INDEPENDENCE DAY

Today is July 4th, 2008, Independence Day, and I was fortunate enough to be able to take off today, and observe the holiday. I wanted to put the title of today's post in color, but was unable to accomplish it. Being here in a war zone has made me much more aware of Independence Day, and the meaning it has. I see the helicopters land and take off from the CSH (Combat Support Hospital), and try to will them to not be needed. I know when they are flying in and out, it is because someone has been injured severly enough to need immediate medical attention, and I try to will that not to happen. As Yoda, the Jedi Warrior from Star Wars says, "Do or not do, there is no try," but I don't want to accept that I am not doing the thing with willing no one gets hurt, so I continue trying, hoping I will succeed in my efforts. Who would have ever thought a phrase with so much meaning could come from a sci-fi movie? I know back home, every one is concerned about the high price of gasoline, the rising costs of food, clothing, and other things, but here, there are people that are sometimes dieing. Much of the time over here, we are concerned about whether the PX has what we want, or whether the airconditioning is going to continue to operate, or whether the DFAC (dining facility) will have watermelon or something else we like today, or how much work there is going to be today, but the bottom line we sometimes forget is there are soldiers who are going out, and putting themselves in harms way. Some of the bases over here get "hit" fairly often, and here where I am, we don't get "hit" very often, so it is easy to forget where we are. A properly operating mortar can travel six and a half kilometers, which is less distance than it is to town from here. I am posting this to remind myself to be thankful of what I have, and to ask everyone who reads it to please do the same. Thanks, GliderMike
Oh, it probably hit 120 degrees F outside today, like it has for the past couple of weeks every day.