Not Political This Time

All,

Well still here in Gardez, chilling cold filling. The weather has turned into a nice dry dusty low 90's day in day out. The funny thing about the mission is it seems to be either a really slow boring day or an insanely busy out of control day. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. But, with the way things are here I assume that things will only get busier and busier. Ben, if you read this I want to let you know I hate your old division. More specifically the 4th BCT. Wow, words can't describe how incompetent they are. I must admit though I'm stuck with the Cav Unit that is here with them. And man, talk about everything I hate about the big army coming to pass here. The S-3 (Operations) to all you non military types, doesn't like the following units, MI, EOD, Psy-Ops, SF, and Finally CA. Translation: Military Intel, Explosives Ordinance Detachment, Pyschological Operations, Special Forces and finally Civil Affairs. In other words he the man in charge of planning operations in a counter insurgency war refuses to use any other assets aside from his beloved Cav. Needless to say they are doing very poorly her right now. It's gotten so bad that all the side units are planning operations on the side with out them. LOL. Such a funny way to try and fight a war. Oh, well thanks goodness we're not under their chain of command. So we can get the job done. But the guys have been great and working hard doing all we can behind the scenes to accomplish the mission in spite of big army getting in the way. You'd think after 7 years they'd know what to do but... Oh, well, some infantry officers can't get it through their heads that you have to be a team player in this fight.
And make no mistake about it. We're going to have a fight on our hands here this summer. But, no worries, to all you panic types, we'll stay out of trouble I promise.
In the mean time, I just want you all to know, how simple life gets while deployed. For example, I love it when the porta john is cleaned. A clean porta-john makes my day. Also, happiness revolves around a cold bottle of water after a long day outside the wire.

One more final long thought. I was watching a TV show about rich movie stars and their friends (Entourage rules Cally!) any way its easy to get a little jealous of that lifestyle. Who wouldn't want more toys? Any way, then I thought about what we have done and seen in the last couple of weeks here. What a life. Randomly just the other night I had long discussion with a Maj. and Capt. and we talked about the best way to rid a town of bad guys. Then a couple hours later a friend burst in happy as could be talking about how he now had better ways to go kill the bad guys if we can just help him out. Of course we were all excited and said, "Hell, yeah lets do it!"
I mean how many people get to do this stuff and get paid for it. So, it sucks, it's scarey, it's not fun, it's hot and dusty, the people stink, so does the country, and last of all we miss our families and would rather be with them. But like last time I will look back at it and not regret being here one bit. So, in the mean time my final thought is this:
All you action movie stars out there you may make the big bucks pretending to be what people think is cool. But I work, play and live with guys that the stories and movies will be written about for decades to come. And honestly and pridefully life doesn't get much better than that sometimes.

Cheers, Josh 7 June 08