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[Kat]

I will admit I am plagiarizing my husband. This is an excerpt from a letter from him while deployed to an Army FOB in Afghan (he is in the Air Force). The names of course have been changed and a bit edited for content.

0130: 155mm Howitzers stopped firing.
0131: Shed armor, unloaded M-16, went zzzzzzzzz
0500: Polish loudmouths woke me up.
0515: Took shower quickly, Polish (refer to 0500) washing each other's backs. wtf?
0516: Tripped over fist-sized rocks on way back to hooch. Stupid sandals.
0530: Fumbled my way around my bed area for a light - any light - lost my light.
0531: Almost burn down hooch with Zippo.
0535: Smoke first cigarette of day.
0540: Smoke 2nd cigarette of the day.
0600: Standing out in front of chow tent in line with the ONLY other AF person here.
0601: Realize that chow tent opens at 0730! He had a light - used it on "closed sign" on tent.
0602: We laughed heartily at Army hours.
0603: He gives me a REAL tour of camp with real intel & everything. At least He's cool.
0700: Back at the radar, still spinning.
0730: Army cook is trying to fight off the mob of hungry Army folks +2 USAF. He yelled, called us scavengers and told us to come back when they open (?)
0800: Ate a packet of cocoa for breakfast.
0900: Called the in-theater commander.
1000: Emailed a home-base commander on our state of the art 1200 baud connection.
1130: Chow tent opens for "brunch." buttholes.
1131: Eat a thing-burger & two unidentifiable sides.
1155: Run to porta-pottie, identified food finally.
1200: Starving again.
1300: Optimized all equipment, started list for Contractor boss to start fixing.
1600: Dust storm, I'm stuck on top of radar fixing infrared (invisible) strobe light.
1615: Choking, gagging, grasping for water bottle covered in fine powdery dust. Crunchy water.
1730: Twisted ankle again on large boulders.
1731: Come to the realization that we're all here to make big rocks into little rocks.
1750: Chow tent opens right at posted 1730 time. hmmm
1820: Finished my crunchy drink & slider-burger.
1830: Almost lost 10 Afghanis due to stupid step-building project. Realize we can easily find new replacements.
Note: Guns fired again - 3 workers ran away. Guess they were BRAVE Taliban.
1900: Other AF guy drives off toward mountains... says he's going to look for a sheep for lunch tomorrow. I don't think he's kidding.
2015: Writing my sweetheart because this place is boring. I wish I were bored at home.