Hey guys i am new here to the board.  

I am leaving to go to afghanistan in November as a combat engineer on a mine clearing mission near the afghanistan/pakistan border.  Does anyone out there have any good pointers for going over to Afghanistan?  Any help would help me out considering this is my first overseas deployment.

November?  Damn.  That's a long way off.  Any idea where you will be staying in terms of towns or fire bases?

no, i do know we are going near kandahar what fire bases are near there?

how ya doin guys
i was in afghanistan for a year as an m.p which is differnt from ur mission obviously, but i do know there is a shitload of mines there so u will be busy!
Ill i can say is that it gets really cold there in the winter, they will issue you plenty of gortex, bear sutis, silk layers and all that stuff but be prepared for cold weather.
Stay hydrated drink water when you arent thirsty but dont overhydrate either.
Always be aware, while afghan. has kinda dropped off the map as far as Cnn and all that it is still a hot zone, i had plenty of close calls when i was there.
I was on the pakistan border at one point and that place is a whole different world, not really a bad thing but afghan and paki. are defintley different.
Message me if you want to know more.

Out

Quoted: no, i do know we are going near kandahar what fire bases are near there?

Kandahar has a FB, and I hear that it's nice living with new quarters, AC, etc.  AFG is heavily mined, so you'll have work.  The East is a busy place in general.  Do what you need to do to keep out of Bagram.  That is one silly place.

HEY I'm sitting on  a mountaintop in eastern Afghanistan RIGHT NOW!  Engineers run our Route Clearance Packages, and just finisished building what passes for a road around here.  You AD, NG or what?  The ONE thing that stood out about this deployment versus my other like 6 is the CONSTANT MOVEMENT.  Man, this is my 5th different FOB to move my platoon to, and I've filled our bellies at about another 5 others.  Pack light.  Geek stick, portable DVD player- if your toys don't fit in a footlocker, you got tooo many.  
Weathers been good all year, just extreme enough on both ends to give you something to bitch about, but not bad enough to hurt ya.  
wish you well.  I'm out in 2 more months.

AllTheWay,
RED

I am here now with a Combat Engineer unit running RCP's, IM me your AKO and I can shoot you more info than your brain can handle.

Red, where are you at? Sounds like we may be very close.............

i was in afghan for a bit , was at FOB salerno ,  With marines and Army , if its not issued  brings spares