Friends...

     I have called many people friends over the years but what does that really mean?.  I have worked with several hundred people in my career as a firefighter.  At one point or another I considered at least half of those my friends.  Have I heard from them lately?  Have I tried to contact them?  No.  Out of that several hundred I still talk to maybe 20 or so. Now I am not some cold hearted grinch. I have many friends outside the fire service. I am just using firefighters as a example.  Now your asking your self so what's the point of all of this?   I think the term friend is over used and taken for granted. 

  I know a guy here in Iraq that is from my base back in Vegas.  I have known him for a year or so.  He works in the plumbing shop.  Yesterday he stopped by my fire station with some of his co-workers to borrow some fire hose for a project.  I gladly walked out to the storage rack and pulled a few sections of hose off the rack for him.  He told his co-worker on the way out to the truck that we go way back and that I had always come through for him.  I told him to just shoot me an email when he was done with the hose and I would come by to  pick it up. He then asked me what my email address was.  This confused me.  In the military your email address is your first name/last name / command/.af.mil and we all know this fact of life in the military,  kind of like you know you will get the police when you dial 911. He apologized that he did not know my first name.  I had talked to paul at least three times a week for the past year. I have met his wife and done him a dozen favors.  I was not mad, upset or offended.  It just surprised me that is all. 

  Right now as I sit at the computer here in Iraq I am talking to two people over the instant messenger.  I have known them for about a year also.  Every morning Ryan greets me with a "HI buddy how are you doing?" " How are you today Mike?"   My wife and daughter's also talk to him frequently.  He is the kindest down to earth person I know.  The other person im talking with is Geoff.  I talk to him at least two or three times a week.  He just told me that he is sending a care package to me in Iraq.  I have had some in depth conversations about some very personal things with him.  I enjoy talking with these two very much.  They are two very close friends, almost family. Oh and did I mention I have never met either one of them in person.  I met them both playing a online video game.  Just something to think about…... 

 

Not a care in the world.....

  Do you remember the games you used to play with your friends when you were a kid?  Games like hide and seek,  Army men,  or my personal favorite Ninjas!  My brothers and I would dress up in Ninja costumes and run around the neighborhood.  We would jump over bushes, Scale the old creepy neighbors wall and walk across it while his dog barked at us.  We did not have a care in the world.  We did not know about bills, relationships, or war. We were free from responsibility to immerse ourselves in our own little world.

  Today for an hour ten people brought together by war had not a care in the world.  My Engine Co. had the pleasure of training with some of the best medics the Army has to offer.  We sat together in a small class room in Iraq.  We learned the skill of administering I.V's.  For those of you that don’t know this involves sticking large needles into injured and sick peoples veins so that fluids and medication can be place directly into the bloodstream.  The portion of the class today lasted 5 hours.  After the class was complete for the day one of the medics invited us for a BBQ.  They had flown T-bone steaks in from Germany on the med-evac flight.  So of course being firemen we gladly accepted the chance to eat a good meal and bull shit with the medics.

  We sat and ate our steaks quietly.  After we ate we talked back and forth laughing, one upping each others stories of Firefighting and Medical response's.  Then something happened that changed the whole mood of the occasion.  A young female medic came running our of the ER with two bottles of water.  I could tell by the look on her face she fully intended to empty them over the medic next to me. Yup I was right and very wet.

  That one event started a chain reaction.  For the next hour we chased each other around dumping water on each other.  The super soakers showed up and we were out gunned so of course we pulled the fire truck around and thoroughly soaked them all.  I had just met the guy who tackled me to the ground. The girl who jumped on my back and poured water down my shirt I had not known hours earlier. For one hour We had not a care in the world...

A lot of time to think....

 
Well folks here is the post I was talking about earlier.

I had not slept in 24 hrs as I heard the 0600 wake up call come across the radio.  I typed the last line of the award package I was working on and hit send.  I thought to myself it is way too quiet for being right next to the busiest airfield in the world.  I stepped outside and was welcomed by the rising sun.  I could hear a few birds chirping then it went dead silent again that kind of eerie silence like in the movies just before somebody gets stabbed from behind.  The silence did not last long.  I heard the thump thump thump a squadron of CH-47 helicopters coming in low to the ground, as they passed less than 100ft over my head I thought to myself I hope the injured troops they were carrying would hold on long enough to make it to the combat hospital.

  After thinking about the helicopters for a minute longer I decided it was time to make coffee and head to the shower.  With the coffee brewing I walked the 30 or so steps to the shower.  I was in the shower for what felt like 10 minutes but the clock back in my room told me a half hour.  I quickly put on a freshly pressed uniform.  Im not sure what it is about and clean uniform that makes me feel good but it does.  After staring and the picture of my beautiful wife for a minute I grabbed my cup of coffee and walked out in to the courtyard for the second time this morning.  Sitting on the bench I lit a cigarette and thought to myself I should quit.  My mind then wandered back to the picture of my wife on the computer. The silence was back.  Looking across the courtyard I saw the large pile of gear bags from the new firefighters I was huddled in the bunker with hours earlier and wondered if they knew what they were in for.  As I was sitting there 4 or 5 people walked by nodded their heads at me and said "morning Tech sergeant" "how's it going sarge"  "long night huh sarge looks like you need that coffee"  I could not tell you their names my mind was still on my wife and kids. 

