Fourth of July

For the 4th of July, I took the road trip described in another post. I’m sure there were celebratory activities on our FOB, but I didn’t happen across them.

The chow hall was nicely decked out. Oddly, they removed the table cloths which were either solid red, white or blue, and replaced them with desert camo plastic table cloths. They wrapped RW&B bunting around various things, had a big cake decorated in a patriotic theme, and the main line was hot dogs, hamburgers, etc, which is what is usually served in the short order line. I had the trout, which has not been served before as far as I know.

Tonight at 2100, to celebrate the 4th of July, “God Bless America” (or maybe “America the Beautiful,” I only caught the last few strains) was broadcast over our Big Voice system, then the Army song (Caissons Go Rolling Along) then the Air Force song (Up and Away), then a few red star clusters were shot up, and I heard some celebratory gunfire outside our FOB. That was it. The songs were pretty cool, as the Big Voice is so loud.

We have this killer ordnance that can light up the sky for miles, but didn’t break it out, because it is killer ordnance. Also, shooting anything into the air that explodes is taken pretty seriously around here. A real fireworks show would probably drive the target acquisition guys crazy.

Happy Fourth of July from one of the new Minutemen.