New Years 2008 and 2009
I am in NYC this New Year's Eve, hoping my friend Esther will call me back so we can get nasty drunk somewhere in Manhattan. She flew back into NYC earlier today, and I'm just stopping en route back to Germany from post-deployment leave in Texas. I'm staying at another friend's place--Allison--and I'd party with her, but she's got a prior engagement somewhere in Jersey with her boyfriend.
Anyway, this NYE is shaping up to be more complicated than last year...
...
NYE 2008, I was in Baghdad. Things had been quiet since the beginning of the month, so of course on the last day of the month, one of Comanche Company's patrols had to get hit by an EFP--an explosively formed penetrator, which is just military-speak for bomb-that-shoots-a-plasma-bullet. The EFP ripped through one of the Strykers (because as mighty as the U.S. Army is, we do not field anything that can stop an EFP), but no one was physically hurt.
The commander, Comanche 6, was pretty butt-hurt that the EFP struck one of our vehicles not more than 50 meters from an Iraqi National Police checkpoint, so he got the platoon to investigate why the Iraqi NP had failed to notice a roadside bomb being set up mere meters from their checkpoint. We tested the NP with X-Spray, which is a chemical test that shows if someone has been handling explosives, and of course all four NP on duty came up positive. We got the flex-cuffs out and brought the NP back to COP Old MOD (combat outpost, old Ministry of Defense), where they would be in-processed and questioned before being sent up to higher command.
As Lieutenant Gray and the rest of the guys were filling in their sworn statements, I got some cigars from Sergeant Arias in the TOC (tactical operations center). I came back as the intel boys were photographing a detainee with his pocket litter and personal effects. He saw me holding my lighter, pointed at the lighter, and motioned for me to give him a smoke. He had the pleading, helpless look of a man looking for a break.
I shook my head, giving my unspoken response: no can do.
An hour later, the platoon leader and some of the team leaders had left for chow, leaving a few guys to guard the detainees. As I walked past the detainee cell windows, my wristwatch alarm chimed in the new year.
"Oh, look at the time!" I said aloud. I walked over to the cage of the NP who had begged me for a smoke earlier and pulled out my cigar and lighter. His hands gripped the bar and his eyes lit up. I puffed the cigar alive and blew smoke on his face, saying, "Kul am wintab khayir!"
I walked back to the table where the other guards were. One of my buddies, Shulman, asked, "What'd you say to him?"
"Happy fucking new year, man!"
...
Forecasts say that it'll be brutally cold in New York this New Year's, and it sounds like most people are staying in for quiet affairs this year. Probably the wrong year for me to come to New York for the New Year's, huh?