So, the internet has been down for the past three days, going on four, in our trailer. Every night I went back to my room expecting to be able to get online and do some stuff, I was quickly denied. It was one of those "Hey, we know it's not broken yet, but we're going to fix it and make it better" moments by the Communications people here and, surprise!, they ended up breaking it all together. Awesome guys...(insert slow, sarcastic clapping) But they finally got it back up and working tonight, so I'm back in business.
It's been a very eventful week, and for all the wrong reasons. Not trying to make it depressing, but I want to keep everyone up to date with what's going on over here and that means talking about both the good and the bad. So, on a very serious note (and you may want to skip this next paragraph if you're sensitive to topics on death), we occasionally have what we call "Fallen Warrior" Ceremonies here. To put it very bluntly, when someone is killed in action in Afghanistan or Iraq, the remains are processed very quickly and transported by plane back to the US. Occasionally, these flights pass through the base I'm at and we hold a short ceremony in their honor as they load and unload the caskets from the jets. It's a very humbling moment when you're standing there in formation, saluting as they carry off 5 caskets at a time. There have even been days when there are two or three ceremonies in one day. Earlier this week, one of the soldiers that was being transported was escorted by an Army Command Sergeant Major of one of the regions in Afghanistan (every casket is escorted by someone). The soldier in the casket that he was escorting was that of his son, who was supposed to be turning 24 this week. The Sergeant Major was on his 4th deployment and his son was on his 8th. It was a moment that I will not forget and really put things into perspective for me.
In other news, I'm getting to experience my first real personnel issue with one of my troops here where I actually had to take into account his potential for committing suicide if left unwatched overnight. I can't really go into details about what happened, but he's being sent home early for an investigation and there was the potential that he may do something. Luckily, he was able to talk to the right people and everyone made sure he was mentally okay. On one side, it's a little bit of a shock because I've heard plenty of stories from other people about all the crazy things that happen, but I've never experienced anything first-hand. On the other side, it's getting to the point where nothing really surprises me. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing just yet.
Despite all the depressing news, I'm actually in pretty good spirits. If you read the first story in this post, I've come to realize that things can always be worse than what they are. Everything else is going well and the days are starting to fly by. Won't be long until I can enjoy the green grass and some time off! Hope everyone is doing well.
