Mud Fun

As we spend more time together as a platoon, I find us operating like a family.  Families have highs and lows.  Soldiers can love each other one moment and complain about each other the next.  I noticed that these guys know each other realllllly well.  Some of them have known each other since elementary school, and some since joining the 278^th many years ago.  One of my older Sergeants was raised in a small town called Pall Mall, which is near Jamestown, TN.  I worked in that area a few summers for Mountain TOP (www.mountain-top.org), so I was even familiar with the hill that he described his childhood home is located on.  Another Soldier of mine grew up in Jamestown, and even uses a lumber yard that I used to buy materials from.  It’s wild to meet guys that I could have met years ago, but ended up meeting here in this foreign land. 

I have learned so much from them.  From minor lessons about how to ‘make beans’, to larger life lessons on how much children really mean to parents.  Some of them wake up in the middle of the night to talk to their little girl or boy since there really is a short window once the child gets home from school, and goes to bed.  Due to the time difference being 8-9 hours, families find themselves communicating at odd hours.  I am definitely receiving lessons on how to treat troops and what are the important areas of their lives  Family, family, family, and then the rest come next in line.  Hardships at home seem to cause the greatest stress for them, as well as KIAs here.  My platoon sergeant and I do what we can to help with these issues, but only can do so much.  We have worked out some equality issues that were present, but still have other situations that arise and cause problems.  Overall, we are doing well in our drive to complete our mission, and get home safely to our families. 

One of the welcoming ceremonies for new troops in our platoon includes a mud bath.  It just so happened that we had not had a mud swimming session in a while, so a few of the troops decided to remedy this problem.  They first started with my platoon sergeant, who is not new to the platoon, but apparently needed to get wet, ha ha. 

The next victim was me.  I knew it was coming for a few months and had already started emptying my pockets before my platoon sergeant even got out of the mud.  Once I was ready, a few of them picked me up and placed me in the mud.  The puddle had actually dried up a bit, so was not too bad.  If there are only two or three troops who jump you here, then we usually put up a struggle, but there were just too many so I saved my energy.  My maintenance technician was next in line and he did not see it coming.  He struggled a bit to start with, but then realized it was a futile action.  They put him the puddle, and rolled him over.  He was a great sport about the event.  I put more mud pics in the photo album.  I dropped my camera during a mission, so sometimes the shutter does not open up all the way.  It requires some manual work to open fully, and my cameraman did not know this, so you will see those black lines in some photos. 

Some Soldiers realized they were on the list, and decided to go unescorted to the mud puddle.  SGT M got wet and appeared to have enjoyed it.  Specialist T decided to also go without assistance and did a reverse belly flop.  Overall, it was a fun time, and we released some stress.  Time is flying by here, but not quick enough. 

Oh, we have had some wicked wind lately.  One gust of wind kicked up during the middle of the night and blew one of our tents down.  It tore holes in it, and bent most of the aluminum frame poles, and steel pins.  Sorry to my fellow tax payers.  Mother nature is to blame. 

“Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection.  Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life.”  Oswald Chambers.

Comments

[Donna]

Boys will be boys. I'm glad you find ways to have fun, and I'm really glad I don't have to do your laundry!

[gavin]

i figured you would have been able to fight your way out of the mud as we had those mud sessions at mountain top.

[Kelly]

THANK YOU ALL FOR MY FREEDOM!!!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!

[Cindy]

Reminds me of the M88 Recovery Pit at APG. You know how much I enjoyed that. I b--ched for days about that one. Ya'll do look like you are making the best of it.
Wish I were there with you guys.

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