One month ago right now I was sitting at Baghdad international waiting for the UH-60 that would take me to my new home. I had 4 fully loaded seabags, a ruck sack, and an M-16 in it's case. Before our flight arrived, I got to chatting with a Marine captain who was going to back to Rusty from 2 weeks of leave. He had a backpack. When we went to take the 200 yard walk to the bird, he was gone before I could even turn around to ask him for a hand. One seabag handle broke on the tarmack, I had to make multiple trips, I was dripping sweat the whole 10 minute helo ride, and I had a sore back for 4 days.
But now I am settled in and over 10% done with my 280 days "boots on ground" time. I have purposefully not calculated exactly what fraction I am done, because once you do that time starts to drag. First you start to do it every day, then a couple times a day. Then every hour. Then you make an excel spreadsheet that updates to the second. Then you just hold down the update button and watch seconds go by. I've done that in past deployments and know that it does NOT speed things up.
Today I woke up and Hajii-net was working again, so I could email. It was down the past 2 days for unknown reasons. It is $65/month for really slow service, but it is a nice diversion. I don't mind paying that much because the guy who brings the service in actually risks getting killed if the bad guys found out that he was helping us. It is crazy how these people just accept death as a possibility each day. This morning we heard a huge explosion right out the gate. An Iraqi Police convoy had been attacked, and just minutes before our guys had rolled by. It is surreal to be that close to these things, and almost more surreal that these things are almost not a huge deal.
Along those lines, if any of you think you are having a bad day and have something to gripe about, just look down at your left foot. One of our guys lost his a couple nights ago. We thought he had been hurt worse and were worried for his life, but he would probably say that he got it bad enough as is. Today I counted the plaques on the wall outside the operation center. Since we have deployed here in September, 13 people have been killed. Of those 13, 4 are the unsung heroes that don't make the paper or get included in the "totals." We have lost 4 interpreters since we got here. The Iraqi police have a reputation for being corrupt and playing both sides, but the interpreters are almost without exception honest brokers. When they go out, they have to cover their faces and wear sunglasses so that they don't get recognized and their families killed. I don't know if any of the guys know their real names because their name tags say "Jimmy" or "David" or "RC" or the like. Some soldiers tell stories about having to physically force corrupt Iraqi police away from these guys when they try to pull off their masks to find their identities. Even after they are dead their plaques on the wall have their nicknames to protect their families, and their pictures all still have sunglasses. These terps go out with our soldiers on our convoys in our trucks wearing our uniforms, usually about 1 terp for every 30 or so guys. The thing that really just makes me shake my head is that someone mentioned that their life insurance policy is good for about $2,500.
Tonight I'm going to go to bed thankful for my left foot, and that I don't have to worry about crazed jihadiis trying to kill my family because they saw my face. And I'm some percentage closer to being home. I'm not sure if I should be thankful for a larger life-insurance policy, but a little more gratefulness can't hurt.
