when it rains..

I'm still putting together a thank you post for all of the care packages I've received but I wanted to say a few words about safety. If you're a civilian, you wouldn't believe the levels we go to concerning safety programs. We have rules about everything, get on an aircraft you have to wear a cranial and hearing protection, helmet while riding bikes (good idea), every vehicle out here looks like something out of Mad Max, wearing reflective vests after dark and they're even issuing ear plugs for fire fights (about time). Every nut and piece of safety wire in the aircraft has an SOP on how to put it in properly. Each of the Armed services put out well written safety magazines in all of the separate fields with horror stories of bad things that happened to people who weren't paying attention.

Yet..

This week has been a trial of bumps, bruises, cuts and broken bones. For my unit, the biggest enemy isn't insurgents, its accidents. Being in the medical field is like fishing; some weeks you don't get a bite and others you get a flood. That's what this week has been like, bike accidents, sprained ankles, chipped teeth, getting poked with sharp objects, you name it. Not one thing life threatening but the feeling is in the air. Everyone is walking around a bit softly, each injury means a small stack of paperwork about what happened, how medical fixed it and lost man hours which means someone has to take the slack.

Far from sitting around this week being happily bored, I've been sewing, splinting, putting on Band-Aids and dressing non battle wounds. Don't worry about me, I'm paranoid about safety but even paranoia doesn't cover all of the bases. I'm just trying to get all of my Marines to develop the same mindset as I have. Our number one job, before any other job, is to make it back home safe and in one piece.