17 April 2009
Well I have officially been back on the FOB for a week. Seems like a lot longer, a lot shorter, and like I never left all wrapped into one week. It's been two weeks since we were actually in Greece all together enjoying the dare-devil roads and watching all the European school kids have their own running races in the original Olympic stadium.
It was funny coming back because for the first day I was all messed up. I was still in Kuwait but putting my uniform back on for the first time was a challenge. I sadly had to really think about how I put it on, specifically how I tie my boots so they don't cut into my skin too much, I've only been in 3 years and already I know how tight not to tie those boots! It only took a day though before I was back at home in my ACUs.
Not much has changed. I made it back to the FOB just in time for a rain storm followed by a dust storm. Easter was exciting, the dinning facility was covered in pastel wrapping paper and we all got jelly beans and chocolate bunnies for dinner. I kind of forgot it was Easter, so that was about the extent of my holiday. Holidays here are more just a sad attempt at decorating the dinning facility than anything else. As much as it puts you in the holiday spirit, going to work every day takes away the 'holiday' part of it all. In the states we get 4 day weekends usually for Holidays, not here.
I said this once before and apparently it was news to people, so I'll give you a little rundown of the work expectations while deployed. Deployment is not a time to spend more time away from work that at work, at least that's what the more senior people act like. My personally feeling is most of them have nothing better to do than hang out at work since they don't have their families to go home to where as I have never left work and gone home to my wife and kids so I find my own things to do. I go home and read or watch movies, in the states I go out hiking or something like that, so I make a point of getting my work done in time to have time to do what I want. Here is not a whole lot different, I still enjoy going home and reading or watching a movie. Another reason I enjoy taking as much time off as I can is that we do work every single day. We're all allowed to have a half day off, but every half day I take ends up being a whole day of work anyways, I just work later.
I work 8-7 usually every day. I take about an hour or so for lunch and sometimes try to leave by 6, but for the most part it's 10 hour days. I personally think that's sufficient, but the leaders response is "what else do you have to do?" Well, nothing really but I'd rather do nothing in my shipping container in my shorts and bare feet than in my office in full ACUs, but that's just me. But I'm not really complaining because working that much during a field problem or now deployment is just another thing that if you accept it it's not so bad. The more you fight it and get angry the worse it is so I just ride it out. We'll get plenty of time off when we redeploy and there isn't a whole lot else to do.
It was funny coming back because for the first day I was all messed up. I was still in Kuwait but putting my uniform back on for the first time was a challenge. I sadly had to really think about how I put it on, specifically how I tie my boots so they don't cut into my skin too much, I've only been in 3 years and already I know how tight not to tie those boots! It only took a day though before I was back at home in my ACUs.
Not much has changed. I made it back to the FOB just in time for a rain storm followed by a dust storm. Easter was exciting, the dinning facility was covered in pastel wrapping paper and we all got jelly beans and chocolate bunnies for dinner. I kind of forgot it was Easter, so that was about the extent of my holiday. Holidays here are more just a sad attempt at decorating the dinning facility than anything else. As much as it puts you in the holiday spirit, going to work every day takes away the 'holiday' part of it all. In the states we get 4 day weekends usually for Holidays, not here.
I said this once before and apparently it was news to people, so I'll give you a little rundown of the work expectations while deployed. Deployment is not a time to spend more time away from work that at work, at least that's what the more senior people act like. My personally feeling is most of them have nothing better to do than hang out at work since they don't have their families to go home to where as I have never left work and gone home to my wife and kids so I find my own things to do. I go home and read or watch movies, in the states I go out hiking or something like that, so I make a point of getting my work done in time to have time to do what I want. Here is not a whole lot different, I still enjoy going home and reading or watching a movie. Another reason I enjoy taking as much time off as I can is that we do work every single day. We're all allowed to have a half day off, but every half day I take ends up being a whole day of work anyways, I just work later.
I work 8-7 usually every day. I take about an hour or so for lunch and sometimes try to leave by 6, but for the most part it's 10 hour days. I personally think that's sufficient, but the leaders response is "what else do you have to do?" Well, nothing really but I'd rather do nothing in my shipping container in my shorts and bare feet than in my office in full ACUs, but that's just me. But I'm not really complaining because working that much during a field problem or now deployment is just another thing that if you accept it it's not so bad. The more you fight it and get angry the worse it is so I just ride it out. We'll get plenty of time off when we redeploy and there isn't a whole lot else to do.
1 comment:
Well I don't see many comments on yur blog. So either no one reads them or they just don't leave anything.
Just so you know that someone does
appreiciate yur effort I am posting. Glad you had fun on your time off and Greece sounds cool. Mo loved your post card and so did I. Keep working hard and you will be back in the states before you know it. Take care.
Tom Merline
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