I haven’t been able to write for a while because my power adapter for my computer short circuited. So after a bit of looking around, I ordered one online and should be on its way, but for now I found a replacement from a HP printer we use here. So after 3 weeks of life without a laptop, I’m content to have it for this moment.
I feel like I need to update my life on a few things. Seems like so much has happened in the last 2, 3 weeks, yet I don’t really know what to say, nor where to begin.
Porcayo came finally. He had mobilized with us on the 10 Feb, flew to Ft. McCoy on 6 Mar, watched us fly to Kuwait on 14 Jun, and finally came at 7th of Sep. He had complications with his knee after the morning 3 mile up 3 mile down hill run which he had completed twice, showing the first sergeant who really is better. We’re all happy to have him back, especially because he’s fresh. Meaning we get to see how we were when we first arrived, reflect on that, and also hear of things back home, how it would have been if we were to have stayed back with him. But it’s especially nice because he represents one person that the 1SG or the Captain can’t lay hands on. He doesn’t have to do PT like they make us do after countless false claim it would stop as soon as we take the PT test, and he doesn’t have to shave. And you could tell they’re hating it, too, because they’ve told him to get reevaluated for his shaving and PT profile… twice! And CPT Baumbuch, the fat captain that doesn’t do anything at all save sit on her ass, passed her PT test after counting discrepancy that some stupid NCO did, and now she’s on everyone else’s case if they didn’t pass the PT test. I mean… she’s so freaken fat. She had gotten this electric scooter for free somehow, and it was running very slowly with her on it. The funny thing was that when anyone else got on it, it ran fine. That’s how fat she is. Gosh, it’s amazing they still let her keep her rank much less her presence with the Army.
Contreras has gone back home on leave. He says his lady’s going crazy and says this is very important. Miceli was nice enough to let him take his leave for his own good. Some people finally realized that Miceli isn’t really a bad person to start with. Others are a little bit more stubborn. Of course he doesn’t really have a family and he’s the only crazy sucker to want to stay here (he makes more money here than he does back home as McDonald’s manager earning a little over 25K, and now has paid off debts, or nearly so), but he did have that right. Especially because Conteras had already gone to Ft. McCoy on April and stayed there a month, while his girlfriend came by to visit and what not. I remember now, how Corporal Ontiveros and Urmanita and Roberson and I stayed back while the rest of the platoon had already left for Fort Jackson to get trained. We were depressed. So much so that Roberson was seriously considering AWOL, and serious as in that he missed the Mall of America trip for it. I guess I’m still suffering from that, having been stuck here without much of an alternative after being involuntarily transferred.
Henderson from 1st platoon came by. I was sitting on my table minding my own business when she just walked up to me and casually said hi. I was shocked. I hadn’t seen her since April. She still looked pretty and just as I had remembered her. That was about 5 days ago. Then Flores stopped by today, on her way to go on leave as well. I guess people are taking leave as much as they can from first platoon. All of them should come by Arifjan sooner or later. It was great seeing them again. They tell me about how now they operate casually under mortar fire and how hot it was and messed up it was when they first got there, burning their own shit. But now they got porter potties, things are better, they got satellite dishes, barbeque often, and have it so good that they’re actually sending food and care packages down to SPod, Kuwait, where 2nd platoon is. Crazy. At least they get to say that the’ve been there, done that, but they’re actually having a better time, get to go to town every week, go sight seeing. They come here, asking what there’s to do, what we do. What you see is what you get, I tell her. That’s pretty much it. Work, maybe watch a couple DVDs. Me, I got writing letters, reading books, and playing the guitar is it, computer games have lost its edge a while back, since we got here. Henderson, during her 5 days here, was bored to death. Me, I’ve never went outside this camp’s vicinity save twice, once to Doha escorting SGT Figueroa, and once to JMMT escorting SGT Tyler. I’m tired, restless, bored, angry, depressed. I feel useless again, although the feeling of helplessness is somewhat less than that of Ft McCoy. But I would still much rather be here than be at Fort McCoy. Oh no, never. People that have been to the place know what it’s like. They say 2 weeks was hell, 4 months? No, never. We did it…
My TMJ condition is getting better. The hard splint that COL Kim had made me worked great. I went for the weekly checkup last Friday when I found that he’s not there. One of his assistants told me he’s back home now, in the states, cuz of some neck pain. He’s not coming back either, and the only other person that could rework the hard splint like he had originally planned on doing on the checkups, is now up in Balad, Iraq. Oh well, this still feels like it will get better sooner or later.
