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A SOUNDTRACK TO WAR
Name: LT G
Posting date: 5/5/08
Stationed in: Iraq
Hometown: Reno, Nevada
Milblog: Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal

Heat in the triple digits, an old, tired war, and increasing frustrations regarding a largely unseen enemy equals … new music offerings. Compliments of the best educated and most stratified Army in the history of the world, by way of the Suck.

WARNING: EXPLICIT. Reality curses.

Gravediggers Mix Tape, Volume II

SFC Big Country: “Welcome to the Jungle,” by Guns N’ Roses. This song opens up Volume II not just because my platoon sergeant has a gigantic flag as tribute to GnR in our room. Although it helps. So does the truth that the jungle is the ideal analogy for our current operating environment -- with just a slapdash of we’re in the desert, Charlie don’t surf or car-bomb irony.

PFC Das Boot: “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” by Dynamite Hack. The Giant still refuses to cater to our beloved American stereotype that all Germans adore David Hasselhoff. So this seemed like a good alternative in the Hoff’s stead.

(newly promoted) SSG Chico: “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” by Dropkick Murphys. Pure. Violent. Crashing. Power.

PFC Romeo: “What’s Golden,” by Jurassic 5. A happy-go-lucky rap medley for a happy-go-lucky Puerto Rican charmer.

CPL Spot: “Ohio is for Lovers,” by Hawthorne Heights. Even with family in the Buckeye State, I’ll never really understand Ohioans’ perverse pride for their home state. It’s like loving Texas, without the ridiculousness, or loving New Jersey, minus the general suck factor.

SPC Doc: “Been Around the World,” by Puff Daddy and the Family. Dedicated to our medic’s developing plan to know women across the globe in his post-Iraq global trek with SPC Haitian Sensation and PFC Das Boot. And yes, that verb was used specifically in the biblical sense.

SGT Axel: “The Wicker Man,” by Iron Maiden. Your time will come.

SPC Prime: “Bad Habit,” by the Offspring. The Army’s most perfect, most patient, and most experienced driver must have a breaking point. When it occurs, it’ll probably sound a lot like this song devoted to all things road rage.

LT G: “Lose Yourself,” by Eminem. Self-righteous, skinny white boys know all, and will make sure the world is aware of such. All in spite of being doomed with a clown’s soul.

SGT Cheech: “A Whole New World,” from the Aladdin soundtrack. Hey, five kids hooked on Disney like a fat kid on cake would change your outlook on life too.

PFC Boomhauer: “I Wanna Talk About Me,” by Toby Keith. The noble everyman’s most twisted anthem to every woman far away in distance but close to our hearts. Ever.

SPC Haitian Sensation: “Chain Hang Low,” by Jibbs. No, there is no synchronized dance for this song, which is precisely why it was selected. There will be no sequel to “Crank Dat in Iraq.” Epical awesomeness like that should not be ruined by cheap imitations. At least not publicly. (See: Godfather III and the return of Grover Cleveland to the White House.)

SPC Big Ern: “I Want to Know What Love Is,” by Foreigner. Yes, 80's love ballads bellowed in a deep Southern twang straight out of the Hollah’ are hilarious. And off-key. And strangely motivating, especially when dedicated to hetero-lifemates, who in this case, is PFC Van Wilder.

SSG Bulldog: “Numb/Encore,” by Jay-Z and Linkin Park. An eclectic mash-up for an eclectic kind of guy. Just don’t be the dumb bastard that gets in his way. He doesn’t like to bypass things.

PV2 Hot Wheels: “That Smell,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Encapsulates that ever-permanent raw sewage cologne that this country is doused in, in classic Southern rock form. On a quasi-related note, I’ve never seen a soldier as content as PV2 Hot Wheels was when searching for weapons of mass destruction in a bull’s pen at an outlying Iraqi farm.

(newly promoted) SPC Cold-Nuts: “Pain,” by Three Days Grace. Just as is the case with any joker, SPC Cold-Nuts channels a lot more than light-hearted humor at his core. As Mother Teresa always said, there isn’t anything wrong with a little masochism. Eh? What’s that you say? She never said that? You sure?

SSG Boondock: “Three Little Birds,” by Bob Marley. Although he tries very hard to hide it, my junior section sergeant has a closet hippie tucked away deep down in his warrior soul. Well, maybe tucked isn’t the right description. Being held hostage would be more accurate.

PV2 Stove-Top: “Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica. The riffs of raw machismo explain this young soldier, who is convinced he missed his calling by not being a part of the initial American incursion into Iraq. I remind him that he was 13 at the time, but I don’t think it has much of an effect.

SPC Flashback: “Road Trippin,’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The horrible tasking monster known as “Headquarters” finally sank its’ claws into this O.G. -- original Gravedigger -- but he remains with us in spirit. The love-taps he facilitated from various Iraqi inanimate objects getting in the way of my Stryker remain as well.