On to the topic of the post, reoccurring events. Although I previously accepted that in life there are things you can change and influence, and there are things you have no impact on whatsoever, you always strive to impact everything around you no matter the circumstance. For instance, when my platoon is sent out on a CIDF (counter in-direct fire) mission the hope is that they will either find a weapons cache that is full of all kinds of goodies, or they find people setting something up and they can make an arrest. All day yesterday platoons were sent out to patrol a specific area to prevent the terrorists from launching a CIDF attack and the searches yielded no results. What happened twice today, the COB received incoming mortar and rocket attacks. From where you may ask, the exact area that was patrolled and combed over all day yesterday. No matter how many times we patrol through an area in the attempt of deterring the enemy and preventing them from doing what they do, the process never ends. I prove my point, there are some things we just cannot change and therefore they are present in a reoccurring theme. The most frustrating part of the whole situation is that the sole reason I am here, my platoon is here, the Army is here, is to make a difference in this country and try to instill and encourage change, nationalism, democracy, and maybe most of all, peace.
Here is another good one. Everybody watches the news and reads the newspaper or news story headlines on the internet and is aware of the situations that are going on throughout the world. Every American is aware of the fact that the United States is fighting a war both in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Normally it might be acceptable or even encouraged to talk about what is going on and even if something bad happens to talk about it and wonder when things will get better. Here lies the issue: If you are personally attached to the war or have a loved one deployed overseas, its really not reassuring or even appropriate to hear about accidents or deaths that may happen for one reason or another. Why, if somebody specifically knows you are directly attached to the situation, do people specifically approach you and ask if you heard about some bad situation that just happened in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Case in point. Abby was out the other day and ran into somebody she knows, somebody that also knows she is dating me and is very close to the situation since she is in love with a deployed soldier, and specifically asked her if she heard about a local boy who was just killed in Afghanistan. Why do people do that? What motivates someone to approach an individual involved in the situation and tell them bad news? It makes absolutely no sense at all. If I am wrong please let me know but I think I speak for everyone in saying that it happens all the time and it really is not the right kind of thing to say. Again I rest my case, a reoccurring theme that happens over and over again with everybody all the time.
That is enough about that topic so now I will move on to how things are going because I am sure you all are sufficiently worried at this point, although there is no need to stress. Things are going well for us here, the missions have been keeping everybody busy and help us to believe that despite the bad we are still making progress. I am getting by one day at a time and making sure that all my soldiers do as well. We trust in our training and the equipment that surrounds us, including the IRAM machines that continually shoot all the rockets and mortars down so that they never even get close to us. We also know that no matter what happens, the chow will continue to be terrible, boring, and repetitive and the heat will continue to burn us through our uniforms and make everything a sweaty mess. At the end of the day I am as safe as safe can be and inching that much closer to the date that I can finally come back home.
