War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

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12-Aug-03 9:57 PM

Well not as much happened today as I thought would. We woke up at 6:30 to go to the SRP site to get our TB tests done, mine’s already fading away but the guy that stuck me with the needle was a butcher, I’ve got a little bruise where he poked me because he shook the needle so bad.

It only took about a half hour to get the TB shots so we went over to the Central Issue Facility to get lists of what we need to turn in but Sgt. Slocum didn’t really understand what’s going on an told us that all we need to turn in 3 of our uniforms, but we got two lists and I think he only looked at the first, the other one had all the expensive stuff and I don’t think the Army will just let us leave with all that stuff without paying for it.

While we were waiting a guy who was leaving the building saw us and gave us two dozen doughnuts, we asked him why and he just said for thanks for what we did overseas. So Jeff, thanks for the doughnuts. It’s nice of people to do so much for us out of thanks for what we did in Iraq but I always feel guilty because it seems like there are thousands of others deserve thanks more than me. I wonder if other people who come back feel like me, or if they feel that the world owes them a debt of gratitude for what they did. Either way I’m glad there are people like Mark and Jeff that are willing to do things out of the goodness of their hearts.

After CIF we didn’t have anything left to so we went back the barracks to relax for the rest of the day. We actually wanted to do more to get out of here but I guess they were expecting us to get here today and this was our relaxation day and the out-processing starts tomorrow. So we went to the PX and the Bowling Alley and just hung out for a while. A few of the guys decided to go off post to watch a movie and eat at the Olive Garden. I decided to stay here and take a shower and write in my journal (it takes hours to write some of these long entries).

I also walked to a phone to call my family and tell them that I’m in Carson now; it was great talking to them knowing that I’m probably going to see them by the weekend. They’re excited, I’m excited, it’s hard to be patient and wait the four short days till I can get home. Back at Tallil we spent 14 hours a day for a month sitting on our butts trying to ignore the wind and heat and wait to get out; now I have trouble waiting 15 minutes for Slocum to get a list from CIF, I just want to get home as soon as I can.