Right now a lot of people are saying that they’re going to come by the bay area to visit and chill while I’m there. It all sounds good and dandy, and I would love to have them over, but I seriously need to do some research before they do. I want to take them to the treasure island during the night and the windiest road on earth, Alcatraz, take them through the Berkeley campus, and just go out clubbing somewhere. I should do some more research before that happens though.
I’ve gained about 10 pounds since I’ve arrived here. At the last PT test I was 140 pounds, in which I ran the 2 miles in 100 degrees at 14:29 or so, 60 pushups and situps. Now I’m 152. Hopefully I can gain another 10 or 20 pounds even. I’m guessing 10 more here would be good, since I’m guessing I’ll gain at least 5 more when I get back home and eat more often. Been going to the gym pretty often and eating as much as possible. Curling about 40s now, benching about 170 once, 120, 130 for 10 rep sets. I should work on my legs and stomach more often though.
I need to talk politics now. About the legitimacy of this war. There are no Weapons of Mass Destruction, now called weapons of mass dissapearance. I mean, if we had such good intel on that, why didn’t we find a single drop? Sure they said they had years to hide it, and it’s a country comparable to that of Mexico, but where? I mean, after we pushed the issue, there was only a few months before they had a chance to hide it, if they had to. I read on the paper today, someone was writing that the Iraqi army was only at 20 percent strength as it was in the beginning of the first gulf war while our own military strength increased ten fold and now we have lost more men now then we did back then. And the allegations the Senator Kennedy made recently about how the money is going to be spent, the 87 billion dollars, how it’s going to bribe other nations to send more troops, the 8 billion dollars going to Turkey as a loan to send troops, ‘it didn’t have to be this way.’ I think I found one senator that I would like to agree on. He’s spoken about our morale before, and now that he’s said that, all Bush had to say back was how he shouldn’t do that if he’s looking for the well being of the country. I don’t know if Bush really knows what the good of the country really is, especially because I haven’t read anywhere within the last 8 months something he’s done besides the war. What has he done? He increased the educational funding, but from last year, it was only in the millions, a mere drop in American budget terms. I don’t know why anyone still supports this unimaginably stupid and ignorant president.
Besides what I think about how the politicians are doing, I look around me. I never realized something until recently. In my 8 months of extensive military thinking, about what we’re doing, about why we’re doing what we’re doing, I’ve never realized the real cost of this war until recently. I heard too many times now, passing by, people on the phones. “Hi, honey. Do you know who this is? Well, this is your daddy. Yeah, I hope to get to know you when I get back home, too. No, I don’t know when I’m coming back.” I was in shock. What is the cost of this war? Men who have children that never knew them are dying. Men whose children have never even really known them are still fighting in the darkness. Men whose children are starting to walk and talk and here, fighting someone else’s war, wondering when they’ll go home. That is the true cost of war. And for them to extend our stay here for an entire year… that’s the greatest atrocity. Men who have power over many more men are abusing their power. If you don’t see it my way, I will gladly invite you to stay in Kuwait/Iraq for a year, after 4 months of staying at Fort. McCoy. I am sure anyone will know. For Bush, for anyone who has never been there like in Vietnam or World War II, to say now that our troops are doing great and that our morale is high deserves their vacation time and increase of morale here in Kuwait for a term as prolonged as ours. Right now, I’m going for Wesley Clark, although I’m not quite sure why. He just seems like a charismatic guy, a soldier’s soldier, a citizen’s citizen. SPC Contreras of 2nd platoon (female) just lost her father, and didn’t find out about the death until the week after, today. I’m sure he would understand that, and much more. I clearly know Bush doesn’t.
About the 87 billion dollars. I have no idea where that money is going to. Perhaps a few billion to reequiping the army with necessary materials, body armor, tracks, replacement humvees that were blown up, ammo. I know it’s not going to fuel because Kuwait is giving them for free. I know it’s not food because most people are still eating MREs, and here in Kuwait, the government gives it to us for free. I remember watching David Letterman, the only time I saw him during a midnight chow, saying that Bush should remember to tell the Congress that there are two Ls in Halliburton. And I think that was a much truer than he realized. Because I know as the army, we’re not seeing much of any of that money. Britney Spears said something about just supporting President Bush on whatever he does. What ignorance… I lost a lot of respect of the little I had of her.
Right now I’ve been thinking about this girl back in elementary school. I know a lot of people don’t have that kind of feeling, having lived in one neighborhood or another for a long time, in one country, even. But she was my first crush back in 3rd grade and I haven’t seen her or heard anything from her since I left Korea then. Of course I didn’t keep in contact with anyone back then till now, especially since I was so young. But right now that’s one of my wish list things, to find her sometime and just tell her about 3rd grade, and just catch up on the old times.