After 4 hours of sleep, I am awoken by the thundering sound of grade “A” American heavy metal; apaches. The slight initial confusion felt like I was living in an episode of MASH, but once I came too I realized I was just in Hell; I mean Kuwait. My body says stay in the comfort of my puny bunk-bed, but auditory senses convinced my body it is futile. Thus, I get up and head to the “facilities” for the daily bombing. As I open the door to the Hell outside a hot sandy blast hits me. 110 degrees and it is only 9A.M. I really just wanted to turn around and spend the day in the comfort of barrack air conditioning.
Today is very low demand. There is a briefing at 8PM for my flight to Bagram, Afghanistan tomorrow. Other than that the day is mine for the taking. I’ll be looking for a new car at the “Exchange New Car Sales” since I have time. Right now I’m car-less as I turned my leased vehicle in before I left. This is one of few advantages of the United States military during times of deployment. You can custom order a car and have it on your doorstep the day you get back. The prices can’t be beat. They have special discounts for active duty that are on deployment status direct from the manufacturer. I struck a deal and my new car will be waiting for me in January.
This afternoon the temperature hit 125 degrees. The wind also picked up sending sand blasting into every area of exposed skin; kind of like walking in a big hot sand blaster. The goal throughout the day was to tent bounce while you were going to specific spot, thus, keeping cool in this flaming shit hole. During one of my treks I was approached by a Saddam looking Kuwait civilian asking if I wanted to sell my iPhone 4. It was really out of context, and I was heading to the PX. I kindly told him to eat shit; in a nice way. I guess they try to buy soldiers smart phones and resell them locally for 2 times what we pay in the US. For all I know he could have been an insurgent operative trying to steal my workout routine to make him and his buddy’s buff; you never know.
We had our meeting at 8 P.M. tonight. Any thought productivity would be a part of it was thrown out the window with vengeance. We learned we were bumped from our flight to Bagram for “unknown” reasons until Tuesday. Who should I thank for extra time here on the white sand beaches of Kuwait? Maybe Obama? I’ll write him the next chance I get.
Living the dream in Hell. Talk to you tomorrow.
M
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