Back to the laundrymat

I wrote the previous post while waiting for my clothes to dry. After writing it, I returned to get the dry clothes, and the soldier was still there, finishing cleaning his pistol.

I asked him how his rifle got so muddy. He said that his unit did an air assault to do a cordon and search, and they had to cross a river between the landing zone and the objective. That is, they took helicopters, flew to the area, dismounted, and encircled the objective on foot to keep anyone from getting out. They then conducted the search, and apparently rounded up one of the guys they were looking for. I said, "Well, you must have had pretty good intel." He said, unimpressed, "Well, we didn't the get the other guy we were looking for so it can't be that good."

Having noticed that he only wiped off the rifle, and didn't clean the firing pin or other of the parts that get dirty when the rifle is fired, I said "You didn't get any shots off, I guess." "No sir, we're not in a shooting war." He sounded kind of disapppointed.