While I wouldn't dub Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan a booming metropolis, the space on this camp is quite limited, and the residents are plenty. Therefore, demand for real estate around here mirrors that of the row house. I run what is the equivalent of a shipping and receiving function for communications equipment. We order, receive and store many computers, printers, shredders, televisions, etc., and prep/ship them to the remote regions of Afghanistan where coalition forces set up offices to help in training new Afghan Army and Police recruits. Needless to say, the equipment doesn't just zip in and out of here in a day. We need space to store it until we can arrange the complicated logistics to ship it via aircraft or convoy. We store the equipment in conexes (basically large shipping containers) located throughout the camp. A recent surge in equipment deliveries pushed our storage capacity (3 conexes) to a max. We've had to cram extra equipment into every nook and cranny in our work space to keep it safe from the elements and anyone looking to pilfer U.S. Government property. We even stored some new Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones in our director's conference room. In the middle of this storage crisis I asked my hard-charging resources Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) to try and find another conex for our abundance of equipment.
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In the military we often conduct what we call "drug deals." These have nothing to do with the posession or sale of illegal substances. A military "drug deal" occurs when two units mutually benefit from helping each other out (all above board and within regulations, of course). Well, when I followed up with my resources NCO after a few days, he told me he was able to arrange a "drug deal" to get us a new conex. The owner of the conex needed a new computer and monitor. While he normally wouldn't be on the top of our list for distribution, we had plenty of supplies and we needed the space, so we agreed to furnish him with said equipment in exchange for access to the new conex...a win-win situation! This was 2 days ago.
Today I asked about the new space, and what our plan was to move our equipment into it. It turns out the conex we were promised was already full...it was full of our OWN equipment, none the less! I was so distraught that I went immediatly to consult my NCO in Charge (NCOIC). I was so consumed with trying to solve our newly resurfaced storage problem, that the obvious question of what had become of our computer and monitor slipped my mind. My savvy NCOIC quickly pointed out that we had already provided the equipment. The thought that immediately jumped into my mind was, "We've been had!" We were bamboozled into trading our collateral for our own storage conex! My regards go out to our friend who may be reading this on his new computer and monitor. Next time, I'm inspecting the conex before we provide our services.
This is Duped in Kabul signing out!
