Laugh Dammit'

Funny things happen. A few day’s ago, one of my Junior NCO’s had a close encounter with an IED. He calls me on my cell phone. “I have to show you something”. He sounds serious. “OK, what is it?” “I found an IED”. It’s possible, very possible. If a Afghan Guerilla can hide out in an American Base after escaping from it’s jail than an IED can be planted here on Taji. He comes and gets me, he’s as white as a ghost. We have a Marine Major with us and he drives up as I was going to check this out. I informed him of what was happening and he gives me a direct order not to get killed. “Hey, you’ve got Bino’s, right? Take your Bino’s”. I was forgetting about the things. So, we go and look at this thing. I had to look at it from a couple of different angles, but, sure enough, there is artillery round with wires taped to it and we are in more than killing range. Heck, they would get our body parts confused. It’s sitting next to one of the many ruined buildings on Taji, where some GI would get on it while poking around, like my Joe did.
We backed off from it. I pull out my cell phone and try to call EOD(Explosive Ordnance Disposal) and can’t get through. I try again. The damn phone won’t get through. I wasn’t going to say IED over the air on my radio and cause folks to get into a panic. We go back to our area where I inform the Major that the boy wasn’t crying wolf and I couldn’t get through to EOD. We called the Base Defense Operations Center on his phone, which was working better. “Come and get us and take us right to this!” So, it’s going to be time consuming, I go to the latrine real quick before heading out. The Major comes and gets me and my NCO who had found the thing. BDOC had called back, it was a training aid, several people had called it in before. My young NCO’s 21 year old heart is pounding out of his chest, he’s white as a ghost and his eyes are as big as a deer’s. “That’s fucked up!” he say’s. I laughed.
Really, he did good. I had to get onto him about something the other day. He’s still a work of clay. I told him the same thing I told my Stepson. “Be glad God is teaching you your lesson’s while you’re young”.

As I’ve said in some e-mails, I slept through a rocket attack a while back. Lot’s of our people heard it. They usually come in onsies and twosies. My building has pretty thick walls and my window is sandbagged, plus my air condition runs constantly (Except for the couple of nights it tore up on me). “You didn’t hear that?!” I slept like a baby.

Speaking of my sand bagged window (one of ye faithful knows of my project) I’m coving it up with pictures of home, post cards (that one of ye faithful has sent) , a news paper clipping of my newest little cousin, wildlife and girls out of magazines. Stuff like Stuff, Maxim, etc. The ones we were told we couldn’t bring over on the plane that is sold here in the PX.

As you may gather from a earlier post, the other night there was a show put on my five dancing girls. One a former Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, a couple had posed for the above mentioned magazines and a Vegas Show Girl. They really put on a show. A couple could sing. I didn’t intend on going, but, found myself obliged. That’s another silly story.


The Appalachianist