Double A's and Maroon Berets

It's been a little while since I've blogged. Over a week actually, which is not very consistent with the way that I usually write. Especially not the way I've been writing the last two months. The majority of it is partially due to the fact that we have been a little extra busy, and I haven't the time or energy to sit here for twenty minutes and pump out a blog. That aside though, the only excuse that I can muster is that I have just been too lazy, and without topic. Still without topic, should make this blog very interesting.

The last week has actually flown by. Actually the last two months have disappeared into the annals of time. I couldn't tell you what I did last Saturday, except for watch some college football. I guess that's why it's nice to have things like that, television shows and weekend traditions that help to regiment the time, so that it doesn't all just flow into one big long day of the year. As a kid time never goes by fast enough. The school year drags along, but summer can fly by. As you grow up, time seems to move faster, and you need the weekly football games, and change from green to browns to help remind you that the globe is still turning. Usually those seasons change a little to fast, without a good tracking of the time. That's life as an adult, time management.

The course of growing up has certainly been spurred with a sharp kick to the side and an increase of speed in my last two years of life. Army life. Of course, it should be expected, certainly during war that there is a calling to 'grow up' and assume responsibilities not because of want or desire to be 'grown up' but simply out of the necessity that if you don't step up to handle those kinds of stresses, you are only putting your life and those around you, lives on the line. An obvious point, but sometimes forsaken and not pointed out often enough. But there is still that struggle within. With the greater responsibility, you still find yourself wanting the easy life. Un-adulthood. There are those of us who try and hold on to it as long as possible, with childish endeavors like video games and playing the drama games of a high school prom queen election. But then again, I don't know if we ever outgrow somethings.

I find myself knowing more about myself and less about the world around me, at a seemingly staggering pace. My eyes have been opened up to some harsh realities of life. Not that just nature is brutal upon mankind, but that we as mankind have yet to learn how to live with each other. It's our nature though, our part of evolution that we are at now that has determined that we cannot get along. We are all still swimming around trying to eat, and occasionally we bump into one another. I think though we probably feel as every civilization has felt, that we are beyond all of this pettiness and that peace should be such an easy thing. I guess growing up, and seeing other cultures, even as diversified a childhood as I had, you realize that we are all so different. And yet we are all so much the same too. The people here in Iraq you would assume would have it down. The cradle of life, the oldest civilization known to man came from right where I write this blog. But they are still worrying about getting their heads lopped off over such petty, and if not petty at least selfish, things as religion. I mean, we only have to worry about if skim milk is going into our coffee or not. You can pray to Buddha, and you might be the butt of a joke or two, which you can rightfully punish someone through our judicial system for doing so, but your head will never be cut from your body in America for praying to a different God than the one I pray to. I hate talking about religion, but sometimes there aren't any better examples. The cause of almost every war is religious, and without religious difference we wouldn't have places like America in the first place. So to utterly and entirely ignore that it exists even if I offend you, is kind of my right. So don't cut my head off.

This blog is right where it should be, a rant, unfocused and perhaps not all quite thought out. If thought out at all. But damn it, it's a blog, I don't get paid to write it, and isn't that kind of the point?

Back to focusing. This week has flown by. We even did some fun things outside the wire. Like cutting and climbing under a chain link fence with barbed wire atop. Then to one up that, we did some real infantry, Vietnam style stuff by walking through a swamp. It wasn't really a swamp, more like stagnant poo water. Another thing that is not worried about anywhere in America, except perhaps in a sewer. We also did one of those nowadays Army bullshit. Before I totally rip into the stupidity of this, and the lack of common-sense that something like this takes, let me just say this; I'm not against doing physical training. It's an important part of our job, and should be taken as serious as firing a weapon or practicing any other skill necessary for the art of war. That being said, let me say one more thing; Institutionalized, some guys just need to be kicked out. They still live in yesteryear's Army, and not the one of today. VIETNAM ended in the 70's!

