Letter to the editor
Tell me what you think. This is what is being submitted to the stars and stripes…
Proximity to Combat Badge (PCB)
I’m writing for all of us that serve our country, and do wish we had the opportunities that our comrades in arms up north had, such as serving in a combat environment. We, the ones in the rear with the gear, so to speak, would give almost anything to participate in such a historic event. We’re not all the burlesque desk jockey’s that we’re made out to be.
The simple fact of the matter is that most of us won’t ever get to see the chance to get north. The fact that we get awards for giving our all at our jobs is besides the point. After a while, one can see the mere mockery of receiving an ARCOM for doing power-point presentations, or how the fact that we receive commander’s coins from every CO here can be a distortion of the fact that it’s the right time, right place type of award. We seriously work hard at performing our duties, and all the additional duties such as police call, the once a month guard duty, or headcount, can seriously put a strain on our manning abilities, and our free time. These additional duties aren’t even recognized usually with the exception of the token AAM. None of these awards can be worn on our duty uniform, however, like the coveted Close Combat badge or the EIB. There is nothing to show the world our sacrifices when we walk by them in the airports going home. Sure, we get the combat unit identifier patch on our right sleeve, but hey, we have to deal with the pressures of the possibility of terrorist threats here as well.
I’m suggesting an award that a forum of us have come up with. We’d like to see it called the Proximity to Combat Badge, or PCB for short. I feel that the fact that there isn’t such a thing for us is making a mockery of our true sacrifices. We’re not here impersonating soldiers, but are true soldiers.
Killin in the name of…
After a few years of traveling, they come to a wasteland, with nothing more than a few smidgen of vegetation and miles and miles of a sea of sand. Perfect! Then, after just settling in, getting the home made of gravel finally made, raiders came. These raiders, led by a cunning man, had been lost in the desert for about 15 years, perpetually following a trail of footprints through the sand. Unknown to them, however, was the fact that those were their own footprints they’d been following. They attacked the settlers, feeling that they must be here for a good reason, something that would be either economical or offer a decent lifestyle. They killed both pigs and the few men in the camp. The search for booty ensued. Soon, however, they found that there was no riches to be had. It was a small religious clan they had killed, and the two pigs, were the only source of food.
Well, they were here for a reason, the leader assumed. We’ll sit here and wait for whoever passes this way, and take what they had. First, however, was dinner. They grabbed the two bloated pigs, butchered them, then went to cooking. The spoiled meat ended up getting everyone terribly sick. This must mean that pigs must be bad and evil creatures…We’ll never eat them again, filthy swine! The raiders sat, for years, growing in small numbers, building little gravel huts to help house the numbers. They sat in a heat that drives people mad, and a breeze that offers no relief. The older raiders started to die off, the newer ones taking charge. A few started asking why they don’t move to more hospitable areas of the world, but since their fathers had been there, they’d stay put. Now, 500 generations later, the same people are still here, their brains fried by the heat that never stops, and they’re pissed. They’re pissed at everybody, even themselves. They’ve had this sun and wind hotter than the ground in their faces for years and years, and they are just furious. They just don’t know who to be pissed at…It can’t be themselves for staying, because 500 generations couldn’t be wrong, could they? They take it out on foreigners, women, pigs, other religions, themselves. Their brains have been baked for so long, they don’t know who to be mad at anymore. Just mention that there are people that don’t believe the same way than them, and it’s the start of an uprising… It’s just a theory though. I’m sure the real history, written by the winners, is out there somewhere ;)
So anyways, in other news, it is just hot here. It’s not even as hot as it’s going to get yet, and that’s where I find humor. How anybody gets fat here ( and yes, there are plenty of fat people here) is way beyond me. I go outside for 5 minutes, and my motivation for anything goes away, even eating. There are countless days that I walk to the chowhall, and by the time I get there, I want to do nothing more than drink some iced tea. Besides having the same menu every single goddamned day, the heat is alone responsible for my complete loss of appetite. I’ve been back from Ireland for about 2 weeks now. I’ve really noticed how badly this place smells. Everywhere. The refinery a mile away gives the nice fart smell to the morning air…the PCB’s, the little warehouses we live in, smell like a nasty locker-room…The chowhall, well, it just stinks to me anymore…Porta-potties giving off the ‘been sitting in the sun for a few days’ piss smell, and are strategically placed to maximize the coverage of the place…trash, TCN’s haven’t been washed in a week body odors….I love walking past the little laundry mats, or the girls showers…they just have a decent smell to them, detergents, dryer sheets, shampoos…
Getting back from Ireland and I’m missing real life. Miss having Jessica next to me every day, having someone who I can talk to and just goof off with. I’m definitely missing the kick-ass sex life we have, the full days of conversations that never get boring or old.
