A Day in my Life (Part 2)
Originally appeared in whole or in part in the New York Times on March 13th, 2006 - link. See opening comments from Part 1.
After our lunchtime excursion to the land of Crystal Light, coffee creamer, and pineapples, my roommate is done for the day. He works midnight to noon, so he peels off at our trailer while I continue back to work. Lunch is my short-term goal of each day. After lunch things get much more relaxed, so if I can just make it to 1300, the day is almost gone. Now, it’s not as if I am hating life out here. On the contrary, the opportunity to have a positive impact during a pivotal point in our history is the type of stuff dreams are made of. To help capture or kill my nation’s enemies is just icing on the cake. However, small, achievable goals make for a happy deployment.
After lunch I go back to work for about an hour. Around 1500 or so I take off to PT (physical training, e.g. exercise). This begins with me returning to my trailer to change clothes. This usually wakes my roommate, who will then eye me with contempt for a second before dropping back into his afternoon hibernation. Next, I am out the door. Next, I am back in the door, because I forgot my room key. This wakes my roommate, again, who is noticeably unhappier than before. Then I’m off to the gym. Then I’m back at my door, because I forgot to actually lock the door with my newly re-acquired key. As the bolt loudly slides into the latch I can imagine him inside the trailer pulling a blanket over his head in disgust. After this complicated hullabaloo I can finally make my way to the gym while my roommate plots my death in his dreams.
I have learned to modify my workout while deployed. Time just doesn’t always allow for the program I followed back in Camp Pendleton. I now work only one muscle group in 15-20 minutes and then take off for a run. This means that if I don’t have time to run, or even change clothes, I can always drop by the gym and knock out a workout in 20 minutes. I just repeat this program more often than the program I followed in garrison. After all of this transpires I return to work about 1700.
Shortly thereafter my boss begins his nightly internet voice chat meeting with higher headquarters. Many comments and gestures must take place before the meeting can conclude. These include the rolling of eyes, the hanging of heads in disgust, and the occasional removal of headphones due to annoying voices. As this goes down I am sitting beside him checking email. About 20 minutes into it he will usually remark that the meeting is killing his inner child. I nod my head in agreement and we both trudge on. If it goes 45 minutes or longer he may ask me to shoot him in the temple in an effort to end the pain, but I always assure him the meeting is almost over and we make it through together.
After the meeting is over it’s once again time for chow. After evening chow we are always on the lookout for crack cookies. Crack cookies are chocolate macadamia nut cookies served at the chow hall that are addictive as crack. It is at this point I always have to decide whether I have earned the pleasure of a crack cookie. With rare exception the answer is “yes.†After all, we don’t call them crack cookies for nothing.
As we leave the chow hall about 1945 the issue of night vision becomes a problem. Emerging from a well-lit building into the total darkness of a moonless night leaves you with the comfort factor of investing your retirement in the prophesy of Miss Cleo. I now quickly retrieve my flashlight (shifting my pineapple from arm to arm) and use it for navigation, lest I stumble into a sandbag barrier.
Finally, I make my way back to work one final time before returning to my trailer for the night around 2130. My roommate awakens, of course, but is somewhat relieved to know it’s his last rousing of the night. He’s somewhat less relived, however, to see that it’s about two hours until he has to get ready for work. I crawl into my bag and read for 15-20 minutes before deciding to give up the ghost for the night. By 2200 I’m asleep as visions of pineapples and crack cookies dance through my head. Artillery booms in the distance.
This article received 22 comments over on the NYT Select Frontlines blog. I thought I’d share the discussion here.
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Brilliant. I sense the makings of a modern day M*A*S*H!
Comment by Rick — March 14, 2006 @ 1:16 am
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That’s some image of what it’s like for you over there. Thanks very much for sharing. Thanks very much for your commitment and dedication.
Wish you health and safety and that you come home soon.
Comment by Gaffer — March 14, 2006 @ 6:45 am
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Your efforts are greatly appreciated over here. I hope for the safe return of each of you.
Comment by K — March 14, 2006 @ 10:38 am
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Thanks for the glimpse into what your life is like “over there.†Since you are a lieutenant, can you shed some light on what an enlisted man or woman’s life would be like? Thanks for your service.
Comment by Julie — March 14, 2006 @ 11:01 am
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Thanks for writing this. It is honest, clever and an awakening for me. Your writing shed light on a lot for me. I hope you stay safe and come home as healthy as you sound now.
Comment by Beth Kalet — March 14, 2006 @ 11:55 am
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I was a communication officer with first marine air wing in Danang in 1970. Sounds like things haven’t changed all that much! Though I do recall a rocking good “O†club that would have been part of the evening SOP. Semper Fi. rick
Comment by Rick Delano — March 14, 2006 @ 11:57 am
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I am not impressed by the mis en scene of this soldier’s daily routine. I am not impressed by his low-brow music, the unhealth breakfast regime, or his utter programmed enthusiasm for “getting his icing on his cake for killing “America’s enemiesâ€.
My suggestion: take a day with an Iraqi family, eat there hummus, listen to their beautiful music, and then reconsider whether killing them is still “icing on the cakeâ€.
Comment by Ross — March 14, 2006 @ 12:41 pm
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I think you’re fighting the good fight — you are not there to kill Iraqi families and most of us understand that. So, just ignore that guy.
Thank you for your service and your thoughtful comments on everyday life in a military camp.
