Into The Groove

Well I'm finally getting into the groove of things here. my work day is actually consistent now, just 12, 13 hours max when everything goes well. that's what i like about my job, if I'm doing my job correctly and nothing breaks then my job is easy and there isn't much to do. But it's never boring because when there's nothing to do for my job, there's always little things I can do to keep busy; organize gear, clean up a bit (there's always dust on equipment) go outside and do some pullups, shoot out some emails... stuff like that.

As Marines we find humor in pretty much anything and if something isn't funny, we make it funny, even though sometimes it's a little over the top. For example, we hear reports of suicide bombers "missing" their targets... as in the only people they kill or even harm is themselves, I'm not sure if that's normal to laugh at but we find it funny when a terrorist blows himself up and only kills himself. Also, one of the guys from our Battalion (lets call him john) who was closer to the "front lines" was doing a mission and got shot, he fell to the floor and just laid there... now most people wouldn't think that this was a good time to play a practical joke, but this guy is kinda like that. When the other Marines rushed over to him not knowing his situation or how bad it was, when they got to John's side he turned over and said, and i quote: "Hey! what's up dudes!?!?" with a smile on his face and a bullet through his leg! haha! The other guys said they couldn't help but laugh as they bandaged him up. He's fine now and is ready to go back to work once the Doc's let him go. The day he got to the hospital he was already posting pictures on FaceBook and boasting about it naturally.

With the kind of work we get done out here and the success we have, I'm REALLY glad I'm on our side of this fight, the terrorists are not having a good time, I can promise you that. I see great success in our future and don't let any news reporter or "Hipster" kid at Starbucks tell you any different. Of my whole time out here and of what I heard from people who have been out here for the past year, we have been winning this war overall.

Well as you can see in my picture, all those sheet forts I used to build as a kid have paid off, we all put up sheets and blankets to block out the lights whenever someone comes into the tent since everyone has different shifts (i sleep from around 11am till 6pm). It's kind of like everyone has their own little room. I also found pictures of us boarding the commercial flight from California to Alaska, which then took us to Kyrgyzstan and then the military flight from Kyrgyzstan to Camp Leatherneck. The pictures in the hanger were at March Air Force Base in California, waiting for our flight  :-)