in

This is a great picture, and a wonderful once in a lifetime experience. Mat got to tape his friend Timmerman, who was swearing in for his reinlistment. It was done on the 4th of July, also Timmermans birthday. Congrats and good luck!!!

Mat's transportation

Flight crew

mailing address

Hello everyone. Here is Mat's mailing address if anyone is interested in sending out any packages. You can get a apo box from the post office they are free. And the good thing is that they are a flat rate, so no matter how much it weighs it is still the same. All of the soldiers share alot of their things that are sent. There are alot of soldiers who have very little access to what they need. Here is another thing for everyone to think about. At Christmas they do shoe boxes for the soldiers and fill them I think we can take them to the base and have them shipped for free.
Mathew B. Adams
B Co. 3BN 214th AVN
TF ODIN/TF Thunder
Bagram AB
APO AE, 09354.

So I sent some magazines to Mat he love to read and has alot of time to do so. But next time I am not sending him a magazine that has pictures of bands. He hung many pictures of alice cooper on his walls. said he needed some color. So i guess black eyes add color. Any one sending magazines BEWARE!!!

how the days scream by

Hey Sweetie,Wow these days just seem to be screaming by.I wake up and peel the mattress off my back, rub the sleep out of my eyes, turn on my computer, click on Skype and dial in your number.It's awesome to be able to see and talk to you through the internet for 30 to 40 minutes at the beginning of my day -- while your day is winding down. Then it's off to the dining facility/chow house for something tasty to eat and a hot cup of good old fashioned GI coffee.Next I head over to our temporary office for whatever training has been scheduled for the day. Late afternoon shows up and it's time for some volleyball, and a workout after running around in the sand pit. Last Friday's game was shortened because someone accidentally hit the ball into some concertina wire and the ball developed a small air leak. The poor guy that got the ball out of the wire developed some leaks too, but not sufficient enough to put a tourniquet around his neck, zoiks!!After getting all sweaty, it's time to get a bite to eat and read the daily newspaper Stars and Stripes (to see what's happening here and there), then check some emails, write in my journal, and fill out a post card or two. Next thing I know it's shower time just before I subject myself to the mattress that won't let go -- then do it all over again.Tell everyone I said hey, and thanks for the continued support!!!!

Can you pick out Mat?

These are all the brave men who are sent out with the same unit as Mat. They took this picture in Maryland. This group came from all over the US for training. Mat has made some great friends from this group.

Mat's bhut

email from Mat June 26

Wow, the sun is here and so is the speed of the internet, lol.

The little girl asked for my autograph while I was in the Atlanta Airport, I think her name is Elizebeth, her Dad took the pic, they were headed to home to Argentina. She said that she had a loose tooth, I asked her if the tooth firy would go to her house and she replied yes, and told me how to say tooth fairy in Spanish. I gave her my Utah Guard patch (which has on it the State outline with the Minuteman placed on top) she was delighted to get it, and promptley attached it to her sweater. She had her Dad take a picture of us together with his camera phone.

The potties and showers are shipping containers, pretty cleaver.