Blogged down in concrete.

     The sun is just coming over the horizon. My shirt already soaked with sweat due to humidity and self inflicted damage I caused myself by drinking all night. I knew I had to work this morning. I can’t even imagine how hot its going to be this afternoon. My head is throbbing, it sounds like a beating drum. My stomach feels like I’m being stabbed. I’m debating to stick my fingers down my throat to puke with the chances of feeling better, or keep trying to ride out this hangover. This whole time I’m continuously drinking water, wondering what the day holds in store for me. Then I here it, first the howling of the wide oversized tires, then the whine of the turbo on the diesel engine. I can start to see it, the red concrete truck with the spinning yellow drum . The timing of the driver arriving at the job site sets my fate. I just hope I make it through the day.

Shoot em in the Face

                In Iraq when boredom is the biggest enemy of them all.  Soldiers do a million different things to kill time weather that’s practicing marksmanship, studying for school, or looking up different sources of porn. People always have to play practical jokes until they get out of hand.

One of our guys “SF Mike” hates eating his food with plastic silverware. He knows there are metal utensils.  The only question is where they are hidden. With doing a little recon he finds out where they might be. There inside other soldiers rooms as dirty dishes that lazy people refuse to take to the kitchen to be cleaned. SF Mike finds two recruits as his back up. As a joke they raid these rooms in a tactical fashion waking people up in the middle of their sleep. In general all SF Mike and his small strike force accomplished was regaining silverware and pissing these guys off and starting their own little war.  

In an act of retaliation the victims of the raid, Casey and Nathan pool together ten American dollars and give it to one of our Iraqi guards so he can buy all the silverware he can.  After the exchange of goods Casey and Nathan go straight to work. They wait for SF Mike to leave his room. They go in and strategically place silverware in every nook and cranny possible where silverware could fit. SF Mike comes back to his room finding the silverware. He does not take it as a joke. He sees it as someone has invaded his personal territory and must pay with extreme prejudice. He grabs a Gamo pellet gun and a tin of ammo and heads up to the roof of the two story building. While on the roof he adjusts himself in a corner where he has cover to conceal himself but yet he has full view of the compound to see everyone that passes by. He waits patiently. Until he sees what appears to be Kaleb. Not knowing who did the crime he considers everyone an accomplice, which he believes they should all pay for the crime of trespassing. He takes aim, he yells at Kaleb to put on his sunglasses for eye protection. Kaleb looks back to his amazement and sees a rifle aiming at him; he puts down his glasses and makes a run for it. SF Mike shoots and misses. Frustrated SF Mike reloads and prepares for the next. The next target SF Mike sees is Brandon and one of the culprits, Nathan. SF Mike takes aim and shoots. It’s a confirmed hit. Nathan runs and takes cover behind a ten foot tall concrete tee wall. Brandon walks casually up to the top of the building. He’s bleeding from his face. His shirt covered in blood. Brandon yelling obscenities at SF Mike walks towards him and pushes him in such force knocking SF Mike down flying backwards into a brick wall and landing on his ass. SF Mike bounced back and pushed Brandon. At this time other people got involved and broke up the soon to be ass beating of the deployment.

SF Mike received punishment through the Law of the United States Military. He was forced to be taken to a different base and wait for the repercussion of his actions. We never found out what happened with SF Mike. As for Brandon he received medical attention and was thankful the pellet didn’t go all the way through his lower lip because he would not be able to put in a chew. 

labor day blog

                         There are many reasons to us why we celebrate Labor Day, but how many know how it  began?  Most people picture Labor Day as parades, barbecues, picnics, and parties, the last day of summer the beginning of football season, or just another holiday to get intoxicated.  Labor Day is the first Monday in September. The first Labor Day was observed September 5^th 1882 in New York City. Dedicated to the workers of the Central Labor Union. President Grover Cleveland made it a federal holiday in 1894 due to the deaths of workers killed by U.S. Military and U.S. Marshals, during the Pullman Strike. Grover pushed the holiday to reconcile with the people involved with the labor movement in fear of more conflict. It was declared a holiday 6 days after the strike.