HERE’S A REPORT FROM IRAQ, via my secretary, a Marine combat engineer reservist:
The elections required a lot of work in this area but went off without any major violence. From what we have seen, nationwide turnout was very good. One of the constant comments here was that in America, people stay home because of the rain; here people vote in spite of mortars. (Mortars are like the worst hail storm you have ever seen, but a little worse).
Recently, we have gone out and operated with the Army. The particular unit we have worked with is a cavalry unit. Even though they now drive tanks, they still wear “riding” boots, large belt buckles and for formal occasions, cowboy hats. Surely, they think many of our customs and traditions (dating back to naval combat of the 18th century) are just as strange.
The Cav is located at a much larger installation which means KBR chow. It is amazing that food that would be sniffed at in most middle school cafeterias seems like dinner and a beer at El Charro over here. Their installation is a former Iraqi army base, so it feels a lot more like a military base than the poultry processing plant in which I live. In fact the cinderblock barracks are almost as nice as Hess Hall (saying something is as nice as Hess is wierd) and are nicer than the barracks that I stayed in at Camp Pendleton.
Army tours are almost twice as long as Marine tours (13 vs. 7 mos.) and these guys were nearing the end. Their morale was high but needless to say they were looking forward to getting home.
An interesting note about tankers, beware of anyone who refers to you as a “crunchy.” That is apparently the sound you make when you get backed over.
The 1/8 Cav were gracious hosts and most professional soldiers. Their Bn. Commander and Sergeant Major presented our sqaud with battalion coins to thank us for a particular weapons cache we found and destroyed with them. We let their medic initiate the explosion; it is never as much fun as the first time.
Out of the ten Marines that deployed out Knoxville with me, two have returned to the States with injuries. While this is not statistically remarkable, consider that they were twin brothers. Further consider that they were both injured, in separate incidents, in the wrist.
Strange. Both of the Gentrys are expected to make full recoveries and as we say of people going home injured, they have a 100% chance of surviving the war.
A note on barracks life. The Jay-Z/ Linkin Park “mash up” album seems to be in constant rotation. This is MTV’s brilliant idea of playing two really horrible artists’ tracks simultaneously. At least you can get it over with that much more quickly. If video killed the radio star, will someone please kill MTV’s head of new program development? Please? Know that if I have nothing worse to complain about than bad rap rock albums that I am doing well.
Indeed.