One Month Down

I will never grasp the concept of time creeping slowly but moving fast. I have been gone for a month now and every day seems long but yet it has been a month and it barely feels like I left.

Today a couple of Marines left the SMU to go to a nearby base to set up supply operations. The Sergeant that I was talking to has been here two weeks and we have become friends. He told me that every time a convoy leaves Leatherneck and goes to this particular base, they get attacked. He told me that it is always a combination of IEDs and insurgent snipers. The past three have had some negative results for the Marines here. I asked him why he was going on the convoy instead of flying. The Sergeant told me that it was the only way to make sure that the supply items were going to get to where they needed to be. He didn’t even bat an eye at the fact that he knew within the next 72 hours he was going to be attacked. If it even fazed him that he may not be alive to see the end of next week, I will never know. It was a sobering moment. He is supposed to call me when he gets there so I can send more stuff his way. I pray that he does.

I turned down my real living quarters. The living space came with a bunch of ruled that I would rather do without and I declined the offer. I actually like my tent and everything it has to offer.

I have made my way over to the flight line several times since I have been here and I could sit all day and watch planes and helicopters come and go. You can always tell how things went on the mission based on how fast they are coming in. Most times it is easy going but at least once a day it is not and that is when that hard lump forms in your throat because you know something went wrong. Thankfully we haven’t had River City in over a week. River City is when communication goes down base wide because of a Marine death.

A generous donation was made to AAFES (the PX which means the store on base) on behalf of the Holstine Family for a new iPod touch. I wonder if I can write that off as a business expense. After a week without it, I thought I was going to go crazy. I never realized how much I enjoy listening to music while I work. Especially since my work can be very boring work that a trained monkey could do with the correct coloring of some buttons and a banana dispenser as a reward. For those psych majors that is called conditioning.

This week I played basketball with the Marines twice and I played decently. The first time we played there were 10 enlisted Marines, 1 officer and me. Well not one of the enlisted Marines wanted to guard the officer so somehow they thought I was qualified. The enlisted Marines especially liked it when I started talking trash to the officer while we were playing. The officer actually said he enjoyed playing with a civilian because it adds a new element and it brings a change of pace. Let’s just say this wasn’t the first time on this trip that I made an officer operate outside of the established military element. It won’t be the last either.

Another gift made its way into my possession via the USMC. This one I can’t discuss but it is similar to the first….but very different. There are benefits to working in the supply field. We get first crack at all the good stuff :)

I forgot what it was like to come in when the sun is coming up and leave when it is going down. I have no idea how I did this in college. It has been 30 days straight of 12 hour days and the days truly do blend together. I actually look forward to sleep more than anything.

I went over to the Danes PX and made a purchase for myself and my father-in-law…now I just have to figure out a way to ship them home so that the package actually makes it to its destination. Hopefully the US embargo with a tiny island country to our south will end one day so I don’t have to tread carefully through the system.

It has been very eye opening to read headlines versus what actually happens. I think I have lost faith in the news media in all forms. Yes Fox News, even you too. We get a paper called Stars and Stripes on base every day (it is typically a day or two behind) and when I read articles about what is supposedly going on in Afghanistan, I am utterly shocked. It is glaringly apparent that news nowadays is more commentary and speculation than actual news. Let me just clarify something for you, the way we are building on this base and over at Camp Bastion (the Brits), there is absolutely no way that we are leaving anytime soon. All the politicians and the voters can take that to the bank. If you have a plan to withdraw in a relatively short time frame, you don’t build real buildings or pour 12 inch thick foundations or keep making plans to expand the base. Those are just the things I can actually report while keeping my job.