Remind me to never do it again.

Work my quadriceps the way I did three days ago, that is. Limping around everywhere isn't quite covering it. Of course, during my excercise I felt fine, just a little bit of stiffness but that is of the norm most of the time, just a little sore the next day. I guess since I don't really work out my legs it sent the muscles into shock creating a slow recovery process. This is what I get for being motivated, no pain no gain, right Navy?

Friends? Only for $1,000 though. Cool?

What kind of friend gathers the fucking gall to ask a deployed friend, which by the way sleeps in cold weather in nothing than a sleeping bag, gets shot at, sees comrades die, eats MRE's for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and deals with all the surreal realities of war, for a $1,000 so that the friend can purchase a car in the states? Are you kidding me asshole?

Sure mother fucker, take my money to endorse your needs. I am a good friend but there is a line and it doesn't start with your needs but, don't worry, I will stay over here, in Satan's playground, defending you and earn my money that apparently means as little as shit to you. Just because you want to ride to your girlfriends house with a fucking sun roof and power windows I will totally let you borrow my blood soaked money. Just make sure you ring it out before you hand it over to the liar who just wants your signature. "Sure, I'll pay you back bro...." eventually.... Fuck off.

Take cover!

Okay nothing can ruin a good relaxing state of mind, body, and soul and what I mean by that is laying down in my bivvie sac playing my PSP in a quiet room with no worries in the world, just midless button mashing and bright color observations to keep me temporarily entertained. Let's call this a state: volunteer de comotose. Anyway, lovely day right? Sounds good, looks good, even feels good.

Not a worry in the world until a peircing siren pisses in your cheerios followed by a muffled thud and explosives in the near distance. I am talking about mortar fire and yes it fucked my volunteered de comotose up. I will not use this bombing in vain as it did rough some people up but they are okay. How about you show your fucking face Mr. Muhammad Bearded Ballsac? Then see what happens.

Regardless, it is a time of war, this stuff happens, luckily we have good systems in place. Just lets the new guys know that this shit's real.

Never forget the first...

Eventhough my first experience with death was of a local national Afghani it still hit me harder than I expected but it wasn't until afterwards when I felt it. We got the call that a bird was coming in with casualties and I jumped on the opportunity first chance I got. I assembled my team, hopped into the back of the ambulance and drove out to the flight line, at this moment the bird flew in and quickly came down to a landing, the force wind from the rotor blades and all. We then ran out, ducking, thinking we are dodging the spinning blades, and I notice our helocopter crew hopping out and sliding the side door open. The flight medic had our guy on a stretcher performing CPR chest compressions. We quickly ran up, grabbed a handle and got him over to the ambulance, continued CPR compressions, got to the hospital and followed him inside. After brief observation of the patient the nurses quickly scrambled around while others performed chest compressions. There was no pulse left and after and ultrasonic scan of his chest the local national was pronounced dead. At this moment I felt a little weak, to my surprise actually.

On my way back to the clinic I couldn't find a single body, turns out there was a secondary patient in the helo that needed to be transported to a different hospital so I geared up and hopped in the second ambulance with a nurse. The second local national was dead but the nurse and I started chest compressions and breathes. There was no pulse. Great, two in one night. That's what I was thinking until we got a small pulse, irregular but, there, none-the-less. We ended up saving this guys life. Eventually we were able to remove the oxygen and he began breathing on his own so to balance moods out -- lose a life, save a life.

I am still a little shooken up but need to get back to work.

Uncomfortable

I don't think you have been uncomfortable until you have to transport a Afghanistan National Army soldier to the entry control point and wait right next to the wire in a spot light with a little to no armored jerryrigged truck with red crosses all over it. Then having the drivers of the other transport vehicle approaching you, local nationals, asking you why you don't have the magazine loaded in your weapon, then talking in Dari about it, looking at the weapon then straight into your eyes smiling.

My thoughts -- It aint fucking loaded but give me a reason and it will be.

I wonder why...

So the other night we get a patient who has chest pain, which is a major concern for us. He is a pretty built and healthly looking young guy so there was a tiny bit of concern and confusion associated with this issue. We do the normal, hooking up IV's, EKG's, drawing blood, the works... His EKG's came out with some irregularities that the nurse was a bit concerned with.

What's the deal? Turns out this dude endures a pretty intense workout schedule with a high demanding crossfit routine, which is all fine and dandy, but let me ask you this and if you can get it through the meat that intertwines in your brain cells then answer me back. Why on gods earth would you drink two cans of Dr. Pepper, two scoops of N.O.-Xplode, maintain a healthy diet of 1 1/2 cans of dip daily, AND then try to work out with outstanding levels of tachycardiac properties floating around in that beefy system of yours?

All I can say is... Caffeine, Caffeine, CAFFEINE!!! Then a heart enduring workout.... You my friend are dancing with the devil. Please learn something from this experience unless you want a heart attack before you turn 30.

Let the thunderbolts reign.

A10 Thunderbolts, first off, are the shit... just beautiful aircrafts. They are classified as a Close Air Support fighter jet. What's amazing is how they fuck people's days up as well. They come equipped with a Gatling gun, 3,900 rounds a minute firing 30mm rounds, among other things, that fill the night with orchestral beauty.

A10's fly around this hell hole spreading democracy to the landlovers of this warfilled country. What's tight is listening to the muffled trigger squeezes in the near distance. One trigger squeeze amounts to 65 rounds, which amounts to one second of firepower output, 1/60 sec or 65/3900 rounds. Good to know that these beautiful crafts are protecting us while we work.

More information at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II