We here on the outskirts of Baghdad already with a lack of things that generally occupy our time, had the most basic and biggest morale boosting vessel we have, technology. The internet and phones were shut off for about two days. The disheartening thing is the reason they were turned off. Tragic really, but again another cost of war, and a year long deployment being a suicide in our sister battalion. The commo blackout is so that if we knew the guy, or knew his family, we would not leak the information to them before the proper authorities did. The other reason why it's disheartening though, is because it cuts us, everyone here off from there loved ones, family, and the outside world.
With the commo blackout, we are understanding. Despite it being an isolated incident at another base, it's not the first time we've come across it in our eight months here. We know that the internet will be down awhile, and you just have to endure and find something else to fill your time in. I have an idea, let's get rocketed. Last night, while I was still on force pro, our base was nearly hit, by two rockets. We've been mortared before, and they are somewhat similar. There is loud explosions, and the percussion from wherever you are could make you think that perhaps you heard someone slamming the door angrily, or to check and make sure you still have your head on right.
The rockets came in, the first one landed short of us, and startled me slightly as I was unable to discern what it was. I was in the ECP (entry control point) truck and heard the explosion and percussion to my rear, which upon first thoughts I jumped to the conclusion that it could've been a roadside bomb at some close proximity, or even worse that someone had lobbed a grenade in our direction. As I asked my gunner what that was and where it was, before he could answer, he was nearly in my lap getting defilade. I thought it might of been him getting down quickly, but in fact it was the second rocket passing overhead that shook the truck left and right. He said he had heard it whiz by. I saw the sparks come up over the concrete wall in front of me, and could tell that it was quite a bit aways. It had narrowly missed one of our guard towers on the roof, and had nearly shaken the gun off it's mount.
Needless to say, none of them impacted on the base, and no one was hurt. Actually, for the first deployment guys, our adrenaline was pumping pretty good, so good we couldn't even go to sleep after we got off. Of course, it's four in the morning and I'm not sleeping today either. Even the guy that had it go about five feet over his head was in good spirits and all smiles. That level of adrenaline I don't think you can find anywhere else in the world. Which perhaps is why some of us do it, or keep doing it.
Though we were in a state of excitement after we got off, we cooled our nerves with a couple of movies that we watched on our big screen. We stayed up till breakfast, or as it's turning out dinner, and all fell asleep after. We woke up for dinner, which just so happens to be our new breakfast. After getting some work done, in a midnight madness form, we were told that breakfast, will no longer be served to us. Actual breakfast, not ours. There will be MRE's available to eat, but they won't cook eggs or bacon anymore. So that reduces us to one hot meal a day. Good thing the internet isn't out.
The only good thing that I guess has happened in the past two days, was that we got, 'The Big Blonde American' back in our platoon leader, Lieutenant Dan. Welcome back to the suck sir, and you won't have to worry about that beer weight you put on, with one meal a day (proper meal) you should be back to skinny in no time.
"what's next, do we have to sign out waters?"
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