One of the first packages I got while I was in country contained a small fan. It came in useful when our A/C would crap out on us and I used it almost every night as “white noise” to drown out the sounds of sputtering generators, Iraqi police sirens and gunfire which helped me get some semblance of a good night’s sleep. Imagine my dismay when I returned to the trailer one night and found that it had ceased to work. I did the usual thumping and banging of it to see if that would make it go, but the casing was warm and the blades were motionless. Disgruntled, I took it down off the perch on the bed and chucked it in the garbage. I convinced myself that I could do without a fan for the next 40 something days. That night I would find that I was very wrong. With the absence of fan’s droning, everything from my snoring trailer mate, the howling of dogs and the call to prayer were exceptionally loud. Needless to say, it was a restless night of sleep.
The next day I dragged it out of the trash and got all MacGyver on it. Armed with my multi-tool, a tooth brush and a bottle of weapon lube, I spent the better part of my half day off ripping it apart in an attempt to revive my trusty friend. After I cleaned about 4 lbs of crap out of the plastic casing and lubricating the funk-filled bearings, I reassembled her and crossed my fingers as I plugged her in. Success! I have a functioning fan again to get me through the rest of the deployment. I felt pretty satisfied to fix this little piece of modern convenience. Sadly enough, along with the paper shredder I fixed a few months back, I am beginning to believe these two feats might be the only real tangible tasks I’ve accomplished during my time in Iraq.
Okay. Back to pouring effort into briefings that the generals won’t make decisions on and the Iraqis won't take action on.
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