Helmet on fire!

Things have picked up from a “back from leave blues” crawl to a full out sprint as the higher ups work diligently to get the last bits of work in before they “pop smoke” and re-deploy in a few months (they have to put something in their evaluation, don't they?).  It’s a frenzy of activity which we commonly refer to as a “Helmet Fire”.  

 

Wow, that’s a lot of quotation marks, isn’t it?

 

Anyway, this is more of an observation than an actual complaint about life here.  It is normal for the operation tempo to fluctuate from one extreme to the other and it just so happens that within the last week we’ve started the portion of the cycle where we run around as if our helmets were in fact, on fire.  This current blaze is a result of many factors.  For one thing, our commanding general just came back from his R&R.  After spending 15 days away from the fight he is on a quest to get updated on all the usual reports, plus he desires additional reports on a bevy of crazy statistics that will help him make that one critical decision that will win the war.  Mind you that none of us think that the number of socks issued to Babil province police force (paid for with American money) in 2006 will be the decisive factor in winning the war, but hey, none of us can say that we’ve attended General School to even begin to understand the complexities that socks play in the rebuilding of a nation.  Another reason that I’ve already alluded to is the fact most of us have returned from our own vacations away from Iraq.  With thoughts of loved ones and memories of times not in body armor fresh on our minds, we are moving forward with the speed of a reluctant dragon (if you happen to know the Disney cartoon, you know that the song has been known to stick in one’s head for months...even years).  

 

All of us know that it is not smart to let our minds wander too far off the tasks at hand.  We are still doing a dangerous job here and the environment is not the friendliest to the pre-occupied day dreamer who roams around with their head in the clouds.  But as we get closer and closer to the end of our mission, thoughts that were so distant back when we first hit the sand in Kuwait, like what foods one will eat that isn’t made in a mess hall, what vacations to take to exotic places or what absent luxury item to spend deployment funds on, are now creeping and crawling into the forefront of the deployed mind.  It’s normal to think of home, especially when the distance left to run is so short.  The trick is to not let it preoccupy you. 

 

I’m in the two month window of when I’m suppose to leave.  Of course this time can change on a whim and the date on my countdown timer will always be in a state of flux.  Imagine your frustration if your boss came in and told you that you had to stay late at work this Friday night but didn’t give you a time of when you would be released except that it would be some time tonight.  That could mean 5:30pm or 11:59pm, which is not very conducive to making solid happy hour plans.  So, we are leaving in April, sometime, and whether it is the beginning or the end of the month will be up to the mission requirements.  One could get aggravated at this wishy-washy timeline, but I’ve been in the army long enough to know that this is just part of being an employee of Uncle Sam.  So, while we continue to play the perpetual waiting game, I’ll stay focused on my job and my environment while secretly sneaking in thoughts of home when I can.    

 

Oh, just for the record, my thoughts in the forefront include Papa John pizza, a Northeast Extravaganza with Alissa and a new house.  Of course those aren’t the ONLY things I’m thinking of.