  I lit another cigarette but this time I was sitting on the front of the pumper watching the people and cars go by in front of the station.  Then it kind of hit me.  I'm not sure where it came from or why but I realized the firefighters I was about to call to attention for roll call were looking up to me.  They depended on me to make decisions that if made wrong could impact their lives, their families lives. Feeling tiny and cocky at the same time I jumped of the front of the pumper leaving my coffee cup behind.  "STATION TEN HUT!.. At ease for roll call" another day begins how it will end I don’t know.

  Ok so I have gotten a few blog posts under my belt now.  I am really starting to enjoy writing.  When I was back in high school I took a creative writing class and really enjoyed it.  Since I have been in the military I have not really had the opportunity to write other than in structured Air Force ease.  My wife started a private blog for us before I left for Iraq.  The other day I was pushing 30 hours without sleep and was writing an email to her.  I started writing and after a paragraph I realized it was in more of a journal type format almost like I was talking to myself.  So I kept writing and before I knew it I had written a page.  I posted it to our private blog and went back to work.  A few hours later she sent me a Instant message and told me it would be her favorite post for along time. I'm not sure why but im still kind of shy about other people reading what I have to say.  Will they like it? Think its funny? Or totally misunderstand what im trying to say. I have not decided if im going to post that entry here or not. But anyway on with "That guy"

  Ok I know you have all seen the beer commercials. The guy who steals the last beer, takes the last piece of pizza, or shows up with generic beer is "That guy".  I have been in the fire department for 11 years now and "that guy" is everywhere.  He is the guy that does something wrong, offensive, or inconsiderate over and over and over and over. He is the guy who hides when there is work to be done. He is the guy who is always the last one on the fire truck.  He is the guy who never takes a shower.  Ok im going to side track for a minute.  In the fire department we are pretty brutal when it comes to making fun of people, teasing, and hazing.  So you can imagine the last thing you want to do if you cant take a joke is to tell everyone what your weakness is. We will open the wound as big as we can and pour salt inside then trample all over it. The point is if you have a weakness and cant take the teasing what ever it is you will become that guy.

  Now all of this may sound a little harsh to the normal person.  We are anything but normal people.  We work long hours in most cases 24hrs on and 24 off. We spend more time with the people we work with than our families.  We put our bodies through physical punishment that would make most people cry.  We see the horrors and the true evil of society every day. Making fun of each other and teasing is not only part of our culture its how we relieve stress sometimes. Ok now I bet you are asking what the hell does this have to do with that guy.  If you have bothered reading this far I will tell you about the last.

  "That guy usually only comes out on deployments like the one im on now in the middle east. On rare occasion you will see him around your fire house in the states too. That guy is always pissed off and short with others.  That guy is usually on the morale phone or writing a email. That guy is not only stressed out from being in a combat zone but is worried about what his wife/girlfriend is doing.  That guy's wife just told him she wants a divorce.  That guy just found out she is cheating on him.  That guy's mind is somewhere else and not on the job at hand. That guy could get me killed. I feel sorry for that guy and pissed off cause he missed a symptom on a medical call and almost killed somebody, He didn’t put his bunkers on right went down leaving me alone in a building full of smoke and fire.  Ok once again if you have bothered to read this far you are most likely asking yourself what the hell does this have to do with the beer commercial.  Well I will tell you. I am not that guy….

  I have been married to my wife Jonette for 9 years now. Im not saying we are perfect we have our fights and issues like everybody but we do one thing that a lot don’t do enough of and that’s talk to each other.  My wife is my best friend, my lover, and the mother of my 3 beautiful daughters. If something is on my mind I tell her.  If she if bugged by something she asks me about it.  Now sometimes I have to pry it out of her but we have always gotten to the bottom of the issue made up and went to the bedroom and screwed each others brains out for a hour or two.  Once again we are not perfect by any means but I am not sitting here in Iraq worried about what she is doing, where she is going, who she is talking too. Im not saying commuication is the only part of our relationship or it is the cure all but it is a big part of ours. She is a individual and my best friend….. So I hope you enjoyed reading my rambling.  Im going to go smoke and grab a energy drink while spell checker is running for the next 15 min…Talk to you later

 

Spell check....

I was reading an article online yesterday that said one of the least used features of a computer is the spell check. I know jo is laughing her ass off right now but seriously I really think I confused the spell checker with my last few posts..... oops almost forgot to spell check :)

cya

Michael

First things first....

Let me clear up a few things before we get started. 1. My vacations is courtesy of uncle sam and the travel agent sent me to the middle east. 2. I'm really new to blogging my wife started one so we could keep in touch while I'm gone and now I think I'm hooked. 3. If you are looking to read some really insightful stories formatted in perfect grammar you better find another blog. ( I recommend my wife's)

OK now that we have that out of the way I will try to come up with some blogtastic stuff to keep you entertained. Like I mentioned above Im new to this so be patient. Well thats all I have for now. Talk to ya later

Michael