The Creativity of the Bored Soldier

Remember when week ends were fun? I don't...I spent my Friday night saying a final goodbye to my car.  It was a terribly sad moment in my life...Hopefully I'll do some car shopping soon and find something that I love even more.  Saturday, I worked, ate some Arby's, and watched Netflix.  Sunday, I worked. Like always.  What a wild weekend.  I guess I'll spice up today's post with a little Military Monday.  It only seems appropriate as it is Memorial Day.  Photo Cred  With that being said, I hope everyone can take a moment out of their day to remember those that have fought and died for our freedom.   Although a lot of people think it isn't right to thank those who serve on Memorial day, I think it's completely okay.  Any one of us that raised our right hands and swore to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic deserve a little bit of thanks today.  Maybe they didn't die for your freedom, but they would. To me, that matters.  An all-volunteer-force where I chose to be the one that may have to risk my life instead of you...that matters.      And to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, I am eternally grateful.  Today, I've been cruising military pages and looking at all of these photos of memorial bracelets on a beer bottle...most of these men and women that have given their lives are my age...and I've barely lived any life at all...I can't imagine what that must be like.  They deserve all the thanks in the world.  Not just today, but everyday. 
And now onto...

At the Beginning of AT, there honestly wasn't a whole lot to do, so if you were on some specific job, you were able to sort of just, hang out.  The first few days of AT were probably the best part (besides my birthday)  I have a best Army Friend. I don't know if I'm his best Army Friend, but he's definitely mine. Well, he brought a tablet with a bunch of movies on it.  By the time we left, we had watched quite a few movie and found several ways to mount the tablet so that several people could watch at once. This was the first way.

That's a deployment bag, two pens, and a fleece cap.  At one point there were 6 or 7 people gathered around watching Batman around our little theatre.  Boredom makes you creative I guess.   The other variations of this mounting were in an MRE box (there's two little vinyl straps on the boxes before you open them. We stacked two boxes on top of each other and wedged the tablet in the straps while laying in the back of a humvee) and we also used duct tape at one point. The tape was probably the least creative, but it worked.  These little theatres made life much less boring when we had down time. 

Honestly, most of AT was kind of demotivating. Our work/rest cycle was all screwed up, so basically, we were on missions every night and never getting any sleep.  On top of that, the food sucked.   It was like we rarely had the actual chance to recharge. I also think that I went 7 days without a shower at one point simply because the time was never available to take care of business.  It wasn't the most fun thing in the world.

This is me about a week and a half in trying really hard not to lose my shit.

That green thing over my LBV is called miles gear. It's set up for war games so if someone's laser hits them you die.  The dumb thing? We didn't even use them. It was just...cumbersome. Also very expensive.  We literally couldn't go anywhere without our kevlars in hand because the also had miles gear on them...crappy. 

Basically AT was so stressful, it caused me to break my soda fast. 

I didn't drink a ton of it, but I just needed...something and I don't smoke, so a coke and a Red Bull it was.  

Since I got home, I've been drinking a little bit of soda, but not nearly as much as I used to. If I do, I drink something without caffeine usually and I don't tend to even drink it all.  I just don't have a craving for it like I used to.  I'll just order a sprite or something at a restaurant every now and then.  Life is better without a whole bunch of soda in it. Promise. 

Alright, so this conclude today's "Military Monday" I hope you are enjoying this little series and it's not too much Army for you all.  If you get sick of it all, let me know.  I'll write something more exciting, or at least try to!  I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday!