Hurry up and wait game

The Hurry Up and Wait game. The Army's and maybe even the military most loved game to play. I've been a victim to many of these games. Just one the other day during one of my runs to another base here getting much needed supplies and equipment. It usually starts off something like this: we get a mission date/time and we get prepared by checking over personal equipment and other things such as weapons, radios, medical equipment. My day started off at O dark thirty again after talking to my Princess (Head Biting Princess) and getting ready for a day that I knew was going to be anything but fun. I went out to my assigned vehicle carrying my 50cal machine gun and barrel plus weapons mount and ammo tray for it. Then came back for my personal gear such as M4 rifle, body armor, Kevlar helmet, load bearing vest with extra ammo, grenades and what not on it plus my over night "bug out" bag (over night bag).

My bug out bag contains change of socks, underwear, sleeping bag, extra water, snacks and shit and anything I think I can use. The purpose of this bag is to allow you some comfort. Lets say Murphy's Law kicks in and you get stranded at another base, now you have your bug out with stuff you can use to stay a night or shower and change into some fresh underwear and socks...take a baby wipe bath and feel some what fresher and boost up your morale.

So, I am loading up my vehicle with the ma deuce (50cal) and ammo for it...get my bag settled in and pull out a bottle of water and few chicken nugget protein snacks and place on top of the turret with me. The turret is where the vehicles weapon systems are located with the operator...in this case is me. I get the ma deuce mounted and perform the head space and timing check on it. This is done to make sure that the weapon will fire out its deadly huge ass bullets. Once that is finished I pull my M4 on top with me and get it settled in just in case the ma deuce fails to fire.

I get my protective gear on and and pull my Kevlar helmet on over my noggin and strap it on, put the BOSE made headset on so I can talk with people inside the truck. Then I pull out my ipod and slide one of the ear bud speakers into my right ear and start the jamming.

We roll out of the gate and head towards our destination. Takes a little less than an hour to get there and I have the best view in the house. I get to smell all the shit in this third world dump and see all the sites. Mostly just trash and useless Iraqi Police sitting under an overpass or bridge asleep. And yet, they report that this country is safer now. RIGHT!!! Maybe if you are some REMF (rear echelon motha fucka) sitting in the comfort of your desk, a/c, swimming pool and comfy bed. Then, and only then would things be considered safer.

As we pull in to the base we were heading to we clear out weapon systems and personal weapons and continue to a meeting point. We all get out and discuss what all needs to be accomplished that day. We are parked at the main PX (similar to a walmart but military version and everything is tax free) and decide only a few people need to go along on this first leg of the journey so the rest of us walk to the PX to shop around after we were told to be back in an hour. I go shop around a bit, buy some Gatorade, buy a fleece ACU camouflage blanket for my darling's boy and head back out. Ive been gone for no more than 3o min. I hate shopping. I'm in and out, just like a thief in the night.

I walk back over to where our vehicles were supposed to be parked out when they get back. I find one...one I said...palm tree in this parking lot of dirt, dust and gravel. I walk over to it and sit my ass down and lean against the tree. I feel a few red ants crawling on me and I just stay there. I check my watch and see the temp has already topped 110 and its still morning here. I pull out my gatorade...take a swig...take my hat off and lay down on my hat which is resting on top of tis plastic bag containing the few items I bought. I have been in the Army for more that a day now and I know when someone higher ranking than you says they will be back by a certain time, you can usually double the said time and be good to go. So, I had some time to rest my eyes. I knocked out and woke up sweating my ass off and in the bright hot ass sun. The sun had risen and moved therefor my shade moved too and now I had been cooking in the sun for atleast an hour. I moved my position and stuff and got back under the shade...wiggled a lil bit to create a pocket in the gravel rocks and adjusted a few here and there off of my spine and went back to sleep. Some of the guys woke me up a lil while later saying the vehicles were there and were ready to move onto the next place. Now i'm covered in dust...sweat and a few ants here and there that have decided to bite me and now im trying to find the SOB's.

We roll to our next destination. Each destination our sole purpose is to aquire, borrow (without returning) anything we can get our hands onto. If its not bolted down and we can carry it and fit it in our trucks you can believe you will be missing something on your next property sheet check off.

Next destination is a little different. We are picking up two more vehicles that had some work done to them. We get those two and move to another location...and a few of us get dropped off while the rest of them go and get the humvee that we dropped off that morning to get worked on. These guys are gone for almost 3 hours...perfect time to get more sleep. I find another single tree out in the middle of a parking lot and rack out. Im out for a while when I wake up sweating my ass off again and the sun has moved my shade on me, again. I even planned it out a little bit before going to sleep. Ok, sun goes east to west...i looked at the compass built into my watch...saw the shadow on the ground was already going to the east which meant the sun was on the west side plus it was after 12 already which puts the sun on the west side. So, I woke up with the sun beating down on my face and sweating my ass off. I looked at the temp on my watch and it was telling me around 122 and its about as hot as it was going to get that day. I grabbed for my water and it was almost at a boiling point. I took a few swigs and moved on. The truck pulled up and we all loaded back into it. We moved back to our staging point near the main chow hall. We met up with a group of guys who are from another unit but going back to the same place as we are. So, we arranged that we would join our convoys together and go back as one unit. I checked my weapons once over and cleaned the dust off of them. We loaded up and rolled back to our base. Unloaded all the aquired and signed for supplies and gear then I went to talk to my baby online.

All of todays running around was a hurry up and wait process. We were told that we would be back around 1500 (3pm) that day and it was closer to 2130 or so when we got back in. This is to show you how the hurry up and wait game is played in one way.