These words that I write, they keep me from total insanity. -Charles Bukowski

Mar 6, 2009

Ah, And Now We Have To Move...

Well the level of suck has just been raised. I haven’t talked about it much because it was just speculation and rumors, or at least that’s what I hoped it was. Apparently, I was wrong. Hmm, it seems that me being wrong is becoming a common theme around here.

What was I wrong about? Well the title should tell you, we have to move. We have to pick up from the FOB we are currently at and move to another one. This one further north and closer to the border. Fun for us.

Not really, but I guess it will be good because it will break up the deployment. It will be a kind of half way marker for me. We’ll move at the end of this month, and by the time we make it there which is supposed to take like ten days, we’ll have like less than six months to go on this little adventure of ours.

So what does this mean for me? Well we already saw pictures of the place that we are going to and it seems that they are jamming an entire company of soldiers into a place that was built with maybe two platoons in mind. You could walk from one end of this place to the other in about two minutes. Depressing. We have to take all these trucks, all the medical supplies, all the food, all the equipment, all our personal shit, and all the rest of it, load it into our trucks, and drive from here to there.

The unit that is replacing us is going to be here in about two weeks, so that should be fun. All the females here will go ga-ga over all the new guys that are here. We’ll still be here for another week after they get here so that will be plenty of time for at least a few Article 15’s and OEF babies to be produced. (Dear God, I hope not, but I do tend to think the worst of people)

Right now though the big deal is the RCP. The Route Clearing Package, who is coming down from another FOB north of us. They are bringing with them the largest convoy that has ever gone this far south in the history of this conflict. Or so that is what they (our leadership) has been telling us. So, if that is true, I get to be a part of Operation Enduring Freedom history! Well, someone get me a cookie.

So I guess I should take stock of what has happened so far. You know, given the fact that this is half over with and all. I have yet to be blown up, personally I mean. I have yet to fire my weapon in anger. I have yet to do anything of what I would consider any real consequence. All I have really done here is drive around Afghanistan, lay around the FOB, play poker, smoke entirely too many cigarettes, write 342 (so far) pages of bullshit, and punch the clown. How very depressing. Ah, so be it. Nothing I can do about it, so why worry about it.

Well all is not lost. I have come to grips with a whole lot of stupid shit in my own head. Not to mention, I am going to be debt free for the first time in my adult life. Which I have to admit has become the all consuming passion of this entire deployment for me. What else am I going to worry about? I think I might go on another one just to save up a shit ton of cash for later. I mean how many 30 year old guys in this day and age, literally owe money to no one? So I’d have to say that that is a very good thing. I might even be able to save up a few bucks before I leave and then when I get home and I don’t have any bills then life should be really good. At least for a while, until I have to get a new car, and a new place to live and plunge myself right back into a mountain of debt. Once again, fun for me.

But back to this moving shit. I cannot help but think that whoever is in charge of this whole thing. I mean the whole country, or at least the section of the country that we are in, is hiding us away from all the action to ensure that we can’t fuck anything up.

Regardless of why we are moving, I have some work to do. It’s time to trim the fat. I have to say I have gotten used to this place. It’s heaven given the country that we are in. I mean we have plenty of space, we have computers, we have TV, we have all that creature comfort shit. Now we are headed somewhere that doesn’t have any of that kind of stuff. Not to mention, and I am not complaining here. Given the tremendous outpouring of support that I have gotten from about a hundred different places, I have a mountain of shit. Just about everything that an entire squad of GI’s could need, I’ve got and I have jammed it all into a space roughly the size of a Chevy Monte Carlo. I know this, because this room is about as big as my old car.

But the new personality is mellow, so I am going to stay just that...mellow. Calm as a Hindu Cow.

Later,

I love you mom...

1 comment:

  1. Hi Mud Puppy,
    I am sorry that you have to move. :( I guess it will provide a distraction, but, I hate to see you guys who have already been there for six months move even farther into the wilderness and potential danger? Or is it more like same shit, different day?? I'm not sure I understand why they would move an experienced unit/group of soldiers "away from the action to ensure that you don't fuck anything up." What kind of back-asswards thinking is that?

    Good luck packing up for the move. I hope your new digs are not gonna throw you back too many centuries...if you have to be over there, I say, bring on the creature comforts! Suffering is over rated!

    As a not very mellow person myself, I applaud your efforts to reign in your emotions, keep things in perspective, and stay positive in a crappy situation. I am totally NOT GOOD at doing that. I try but, I am not wired that way.
    It takes real effort on my part to see the glass half full! How we react to things that happen in our world is one of the few things we can control, most of the other stuff is not. Kudos to you for catching on to that one early in your life, it's a whole lot less stressful and happier that way. I'll try to follow your good example MP.

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