This is a garrison term, and should be treated as such. Company Run. This is where all the individuals in an element the size of a Company, which in the military is between 80-140 men. We had closer the lesser number running. The idea is that in a rectangular formation, as an interval of 30 inches from each other, in columns of four, we run an indiscernible distance, singing cadence with the idea of building unit cohesion and increasing morale. I'm not sure at what point in time that this sort of thing did either. The Iraqi's seem to think it's cool, and I guess for that matter if you are not in the military, it's kind of nostalgic and uncommon, therefore interesting and cool. However, when you're 10 months into a deployment in Iraq, it tends to have a near opposite effect. The other side of it, being in Iraq, is that it is extremely dangerous. Especially with the 'security' that our bases have. We are a joint station, with Iraqi Federal Police officers the majority of the base protection. We do our part, but are fairly handcuffed. Not that we are afraid of someone breaking into the base per say, but these police are not exactly the NYPD. They are ex-criminals, or in Saddam's Army. They were once enemies, now counterparts... 'friends.' You certainly keep your eye on them, and if you don't then you are asking for the cap in the back of the head that they will almost certainly do without hesitation. Other than the AK wielding Iraqi guard, you also have to worry about 'indirect fire.' This would be something like a rocket or mortar attack. As close as we are, the dispersion isn't enough that a direct hit from such indirect fire would most certainly cause a mass casualty situation. I know that's a stretch, that there is an enemy here that still wants to kill Americans. Then again we wear reflective belts to be more visible, so I guess the argument will most likely fall short.

That's not even the worst of it though. The rank in our run didn't exceed more than one first sergeant and occasionally the picture taking, all too happy to be out with the Iraqi's, light colonel. A round of indirect hitting would've only killed us expendable characters. In the sense that the leadership of the company, the battalion would still be intact. But go back a day. Our entire Battalion leadership was here. All company commanders and first sergeants. They did a run together like this. The rank a lot more concentrated, and not as spread out as at least our 80 man run was. This was only approximately 20 guys, all bosses and bigwigs. One perfectly placed round of indirect fire could've taken out our entire chain of command at the head. That easily. One suicide bomber could've broken through the gate and detonated himself right in the middle of the trotting formation, and that would've been it for our leadership. Perhaps their eye pro would've saved them. That's why you don't put the President and the Vice President together during high level threat possibility. But we are only in Iraq. Baghdad. We checked all of the common sense at the door when we slapped on those double A's and maroon berets. Then we jumped out of an airplane. How's that for practicality. And the eye pro thing... I don't even want to get into it. But I will anyways, as to not leave you in the dark.

You would call eye pro, sunglasses or Oakley's. We 'have' to wear eye protection any time we are outside of a building. Just as at night you must wear a reflective belt to be more visible. I thought our objective was to be not seen. But I digress. The Eye Protection that we always wear whenever we go outside, not just on mission, but to take a piss or wash our clothes, the idea behind it has never been explained. Or it has, and it was just too stupid to remember. What else is new? The only thing I can think of, the only reason we are required to wear it, and that it is a standard, is that if indirect fire comes in, and blows up to where you only get the shrapnel wounds, that your eyes will be saved from the damage. Which common sense would dictate that indirect fire is expected. And if it is expected, then common sense would dictate not to gaggle around one another in close proximity where an incoming round could take out more than just one person, but produce a mass casualty situation. Or worse, kill an entire battalions chain of command. At least you will be able to see them, and their eyes will be saved. It's times like this where I wish I had an off button on the brain. That I was more ignorant and less intuitive. Ignorance is bliss. And even if it's not, at least it's not a headache.

This blog wouldn't be what it is if I didn't add something else that was just as off the wall as everything else that I've said. Alice In Chains releases a new album in a few days. Their first in 14 years. It's already leaked across the internet, cause what ship on the internet doesn't have holes? I've given it a few listens, and despite no longer having the deceased Layne Staley as the band's cover man, the soul of Alice In Chains is still left with lead guitarist Jerry Cantrell. It's a great album and if you're a rock fan, you should at least give it a listen. A little sample... Alice In Chains: Black Gives Way To Blue

I guess growing up just makes you realize that everything is fucked up. And the only way to fix it, is to do something about it yourself.


At what point do we get rid of the Kevlar helmets and strap on our Berets? It's only Iraq after all.