Well, I'm back in the good old U S of A.
We handed over the mission to the new team, and they managed to burn down the mess hall within 3 hours of taking over. The quality of our food acutally improved after that. We trucked in meals instead of eating what our chemically mellowed cook would have made. Even Emeril can't cook on Prozac.
I left my unit, and am now en route to my new assignment; learning French. I'm not kidding.
I don't know what to make of this Iraq tour. Not yet, anyway.
One thing I will tell you, our days in Iraq are numbered. Yes, there's the SOFA status agreement through 2011. But, in July the Iraqi public will vote on the SOFA agreement. After 30 months in Iraq, I predict that Iraqis will NOT act in their own rational self interest, and vote against the SOFA. It is a matter of pride. The Iraqis are ashamed of the fact that Americans kicked the snot out of their army, occupied the country, and dictated everything for almost two years. Now they have the chance to kick us out! They couldn't do it militarily, but if they vote us out, their warped sense of perception will registered the event as an incredible victory over America. If that happens, all Soldiers should be home by the end of 2009. I never have to go back. Everyone wins!
Take Care!
About Me
- Somethingonthestaff
- I can't really describe my job in Iraq. There are meetings, and someone must take notes during these meetings. Then, every single major in the brigade headquarters must approve my notes before they are sent to the other majors.
5 comments:
Welcome Home!
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas and Joyous and Blessed New Year. Blessings to your family. God keep you safe, strong and victorious.
Hey Richard,
Welcome home. French? WTF?
Bob
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
Just stumbled on this blog today. I don't know who you are or what unit you were assigned to in Iraq, but you need to write a book. Not a serious deployment memoir like others that have been and are being written - a short, hilarious book about all the absurdity you saw, like chai boys and tazers and so on. I saw some awful things in Iraq/Afstan but also saw and heard a lot of absolutely hysterical things, and I have always thought that someone needed to write a little book to convey that (I am not witty enough to do it).
People who have not been downrange do not understand how funny some of the shit that you see and hear there is, and when you tell them they are weirded out and don't know if they're allowed to laugh - something I'm sure you've experienced since redeploying. Case in point: a couple summers ago I attended a screening of "Generation Kill" at the Council on Foreign Relations. I was in the back row with some of the Marines who served in the unit the series is based on (I am a civilian who does a lot of embedded reporting and research). They, and to a lesser extent I, thought tons of parts of the show were laugh-out-loud hilarious...but we were the only ones laughing. Everyone else either didn't get the jokes or was afraid to laugh at them.
Funny book. For real. I can put you in contact with a good publisher and help you find an agent.
Post a Comment