Life Goal

my new goal in life is to make just under $79 million. at that amount, i can use a hundred dollar bill to light a cigar and, based on the 40 second burn rate i discovered, i will come out not a penny poorer. it's the simple things in life that make us happy.

Worst. Day. Ever.

a few days ago i was watching family guy(road to europe) on the tv in the dfac when the power to the dfac went out. as you may presently, yourself, fully be aware of, tvs run on power. i lost a solid 3 mins of family guy. war is hell.

I Have An Announcement

i'm rocking the bandana look when i go out on missions. that is all.

For The Record

just to clarify one more time, i still believe 100% in the mission, still believe we should have liberated iraq, and am still proud to serve my country. all my complaints (well, 95% of them) are with my inability to do more.

it's weird to look at success as a problem, but such is life.

You Know It's Hot When...

...you look at the thermometer at 8am and think, "oh good, it's only 100 degrees out."

The Heat Is On

for most of july the temp seemed to hover around 125 degrees. it was fahrenheit, but it felt like celcius. especially with all my gear on (add 10 degrees) and often inside a big metal box (my humvee).

Action

a couple of weeks ago my platoon had it's first shoots fired in anger. well, maybe not in anger, but not at a paper target either.



my platoon was going around to various villiages meeting with important iraqis for one reason or another. my friend and i were posted up at the corner of his house pulling security. we were there for a few minutes when a dog laying underneath the guys car starting barking at us. we thought nothing of it. all day dogs had been barking at us, but they were in their shade, we were in ours, and we simply agreed to disagree.



this dog was different, not content just to voice his displeasure at our arrival. a malcontent, if you will. indignant fury gripped him as he charged our position, teeth baring, in a mad dash to attack us with the obvious goal of giving me rabies. with only seconds to react, i leaned back slightly to kick him as he got close enough (in later versions this would turn into preperation for a roundhouse kick). my friend standing beside me had an interesting idea. he saw the dog charging us and thought, "hey, i have a weapon."

shots rang out, disturbing the false calm of an iraqi evening. the dog (more like a wolf, really) did not scare easily, but knew he was bested when my fiends boom stick finally hit him in the leg. the fallen beast whimpered off, recognizing his betters.

yeah, that may be a bit overdramatic, but it's also probably going to be the only action i see this whole tour.

Change Over - Switch

well, i'm changing jobs again. after almost a year and a half of the company talking about it and me fighting it, the evil "they" have pulled me into headquarters. i'll be running the training room. basically this means that i, as an infantryman trained to close with and destroy the enemy, will be handling all the company's paperwork. this is simultaneously less fun and more dangerous. now i have to lookout for papercuts.

Random Thought

i don't think the best writer in the world could come up with a decent movie script based on my tour

Sand

for those who don't know, jarhead was a book and then a movie about a marine who participated in the 1991 gulf war. anyways, in the movie there is a scene where the main character dreams he is vomiting his own weight in sand. i sometimes think about that when i take a deep breath and the air is crunchy.

Frustration

i figured i should explain some posts that might give a casual observer the impression i desire a firefight or that i'm complaining about the situation in iraq. i was going to use a highly flawed analogy, but have decided agianst that.

instead i will simply say that i am decidedly not complaining about my living conditions here. they're much better than i expected and far better than soldiers had in previous tours. and i can live without ever being in a firefight (pun 100% intended).

my frustration stems from the fact that i joined the army for four years, giving up certain freedoms and leaving my friends and family in America for a year, so that i could do what i see as noble work. but then i get here and find out the job is already done and i'm left with nothing but busy work. i thought i was going to do some good and instead i'm just doing time.