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A letter from Sergeant First Class Martin Alvarez:
Mahalo to AlohaValley.com and all the Las Vegas Asian-Pacific islanders on this Veterans Day, and a special thank you to all veterans past and present for serving in the United States Armed Forces over the years.
I am literally half way around the globe in Eastern Afghanistan serving with 1/221 Calvary Squadron, Nevada Army National Guard, out of North Las Vegas. In many ways, Afghanistan is like southern Nevada: the terrain has many high deserts and large mountain ranges encircled by dry weather. Afghanistan can also get extremely hot during the summer months just as Sin City does with one difference, there aren’t any casino size swimming pools to dive into over here.
We are performing a counter-insurgency undertaking given to us by Army Headquarters, Washington D.C. We are just finishing our seventh month on active duty with a little more than five months to go, most of which will be spent in this part of the world.
By the numbers, Almost 6 months into my active duty, over 3 months in country, and less than 5 1/2 months left to go. those are easier numbers to swallow than actually days left. It is hectic some weeks and slow other weeks. A few days ago, a patrol base a couple valleys over to our east was nearly overran by the insurgence. They lost 8 American guys and had almost a dozen wounded. it was sad to hear it over the radios we have in our command post. I got the last part of the battle, since it started at the end of my shift. Now that is the fear in country for every base. Please pray for those guys who are still in tight parts of the valleys here and undermanned and hope it will be calm until we leave. Thanks for supporting me and the other troops here.
Many of the local boys from Hawaii or guys with Hawaii ties in the unit are scattered across the country, performing various military duties to include mounted and dismounted combat patrols and service/support functions. Together, we work in support of the Army’s objective, which is to give the people of Afghanistan a life free of oppression from the Taliban and a life full of self-determination.
It is a funny thing when locals get together; their "good-English" accents become lost in the Pidgin English once again, from “yes sir” to “ho’ cuz”, in a blink of an eye. We talk story about our childhood memories that took place in different parts of the islands, debate which Hawaii high school had the best football team or what plate lunch shack had the best loco moco plates, or even reminisce about all the fresh poke stores in Las Vegas (all of which have broke da mouth local grinds).
Either way, we make the best of our stay on Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam, Laghman Province. Whenever we get a resupply from our families back home, Spam and rice and furikaki or canned corned beef with onions are still the meals of choice for us locals, just to let you know. However, fresh eggs are hard to come by to round out those anytime-of-the-day island-style meals.
Thank you everyone for all your Aloha (love and support) as our tour begins to wind down and we look forward to transferring our authority to the oncoming unit. We still have a ways to go until that happens; but it is always pleasant to think that the deployment’s end is near so we can return home to all of our families and friends and pulehu wit da braddahs in da backyard and kanikapila.
Mahalo nui loa. Malama pono.
See you all at Pure Aloha and Lei Day next year.
Sergeant First Class Martin Alvarez
Las Vegas, NV via Kailua, HI
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Kanikapila Fridays
Hawaiian and Island music with Island Mana at Kerry's Sport Pub Friday nights from 8:30PM - 11:30 PM. Karaoke to follow. Locate at 3520 N. Rancho LV., NV 89130, just north of Cheyenne on the East side of Rancho.
Island Style Aloha Bar
Live island style Jawaiian and island music weekly with the best island bands in Las Vegas. Daily karaoke, free with a two drink minimum. Aloha Kitchen and Aloha Bar, SE corner of Decatur and Sahara.
A letter from Sergeant First Class Martin Alvarez:
Dec 84 - Dec 92