67 miles in 22 hours...

I am active duty army, stationed in Fort Richardson, Alaska. I'm currently about 2/3ds of the way through my third deployment - second time in Afghanistan. (First tour was Iraq.) The unit we replaced began "getting us up to speed" on our primary route as soon as we arrived. Our mission typically consists of providing gun truck security for local truck drivers who haul our freight. We used to haul everything ourselves, but we're in the process of preparing them to take over. We call their trucks "jingle trucks". Google that and you'll see why. The out-going unit told us we'd never be able to make it over the pass (9500 ft. elevation) in the winter. To our leadership, that sounded like a challenge, and since we're from Alaska, we're used to driving in winter conditions, right?

Let's just say Ice Road Truckers aint got nothin' on Afghanistan! For one thing, the jingle trucks aren't in any shape to be driven at all, let alone traversing an iced over mountain pass. I think we had about a dozen jingle trucks on that first run, and every last one of them had to be pushed, pulled, bumped or otherwise provided motivation to cover every last inch of road from our FOB to the next. The road on the pass is paved - sort of. There are blast holes, rock slides, avalanches, camels, sheep, goats, people, taxis, buses, other jingle trucks - all crowding a road that is only a single lane in some places. The jingle trucks are considered "good to go" as long as their tires hold air. Most are bald, and many have belts showing. It's unusual for us to arrive at our destination without at least a few flat tires. We found out the hard way that an International Maxxpro gun truck with it's 300 horse 7.3L I6 with chains on all four tires, in 4X4 low range is capable of pulling a jingle truck with another 50K LB gun truck on it's trailer up a very steep pass on solid ice. Barely.

It's summer time now, and our biggest challenge is no longer snow and ice. About 30 miles of the 67 mile route is dirt, so visibility is poor and it's "fighting season". We have taken contact a few times, but have never had so much as a single tire flattened on our gun trucks. All this challenging driving is making me miss the safe, smooth roads in the good - ole U S of A. I'm looking forward to getting back home and getting back on some better roads!

That first trip took us 22 hours one - way. I literally could have walked the route faster. Our quickest time: 4.5 hours. We had no jingles on that trip. Just thought some of you might like to read what Afghanistan driving is like.

 

Thanks Joseph - I intend to run just about all of North America if the freight allows when I get out and buy my truck, so chances I'll see ya out there. Drive safe!