downtime misery

kuwait life

so i'd been hoping to post earlier than this, but technical difficulties kept me from doing so.  i had at least gathered in my head an idea of what i was going to post, but unfortunately our connection here is pretty limited.  i can't even access youtube!  how will i ever survive?  at least plans are in the works to open up the bandwidth, so maybe things will improve.

so no theme song to listen to this time, but if you care, google-fy 'vision of disorder - downtime misery.'  i don't even know if it's on the youtubes, as a lot of the music i listen to isn't, but it's pretty sweet... if you happen to like music that makes your ears bleed.

i had thought that my pre-deployment training was specifically designed to make everyone want to get to a warzone as quickly as possible, but then i got to kuwait.  now i'd spent a year there before, so i knew what i was getting into.  120+ degree heat and gusting winds does suck, but not as bad as not having any wind, so i could deal.  i just didn't expect to spend 3 days waiting for a plane.  but at least i had a relatively cool tent and lots of green bean coffee, a luxury i knew i wouldn't have here.

and then i got to afghanistan.  it made kuwait look like a model of german efficiency.  now i understand the demands on the mobility air guys here, but you'd think someone would've thought to expand the pax terminals by now.  it was like the wild west, which is odd considering we've been here for almost a decade.  but, i managed to get a few hookups, and even some for two soldiers who were left hanging, and got down to my little corner of afghanistan in short order.

and now my week of having nothing much to do but drag my bags around, sleep, eat and hunt for internet access has turned into a frantic effort to inventory equipment and figure out just what it is exactly i'll be doing here.  one bit of news, not only do i get to play commander and sign for all of our property, i get to be the personnel guy too.  so it looks like i'll be a one man ALOC, so i'll have to work on my battle cry, a la my friend alicia.

so it's just about time to try to finish my inventories before the deadline to sign the property book (3 days for me, 30 days is the rule in the states).  and it's mail day, so i'll be busy.

so i probably won't have time to push out another post today, as i'm going to be pretty busy.  i'll probably restrict myself to posting on sunday, at least until i'm in the groove.  plus, i need a wireless keyboard, as my touchpad on this laptop is super sensitive and my meaty hands keep eating paragraphs whole, which is pretty frustrating.

one thing before i go though: wapo is reporting 2 american soldiers have disappeared and may have been captured by the taliban.   hopefully they manage to find a way back to us safely.




it is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it
- robert e lee -

this blog is live!

going to the 'stan in a few days, so i figured i'd start blogging again.

i'm actually looking forward to it.  i did volunteer for this, after all.  i've missed a few deployments through a combination of bad luck and bad timing.  i'd like to think that's the same reason that i haven't flown in 3 years, too (hence the blog name).  my reason for volunteering is that i just want to feel like i've accomplished something during my time in the service.  my first deployment was pretty worthless, and watching all my friends deploy while i was back stateside was pretty rough.  i also have some friends who were pretty badly maimed, and they're still in, fighting the army bureaucracy to stay in and keep doing far more than their fair share.  so it's high time i did something, too.

i'm not going to divulge where i am, or what my mission is, or who i am.  i hope that you all respect that.  not that anybody is reading anyway.  i just want someplace to vent my thoughts, feelings, tasteless jokes and even more tasteless music choices into the void.  when i blogged before, it was cathartic in the same way, though i KNOW nobody read any of that stuff.  but then my command wore on, i got a puppy, and i needed to get a life, so i ran out of time to blog.

i'm hoping this blog will be more upbeat than the last one, and i hope my friends and family appreciate the occasional update.  the 420 characters on facebook isn't quite sufficient to capture what i want to say.  so here i am, all up in your internets.

i'll be posting my occasional 2 cents on my view of strategic and operational aspects of the war, the news of the day back home from my own quirky viewpoints, perhaps some crossfit-related stuff, and, of course, inappropriate humor and music, ala attackerman.  i've found that putting thoughts on paper, digital or otherwise, is a good way to refine and organize my thoughts.  i'm certainly no starbuck, but i figured i'd at least try to emulate him a bit.  we can't have all the contractors have all the good blogs, can we?  nothing here will approach the quality or the professionalism of those guys.  the best i can hope for is to match gsgf, minus all the super-hawt girlie pics.

so that's it for this post. i gotta go before this touchpad eats any more of my thoughts and i give up.  so i'm going off to war, and you know what?