In the dark

My dad used to tell a joke about Key birds that live at the south pole. They walk around all day going "key... key...key riste it's cold down here!" Well, key..riste it's dark around here.

Nothing in the troop area is lighted, outdoors, so the enemy doesn't know where to aim rockets. I think this is a great idea, but it does make it tough to get around at night. The air is usually thickened by dust or smoke or clouds or something, so we get little starlight, and usually not too much moonlight. There are no street lights, or light coming out of buildings, so it's like being out in the woods, or in the middle of the desert. Just dang dark.

It's getting dark here a little after 1700, so when you come of the the bright chow hall into the dark, it's hard to see. I try to just tough it out and not use a flashlight, which is odd for me since I love flashlights. My eyes usually adjust OK, except for the errant headlights or flashlight that gets since in them. It's funny to see soldiers walking back from the chow hall. Most of them have these new little LED flashlights, which come in red, green, blue and white, so you see a string of colored lights bobbing up and down along the road.

It's about 5 to 7 football fields from my CHU to the DFAC. The route is over gravel and dirt paths, across a large field transected by a drainage....canal, I guess. The canal has gently sloping sides so you can walk down through it, or even drive a Hummer across it. An alternative route goes along the road, but they've dug deep ditches along the roadside so they can install drainage pipe. Part of the road is paved, part is oiled in prep for paving, and various and sundry obstacles have been placed in our path, just to make things difficult. We have to go over/under barbed wire to get on/off the road, we have to jump the ditch, go around cement barriers placed to keep vehicles off the road, and avoid mud puddles and other soldiers. If you walk too close to another soldier who has a rifle slung, you can whack the barrel painfully with you hand or knee or whatever, depending on how it is slung.

It's pretty much the same story going to the bathrooms or showers. I have walked smack into a dumpster going back from the bathroom. Good thing I was returning from, not going to the restroom. I might have had a negligent discharge, if you know what I mean.