Today was just as any other day was here. We went out in sector for no apparent reason. We were told that we have and always will be ate up. The anniversary of our invasion of Iraq was also today, and the Zombie Apocalypse seemed to be on the verge of happening.
Today also was a very frustrating day, as most of this deployment has been. There's tons of reasons why it has been frustrating. Usually they are sporadic and only taken in small doses. However we have a few that seem to be everyday frustrations and are dealt with on that basis with a wearing thin fuse of patience. One for example is the fact that a certain individual in our platoon is terrified of one man at the top. He is absolutely petrified of him, and it's somewhat sickening. Part of the reason as far as we could surmise is that he wants a more 'chill' job than the one he has now, and so for his own personal growth and development decided to make things tougher and 'gayer' on us to achieve his goal of appearing to be squared away. This is the same guy that turns the lights on his truck off, because it makes his truck less of a target. While that is very true, it also makes the other trucks more of a target for attacks. This also negates an Army code of ethics and creed that forebodes someone with rank to use it for personal safety.
Something has come over the Army and I'm not sure if they'll ever recover from it. Perhaps being involved with the Army and the politics at the low level that I see them I don't have a full understanding of what is happening. But at the same time, I'm not an idiot and I can read things generally for what they are. The sickness that seems to inflict the Army is it's need, at least in my Battalion, to look right. For everything to be dress right dress and in order. Everything the same. And where this makes a lot more sense in garrison, in the rear, in America. Here in Iraq, it's a struggle to do so. Sometimes you just have to do things that make sense. That make it easier, so that in an extreme case, or daily operating case you can execute more freely and save your own life, a buddy's life, or the platoon's life. My unit has the problem of overlooking the 'make sense,' common sense aspect of operating in War. But if you look straight, and all the same, you must be dedicated infantry combat killers. Oh how backwards we have striven.
Not only does the common sense evade the minds of those who sit behind desks and make decisions, or give you the standard and then themselves not follow it, but it also ruins the nostalgia of war. John Wayne would've never been able to wear his helmet with the strap undone. Facial expressions would be hard to read due to the fact that everyone would be wearing eye protection. EyePro, like body armor, but better.
The other frustrating thing that we have to think about everyday, is how little of the job we have trained to do, we are actually doing. The only way that I can correlate it is for example. You get hired on at McDonalds. They have a two year training program where you learn everything from making hamburgers to frying fries to making shakes. At the end of the two years, they say you are finally ready to hit the line. You're hard charged and ready to take orders and flip burgers. You walk into your new job, and instead of it being McDonalds, its Taco Bell. Sure it's still in the food industry, but it's not what you've been trained to do. It's a frustrating thing to know your job, to be proficient at your job, and not be able to do it. And it's especially tough to be given a new set of parameters that you quickly adapt to, and do proficiently, and still get told that you are all ate up.
What do we have to look forward to in the 6th year of war here? Maybe we'll come home a little early. Maybe we'll deal with more micro management bullshit and hypocritical leaders. Maybe we'll catch Osama, and Obama will help us win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Maybe, just maybe we are doing good. It is what it is, for now I'll stop complaining, and clean some more radio connections.
"I'm Batman"
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