Kabul, Afghanistan (2004)

Selfie from the fortified compound from which the Karzai Protective Detail was based, funded by the U.S. Government and contracted through DynCorp.

This is where I lived for 42 days from August to September 2004.

Why 42 days? Because that was the minimum cut off date in order to receive overseas danger pay.

I’m wearing my VT baseball cap and ubiquitous fisherman’s tan vest that had lots of pockets and could easily conceal my pistol. Behind me are some of the uparmored HUMVEEs the KPD utilized.

The guy walking towards me was a DynCorp IT guy who learned I had tons of music on my laptop and asked to borrow it so he could mirror the entire library.

Behind him is a fortified wall comprised of HESCO barriers and cargo containers upon which armed Nepalese guards patrolled with shotguns.

If there was a car bomb outside they’d be the first to be incinerated.

That white building in the background was the HQ and also had an amazing library from which I borrowed many a book, including “Into The Wild.”

I had a lot of time to read in those 42 days and was averaging a book every 2-3 days.

This was the beginning stages of the hideous monstrosity that would one day become my gargantuan goatee.

I began growing some facial hair as all the cool Special Operations types hired by DynCorp had fantastically awful stylings on their grim faces and I thought I’d join the club, too.

While working out in the base gym one day I noticed for the first time I was getting gray hair in my beard.

At first I plucked the hairs from my chinny chin chin, but soon they outnumbered the black ones.

A few short years later, my entire lower beard was gray. And I was only 35.

That’s what having kids did to me.