Foot Patrols – 23 October 2008

James – Things have been going well over here. Things have seemed to smooth out over the last week. We do two patrol days to every four guard days we pull. Patrols this last week were great. Because a lot of our vehicles needed work we had been doing a lot of dismounted patrols. On our first day they planned a big dismounted mission. We got to rest for a whole day before it was supposed to kick off. Just before we were supposed to get ready to go they cancelled the mission, giving us plenty of time to rest.

The next day we did a different dismounted mission to and observation post up in the mountain, manned by the Afghanistan Nation Army (ANA). It was quite a hike, over an 800 foot climb. I honestly had a blast. I'm unsure of how much gear we are carrying, but it's heavy. Because I have the squads automatic weapon I carry more weight than anyone else in the squad, so I took a little pleasure when I saw my squad leader and squad mates having a harder time climbing the hill than me. If I carried their bags I could practically run up the mountain.

I took some pictures while I was up there. I'm not posting them on the blog because they pinpoint our location and that's something that I don't want out on the internet, but maybe I'll put together a family email and I can show some of you the terrain that way. It's not all sand like I'm sure some of you are expecting. Picture the area around Hurricane and LaVerkin, but more mountains, and that's what I'm living in. Enjoy the pictures that I can post. I know that you all wonder why I wear those ridiculous glasses. I love them. They are the most comfortable pair of glasses that I've ever owned, and out here everything is about making yourself as comfortable as possible.

The weather is starting to get pretty cool during the nights. That means that the weather right now is cool, but I'm sure that it will be getting pretty cold soon. I'm not looking forward to sitting out in a tower in the cold. Tami has made me a scarf and I'm sure that it will come in handy.

This week's complaint is kind of funny. Someone made fun of a sergeant's rank. The sergeant in questions is undoubtedly the best example of what a sergeant should NOT be. He has always puts himself before his guys, and he's always using his rank for personal gain. I personally believe that he is incompetent, and little better than a private straight out of basic training. He is someone that I have little use for. I'm so glad that I'm not in his squad. Well someone wrote a joke about him on a dry erase board and the platoon sergeant saw it. So now we have to pull guard on the dry erase board. I got lucky. I only have one, one hour shift. The guy who actually wrote it has six or seven. All of this just after we had a reenlistment brief. They told us that we have it so very good here in the Army, and that we need to sign up for a few more years. Hooah! Yeah right.

There is not much else to talk about. Things have been nice and quiet, (and stupid).

Edit - I don't know if any of you have noticed the comic that I put up every few weeks or so. It's at the bottom of the page, and this time is even funnier than ever. Check it out.