Deployed Military Geocaching

[+3 War Vet]

ATTENTION GEOCACHERS SUPPORTING GWOT

I have noticed in a few places that military servicemen and DOD and Contract civilians have placed caches while they were deployed and pulled them when they left. This is really not necessary. Nobody lives at the bases that support the Global War On Terrorism (GWOT) forever, but there will be military and civilians supporting those efforts for a long time.

As you all well know, we end up with time on our hands trying to figure out what to do. We don't need more enemies in the fight against boredom. We are already out numbered. So geocaching passes the time away. The unspoken rules for Geocaching on military bases supporting GWOT are a little different. Stateside or in your home country you pull a cache that you can't provide the maintenance for anymore or you hand it over to someone else. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kygryzstan, Tajikistan, etc. and any other country where coalition forces are supporting the GWOT there are caches that are from far back as 2001 still in place. The original owners have been back home for years, but they still stand. Why? In the military community (civilians supporting the military included) we all support each other in one fashion or form. So as long as Geocachers keep an eye on the caches in thier area then we can hunt as we travel from one base to another.

A perfect example of this is at Bagram AB, Afghanistan. We currently have 9 caches there and another 3 on other major bases within Afghanistan. I personally communicate with several cache owners who are back in the states and have them add admin notes when conditions around thier caches change by e-mailing them. Currently getting ready to have a temporarily disabled cache moved since the previous one was bulldozed under a foot of dirt. Help make Geocaching available for deployed military and civilians by either helping to maintain the caches that are your bases or by making a new cache on your base for Geocachers who will be relieving you in the future. Thanks for your support and good huntin'

SFC Harskjold - Bagram, Afghanistan