On Deployment Now: Battle Fatigue

We have hit the halfway mark of our deployment and all is
well, although I must admit we are getting a little tired.
After working sixty-seven consecutive days we are a bit
weary. Computer problems continue to plague us. The computer
program that we use to receive and send messages seems to
require enough computer bandwidth to wrap around the earth
twice. So the computers are always just various speeds of
slow. At their slowest they kick us off. Repeatedly.

And the phones don’t work over here with absolute
certainty. In the U.S. you pick up the phone in an office without
considering the possibility that it won’t work. Many
evenings I have to call and call and call a number before I can
get it to go through.

And the military units move. I guess that’s what the
military does. They roll out over and over. Units come into
theater and units redeploy. Within their deployments,
servicemen and women are assigned and reassigned to units. The
whole place is in constant flux, and we are riding that tide,
trying to find people when there is an emergency at home.

Usually it is pretty exciting and goes well, but when we
hit a snag like the computer quits working, the phone line
won’t go through, or we call about six numbers trying to find
a soldier or marine, it can be grueling. During our
training the instructors and supervisors kept telling us we
would have to be patient. I didn’t realize they meant patience
of the magnitude of Job’s. It is difficult to be patient
when I have a message for about a ten year old boy who is
going in for open heart surgery unexpectedly or a message
about a wife who has given birth prematurely and the baby has
just been air lifted to a neonatal unit.

All of this can make us a bit cranky and I hope our
colleagues in the U.S. aren’t too offended when our epistles back
to them are a tiny bit short when they send us a message we
don’t quite understand and we reply, “What the --?”

The other evening, when I was just about at wit’s end, I
went into our canteen to make a fresh pot of coffee for the
soldiers waiting to use the phone. While I was there, a
serviceman told me that he often sees me walking to work and
has meant to stop and tell me thank you. He said he
appreciates what we do and that we are out here with them. He said
some the younger soldiers may not realize it yet, but it
is very reassuring to know that if there is an emergency at
home the Red Cross will find you. So, okay, I guess I can
tolerate the slow computers and temperamental phones a
little while longer. We do get the messages through, even if it
does take longer sometimes. And they appreciate it.

The other part of our fatigue relates to the monotony of
our surroundings. The MWR facilities try to have programs,
dancing lessons, comedy contests and such, but our schedules
don’t really allow us to partake of many of these events.
The repetition of the same schedule of working, sleeping,
showering, even reading and biking, day after day becomes a
little tiring.

Not to be defeated, Julie and I varied our sleep schedules
today and went shopping and sightseeing. We found
postcards of Iraq at one of the bazaars on post. I bought a pair
of inexpensive black wrap around sunglasses ostensibly so I
can wear my contacts more often without getting dust in my
eyes, but mostly I got them because I think they look cool
on me! And sunglasses are one of the few fashion
accessories allowed.

From there we stopped by one of the MP units on base and
brought them Starbucks coffee that had been donated and some
Red Cross coffee mugs. This is one of the units that goes
outside that wire and trains the Iraqi police. It was
interesting to talk with them about their mission and the
encouraging progress they are seeing at the Iraqi police
stations.

After that we drove to the south end of the base where a
new Cinnabon shop opened. We sat in at one of their tables
with coffee, a strawberry smoothie and two Cinnabons and
pretended we were at home.

I realize I don’t battle anything more than the computers,
phones, and monotony, and for that I am thankful. There is
hope on the horizon.

The Commanding General on COB Speicher inadvertently asked
my co-worker Debby how things are going, probably thinking
she was going to say, “Fine, sir” in her polite Tennessee
manner. But Debby, bless her heart, told him about our
computer problems and next thing we knew there was a new
computer with better access being installed in our office.
Wonders never cease.