Sure thing, Cap.
I was in the US Air Force. Mostly, I was deployed in support of "Operation Southern Watch" (among other things,) helping to enforce the "no drive no fly" zone. I was part of a joint US force and Coalition force. While deployed, I was attached to "5th Mobility." Don't worry about that.
In the AF, we had this thing called "AEF." If you were lucky, you'd only get deployed 3 months out of every 18. If lucky. Due to unfortunate politics, I was saddled with something called a "deployment position." This means if any need arose, I was first to go. Sometimes, they didn't tell me where I was going. Sometimes, they'd tell me I was going to France and I'd end up in some third world hellhole.
Pager goes off. Mobilize! Mobilize! Mobilize! Grab your bags, get to the flight line! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! We had "mobility bags," filled with the junk that we'd need while deployed. We had to be in shape because we were expected to tote EVERYTHING at once. Chem gear, uniforms, razors, etc. It was a lot of stuff. For me, it was sort of like that scene in the movie Platoon where Sheen's character was carrying too much and fell out on a patrol. After my first deployment, I cut what I carried to the bone. It only cost me once, as I was invited to a dinner and had no civilian clothes. Not that there was much time for this as a regular schedule for us "walking dead" was a 16 hour (if lucky) to 23 hour (yeah it happens) day where you lay down for a bit (if lucky,) get up, do it again. Then again, then again. It all becomes a blur. You start dreaming about the ice cold beer that you can't have, or a tender touch and kind word that you're never going to receive. It can be a whole lot like isolation duty. Tempers would flare as people began to miss their backyard grillouts and beerfests. People would miss that sweetheart back home and maybe start thinking about doing things that I wouldn't. (and didn't.)
Some guys likened the experience to the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray. You know, where every day is exactly the same and people say and do the exact same things. It gets like that when you're humping 13 days on and 1 day off. By the time you catch up on your sleep, your day off is gone. Many couldn't even scrap up enough time to do laundry. People actually got "shaving waivers" due to lack of time to even bathe. They were given suprisingly freely, though if you don't shave then your gas mask doesn't seal very well.
MOPP LEVEL 4! MOPP LEVEL 4!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPP
This means you have less than 8 seconds to gear up before a chemical threat gets you. This assumes that the equipment involving the process works. In training, we were supposed to suit up if we saw someone fall over. During the drills, I took up the hobby of stacking rocks vertically while laying on the ground in bunkers or ditches. I was chastised for that, told to stop doing it. Somehow, I was supposed to pay attention. Inattention gets people hurt or killed.
One night, pulling night shift, I saw a thermometer. I said, "guys, this thing is broken. It's not 120 degrees at midnight!" Yes, actually it was. You get acclimated to it after a while, going back to the World (the US,) you'd never break a sweat again until you lost the heat acclimation. The heat and dryness were intense, it sucks the water out of you like you wouldn't believe. I used to joke that each deployment, I drank Rosie O'Donnell's body weight in water plus half of a Lou Ferigno.
It wasn't all hellish, just only mostly hellish. Then something happens and scares the crap out of you, like that time I found a land mine on my path to a work tent. I almost stepped on it, wind had blown the sand from the top of it. Walking somnambulently along, lost in your own little world, you can't do that over there for even a second.
RED DOG! RED DOG! MISSILES DOWN RANGE!
I was nearly blown up by my own forces. A guy ran a security checkpoint in a big old dump truck. We automatically assumed it was a truck bomb, I grabbed a couple of radios and gave chase to the guy. I was handing out his location and spotting as a forward observer. The planes roared overhead and the command to fall back was given on the radio. I was too close, didn't realize I was too close. Fortunately for me, the pilot held back those hellfire missiles that would have turned that truck into a pile of molten metal. I wasn't scared. I should have been. It wasn't until later I realized how close to death I'd come that day. Turns out it was a false alarm, the driver was an idiot and if I'd been further away he's the one that would have eaten those missiles over a false alarm. It was just a false alarm, but the higher ups kept on harping and harping on force protection. We were constantly reminded of the Khobar Towers massacre and that we couldn't let down our guard... not even for a second.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khobar_Towers_bombing
In all, 19 U.S. servicemen were killed and 498
[1] of many nationalities were wounded. Although
al-Qaeda has been described by some sources as the likely culprit, the official June 25, 1996 statement by the United States named members of
Hezbollah Al-Hejaz (English: Party of God in the Hijaz)
[2][3] as responsible. In 2006, a U.S. court found Iran and Hezbollah guilty of orchestrating the attack.
