Happy 236th!

Just a quick note, which I won’t be able to post for a while anyway since we’re in Op Minimize.  But it’s the 4th of July and for the past two years I’ve posted something on here so I thought I’d keep up the tradition.

Last year I was sitting on my couch in comfy southern Cali.  The year before I was sitting on my tuchis in the moon dust on Camp Leatherneck, four months into my year-long sentence exile deployment. 

Tonight, I’m in my cot listening to a kid who can’t be older than 9 years old doing the call to worship over the loudspeakers from the nearby mosque.  It would be cuter if he weren’t so tone-deaf and didn’t have such a nasally, high-pitched voice.  Sorry, kid.  Better luck after puberty.

I just got back from the chow hall, where my resolution to have a light dinner went out the window as soon as I saw the Independence Day feast they’d prepared for us.  Think Thanksgiving, with an American flag cake for dessert.  The whole thing was really nice and unexpected.  Also ironic in a Twilight Zone kind of way: Happy You-Kicked-Our-Butts Day.  The ops-O (operations officer) in the JOC actually tried to argue with me today that tactically speaking, we didn’t really defeat them.  Counter-insurgency, I responded.  It’s a bitch.

I took a few pictures of the decorations at the chow hall (cook house, in British terminology).  With any luck, I’ll be able to post them when we come out of Op Minimize and this goes up.  Otherwise, I’ll be at Camp Leatherneck in a few weeks (on my way home) with a whole lot of nothing to do, so expect a bunch of pics then.

As far as deep thoughts, reflections on once again being deployed on my country’s birthday, single-handedly defending truth, justice and the Fall Classic, I don’t really have any.  I’m glad to be here doing my little part in a good cause, and I’ll be glad when I get home.  I hope that wherever this 4th of July finds you, it’s some place you want to be.

 Happy Independence Day, America!