Jan 02 ish?
I must sincerely apologize, it has been quite some time since I’ve updated and even longer since I’ve called some of you. I really wanted to call on Christmas but I was on a mission. As of late we’ve been really tied up with work, most of our time is spent out in the field and when we get back I’ve either got stuff to do getting ready for the next day, or I’m way too tired (or sick, which I’m almost over) to go anywhere but chow, the showers then bed. What I’ve figured I’d do now is borrow a friend’s laptop (which I’m writing on now- thanks Mauter!) then borrow a thumb drive from Ziggy until I can buy one, and this way I can write as I get time in my room then transfer it via the thumb drive to a computer at the internet center. This saves me from having to wait over an hour to get on just to try to get everything done in 30 min, or get in line again and repeat. Plus I can post pictures and email them from a digital camera I got out here not too long ago. Now that the explanation is out the way....
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HANUKKAH EVERYONE!!!!!
Thanks you all for everything you’ve sent. It’s been really helpful and put a big smile on my face! Before you ask, yes sweetheart I got your package and THANK YOU! :-* I also got your’s Mom and Dad, I’m sure you were worried about that one! Thank you very much for that, now I don’t have to borrow my roommate’s (which sucked). I also got something from my aunt Louise and Grandma, Shawn Becky and Zach, and the reliable comics and sports :-) All in all I got A LOT and it got here so don’t be worried any more :-) and THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!! I’m sure by now you’ve realized ours to you will be late, but they will be there, I promise :-)
So what’s been going on here? The main reason for being so busy now, besides of course around the election, I that we are being punished for some stupid things that people in other sections of our platoon did. They did some really stupid things and although two sections, one of which is mine, did not do anything bad and in fact have been performing outstanding, we all pay in the platoon. So now there is no more “day off” like there used to be after a few days of missions. We now work every day. The days we aren’t outside the wire, we have to do things here to “occupy our time and have it managed”. We still get some time to ourselves though, so no crime committed, I’m just to tired by then most of the time. I understand it all, it just sucks. I think the part that is worst is not being treated like professional men anymore, it’s like we’re little kids with guns now. At least our section leader has tried to ease this on us as best he can and keep as much bull away from us as possible. He knows, as well as those in command enforcing this new venture though they can’t let on, that we are doing a kick ass job, it’s just some bad apples in other sections that aren’t even with us anymore that messed up for all of us. Enough of that though.
We’ll I’ve definitely reached that point of being sick of being here and wanting to come home. We’re still doing things that save lives no doubt, it’s just very, very boring unfortunately which makes time go by slow. In the long run it’s fast, already half way, but you know “a watched pot never boils...”. Did have something fun, or at least funny, happen on Christmas though. We were manning an Observation Post and I was on watch about 11 PM when it happened. We had a service crew show up to take the garbage and clean the porta-potty. Well they NEVER come at night, but they did this night with a Colonel and a SgtMajor to wish us a Merry Christmas, but they never got to, or at least they forgot when we were done with them. See those of us on post could very well guess that this convoy trying to cross our lines were Marines escorting the service people, BUT we could not prove it since they just walked up and started taking down our barriers WITHOUT PERMISSION. They’re supposed to call us on the radio and give us heads up they’re coming, ask permission to cross and then we’ll escort them in. Well they decided to bypass all that and just come in. We’ll I pass this up to my Corporal, of course telling him they’re friendlies (I had great thermal sights and could tell), I believe my exact words were “Look what these dumb ****s are doing. Well Corporal I can’t prove they are friendly, who knows if it’s Hadgees with stolen Army humvees, you know how many they loose.” Normally we would have just popped a flare to warn them then shot, but we of course weren’t gonna shoot these guys, but we didn’t pop a flare either, instead we passed it to the Sgt who JUST got to sleep after coming off watch. So he comes out to the line pistol in hand and walks up to these idiots, who by now are stuck on a spike net they didn’t see :-P and aims in on the first guy he sees and tells him to identify himself. Well he does, he identifies himself as a colonel (I’ll leave out his details for OPSEC) and our Sgt yells “you realize how close you and you men were to getting blown away? I’ve got an entire section of men dug in and aimed in on you right now!” (Which was a bit of a white lie but he didn’t know that :-P Then the SgtMajor steps in and yells at my Sgt for pointing a gun at his colonel. A little heat happens, they do their business and leave without saying Merry Christmas. We tell our command when we get back and they got a HUGE laugh out of it and said we did fine, but probably should have popped a flare. I guess though that the colonel didn’t know the rule about not messing with Marines, ESPECIALLY bored Marines! :-P It was quite funny watching him bout piss his pants, my Sgt come out pistol drawn, and seeing the retard driver get his Humvee tangled up in spike net!
