Anyone been to Afghanistan?

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speeds

speeds

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I've recently been offered a position at the NATO base/air field in Kandahar and am considering it (civilian).

Anyone been? Anyone with experience on military bases in the Middle East?
 
Gonna get paid at least $100,000 tax free with two week trip with airfare to anywhere in the world?

That the minimum I hear for working in Iraq as an interpreter (I have family in Iraq and ones that recently moved away)
 
speeds said:
I've recently been offered a position at the NATO base/air field in Kandahar and am considering it (civilian).

Anyone been? Anyone with experience on military bases in the Middle East?
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I know BlazerWookie served in Iraq.
 
A buddy of mine just finished a contract there. Not a lot to do, but not unliveable. You can earn an assload of money, so go for it if you want to take the risk. My friend who was there sandbagged the whole top of the trailer he was living in in case of mortar fire.
 
DaRizzle-

Something like that but a lot more vacation time, about two months, including a couple of round trips as well as bonuses for vacation expenses.
 
hasoos said:
A buddy of mine just finished a contract there. Not a lot to do, but not unliveable. You can earn an assload of money, so go for it if you want to take the risk. My friend who was there sandbagged the whole top of the trailer he was living in in case of mortar fire.
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I know there have been some rocket attacks on the base but so far no Canadians have been killed (or injured, IIRC).

I dunno where they house the civilian tents compared to the military ones.
 
speeds said:
DaRizzle-

Something like that but a lot more vacation time, about two months, including a couple of round trips as well as bonuses for vacation expenses.
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lol...at first I thought you said "ROAD trips"....I was like....uh......maybe not the best idea :biglaugh:
 
DaRizzle said:
lol...at first I thought you said "ROAD trips"....I was like....uh......maybe not the best idea :biglaugh:
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"Dude, hanging out in Khandahar is so beat. I hear there's a kick ass kegger going on in Waziristan and the chicks are SO hot..."
 
Kandahar_1402868c.jpg
 
maxiep said:
"Dude, hanging out in Khandahar is so beat. I hear there's a kick ass kegger going on in Waziristan and the chicks are SO hot..."
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Literally.

Actually the weather is cool there right now, about 54 deg, headed into rainy season (Jan-Feb., IIRC).

I suppose I could cool off beside Emerald Lake.
 
speeds said:
I suppose I could cool off beside Emerald Lake.
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man, that sounds so not-so-fresh.

I think I'll cross that base off my must-visit list.
It was all the way up to 13,234th on the list before I read that.

barfo
 
I'd hate to have an appendix burst or something while over there.
 
I have been next door to Turkmenistan. I hated it. I just felt too vulnerable, too much a western target. Nothing bad happened, but I sure was happy when I left after a week.
 
speeds said:
Literally.

Actually the weather is cool there right now, about 54 deg, headed into rainy season (Jan-Feb., IIRC).

I suppose I could cool off beside Emerald Lake.
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You are really rolling the dice on this one. Unless you can retire off it, I would think twice before thinking another 1,000 times until deciding not to do it. Short of maybe Pakistan in the tribal areas, Afghanistan is pretty much dead last on my list of places to be.

It's sad really, my father went there in the early 1960's and said Kandahar was amazing. When I was growing up my dad's favorite cat (we had a few) was named Kandahar. He really loved the place. He had gone there to see the Buddha statues and travel on to India. He wasn't able to achieve either goal. When the Taliban blew up the statues my father was incandescent with rage. It wasn't the time to point out that it's really perfect in it's Buddhist symbolism. Impermanence. Impermanence in all things.
 
"...you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?":biglaugh:

Seriously, there are so many absolutely beautiful places in the world to see, and a few dozen to be avoided at all costs.
 
MARIS61 said:
I would not live where I could smell shit.

Not for any amount of money.

This is our modern military?
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Smell shit? You describe the university of illinois when there's a south wind.
 
Fuck it, I would go if I was offered some good money. Why live life in fear?
 
MARIS61 said:
"...you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?":biglaugh:

Seriously, there are so many absolutely beautiful places in the world to see, and a few dozen to be avoided at all costs.
Click to expand...
If I was being offered a job in Bora Bora as well I don't think the decision would be a hard one.

My family is united against the idea so it's starting to seem unlikely.
 
If I was unemployed I'd be going.
 
A buddy of mine has done contract work over there. He said you have to be out of the country for a ridiculous amount of time before the money becomes untaxable. By that I mean you can not come in the country at all during that period of time. I think it was like 320 days or something like that.
 
Natebishop3 said:
A buddy of mine has done contract work over there. He said you have to be out of the country for a ridiculous amount of time before the money becomes untaxable. By that I mean you can not come in the country at all during that period of time. I think it was like 320 days or something like that.
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I dunno what it is for Americans but for us it is six months plus a day contract length regardless of where you spend your vacation time (and how long it is, presumably). We don't get all our taxes back, though, just 80%. So we wind up paying about 4-6% income tax rather than 20-30% depending on our total earnings.
 
speeds said:
I dunno what it is for Americans but for us it is six months plus a day contract length regardless of where you spend your vacation time (and how long it is, presumably). We don't get all our taxes back, though, just 80%. So we wind up paying about 4-6% income tax rather than 20-30% depending on our total earnings.
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That's not bad.
 
Could be a great opportunity to take, depending on the money, and your age/ place in life right now. If I was younger and single, I definitely would have considered something like this.
 
rofl, is that an actual pic of you in your avatar? thats nice of you to say hi to papag :rofl:
 
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