CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait –
Maj. Kurt E. Muller
Home Unit: Air Combat Command A7
What do you do? I'm the Afghanistan Civil Engineer Action Officer for Army Central Command.
What's a day in the life like ... while in Afghanistan? I work on Afghanistan military construction projects, either planning projects for the future or working to fix problems that we may encounter during construction or preconstruction phases.
What will you remember about your deployment 20 years from now? The fact that I may have seen more of Afghanistan's forward and contingency operating bases than most Airmen serving in Afghanistan have seen, including Kabul International Airport, Bagram and Kandahar
What's the most useful item you packed? My backpack, since I needed my wife to send my sleeping bag
When did you realize you "weren't in Kansas anymore"? After spending two days in Ali al-Salem Air Base, Kuwait, sitting on leather chairs trying to get a flight into Afghanistan, just to then go to a six-hour long conference
What has been the highlight of your tour? Witnessing the ground-breaking for the new Prime Beef complex in Kandahar
What's the best part of the deployment? Getting to tour around the area of responsibility and meet other Air Force civil engineering officers in jobs that traditionally you wouldn't find us in
The worst part? Spending so much time in the airport awaiting travel
What new survival skill have you learned? Boredom prevention while sitting in the airports; always bring two books!
What do you do during down time? Work on my masters' degree
What is the first thing you will do when you return? Kiss my wife and daughter
What is the first thing you will eat when you return? Delicious Filipino food prepared by my wife
What insight or experience will you take away from your time over there? With everything I've been doing over here, I'm pretty sure I'll be going back in six months. There are a lot of construction projects underway.
What do you miss the most? Driving my own car and sleeping in my king-sized bed
What do you think about what you hear on the news from what is going on stateside? I'm thankful to have military health care. Health care seems to be the biggest issue currently debated in the United States.
Do you have plans for any extra money that you might be making from this deployment? Yes, paying off credit card debt and saving for a new house when I change stations two months after returning home.
About when are you to return? mid-December