Arrrrrmy Trrraining Sirrrr!

Some background: The Army is always preparing for events/conflicts that may or may not occur in the future…we call these preparations “exercises”…these “exercises” take place in what we call “the field” which is a place that we “go to” in order to play “war”…Here in Korea we must remain vigilant and prepared to face the mighty forces directly to our north…so without further ado…

I wake up at 6am to be there by 7am for my 12-hour shift which starts at 7:30am…awesome!

Beginning the day/shift by eating breakfast and catching up on a couple news articles after which I reluctantly begin the only mission I have for the day – to ensure that the laptop works and to hook up the external hard drive and ensuring that it works as well…ten minutes later my mission is complete and I’m on break...or whatever…

The computer is “up” and the hard drive is functioning – pheew and it’s barely closing in on 8am…

At some point a major comes up and asks me something I’ve been pondering for two days – “so what exactly are you doing here?” he asks half sarcastically – to which I can merely respond with – whatever my major needs me to do Sir…

The fact of the matter is my lack of a current security clearance has even made that comment a bit of a stretch…

Basically I’m here because I was told to be here…as far as functionality goes though I really don’t exist in this “exercise” they’re attempting to conduct…I can’t go in certain places that they “need” me to go to and can’t see certain things that they “need” me to see…

And for a brief moment myself and this Sir shared the thought and feelings of – then why the hell make you come out here all day…especially on a Saturday…

Alas, it does not matter what common sense suggests – common sense has been overruled – we must all simply “play the game” as it were – and knowing this – the Sir and I grin at one another, nod and continue on about our business…him to his computer and secret squirrel power point slideshows – and me to devouring a book: Rammer Jammer YellowHammer: A Journey into the Heart of Fan Mania…

I guess when the North Koreans get here I’ll just hold up the book as a shield of sorts and let them know – Don’t shoot, I’m a noncombatant!...I really need to figure out how to say that in Hongul…

Here’s the thing – THEY know I’m not doing anything and I KNOW I’m not doin’ nothin’ – I make no qualms about this fact…but the fact remains: they want me here – so here I be! The phrase: an exercise in futility comes to mind…

So today I read, and I read, and I read, and then I took a piss, ate some food and then read some more – I am now on page 188 of my book…hell – at least it’s a good book…gotta look for that silver lining eh!

And so I drag myself back to the crib 12 hours later and get to do it all again tomorrow…word up!

Selah…