War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

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23-May-03 11:14 PM

I haven’t written in a LONG time. It’s the boredom, it causes time to pass faster and you feel like doing less. I’m really lazy now, it’s not that I don’t want to do anything it’s just so hot that any movement heats you up. A lot has happened since I last wrote, but none of it is really important.

The resent news (it feels recent but it was already a week ago!) was the Colonel came to talk to us, the rumor that got started about the 10th was that we were going to be leaving on the 22nd;a lot of units heard it, it seems like every but us heard it. Anyway the Colonel came to have a talk with the whole unit on the 17th. Since the colonel wanted to talk to all of us we figured it was good news and we were going to get the orders to go home and the colonel wanted to tell us in person. Unfortunately it wasn’t what we wanted. He came and told us that we had been doing a good job and that our help getting the camp set up was very important. Then he asked us if we had any questions.
I was shocked that that was all he got us together to say; maybe he was proud of all that we had accomplished (by sitting on our asses 24/7) but to me I didn’t care if he was proud of us I just wanted to go home.

We looked around at each other to see who was going to ask the question and Corey finally asked, “When are we going home?” The Colonel, like a good officer, immediately went into the subject of why he didn’t know when we were going home.

The long and short of it was that we were waiting for replacements, the 110th were coming into country and they were going to take over for the 183rd at Camp Adder and then an MST would come up to relieve us. The time frame he gave us was some time in June, but “not around the 1st” as he put it. The days after this were VERY depressing and we’re just now coming to terms with being here another month longer than we thought we would be. Now the big question is how much more time before the 110th gets here. I guess we were wanting information before whether it was good or not and now we know, and its wasn’t good news.

Other than that it has been a job of just passing time. A few nights after the last entry we all got a lot of alcohol and drank enough to make everybody sick. But for the 5 hours that we were talking and joking it was really fun, we forgot that we were here and we just kept jamming to music and cracking jokes. The next day I had KP though so I paid for my fun by being hung-over all morning.

To pass the time I have been spending a lot of time on the internet, I looked up all the things I want to do to the Xterra as soon as I get home including adding up how much it will cost me, I guess I’ll have to adjust how much I pay off the Xterra from the budget I had made up in Quicken. I spent some time getting interested in GPS; I planned what I was going to buy for that too. I used the GPS’s we have here but they don’t have the user friendly interface that the commercial ones have.

I the last few days they lifted the ban on the internet A LOT. I got Outlook Express working so emailing home is easier and we were even downloading free MP3’s from anywhere we could find them, but according to Corey they‘re blocking them again. While the block was down the internet flew, sometimes we could get downloads nearly as fast as a DSL line back home. I spent a few days getting all the Ranma ½ MP3’s and videos. Kind of a nerdy thing to do but it keeps me interested and reminds me of home.

The heat has been incredible the last few weeks, 100’s are the norm for the day now and nights are so hot that we don’t even sleep on TOP of our sleeping bags because its too hot. Luckily our bodies are adjusting to the heat and it’s more bearable that it was when it first started breaking 100. Before it would be so hot that you would literally explode in the middle of the night in anger and frustration. Now we just sit and wait for the evening when the temperature finally drops enough that you don’t sweat just sitting.

I still think about what I will do when I get home. From the vacations that I’ll go on to the way I’ll spend my day. I also think about the people I’ll see, I still think about “her”, I’d really like to talk to her. I was thinking about sending an email to Aaron to ask about her (among other people) to see what's going on back home. From the emails I get from people it sounds like my friends are still fighting so the “Big Party” when I get home may just be me visiting people individually in turn which sucks. I wish they would get over themselves and stop acting like kids. Oh well, if I spend less time with them I’ll just start to get to know others. It’s too bad because it sounds like it will be a good Warped Tour this year, it’s rare that the Warped Tour is that good but its always fun just to hangout with everybody and have fun. It might all be moot with the way it’s looking for me to go home though, I’m trying to stay optimistic about getting out of here in time for it but I may have to start worrying about making the Bear Lake trip in July.

It’s hard out here at night. Tonight was nice and clear and I could see all the stars. Me, Rex, Durham, and Keller talked for a bit about whatever came to mind but after that I just looked at the same palm trees that I had been looking at for so long and though about how nice it is here but how much I want to go home, I wonder what the people in the homes across the field are doing. Are their homes air conditioned and bug free or do they put up with the same things we do here? Now I’m the only one up and I’m listening to the Ranma songs I got off the net and It’s reminding me of staying up late just like this and watching videos with Jen. I can’t wait to spend a relaxing summer at home; at least I hope its still summer when I get home. I’ll have to budget some money to buy some Ranma Videos for me and Jen’s collection. I told her I would before I left but I never had that much excess money, now I have a ton because I couldn’t spend the money if I wanted to.

There have been a few trips to local points of interest recently like the ruins of Babylon and the temple of the birth place of Abraham. It’s nice to be able to see some local touristy stuff while were here, I’m not sure if I’ll ever come back so it’s nice to take advantage of the things while I’m here…

Music rules what you think at night I’m finding out. I’ve been listening to my list of favorites to go to bed at night and I get more into it lying in bed at night that I do listening to things during the day. Now depending on what song I listen too my attitude and mood changes completely. The emotion that comes up the most is loneliness, maybe it’s that I want somebody to share the enjoyable music with, maybe it’s that I just want to talk to somebody else. But I don’t really want to be spending a lot of time right now or when I get home being close to anybody because I have been so close to all the guys here. How can I be lonely and want to get away to be alone at the same time… weird.

Too bad it can’t be more comfortable here I could listen to music all day, I’ve broadened my musical horizons out here, country is the only music I can’t get into out here. Even hardcore metal is nice to listen to in doses.

I think I’ll write that email to my friends, I can’t tell if the whole reason that I want to is a covert attempt to learn what “she” is doing but it will be nice to learn what everybody is doing, and hopefully it will give me something to discuss with other people that who I deal with here. The few people I can have in-depth conversations with here are really getting on my nerves, I can still talk to Durham and Hansen to a point but Patterson’s need to be right bugs me and Andersen’s constant optimism is irritating, maybe because I just realize that I’m really sick of being here and its hard not to complain about our situation.

Well I better get to that email, even if I don’t send it will keep my mind occupied.