Where am I?

The last 11 months have taken me to some crazy places and allowed me to experience some once in a lifetime opportunites. Most of them are all documented here on my blog. My current assignment is working on an investigation which was to have taken me to Kabul, Afghanistan for 5-7 days. I spent just under a week in Kabul and traveled via C-130 to my current location Al Udeid, Qatar.

I've been fortunate to get off base twice - both times to experience local food. The food is amazing here (off base)...ok, I haven't experimented too much, but the chicken shwarma's, chicken kabobs, hummus, and Naan are out of this world.

The country of Qatar is rather interesting. The base I'm on is rather expansive although there's really not much here. The good news is that today I noticed something in the parking lot of the dining facility. In one row, there were 12 parking spaces. Those parking spaces were filled by 8 Ford products (Escape's and Rangers) and it was an amazing site. The vehicles here are all relatively new and well cared-for. Honestly, there's no where to really destroy a vehicle here or drive fast and be hard on them. Incidentally, speaking of Ford vehicles: I recently received a copy of a most interesting International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) letter sent by General Petraeus to Alan Mulally, Ford's President and CEO. In short, Ford is selling a bunch of Rangers - accomodating a rather quick build - and the Rangers will be used by the Afghan forces in their rugged terrain. As an employee and a temporary resident in Afghanistan, the letter really hit home. I couldn't be more proud of Ford for being able to build the vehicles and for ISAF for buying Ford products. In my mind, it's a win-win!

Read more about Qatar (one of the wealthiest nation's in the world) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar