Late post

So as we received the all clear because the mortar had landed far away (aren't you glad your story for today didn't begin that way), I got a call on our "around the FOB" radio for Chief. Normally Chief would be carrying the radio, but since she is at the main base I had it. One of our units had a truck break down and they wanted to know if they could take the truck down to the contractor shop to swap the machine I run from the broken truck to the one that would take it's place in the morning. It was about 8:45 pm, and the contractors would be down for the day. Getting in touch with them would be a pain, and even though by the book all maintenance is supposed to be done at the shop it would be really easy to just go down and swap the thing out myself. So I told the guy that I'd be down at the motor pool in a minute. When I got down there, I saw the perks that Army life (or is it just enlisted life) has over officer life.

Americans go to war with their trucks tricked out. The box I install is just one of about 20 different things that are in every truck that goes out of the wire, in case you were wondering where your tax dollars go. There were probably twenty or thirty people down in the motor pool getting all this gear out of the broken truck and putting it in the spare truck. There was music going, and the guys who weren't moving gear were washing the windows on the truck. In general, the guys were just having a good time. Some guys were getting wrenches for the ones inside doing the installing. The more senior guys were showing the young guys how to install some of the gear. And even though it was well past bedtime in Baghdad, 2007, there was almost a block party attitude.

I got my piece of gear in, and they were about done with the rest of the truck as I was leaving. The down side of course is that walking within three feet of a Humvee in Baghdad automatically covers you in sweat. And for the first time since I've been here the showers are down. So much for my nice new sheets. So goes life.

PS These are the doctors at my hospital:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700007.html