A Bad Morning

I'm just thinking about some goofy Taliban up in the mountains somewhere. He wakes up and orders his slave woman to fix him some coffee, then proceeds to beat her for taking too long or it wasn't hot enough. So she goes outside and looks to the heavens, praying to Allah for some end to her suffering, and she sees this in the sky. (see pic)

The other pic is just another windy day in paradise.

So she walks back into the hut or tent and tells Mr. Taliban that his coffee will soon be warm enough, and then she proceeds to run like hell for a cave.

Because the marines just made her morning very good, and the guy is about to have his day start not so good. lol

These are missiles that are about to hit some target somewhere, and make someones' day very bad.

When the marines launch the missiles, they are so loud you think a freight train is coming through the tent.

When I see these missile launches, I like to think to myself that some poor oppressed woman hiding in the mountains is watching from her point above, and smiling as hell rains down on her oppressors.

On another subject, I am coming home on Friday May 1st, so anyone who wishes to meet up for a drink with me and some friends, meet us at Dicks last resort in Chicago at 5 pm.

Almost time for R+R

The camp is growing full of marines, and they now number in the thousands here. I am always amazed by the way the government and the military run things. It is almost as if they have never done anything before. There are so many failsafes for simple things like ordering toilet paper, that it ends up costing the government about twenty five bucks instead of a dollar ninety-nine. The suppliers really have a scam going with the government.
Take a simple fuse. They come single or in a box of ten. Well the government buys them one at a time and all individually wrapped. They do this with electrical receptacles also. A box of ten good high quality at Home Depot might cost about twenty five bucks, but the government also has those individually wrapped to buy, and they are wrapped in some really high end wrapping. It must cost them two dollars just for the containment packaging. So we end up paying about ten to fifteen dollars for each one.
I could go on and on about the governmental waste, but that is like beating a dead horse.

I'm sitting in my office tent and it is about 1:40 in the morning. I have caught the Kandahar Krud again and I am losing my voice.

I hate being sick. IT had better go away by the time I leave for R+R. I am sleeping a lot better now that I have a new and iproved cot to lay on. This cot is a bit wider and a bit longer than the old one. It also has another cot o ntop of it with nobody occupying it, so I get a bit of privacy fro mthe light and people walking by. What more can a guy ask for?

Well maybe a bottle of Jim Beam. LOL

Our Visitor

We had a visitor to the base about 10 days ago. It was the Marine Commandant from the pentagon. This is the same old story from Baghdad. They come out for about a week to give speeches to build morale. I do not know how that builds anything, since it reminds the troops how they cannot go home like he can.

The military brass comes in at the end of the month to the war zone and stay for about 5-7 days. They do this so they can claim exempt on their taxes for both months that they are there. Not bad. Come in for a week, and get 2 months of freedom from taxes.

It is a play right out of our congressmens' playbook.

Has anyone noticed all the tax problems they are all having?

Hmm!

I knew something was up when they were serving steak and lobster.

Did I forget to mention that part? They always serve the best when the brass and bigwigs come out. I guess their in-flight steak and lobster on the lear jets are not enough. The top brass does not fly with the troops, they have luxury jets.

Amazing. The disconnect from those that are our supposed leaders and those they lead, both military and civilian.

Well, I had 2 steaks. Ha-Ha! AND they had A-1

The wind is still blowing, and now there is rain mixed in. The rain is so light, that it evaporates once it hits the ground. Except for last week, when it rained all day and flooded out here.

But the night shift is good and I come home in a few weeks for R+R. I cannot wait.

Pics

Some Pics.

One is obviously of when I was in Kenya on a mission, one is me in the jungles of Sudan next to the Nile, and one is a pic of my chopper and the escort chopper flying over the Afghanistan mountains to insert me into the FOB. THe other two are from the same mortar attack. That is solid steel the schrapnel went through after it went through the cable.