Frustration

The Army has taught me many things in the nearly six years that I've been in. . .wow, I can't really believe it's been that long. Probably the most important thing I've learned with the Army is to accept that the things that are outside of my control, ARE in fact, outside of my control. This means I've learned to be patient sometimes, but most of the time it just means I have to accept the things I cannot change. Lately, my ability to dismiss these happenings from my list of things to worry about has been put to the test.

As I type this update, I'm sitting in my truck, sweat rolling down my face. This is because the air conditioner in our tent is not working, nor is the air conditioner in any of the tents we have available to us. The generator powering the air conditioners and lights in the tent city we were sleeping in went down. Because of this, we were force to find somewhere else to sleep for the day. Since the air conditioner in our truck works. . .rather poorly, that is why I'm sitting here in a pool of my own sweat.

If this were a single, isolated incident, I would not have an issue. However, this mission has been riddled with hiccups from the start. One of our trucks broke down no less than 500M outside of the gate the day we left, and our maintenance issues continued throughout the mission. We've been sorely lacking in sleep for the past week. . . I think I've personally slept on average 3-5 hours per night, if I was lucky. Yesterday, I was up for a 27 hour period. It is my sincerest wish that as we gain more experience, and time on our trucks, that things will begin running a little smoother for us.

I suppose that's enough venting for now. I hope to post a few pictures from our mission once I get back to the barracks at Arifjan.

~Babysitter~ <----- My callsign