[4]
In the blink of an eye, 19 dead and almost 500 injured. This is the environment I was stuck in. We counted down the days, hoping that we wouldn't get extended. 3 month extension is virtually automatic and no questions asked if initiated by one of your higher ups. They have to ask permission to extend you again after that.
By the way: Movies like "The Hurt Locker" are completely retarded. The main character did quite a lot of things that you're really really not supposed to do. Example: never pull on a wire that you can't see the end of it. That scene where he dragged up like 5 artillery shells? 100% BS. No EOD that isn't an idiot would do that. Ever.
Bombs, man. Some a-holes planted antipersonnel bombs in sunglasses cases. The result? Anytime someone misplaced their sunglasses, EOD would blow it in place. Sorry about your Oakleys, bro.
Snipers, man. I was pinned for several hours in a stinking chemical toilet. I'd eaten some bad food and was huddled over in distress. The bullet passed right above my back. I thought I wasn't going to make it. A guy walked buy, I started yelling. He froze. I was saying things like "Sniper! Sniper! Sniper! RUN! RUN! RUN!" It took a few seconds for his mind to realize that it was "go time." I figured he was as good as dead alone. I took off running, when presented with two moving targets the sniper couldn't connect due to the very long range. I think he was waiting for the guy to open the door and was braced and set for that shot. We got out of there, the situation was handled but while we were sounding the alarm the most horrible thing happened. People looked up blankly, then went right back to what they were doing. They were autopiloting through the day. One of these people even tried to stop me from calling it in. I showed several of the guys later... that bullet hole. They accused me of lying. "No, man, you did that. There was no sniper." It was surreal, unbelievable. These people didn't have their heads in the game, just sitting there thinking how miserable they were.
Forward bases. They can be nice and built out or they can be tent city where you walk through the sand to take a shower. A guy who never leaves the wire of a forward base is referred to as a "fobbit." (forward base inhabitant.) Never call an "operator" a "fobbit," that's fighting words. Some operators asked me once if I was an operator. I smiled and said, "yeah, I've worked on telephone systems before." Heh. "That's not what we meant, man." Back and forth. Sometimes, all there was to do was BS, play dominos, throw cards, checkers, chess. There was no alcohol, some turned to cough syrup out of desperation. I think that's when you know you're desparate. One guy's creativity gained him the distinction of being the only person ever at a certain forward base to get a dui while on duty. You see, "non-alcoholic beer" was available. The NA brew (as far as US law) must contain less than 2% alcohol. That's right, NA beer actually has a little in it. So this guy turns to "ice distillation," since hot distill is pretty tricky. Ice distillation is really safe, it just takes time. He carefully stacked flat pans in a deep freezer, pouring the still off of the ice that formed in the pan. After much work, he got schnackered on basically pure alcohol and decided it was a good idea to go for a drive. He was in a HMMWV and was pulled over by another. Busted. After all that genious and hard work, he just couldn't help himself. Poor guy.
Few of the women in the military deployed, so it was the big lonely there aside from simple conversation.
Oh, and it felt absolutely weird opening one of those "care packages" that they send to servicemen. It's the thought that counts. A retired vet relative of mine sent me something that almost got me a date. White chocolate covered oreos and Jif "Chocolate Silk" peanut butter. Dip the cookies in the peanut butter. I offered some to one of the few females (she was nice) that I was aware of. So close! No cigar.
Being ridiculously busy helps keep you from thinking how lonely you are, a little bit. A friend of mine who broke his leg nearly went crazy while convalescing. He had all the time to think about how we were essentially stuck in the middle of a big nothing.
Anyway, hope that's enough for now. Thanks for reading.
Edit: Wow, just pulled up my old outfit on the net. It sounds pretty awesome.
THANKS FOR ASKING,Day by Day things are getting incrementally better!
Talking to people like you cheers me up, Cap. Thanks for being you!
