Day 22 Dec 20

DAY 22 / DEC 20
Five days until Christmas and nothing is different here. They have tried to instill some Christmas atmosphere around here – some CHUs have Christmas lights up, there is a small decorated tree in the hanger, and the occasional Christmas stocking can be seen hung in various places. Christmas, even on a Sunday, will be just another work day. In fact, we have scheduled classes for the company on that day. I don’t think Santa will make it this far during his nightly run. Is it because we’ve all been naughty little boys and girls? Or is it that the area, this land, just isn’t worth his time? I suspect that it’s just been so long since he’s really had much business here that he just forgets about it. I hope he doesn’t forget us back home, I hope he delivers all of our goodies just the same. I think that for us, Christmas 2005 will take place right around the same time as Christmas 2006.
Enough of the boo hoo about Christmas, lets get on with the day. Woke up with just enough time to finish the work I didn’t do last night and get a shower in before making the trek to my meeting with the BN XO. I almost felt bad, bringing a half-assed, virtual draft copy of what I needed to get done, but as it turns out, others did less – so I came out as the shiny dollar of the moment. Go me.
The highlight of my day, as it usually is, was talking to my wife and daughter this morning. Whenever I go into the tent and dial up the Schriever or Peterson Operator, I always get a little fluttering in the stomache because it feels like I’m reaching out across the ocean and continents and have put a little of me back home – where I belong. Maybe its just the comfort equivalent to having a finger back home, but I’ll take something over nothing.
After all that, I managed to wander back to my CHU and get some more menial work done that needed to be done. Just in time for lunch, I finished up and moseyed on over to the DFAC. I had a sandwhich today from the sandwhich bar. It was decent, but nothing to write home about.
After lunch, I wandered by the laundry building and grabbed the laundry I turned in yesterday – which reminds me that I still need to put it away. During lunch I heard a rumor that we might be able to get a few more CHUs to make room for some more Soldiers by not having 3 per room like we do now. So, eager to get more space, I walked to the Mayors Cell and inquired about the rumor. The rumor was both right and wrong. There are about 30 CHUs still open around the FOB, here and there and everywhere. But, our Brigade has dictated that we must maintain some semblance of unit integrity in where we live and so, we are now forced to triple up just so that someone up higher can keep track of us easier. All well, nobody’s complaining too much.
We managed to finally get the mail handlers to where they needed to go and I’ll be damned if we didn’t have some mail here already. A bunch of people got letters and packages, so I’m sure that made for a brightening of the day. It doesn’t really matter WHO sends you a letter, just to be recognized and have SOMEONE, ANYONE put your name on an envelope and pay the postage to send it here is a great thing. The more the merrier! Any mail always brightens a Soldiers day. It is another piece of home (or at least the US) that we can hold onto and remember that we are here for a reason, and that we’ll be coming home soon.
Even I managed to score some mail, nothing big, but enough to be something. I still haven’t opened it because I’m waiting until I have time to respond properly before I do. It sits on my bed, waiting, calling to me to open it, to breath the free air trapped inside its padded bubbles. But, I’ll wait until I’m ready.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to make my usual call today. We are having a post Blackout. During a Blackout, no internet or phone access back to the US is possible – all of the lines are dropped so that a Soldier can’t run to the phone and leak the news to anyone back home who might wind up telling the family of the Soldier before the Army does. There was an incident (IED) near one of the FOBs that the outgoing unit is responsible for (not Warhorse), and some Soldiers were injured and some were killed. Until the families are notified, we will be under a blackout. When its over, I’ll make my calls and send my emails.
Having someone die and having it actually affect you is something that you never get used to. Even though I never knew the Soldiers who were killed, I know that I will have Soldiers on the road, maybe even on THAT road, numerous times throughout this deployment. I also know that we’ve trained and trained to deal with IEDs and to ID them and to avoid them, etc etc, but sometimes, most times, you can’t see them, and someone hits the button at just the right time, all the connections are made, and boom, that’s it. You’re either crippled or killed. Everyday back home we hear on the news about someone dying in a car accident, bus roll over, murdered, or any number of things, but it never affects us, we never lose sleep over the thousands that die every day. But here, its closer to home, there IS someone out there, gunning for us, and we need to stay vigilant to the signs and alert to the danger and not get complacent just because we live in the relative safety of the FOB wa
lls. The enemy is out there, he isn’t big, he isn’t bad, but he is very crafty, inventive and resourceful. He doesn’t play the rules, but we still do. He needs killing and we’re here to make sure he gets what’s coming to him. On the bright side, I’m glad he’s here, killing his own folk, instead of back home, trying to kill mine.
Sometimes its funny how things work out for the best, regardless of our attempts to thwart them. In college, when I had to put down my top choices for my branch, I put MP first, and the Engineers. The branch I got was 5th on the list. I was very slightly disappointed, but not really too upset by it. Now, I’m grateful that my judgement in that matter was disregarded and someone chose me to be what I am. My job is safer than most, has many perks that others don’t, and had good potential in the civilian world. I like what I do and who I work with. Many of the others that I talk to aren’t happy with what they do or who they work with, and I can tell that they are envious of what I get to do. I guess sometimes you do win.
After the nightly XO meeting, I visited Haji to see about my adapter. He didn’t have what I was looking for, and doesn’t understand what I need. I’ll try to print him out a picture tonight from the internet and show him what I’m looking for.
Everything was more or less status quo for the day, and should be the same again tomorrow. I’m going to try and hit the gym in the morning, maybe play some hoops, but we’ll see if I can muster up that amount of energy that early in the morning. Maybe I’ll just sleep in and get fat. =)
Oh, back to an old note: apparently something DID happen down it Kuwait, but it had nothing to do with insurgents or anything like that. Some of the leadership in the battalion were in the back of a Humvee driving to or from a range and as they were rounding a corner they came into contact with a cement truck – or rather IT came into contact with them and WHAMO! Truck destroyed. Everyone inside was ok, slightly injured, but nothing major. And no Purple Hearts to show for it. They were thrown from the truck because the didn’t combat lock the doors and wear their seatbelts. They would have been much less injured if they had done those things. What I don’t get is how, in the middle of the desert, when you can see the horizon for miles around, how do you get broadsided by a cement truck? You should be able to see the thing 10 miles away. But, I wasn’t there and so, can’t really judge that portion of the event.