Wierd Andrew Yankovich

That mission last night was awfully stupid, I wish I'd skipped it;
I sweated like crazy and yet accomplished almost nothing;
Take my CO and my LT, anarchy is better for me;
Pass out at 1, wake up at 4, put on my gear, go out for more;
Man I hate Iraq.

Confession

the haj barbershops in iraq are pretty much full service. they do far more than just haircuts. when i first heard about this i immediately thought about getting an old fashioned shave. the idea seemed kinda cool, and let me tell you, it's the closest shave i've ever had.

while the guys working there usually speak pretty good english, that doesn't apply to all of them. during the first couple of weeks i was in iraq i went to get a haircut and was sitting next to a soldier who seemed to have shaving cream all over his face. my barber asked me if i wanted the same thing and i agreed. except it wasn't shaving cream and i didn't get an old fashioned shave. instead i got a facial. not the manliest of things, but when your living conditions leave you so dirty you sweat mud, feeling that clean is oh so good.

Shooting Stars

last night what appeared to be small meteors could be seen falling towards earth from my spot in iraq. either quite a few of my wishes are about to come true, or megatron is coming to destroy humanity. it has to be one or the other.

Army > NASA

NASA may not be visiting the moon anymore, but i'm pretty sure i am. iraq has what is known as moon dust. it's very, very fine sand that comes from being run over by heavy vehicles on a regular basis. it's also very annoying. as our convoys pass thru it the first vehicle is generally alright, but everyone else gets put into a man made sand storm. a very thick sand storm. and the sand is so fine (so fine it blows my mind. hey sand!) that it finds it's way thru every little crack in our vehicles to create a little sand storm inside as well. like i said, annoying.

Vacation

i recently spent a whole 48 hours at the FOB. it was amazing. that meant 2 nights sleep in a compfy bed, 2 long hot showers, and 2 days of largely being left alone to relax. doesn't get much better than that.

Expensive Proposition

yeah, so, i'll just go out and say it. a couple of days ago my squad escorted my lt. to meet with a guy who has 4 wives and 32 kids. leaving aside every other issue, and there's a few, that's gotta be expensive. what kind of money does this guy have that he can afford that family?

I'm Falling Apart

it's so hot and dry here that my skin on my hands have steadily been peeling off. i think i'm seeing some meat. i'm sheading so much skin i half expect to wake up one day with either wings or a larger shell.

WHAT?

first, let me provide some background info. every U.S. military installation in at least iraq and kuwait, probably the whole mideast, has bunkers placed in various locations in case of mortar or rocket attack. these aren't like germans at normandy bunkers with gun ports and living space. these are basically concrete boxes with little openings on either end. anyways, we have a simple plan in place to prepare for this. if we come under indirect fire attack, a siren sounds and everyone runs to the bunkers. alright, that's the background.

now, a couple of days ago my squad was in our room talking about what had happened that day and what will happen the next day. all of a sudden the entire building started to shake. every one of us looked down at the floor, looked up at each other, then bolted for the door. that took about one second. the indirect fire siren sounded by the time we got outside and we were all in the bunker about 3 seconds after we first got going.

there are a couple different sizes of bunkers, but the one i got to is about 8 feet by 3 feet. by the time everyone was done running like mad men to the bunkers, we had about 2 dozen stuffed into mine. it was a tight fit. the ground had shook for a good 5-7 seconds, so we knew it had to be a big explosion and really close to us, so all the leaders were pretty frantic about getting accountability of all their guys.

them getting accountability interfered with our talking, which delayed some realizations. like the fact that while we could feel the shockwave from such a large explosion so easily, we hadn't actually heard any explosion. or that the shockwave had lasted way too long.

or that it was actually an earthquake and not an attack. yeah, my first earthquake came right here in iraq. measured a 5.6 and took away what little respect i had left for california. iraqi's mud huts stoood up fine to this earthquake, but california can't build sturdier buildings. weak.

Army Humor

a few weeks ago we were all laying in our beds trying to sleep at night when a huge wind storm came. it was so windy the buildings started to shake a little. one of the guys in my squad who was already asleep woke up the the building shaking and loud noises and for some reason mistook the wind for a mortar attack. he woke up and shouted "INCOMMING" as loud as he could.

of course the rest of us started laughing at him immediately. and for the next couple of weeks whenever a small gust of wind blew by or we just thought it was funny, we'd shout "incomming" at him. it stopped for me when we were on guard duty and a strong gust of wind came and i almost yelled "incomming" into the radio before realizing other people might take me seriously. since then i've tried to keep my mocking to a managable level.

Mandatory Fun Day

every so often back at ft. hood, we had mandatory fun days. we'd get friday off to have a company bbq or something like that. a few days ago we had something similar here in iraq. there were various tournaments, such as dominos, halo 3, spades, and poker, the one i played in. there was also boxing and wrestling tournaments and a projector showing movies in one of the buildings. but probably the best part about it was that we could wear whatever we wanted and just relax without worrying that we'd be called away on mission at any moment. i woke up at about 10am and relaxed all day. it was almost like a weekend back in the states. almost.

with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.