So what’s new…I got a hold of my project manager in D.C., and he said that if I want Dayton back, it’s mine. This is good news to me, I’ll be relatively close to my daughter, to my family, old friends. It seems like a pretty decent town on top of that, what little I know of it. I applied for a full-time technicians position with the Michigan national guard in Lansing, though who knows if I’ll get it. The resume is in there at least. That wouldn’t be too bad, Jessica and I would be closer to the kids at least. Jessica is a little worried about how we’ll manage to get the kids every other weekend whilst in Dayton. I don’t think it’ll be too hard, it’ll be a lot less if we can get the collection of ex’s to come to an accord with us as well, like maybe one of them driving the kids half-way every two weeks to meet us, something like that. That way they only have to make the trip once a month…
The ex wants to, and seems like she already has, made plans to change my daughter’s daycare. I don’t have too much of an issue with the immediate one, except that the girl who will be watching Rae has a boyfriend that I have no trust for at all. My daughter should be starting Kindergarten this fall, but a school counselor that the ex saw said that my daughter may benefit from being put into a headstart type of school for a year before, because I guess she was having issues with dealing with other kids. (I personally think the issues were from a different arena all together, just coming out at school, but that’s my opinion) She wants to change that now to just having my daughter at another daycare ran by one of her friends. I don’t agree with this at all. My daughter is owed by us, the parents, to have her education being started the right way, and not just sitting back and wasting another year at daycare. I sort of agreed with the headstart thing, because it was still going to be in an educational environment, but a daycare, isn’t. The ex hasn’t replied back to my email about that yet. She sent me a link to a cartoon website, however. I’m not so sure what that was all about hehe, if it was just for something for me to do, or was it really to try to see if I have the attention span of the girl fish in Nemo…hmmm…
Well, I actually have some work to get started on. Looks like I have a lot more to do than I thought last night, since our predecessors left us with an incredible lack of documented information…Someone here got a bug up their ass and wants things done the way they’re supposed to be done…hmm, I sort of recall proposing that 7 months ago, and subsequently getting shot down repeatedly…I don’t know if I can remember the right way in doing things anymore. ;)
For all my readers out there.
Sorry I’ve been off line for almost 2 weeks now. Incredibly, I had better things than sit back and write. I know, it’s hard to believe. You’d all figure that I’d be stuck in a bar for the duration, writing away about various things, such as the effects of Guinness on the long sober body. Alas, this was the very last thing on my mind.
I will tell you that I had a very good time. The first 4 days or so rained or drizzled the days away, but it was still a hell of a lot better than being there in Kuwait. The first day was interesting, considering that I’ve not driven on the left side of the road before. That took only about a half hour to really get used to, however. I stayed in Dublin that first night at a very poorly choosen location. Not knowing about the great benefit’s of staying at B&B’s, and the very reasonable cost of those, I ended up spending entirely too much for a night’s worth of sleep. To somewhat justify this, I had been up for nearly 30 hours before, and probably was a bit safer than driving in an unfamiliar country on an unfamiliar side of the road.
The second night I drove over to Limerick to find the hotel I had reserved for the weekend, and to see if I could check in a day early. I couldn’t however, so I drove out to the airport where I was picking up my Ms. Jessica two days later. It was a little too easy to find and to get to. The route reconnaissance being done on that, off to find a place to stay. I found a little B&B near the airport, with a restaurant and pub near by. After an awesome steak and guinness dinner, off to the pub. I had a few brews, realized it was very late (it gets dark about 11pm here) so off to bed I went.
The rest, well, is the rest. I’m currently writing from the Dublin airport, and I have 10 hours before I can check my bag for my flight. I mis-managed my money a bit, and ran short the last day. It’s not too bad really, and have to end my leave 2 days early, which also isn’t too bad. I wouldn’t enjoy my stay here without Jessica being here. Now, it’s 12 hours of sitting around, charging my battery so I can go get online, and post this. There’s a connection upstairs in the food court, but I didn’t see anywhere to plug in.
If anyone wants to know how to travel Ireland on a little budget, ask me. Things here are a bit expensive, but there definitely is a way of having a very good time for under $150 a day. That’s with room and food and all. It also gives a geek a good time in trying to get online here with war-driving. Since hotels or B&B’s here don’t seem to have any internet connections, war-driving is the best solution. With that in mind, I’d recommend also having either a pc with a really good battery life, or one with a car adapter. I had neither, so it limited my online time to under half an hour usually.