Comment by MKT — March 14, 2006 @ 1:40 pm
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LT,
Nice job. Your routine sounds very similar to mine when I served as a USAF Civil Engineering Officer in Baghdad in ‘04-05 and in Afghanistan in ‘03-04. I’ll be heading back to AFG in May.
ROSS: Keep in mind that the LT and I are only trying to kill the “bad guysâ€. We are trying to rebuild Iraq and AFG so that the “good guys†can live better. We are not trying to kill the average Iraqi/Afghani family but rather to enhance their lives.
Very Respectfully,
MAJ MULKEY
Knoxville, TN
Comment by MAJ Eric Mulkey, USAFR — March 14, 2006 @ 1:45 pm
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Delightful. Why are we wasting this delicious wit over there? We need him here.
It takes a great mind to make that kind of routine human.
And send his roomie some earplugs.
Karen
Comment by Karen — March 14, 2006 @ 1:53 pm
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What makes you earn a “crack†cookie?
Comment by Eve — March 14, 2006 @ 1:59 pm
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Whether or not you agree with the author is up to you. (I suspect he does not care one whit re: what impresses you.)
But please don’t misrepresent his comments.
As you suggest, he never wrote anything about killing an Iraqi family being “icing on the cake.†What he actually wrote was, “To help capture or kill my nation’s enemies is just icing on the cake.â€
Quite a difference, don’t you think?
Personally, I couldn’t be prouder of this young man. Stay safe, Lieutenant, and please accept my thanks for a job well done.
- DT
Comment by Doug Taylor — March 14, 2006 @ 2:05 pm
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Good luck with pineapples & thanks for writing this.
Comment by Abby — March 14, 2006 @ 2:18 pm
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I was moved by your writing and hope that you are safe and sound, but unfortunately “to help kill or capture my nations enimiesâ€â€¦ I think that your going to Iraq was misspoken and misrepresented. I hope you find those who are killing and maiming your fellow soldiers, but that is not what was meant by this folly. Your work and effort is admirable, those who sent you there is not.
Comment by Toni T — March 14, 2006 @ 4:03 pm
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Hang in there Lt. Barnett, and know that when you are ready for civilian life I think Hollywood could use a writer with your wit and eye for the absurd. Ross notwithstanding, know that the vast majority of us back home appreciate what you and your comrades are doing over there, even if we think our government made a mistake in going to war in the first place. Stay safe because it looks like we’ll need you in Iran soon.
Comment by Jason — March 14, 2006 @ 4:05 pm
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I can only hope that this soldier’s government is not misleading him into thinking that he is indeed benefitting the common Iraqi when in fact he may just be a pawn in a US scheme for control in the Middle East, because he sounds like a clever and well-intentioned human being. I wish him the best and hope for his safety and that of all the people who have been sucked into this conflict.
Comment by Keiko — March 14, 2006 @ 4:38 pm
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Hang in there, Lieutenant, you have my grateful aloha for all that you are doing. How can I send you some chocolate macadamia nut cookies from the Big Island?
Malama pono (take care), Malia
Comment by Malia — March 14, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
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To me the situation in Iraq sounds horrible. I can only hope that your boredom is blissful. Stay safe, smart and healthy.
Comment by Jim Wilkins — March 14, 2006 @ 7:04 pm
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I laughed for a good ten minutes after reading this posting! It brings back the memory of too many days spent watiing for lunch chow and off weeks that ran together. After spending a year over there, anything to break the monotony, like planning (even an imaginary) pinapple hurling event. Keep waitng for lunch, and you’ll be home soon enough. As for Ross, all I can to you is go ahead, try it for a year, or two out of three, like those of us who do it.
Comment by Whitcomb — March 14, 2006 @ 7:57 pm
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the supportive comments. I still can’t believe a day in my life is interesting to others, but am certainly glad you enjoyed it. The Iraqis are indeed not our enemies. We (the coalition) work with them daily and they are constantly taking on more responsibility and direct involvement with their safe-keeping. I studied Arabic for four semesters before this deployment, partly to better understand the culture I would be exposed to. I have shared a cup of hot tea with an Iraqi civilian while his wife smoked a cigarette in their kitchen. I have listened to their music, which is made up of strange scales not present in western music. I am not a knuckle-dragging Cromagnon Man that can’t discern good from evil. While quite different from us, the average Iraqi is our friend, and they are treated as such.
However, on the flip side, if you try to kill me and my buddies then you are the enemy, and we’re coming for you. Iraqi, American, or Sri Lankan, it doesn’t matter. That’s non-negotiable.
Comment by Jeff Barnett — March 15, 2006 @ 6:11 am
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My youngest son 12 is getting ready for school. I will drop him off and go about my business. You and folks like you will be on my mind. Tonight my boy will read your note with an eye toward teaching him that real men stay in touch with their values and maintain their focus no matter the difficulty of the circumstances. Your humanity, as does your sense of duty and humor comes through loud and clear. Stay safe and come home to your family.
Comment by Steve Rubino — March 16, 2006 @ 8:03 am
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Chilling last comment there, mate, about “we’re coming for you†and it doesn’t matter if you’re American. If your CinC tells you a certain group of Americans are the enemy, are you coming after them? There are a lot of guys just like you who have been exposed to a lot of bad things, and they’re all coming back to the U.S. with the bad stuff inside them. Whilst I admire your dedication to the nation, I believe you’ve been used by powerful people who don’t have your interests, or America’s, at heart. And like the shattered lives of the Vietnam vets, I fear for what’s going to happen when all the Johnnys (and Janeys) come marching home. Whenever that will be…
Comment by Rick Buck — March 17, 2006 @ 2:37 am