Doonesbury-The Sandbox-Military Blog, Milblogs for Military Families

GWOT hot wash, straight from the wire

Welcome to The Sandbox, a forum for service members who have served or are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, returned vets, spouses and caregivers. The Sandbox's focus is not on policy and partisanship (go to our Blowback page for that), but on the unclassified details of deployment -- the everyday, the extraordinary, the wonderful, the messed-up, the absurd. All correspondence is read, and as much as possible is posted, lightly edited. If you know someone who is deployed who might have something to say, please tell them about us. To submit a post click here.

June 20, 2007

THE SOUND
Name: Eddie
Posting date: 6/20/07
Stationed in: Baghdad, Iraq
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
Milblog url: airborneparainf82.blogspot.com
Email: airborneparainf82@gmail.com

"Overwatch = Watching Over." Yeah, leave it to the Army to oversimplify. Another example; for radio checks, someone somewhere some time ago came up with the phrase "Lima Charlie", meaning "Loud and Clear". Saying "Lima Charlie" takes four syllables, and "Loud and Clear" is only three. And yet, everyone always has to say "Lima Charlie". Stupid.

Anyhoo, yesterday was yet another day of boringness, which is all it seems to be lately. We went to this one place to watch over this other place. Nothing exciting to report. Sorry. Just lots of watching and a little bit of being cold.

The only thing noteworthy occurred when we were heading back, going around in some of the back alleys. The way out had been really jacked up, and we had gone out of our way because we didn't want to be seen. On the way back we decided to try to find a shorter route. We did, but it involved climbing this big nasty mountain of trash, then hopping down from a wall. The wall was about seven feet high. This might not seem very high, but considering the amount of gear we have on (probably 60 pounds or so) it's a long way to fall.

I made my way up the mountain of trash, and was just getting ready to hop down when I heard this sound -- loud, like a fog horn going off. I froze in my tracks, thinking it was some kind of warning horn saying "Americans are in the area!" Oh shit, here we go...But after about ten seconds the sound started changing, and that's when we realized -- it was a donkey in somebody's backyard. What the hell! Scared the ever-living piss out of me. Hahaha!

So I proceeded to hop down and totally eat shit like everyone before me. I had more gear than usual too. Since only a few of us had gone to this place I had taken a team member's automatic rifle with me, plus all his ammo. It hurt landing, and I don't think my knees have quite forgiven me yet.

Posted by David Stanford at 12:52:59 PM

Comments

Eddie,
You keep safe out there!

Posted by: M.Mom | June 20, 2007 at 06:15 PM

I think the funniest thing about saying 'Lima Charlie' is that if you really were receiving loud and clear, there would be no need to use the phonetic alphabet to prevent someone from hearing 'crowd of deer'.

get home safe

Posted by: Barkon | June 26, 2007 at 07:06 AM

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.