Carrying my phone this past weekend, like a life preserver, that tune echoed in my head , albeit with different lyrics of my own composition.
There's a new life waitin' to be born
There's a warrior, weary, worn and torn One of them waits to hear he's okay One brushing off dusty gear, putting fears away Well he's waiting on the flight line, and we want him home from war And rotors are turnin' on the last helo to Kandahar
As I have so often this last year I sat vigil, waiting for texts from my best friend, letting me know of departures and arrivals across Afghanistan while contracting with the Army to maintain IT systems for the troops. " Checked in" "Boarding" " Delayed in terminal...need coffee" " watching Family Guy on AFN
( military channel ), maybe fly tomorrow... " have made frequent appearances on my mobile phone for the past several months.
It's been an education for me, being connected with someone in Afghanistan. The images that filter through the media depict all contractors as greedy bastards ( which I am certain some are ) and the efforts in Gaghanistan, as we refer to it as unnecessary, of which I'm certain there is some truth.
Never before has a close family friend of mine been driving to work and had to turn around because the local grocery store blew up, killing women and children shopping for the next day's 'Sabbath'. The grocery store in question was bombed to protest the foreign contractors WHO SHOPPED there, bringing revenue.
Never before have I known anyone who pays $3000 a month for a heavily guarded, 180-sq. ft. train-car compartment with a restroom, sink, mini-fridge, microwave and Internet. Even rents on Manhattan aren't THAT bad -- for that amount you can have a 2-bedroom with views of the City, a gym, swimming pool, recreation room AND a rooftop lounge. Oh wait, there's a rooftop lounge over my friend's compartment -- where his co-worker lives. Helpful, 'cause if he sleeps too late the pounding of footsteps overhead wakes his butt up, so they can fly out and be in the field for two weeks .$3000 for 180 square feet, slept in 12-15 days out of the month.
Traffic in Kabul sounds much like Manhattan, blaring horns, crazy drivers, takes 25 minutes to go 400 feet... with the addition of mule carts, ancient Toyota Corollas usually jammed with over a dozen people, and the lovely smell of open sewage. Hence the Gaghanistan phraseology.
Tales of these, coupled with scanning the news more avidly to make sure Something Bad did not happen to him over there has been a governor on my self-pity motor.
Yes, going through a year of treating cancer, losing my hair twice, and having my bustline taken away not once but twice, recurring problems, still waiting for reconstruction and my body to completely heal has been really agonizing at times. But I've been in my own home, my own bed, and even when in treatment or the hospital, surrounded by people who cared for me. Not quite as agonizing as staying up for three days straight waiting at Bagram International for a 15-minute helo, not as agonizing as sleeping on an office floor because the tents were full up on that visit, not as agonizing as walking two miles each way to the USO in the southern Gaghanistan summer, not as agonizing as a season-less ,vacation-less existence. Not nearly as agonizing as being stuck at Bagram International, with 48 hours to a visa expiration, needing to leave and catch a scheduled flight to Dubai to renew said visa.
" But those contractors make so much money! No one held a gun to their heads... they aren't military. They could work stateside..." All true. All so true.
Yes, the DoD pays big bucks to their companies, a great sum of which goes to pay for armed compounds to live in, and no, they do not have to be there. Most of them are former military, though, and so it's what they know, who they are. Most often they are American patriots to the core who know full well that the tribal forces in the region will never yield to democracy, tribal forces who murder their own families to make a statement. Patriots who want to keep those tribal forces on their own turf, not ours, and serve and support this next generation of soldiers as much as they can, so they "re-enlist" under a different set of orders.
Cancer, schmancer. There are drugs for that. There's no cure for war.
Well he's shipping off his trappings, briefly coming home from war While others step up to take the next flights to Kandahar
( military channel ), maybe fly tomorrow... " have made frequent appearances on my mobile phone for the past several months.
It's been an education for me, being connected with someone in Afghanistan. The images that filter through the media depict all contractors as greedy bastards ( which I am certain some are ) and the efforts in Gaghanistan, as we refer to it as unnecessary, of which I'm certain there is some truth.
Never before has a close family friend of mine been driving to work and had to turn around because the local grocery store blew up, killing women and children shopping for the next day's 'Sabbath'. The grocery store in question was bombed to protest the foreign contractors WHO SHOPPED there, bringing revenue.
Never before have I known anyone who pays $3000 a month for a heavily guarded, 180-sq. ft. train-car compartment with a restroom, sink, mini-fridge, microwave and Internet. Even rents on Manhattan aren't THAT bad -- for that amount you can have a 2-bedroom with views of the City, a gym, swimming pool, recreation room AND a rooftop lounge. Oh wait, there's a rooftop lounge over my friend's compartment -- where his co-worker lives. Helpful, 'cause if he sleeps too late the pounding of footsteps overhead wakes his butt up, so they can fly out and be in the field for two weeks .$3000 for 180 square feet, slept in 12-15 days out of the month.
Traffic in Kabul sounds much like Manhattan, blaring horns, crazy drivers, takes 25 minutes to go 400 feet... with the addition of mule carts, ancient Toyota Corollas usually jammed with over a dozen people, and the lovely smell of open sewage. Hence the Gaghanistan phraseology.
Tales of these, coupled with scanning the news more avidly to make sure Something Bad did not happen to him over there has been a governor on my self-pity motor.
Yes, going through a year of treating cancer, losing my hair twice, and having my bustline taken away not once but twice, recurring problems, still waiting for reconstruction and my body to completely heal has been really agonizing at times. But I've been in my own home, my own bed, and even when in treatment or the hospital, surrounded by people who cared for me. Not quite as agonizing as staying up for three days straight waiting at Bagram International for a 15-minute helo, not as agonizing as sleeping on an office floor because the tents were full up on that visit, not as agonizing as walking two miles each way to the USO in the southern Gaghanistan summer, not as agonizing as a season-less ,vacation-less existence. Not nearly as agonizing as being stuck at Bagram International, with 48 hours to a visa expiration, needing to leave and catch a scheduled flight to Dubai to renew said visa.
" But those contractors make so much money! No one held a gun to their heads... they aren't military. They could work stateside..." All true. All so true.
Yes, the DoD pays big bucks to their companies, a great sum of which goes to pay for armed compounds to live in, and no, they do not have to be there. Most of them are former military, though, and so it's what they know, who they are. Most often they are American patriots to the core who know full well that the tribal forces in the region will never yield to democracy, tribal forces who murder their own families to make a statement. Patriots who want to keep those tribal forces on their own turf, not ours, and serve and support this next generation of soldiers as much as they can, so they "re-enlist" under a different set of orders.
Cancer, schmancer. There are drugs for that. There's no cure for war.
Well he's shipping off his trappings, briefly coming home from war While others step up to take the next flights to Kandahar
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What's shakin' y'all! Thanks for musing on my musings.. anything you leave here goes to my e-mail ) Be blessed!