Afghanistan, this'll be fun.

I remember standing there in body armor, waiting for the ramp to open. When it was finally all the way down all I wished was that they'd shut it again. The heat that came pouring in made it feel like I was standing in the exhaust from a jet engine. Standing there in my body armor with my weapon and all my gear I remember thinking, "Holy crap! This is like a whole new world." Then I thought, "That was probably one of the most stupid thoughts I've ever had." The sun was blazing in my face after being in the semi darkness of the C-17 for hours on end. There was movement outside and I didn't know what to expect. We'd been briefed over and over again that the enemy might engage us as soon as we landed, so I was expecting the worst. Once my eyes adjusted though, all that came into view was some Air Force puke standing there in shorts and a t-shirt, the tarmace the aircraft ramp was resting on and the burnt out hulk of some LMTV that looked like someone had blown the hell out of it. Later, we all found out that supposedly some Marine had been so trigger happy when they landed that he put a M203 grenade round into the cab of the truck and that was why it was blown to shit.

I couldn't for the life of me tell you what that Airman said or why the hell he was there. All I knew, as I climbed on top of one of the shipping containers inside the aircraft, still wearing full battle rattle, was that I wished I could smash that guy in the face. It was hot, at least 120 degrees out, but I've found that once it hits 120 degrees and it's hard to breath, you really don't care if its 123 or 140. It all sucks the same. So, all of us were wearing something like 30 pounds of body armor, along with whatever else we werecarrying, and I was climbing on top of a container that I honestly don't remember the contents of. I know it didn't belong to Shops Platoon, but that's about it.

We got done unchaining everything from inside the aircraft, the containers, the trucks and whatever else there was and stepped onto the tarmac. Imagine looking out on a landscape you've never seen, with heat you couldn't have imagined, even in Texas in August, and even though your brain is telling you that this can't possibly be real, you are stepping into it all on solid ground. At that point, you really have to start thinking that, "Hey, this might actually be real. I might be awake and this might really be happening."

I don't really remember what happened next. I'm sure we got our containers unloaded with forklifts and drove the trucks off the aircraft. Then I figure, knowing the Army, they either took us to our tents and then to chow, or the other way around. I do remember laying all the rounds they gave us out on our racks and taking pictures of them. It may seem juvenile, but after going through seemingly limitless training the government hands you more live rounds than you've ever seen layed out at one time and tells you, "You might need these." Anyway, we took pictures of the ammo and acted like we were proud and nothing was out of the ordinary. I know at that moment that I did feel a certain sense of bravado, but that would definitely go away. Later, I just remember feeling confused and wishing that I could put every one of those rounds into the people who were raining mortars and RPG's down on us every night. Why the hell were they trying to kill me, or any of us for that matter, with their random mortars? I never did anything to them. Hell, if we could sit down over schwarma we might be friends. All I know is that I swore I would do whatever it took to support and defend our Constitution and that was what I was going to do. So, I did my job everyday, whatever that might be, and tried to sleep every night, wondering in the back of my mind whether or not tonight would be the night the mortars came for me or one of my brothers.

Sleep tight folks, if you can. God know's I can't anymore.  

Next Book?!

I just sat down and started typing tonight and this is some of what I came up with. I was hesitant to post it, but here it is anyway. I haven't proof read it or edited it at all and it's only an excerpt, but we'll see......

"The way things work where I’m from, time is not necessarily a linear concept. In fact there are quite a few jokes where I am from based on the concept of three and four dimensions that people on earth use. Dimensions, like width, depth, height, time, etc. are only really an issue if you have to worry about physical density. When, or maybe I should say if, the people of earth finally separate themselves from their serious attachment to all things physical they’ll be able to understand too.

Let me try to explain it in the simplest way I can think of. If you have an aquarium you can only fill it up with just so much water, before it overflows. Why do you need water? To keep the fish you want as pets alive. Imagine if the fish don’t need water. Imagine if the only thing that matters is each entities will or consciousness. If the fish doesn’t have a body then it doesn’t need water, right? You’re probably asking, “Well if a fish doesn’t have a body then it’s not a fish is it?” My response to that is, “Really? How do you know?” Suspend your disbelief for a moment and imagine that you have a fish for a pet that has no body. It’s still a fish, because it was created as a fish and therefore that’s what it is. Since the fish has no body it doesn’t need water to exist.

It still needs energy yes, but it can gather that readily enough from the environment around it. Humans can’t see with their naked eyes the process that coral or algae go through to get nutrients. So, they eventually developed the “microscope” and gained the ability to watch what happens. Does that mean that before they had the microscope that algae and coral didn’t eat? Of course not. It just means that humans couldn’t see it. Let me try to explain this in terms that you humans may understand. If the entire universe and everything in it is a case of beer, then what humans know about it amounts to one drop of condensation that runs down the outside of one bottle of that case of beer. You get it now?

So, back to the fish. You have a fish that has no body and therefore no mass and cannot take up any space. The fish does need some type of energy to keep it going, but it can convert that from any number of sources, whether it’s the light from a star, the gases in the atmosphere where they are currently located, or whatever else may be readily available. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms. So, to sum up. No body, which means it doesn’t need things, and it can get energy from any source available. As long as the fish’s will is strong enough it will maintain its integrity and continue to exist as a being. If not, then it was never meant to be and it will return to the “matter bank” to be used in some other way. I’m sure your little human brain is probably reeling in an attempt to understand all this, but just accept the premises I have stated and forget everything you have ever known. Seriously, take a minute if you need to, I’ll wait."

Hope you enjoyed the read and really hope that this turns into something significant.