DAY 7 / DEC 5

DAY 7 DEC 5
Last night was more or less uneventful. After making my usual midnight phone call, I was still unable to access the internet. However, during my search for an open port, my buddy discovered a valuable treasure lying on the bumper of one of our commo vehicles. It was an Iridium satellite phone, worth a very great amount of cash and undoubtedly missed by someone. I’m sure that it is an Army issued phone and probably has a lot of minutes on it, but until we know who lost it, it’s better to keep it secured.
This morning was more of the same – last minute taskings by battalion to get some paperwork done ASAP. I did, however, manage to make breakfast this morning, a most unusual occurrence for me. After returning to my barracks to get some paperwork done, the 1SG came in and told us that there were some new rules for conduct around the post.
This story actually starts long ago, back during RFI issue about 7 months ago when we were issued some really warm and cozy polar fleece black jackets. They are designed to be an outer garment, but have no place for the US Army or Name patches on the front – or anywhere for that matter – so when you where it, you are completely unidentifiable. When we arrived here at Beuhring, we were told in no uncertain terms that even though the fleece was authorized by the Army, it was not authorized by the Brigade. Which is kind of amusing because the same person who said that had just finished a great oration on the Army Standards and how important they were (unless they conflict with HIS values apparently).
So, now someone has complained that we can’t wear the fleece as an out garment, and won. We can now wear the fleece as an outer garment, but somehow we now cannot do the following:
1. Smoke and Walk
2. Dip tobacco and Walk
3. CHEW GUM and Walk
How these stupid things make it into the same policy allowing everyone to wear a thick fleece jacket in the middle of the fucking desert is beyond me, but hey, I’m sure someone thought it made sense.
The internet that we thought was up last night is now not up, but it could just be a minor configuration issue and everything should be ok – hopefully.
During dinner I had another small world encounter. As I was sitting, eating away at whatever I had grabbed, I looked up and saw a familiar face. This time is was SSG Tamigin who was an instructor at my Eastern ROTC program. He left during my Junior year. We talked for a bit and I told him about the others from our class who were in the area. Small world.
No luck on the internet, but the DSN phones work from the shelters, so we can call home whenever we get the whim.
Phones work great from the shelters and until I leave, it shouldn’t be an issue calling home.