Wearing Red

Another night is ending for me. Another day closer to my R&R whenever that may be. It's now Friday in this hellhole. I'm sure it will get record hot again.

I've decided that I am going to wear red tonight. It's red fridays for me from now on. Yes, my civilian ass should have done this sooner than to realize that I hadn't tried before. My friend in the states, Teri (teriland @ xanga, go visit her) told me about it. Fridays has been designated as a day to show your support to our Armed Forces serving overseas in the Middle East, including Afghanistan.

I feel ashamed that I hadn't done it before. It took a horrible tragic kidnapping of two our finest to wake me up, sadly. It doesn't mean I haven't supported our military all this time that I've been here, I have. It's just now, I'm going to do something about it. Not just me, but any civilian I can see on my camp, I'll let them know. I can imagine it now, every time one of our soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines comes to the dining hall on Friday, they'll see a sea of red. That's my goal. I'm going to make it happen.

The pic above is some of the guys I've met since I've been working nights. These guys are mostly on the roads every day convoying. I say a prayer of thanks when they get here and anyone else that checks into Tent City and I say a prayer for a safe journey as they head out.

I never thought of my self having any sense of spiritual beliefs until the first tour I did in 2003. I've found that when your deployed you have plenty of time for thoughts and you realize just what matters most, family, friends, strangers and peace.

chick

Don't Forget...

Greetings from Iraq...

Today is not the greatest day over here. They found our two missing soldiers. This is my first real post on this site. I miss my xanga page, but it's been blocked by TPTB. Oh well, we move on don't we.

I've been over here nearly 3 years total now. I'm getting really tired of the grind and just wish to be home soon. I could go home at any time and be with my son, but I'm here for our goal. Our own home.

During this time that I have been over here, I've grown emotionally to where I should have years ago. Along with my emotional maturity I realized that I had to set a date to go home. Today was just another rough day for me, emotionally.

To really write this down, more for me, than for a reader who may find this blog... I'll go back on my history over the last couple of months. From my arrival in country with my employer I planted my feet at a quiet camp near the Iranian border. During my time there, nearly a year and a half, we had no incoming. Incoming for the uninitiated is usually mortars or rpgs lobbed at the camp from insurgents. We were lucky actually compared to most camps in Iraq.

Late January I transferred to another camp north of my old one. The difference in the camps has been dramatic. At the old camp, I worked with fellow employees and very rarely with the military. Here at this camp, I work entirely with military.

Being a military brat, I fell back in routine with military jargon and created friendships with our fighting men and women. I've come to worry about them, where as my old camp... the concern was there but no where near as it is now.

I work mainly with transient military. These are our finest on their ways from camp to camp, or on their way back home to the states for various reasons. Out of natural politeness, a bond is found out of our comraderie of being in this hell hole. Since being at this camp, I've witnessed or felt mortar attacks, carbombs at the gates or met our finest coming back from a convoy run. Most days, the convoy teams have a good run and on those nights where the sun seems long from rising... comes the team where they've run into IEDs or worse.

Since I've been here, there is not one of our soldiers or my civilian counterparts that cross the wire that I don't fret for or say a prayer as they travel. I feel so much for our people that just risk their lives and it's so hard when we lose one or they are injured.

Today... we lost two and I can't describe how much I sympathize with their families. There are no words.

chick

one red paperclip

one red paperclip