Sunday, October 18, 2009

Honesty

There are many things that I want this blog to be and an outlet is close to the top of the list for me.  Thoughts and feelings fly around in my head all day long and the only way I can process them is to write them down.  Writing them down allows me to look at them from another prospective, to take a step back so to speak.  Also, once I write them down, I am free to leave them there and walk away from them.

I tend to keep my thoughts and feeling to myself.  Other then with Firefly I don't tend to share things because I don't trust people with them.  I guess if I am being honest, I am afraid of being hurt and hurting others.  But here is the best part...people don't have to read this blog if they don't want to.  As for me, I think it will be good to kick open some of the locked doors in my head and open a few windows.

So, here goes.   

Therapy 101, part 1

The plane landed in Kuwait in the late afternoon. The several hour flight from our home in Germany was finally over and had to be the most uncomfortable flight I've ever been on. Imagine being crammed on a cross-Atlantic flight in the dreaded 3,5,3 configuration and having to sit with your knees in your chest for the entire flight. Our weapons and gear were where our feet would go and so our feet had to be on top of it all.

We had to check all pocket knifes but were allowed o take are weapons, including my machine gun, on the plane.  We of course had to run them through an x-ray machine first!

After we landed in Kuwait, we then had to sit on the tarmac for another four hours  (knees still to chest) for a possible bomb to be investigated and removed.  Turns out it was just a suitcase that was somehow left out on the taxi way.

We deplaned and boarded a small, hot 30 person bus for a bus ride through Kuwait city.  I know we were headed to war and all but man, I wish that bus would have at least had padded seats.  I kept dozing of in the heat so I’m not sure how long the bus ride was but I think it was around an hour or so.

It was dark when we arrived at our staging base and had to find a place to bunk down till morning.  We finally found an empty tent and our platoon tied to get some sleep on the dusty bare floor. A short while we were told "the higher ups" had a different tent for us.  It turned out the other tent was on the other side of the camp. We loaded up our ruck sacs, gathered our two duffel bags, gear and weapons and slowly made our way the mile or so to the new tent through the ankle deep moon-like dust. 

Another solider decided he was tired of carrying his gear so he decided to steal a cargo truck so he wouldn't have to walk anymore.  The rest of us seized the chance to also lighten our load and tossed our gear onto the truck as quickly, and quietly as we could.

Almost as soon as we made it to the new tent, the alarms went off and we ran for the nearest bunker. The sirens meant one thing and one thing only....the base was under attack.  Scud missiles had been launched at us and we were helpless to defend ourselves.  If a missile were to hit the base near us, we would be killed.  Death would come either by being gassed or from some sort of biological agent within the missile....

5 comments:

Morgan said...

Honest is a good thing, keep it up. And it's nice to know that you didn't die since you're writing this now. :)

Courtney said...

I am always so curious to get an "inside" perspective of the current wars. Also, at my internship, werepresent a lot of Iraqi/Afghanistan veterans that commit crimes upon return - so the more insight is better. Thanks for being honest and I cannot wait to read more!

Amber said...

Thanks for this post. My little brother joined the Canadian army a couple of years ago. He's in Petawawa now and preparing for desert training in California. At some point he will go to Afghanistan. I'm glad to read and learn a little more about what a soldier experiences.

Tony R. said...

We actually got to work with the Canadian Army while we were deployed. I really enjoyed working with them. The training in California is good and the will help to get him used to the desert environment. I've never been so cold as in the Iraqi desert at sunrise. Please let me know if you have any questions about what he might see or supplies/gift boxes to send. We have one friend in Afghanistan now and another one leaves at the end of next month.

Tell your brother that he should be pretty close to Vegas and might be able to get a weekend off to visit :) ... We don't pay State income Tax here in Nevada because of the gambling revenue

Amber said...

Cool. Thanks Tony! Advice on gift boxes when the time comes, would be great!