Last night the reality that I'm in Afghanistan, a place where we fight a war against an insurgency, set in. I went to a ramp ceremony. This is where the bodies of the fallen leave the battlefield. Four soldiers, all from an engineer's battalion, died as the result of an IED. The bodies were brought to Kandahar Air Field (KAF), where I'm at, to be placed on a C117 that will fly them to the States. Officers from all nationalities at the base gathered on the tarmac to march out to the yawning backside of C117. A chaplain led a solemn ceremony in a prayer and a reading of a psalm. "Amazing Grace was played, and six soldiers carried each of the flag draped coffins into the cavernous interior of the military's largest cargo plane. The coffins, small against the interior of the plane, were the sole cargo for the flight, as if the fallen soldiers were a cargo so large that nothing else was needed to fill the giant plane. In fact, nothing else was needed, their sacrifice was enough.
Life in general has entered into monotony. The Taliban shoots rockets onto KAF somewhat regularly, but usually to no damage. The DFACs (dining facility in Army speak), there are at least six on the base, are running together, as I quit caring where I'm getting my food. The days are hot and it is difficult to tell the difference between 100 and 110. The scenery alters between this concrete wall and that one. The 24 hour air show doesn't turn my head away from the gravel I'm walking on. And the different nationalities standout as I can differentiate between all the different camouflages.
One of the nationalities I work with most closely are the Canadians. You can't help but love them. I can always pick them out by all the "proooooo-jects" they are talking about, compared to our American "praaaa-jects." The Canadians present one great difficulty for me, spelling my last name. It is that "a" at the very end of my name that gets them every time. I will spell it for them "v" as in victor, "e" "v" "e" "r" "k" "a". "a"…… "a"….. No, I'm not saying "eh", I mean "a" as in my last name ends with the letter "a." It usually takes a minute before they realize that my last name ends in an "a" and I'm not just giving them an agreeable Canadian "eh." Oh, the challenges that come working with Canadians. J
No comments:
Post a Comment