To escape the attacks of the Rear, I had to get away from the Flagpole. To get away from the flagpole, I had to get busy completing both my first mission and the underlying missions unknown to those accompanying me.
I had been selected to go early because of my construction skills. There were about 25 of us with various skills and we were working with a combination of rare Afghan lumber, industrial fireproofing materials, military heating and cooling, and the latest in cables. It cost $10 for a twisted 10 foot 2x4 that might be 3"x3" or 1"x6" and more than that for a piece of polygonal plywood 94" to 99" long. The 2x4's were hard and heavy, with twists that sometimes put both sides facing both directions. Roller coasters have fewer twists. The plywood was light and fragile.
Our Senior Officer got caught stealing by the Senior Engineering Officer. The victim was impressed with the techniques. He had known that his supplies were being re-appropriated, but this was the first time
Meanwhile, I had found the guy, SFC J, that was in charge of those being replaced. He was astounded that the command was misusing my military talents at the very time he desperately needed those talents to get his Troops out of the field. He arranged for some surreptitious meetings between us and phone calls back to my teammates and commanders to give them the latest scoop and hopefully get them there a little quicker.
It had been months since he had arrived on the C-17 time machine and he had not experienced the wear and tear on it that delayed arrivals. He understandably thought we were just delaying our arrival as long as possible, because he understood what we were in for.
Technology doesn't get along well with the fine dust that seems to penetrate MRE bags. Our job was to create an environment more dust free than a tent whose support poles bounced 6-12 inches in the dust storms that killed floppy drives. It was to create a place where the Command could comfortably track us on the big screen. And that screen was driving the show.
There was a war going on and the high ranking REMF's being replaced still had work to do and ours wouldn't make their lives easier, not now, and not a few weeks later when they rotated out from the new facility. We got it done though, breaking only a few things while working over their heads, pushing them closer together and bracing them from the howling winds. The military heating and cooling systems breathed a sigh of relief and finally caught up in its work that hadn't stopped since it had arrived.
SFC J and I got along well, though he buried one deep into our way of doing things. His unit did things a little differently. It worked well for them but not for us. They reported to a higher level of the Command and our REMF's salivated at getting direct control over us, leaving our Commanders out in the wind and unable to effectively intervene. And so it was ordered.
War on Terror News©2009, ARM, all rights reserved.
Stumble It!
