Geek in a War Zone

Draw Down

I walk quickly down the street, head down, hands in my pocket. The sun has not risen yet, and a steady stream of frozen breath comes from me as I walk down the street a lone figure a shadow drawn across my face by the hood covering my head. The noise of my foot prints is all that I hear, I look up as I cross through a checkpoint only to see the Ugandan guards staring back at me, huddled for warmth in their guard shack. Their unsmiling faces do not cause me to take any notice anymore. They clutch their weapons strapped over their shoulders. Always on alert. Past them I continue on down the empty well lit main street that runs the length of FOB Union III.

"Damn, it's cold", I think.

I lift my head only every few steps expecting to run into someone out of habit. No one is there. The streets are lonely and so am I.

I think how just weeks earlier even at this time in the morning I would see a multitude of people bustling along, joggers despite the cold running with their reflective P.T. belts strung across their shoulders or around their waist. A mass of people would always be near the dining facility, going in and out, stopping to say "Hi" to each other or discussing things to be done that day, I walk by and look and just more guards watching the entrance. I skip it and decide to just eat later. My appetite lately has been waining. Besides the food quality has noticeably started to go down hill.

I continue past it through a walkway right off the street, the gravel slowing my pace as every step gains less ground then on the concrete. I turn the corner and a gust of wind strikes me and I pull my arms closer and quicken my step even further to cross the open expanse of the traffic circle. A Christmas tree stands in the center sitting area, benches laiden with decorations and rails with tinsel around the edge of the circular area. A large concrete wall stands in the middle and on it is the words "OSC-I, Team of Teams."

Even with the decorations any iota of Christmas spirit is dampened by the emptiness surrounding the area, just a grim reminder of what season it was and a unwelcome guest in my thoughts. I wish they would've left it well enough alone and just skipped any sort of recognition of the time of year. Thoughts of home always came with it. Home, a place I would not be seeing for a while. How long? Who knew? God did, but he hasn't made me privy to that fact.

Thankfully I passed overt the open expanse and the high walls blocked the wind. I come up to another guard shack. I smiled as I saw these guys on a daily basis and even though they knew me I held my badge up and they waved me through the door. I go through the small door ridiculous looking compared to the giant wall it was in. I walk past a few vehicles and turn the corner again. Through another area surrounded by walls I walk up to a two-story building. Double doors are in front of me and I enter.

It was warmer in here, a very large TV was on and a football game was playing. Couches sat in front of it, all empty, as if the couches themselves were the ones watching the big game. I veer to the right and go up a flight of stairs and enter into the hallway where my office was. I walk to my office and enter, I look immediately to where my co-worker would be and just like the rest of the theme of that morning, his desk was empty as well. He must've gone to breakfast.

We missed each other alot, there was only two of us now and we had to maintain as much of a 24 hours shift as we could. We did the best we could but it left us working completely opposite of each other. I thought back to how I worked with an office full of people, plentiful co-workers to talk to, to make you laugh, to share stories of things going on at home. Now here I was in the middle of Baghdad, Iraq, December 2011. The month that marked the end of the war.

I take my coat off and sit and login, quickly check email and look to see if there was any work to be done, there was not. Trevor, my compatriot was oalways good about not leaving any work for me to do. We hadn't met but a few weeks earlier and he seemed nice enough but immediately he went to nights and I was on days. Didn't leave a lot of time for getting to know each other. So far, it was strictly a working relationship.