PICTORIAL PAGES Jason's front page Jason and Siblings Karaoke quartet Going Away cake Barbeque, Aug. 2004 Welcome Home 2005 Jay and Bevin Jason in three parts ARTICLES H.S. Graduation, 1996 Journal archives PICS FROM JASON After viewing photo, hit "Back" button. Mine clearing vehicle Village of Ghazni Desert campsite Jason on duty Afghan children |
 This letter to Jason's Murdock grandparents is also in the Jan-Feb 2005 Muse. In this photo he is sitting in one of the vehicles that his team services. Sgt. Jason Murdock Dec. 28: Happy Holidays. How is the weather there? I am in Bagram Afghanistan right now. I just got off a 4 day pass to the country of Qatar. The pass was very nice and I got lucky by the lottery system to have it over Christmas day, along with one other from my squad; this is out of the entire battalion. We stayed at an Air Force base, Camp Doha. We went on a desert Safari adventure one of the days in Land Rovers traveling at very fast speeds. We then arrived at the Persian Gulf and it was raining at the time, but I had to seize the moment and say that I swam in the Persian Gulf. It was awesome! The water was pretty warm but very salty. We also tried some authentic Arabic food, which included trying some camel, and it was pretty good. The rest of the time we hung out around the base relaxing and drinking a few beers as well as socializing with other forces from all theaters. Everyone over here is seeing and doing so much; it is never dull but sometimes scary. Over the past 3.5 months I have been as busy as I have been over this whole deployment. We have, and when I say "we" I mean my squad of 10 guys has, been all over this country. We have cleared over 5000 miles for many different groups, but mostly the 25th Infantry Division. We have worked with the Special Forces a few times, as well as serving for all these groups as their mine clearing package. We have found several Anti-Tank mines as well as an Improvised Explosive Device in a dried up river bed and many UXO's. We have gone on a few raids with the Infantry to Puc some suspected Taliban guys; and we have performed many engineering projects, such as building roads and houses on bases for Afghan and coalition forces. We have gone out with EOD a few times to help prep and take care of removing weapons caches from this planet by blowing them up with C4; we are talking thousands of pounds worth of weapons here. Some of the places I have worked and visited include Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul,Gardez,Qalat, as well as many FOB's. We have gone into some remote villages to drop off supplies and medicine for the locals. For the most part, I think the people here are happy to have us here helping them out. There are a lot of locals who have missing limbs because of the landmines here but it is definitely a lot better since the fall of the Taliban. The Taliban are still around and they organize in small numbers up in the mountains and try to ambush us sometimes, but they are no match for the rising Afghan National Army and especially us US forces. The weather is cold now and there is a lot of snow on the mountains, which looks beautiful but wears fast because we see it all the time. My health is good and so it is with the rest of the members of my squad; we have lost no lives in my squad but saved many. Recently I was promoted and I am now a team leader and basically I am in charge of all the Maint. within my squad. I do however help the Engineers out with various projects too. I want to wish you all a Happy Holidays back home and God Bless. P.S. I think there was a typo in your address listing for me here; the zip code is 09354. |
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