Any ways a few downs but I’m still keeping myself up and can’t wait to be home again. I miss you all very much. I love you Kayla! I’ll write again hopefully soon.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HANUKKAH EVERYONE!!!!!
Thanks you all for everything you’ve sent. It’s been really helpful and put a big smile on my face! Before you ask, yes sweetheart I got your package and THANK YOU! :-* I also got your’s Mom and Dad, I’m sure you were worried about that one! Thank you very much for that, now I don’t have to borrow my roommate’s (which sucked). I also got something from my aunt Louise and Grandma, Shawn Becky and Zach, and the reliable comics and sports :-) All in all I got A LOT and it got here so don’t be worried any more :-) and THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!! I’m sure by now you’ve realized ours to you will be late, but they will be there, I promise :-)
So what’s been going on here? The main reason for being so busy now, besides of course around the election, I that we are being punished for some stupid things that people in other sections of our platoon did. They did some really stupid things and although two sections, one of which is mine, did not do anything bad and in fact have been performing outstanding, we all pay in the platoon. So now there is no more “day off” like there used to be after a few days of missions. We now work every day. The days we aren’t outside the wire, we have to do things here to “occupy our time and have it managed”. We still get some time to ourselves though, so no crime committed, I’m just to tired by then most of the time. I understand it all, it just sucks. I think the part that is worst is not being treated like professional men anymore, it’s like we’re little kids with guns now. At least our section leader has tried to ease this on us as best he can and keep as much bull away from us as possible. He knows, as well as those in command enforcing this new venture though they can’t let on, that we are doing a kick ass job, it’s just some bad apples in other sections that aren’t even with us anymore that messed up for all of us. Enough of that though.
We’ll I’ve definitely reached that point of being sick of being here and wanting to come home. We’re still doing things that save lives no doubt, it’s just very, very boring unfortunately which makes time go by slow. In the long run it’s fast, already half way, but you know “a watched pot never boils...”. Did have something fun, or at least funny, happen on Christmas though. We were manning an Observation Post and I was on watch about 11 PM when it happened. We had a service crew show up to take the garbage and clean the porta-potty. Well they NEVER come at night, but they did this night with a Colonel and a SgtMajor to wish us a Merry Christmas, but they never got to, or at least they forgot when we were done with them. See those of us on post could very well guess that this convoy trying to cross our lines were Marines escorting the service people, BUT we could not prove it since they just walked up and started taking down our barriers WITHOUT PERMISSION. They’re supposed to call us on the radio and give us heads up they’re coming, ask permission to cross and then we’ll escort them in. Well they decided to bypass all that and just come in. We’ll I pass this up to my Corporal, of course telling him they’re friendlies (I had great thermal sights and could tell), I believe my exact words were “Look what these dumb ****s are doing. Well Corporal I can’t prove they are friendly, who knows if it’s Hadgees with stolen Army humvees, you know how many they loose.” Normally we would have just popped a flare to warn them then shot, but we of course weren’t gonna shoot these guys, but we didn’t pop a flare either, instead we passed it to the Sgt who JUST got to sleep after coming off watch. So he comes out to the line pistol in hand and walks up to these idiots, who by now are stuck on a spike net they didn’t see :-P and aims in on the first guy he sees and tells him to identify himself. Well he does, he identifies himself as a colonel (I’ll leave out his details for OPSEC) and our Sgt yells “you realize how close you and you men were to getting blown away? I’ve got an entire section of men dug in and aimed in on you right now!” (Which was a bit of a white lie but he didn’t know that :-P Then the SgtMajor steps in and yells at my Sgt for pointing a gun at his colonel. A little heat happens, they do their business and leave without saying Merry Christmas. We tell our command when we get back and they got a HUGE laugh out of it and said we did fine, but probably should have popped a flare. I guess though that the colonel didn’t know the rule about not messing with Marines, ESPECIALLY bored Marines! :-P It was quite funny watching him bout piss his pants, my Sgt come out pistol drawn, and seeing the retard driver get his Humvee tangled up in spike net!
Any ways a few downs but I’m still keeping myself up and can’t wait to be home again. I miss you all very much. I love you Kayla! I’ll write again hopefully soon.