Mammy

I suppose soldiers and shovels have been partners for thousands of years. It's no different here.

While walking through the new tent city I saw five soldiers with shovels standing and just looking around. I went over to see what they were doing, and as we stood there a little front end loader, like a Bobcat, turned a corner and drove toward us. It got a few feet away, dumped a load of rocks, then spun around and headed back to the rock pile for a refill. The soldiers got busy with the shovels, spreading out the rocks to form a pathway between the tents so that when it rains, soldiers do not have to walk through mud.

When the loader dumped the rocks, it also unleashed a choking cloud of dust. One of the soldiers buried his face in the crook of his elbow. Another squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, a natural but pointless act since the dust swirled all around us. After it cleared a bit, I noticed that the soldiers were all thickly coated with grime, except their eyes and lips, making them look like brown faced Al Jolsons.

I continued on to lunch (spaghetti & meatballs), they continued to shovel rocks in the 110 degree heat.