So it's Thanksgiving. It hasn't felt like it today - just another work day. It's also two weeks since my last post, but that's ok - I have a doctor's note.
First to get you caught up on the last two weeks. The Kandahar visit was moderately productive, I guess. A few days after we got back came Operation Feeding Freedom, known informally as Operation Outback. It was a great treat, complete with 12 oz steaks, Bloomin Onions, incredible rolls, some kind of vegetable ravioli thing and cheesecake. Alas, no Foster's. As promised, they didn't run out of anything. I've never had any special feelings toward Outback one way or the other but after this I'll definitely be eating there more once I get back to the states. That night there was also some country singer who performed on base, I forget her name, an American Idol runner-up or some such.
After that things settled down to normal until Saturday when I started getting sick. Spent Sunday and Monday and most of Tuesday in bed - just a cold, nothing serious, but enough to get me thinking about what it must have been like for the Marines on Iwo or Guadalcanal, coming down with Malaria and spending weeks or months in a crappy cot (if that), under a crappy tent (if that), with nothing to do, no laptop with DVDs to keep them occupied or take their mind off their misery. In this war, if you come down with anything serious (including Malaria), you're just medevac'd out of theater and are probably home within a week. Don't get me wrong, Marines (and other troops) still sacrifice plenty, even setting aside the unevolved bloodiness and loneliness of war, but we have it exponentially better than those before us ever did.
Amazing how a mild case of the sniffles is enough to get me on my soapbox. Anyway, that's why I didn't post anything on Sunday, which is otherwise my goal. I'm feeling better today and am going to try to PT later today for the first time in six days. Ridiculous.
Today, the chow halls have Thanksgiving food for lunch and dinner, and it is good. Pineapple ham (or whatever), turkey, beef, stuffing (dressin' for you southerners), sweet potato casserole, corn, gravy and pecan pie. I had a light lunch of about 3000 calories and will go back later for a heavier dinner. I don't think I've had a Thanksgiving lunch since I was in high school in Alabama.
And now for a Thanksgiving list: ten things I'm grateful for, in no particular order.
- All the e-mails, FB messages, etc. that expressed some variant of "thanks for serving." You're welcome. My part is really pretty small and painless as you already know. And in general I'm grateful for the support of all my friends and family these last 8 months, which has made all the difference.
- Sweet potato casserole
- EOD - explosive ordnance disposal, aka bomb squad. You think you know what kind of risks these guys face by the very nature of the job, but you don't. Trust me, you don't even know the half of it.
- Cpl Yale and LCpl Haerter, and also LtGen Kelly (the speaker) and his son, 2ndLt Kelly, whom I graduated OCS with and who died earlier this month in Sangin. This part could easily become its own list.
- My brother's IDF service.
- An Israeli organization I knew a little about but have learned much more about lately called Save A Child's Heart, in which both my middle brother and his wife are involved.
- Derek Jeter. It's not entirely rational, it's not even a little homosexual, it just is what it is. Yanks need to stop screwing around and resign him already.
- An organization called Project MOT, which sends care packages to Jewish service members.
- Grass. Not the kind you smoke.
- HL
I'm thankful I don't have to do that anymore.
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