I am a corpsman but don't really blog about medicine that much, so here’s a medical post. The most common medical problem that requires minor surgery while deployed with my Marines seems to be ingrown toenails (I don't know if that's true for others but it is for me) and here’s a video I made of me in action taking out part of a toenail (yes, I screwed up and ripped it in half, but it still came out, just wasn't as pretty on film) and there are subtitles. If you easily get grossed out, don’t click play, for me, it's just something I do at work.
For someone who has a blog called Doc in the Box, you would think that I would have more medical posts.
Update because the readers asked, I did use a nerve block and a rubber tourniquet to stop the blood flow, there are gloves on my hands, they’re just sort of skin toned, my doc was filming and did a great job at it. The wound was lightly packed with cotton for the day a 2x2 and regular 1 inch medical tape wrapped around the toe. The patient actually said it was pain free the next day. There’s no sucking it up unless bullets are flying over my head or if the patient is drunk and has just punched me in the jaw while I'm trying to sew them up (happens).
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
One of my Martial Arts Videos
Out of 20 or so videos that I strung together to make the entire video, it will give you a taste of what I put together. These guys were going though the Tan, Gray or Green belt course and it was no joke. Sgt Luna was our instructor and I've never seen his like, great job brother. Video and pictures taken with the Canon S3 I purchased at the beginning of the deployment.
PS. Hellboy II rocks!
PS. Hellboy II rocks!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Making a Video
The hardest part of making a unit video for me is the first step, coming up with the music and theme then bending my mind around that idea. Once that’s done, everything else does start falling into place, the gaps get filled in and there’s a sense of accomplishment as sections get done till finally, a finished product. With a good enough idea and the proper eye and ear candy, the video can take on a life of its own. I’ve discovered that these video projects tend to take over the creative parts of my brain and other things that I normally do like write, talk and read for pleasure, all of that get chopped off at the knees and I mumble, spill drinks and my blogging goes to crap.
I was the unit videographer my first trip out here in 2004 and had a bunch of spare time to make movies and post pictures on my fotopage and it was still a huge job. This time it’s a different story, I’m actually working pretty hard. Yes Anonymous Guy, I am at Camp Cupcake with a nice pool walking distance away but that doesn’t make my job any easier or change the distanc that I'm separated from my family. I'm just cleaner and a bit safer and no, I haven’t gone out to Salsa night (don’t need strangers to see my lack of dancing skills). Even though I was getting mortared and shot at on a somewhat regular basis in 2004, my job back then was worlds easier. Now I’m living in a paperwork jungle and miss the easy, drama free times when I was just a squadron corpsman and could work on these huge products while sitting around at work instead of on my spare time after a 12 hour workday.
But I admit, there was one perk about being at Camp Cupcake, Puddle of Mudd came out a couple of weeks ago and put on a show for the troops. I got to watch from 15 or so feet away and it was an awesome! I even got to use some of the bandages I had packed into my cargo pocket at the end of the night, a guy who was leaving 4 days from then got gashed in the eyebrow by a flying CD. I estimate 12 sutures.
Well back to screening music, still haven’t figured out the soundtrack for the second quarter, wish the bride was around, she sees everything through the lens of song.
I was the unit videographer my first trip out here in 2004 and had a bunch of spare time to make movies and post pictures on my fotopage and it was still a huge job. This time it’s a different story, I’m actually working pretty hard. Yes Anonymous Guy, I am at Camp Cupcake with a nice pool walking distance away but that doesn’t make my job any easier or change the distanc that I'm separated from my family. I'm just cleaner and a bit safer and no, I haven’t gone out to Salsa night (don’t need strangers to see my lack of dancing skills). Even though I was getting mortared and shot at on a somewhat regular basis in 2004, my job back then was worlds easier. Now I’m living in a paperwork jungle and miss the easy, drama free times when I was just a squadron corpsman and could work on these huge products while sitting around at work instead of on my spare time after a 12 hour workday.
But I admit, there was one perk about being at Camp Cupcake, Puddle of Mudd came out a couple of weeks ago and put on a show for the troops. I got to watch from 15 or so feet away and it was an awesome! I even got to use some of the bandages I had packed into my cargo pocket at the end of the night, a guy who was leaving 4 days from then got gashed in the eyebrow by a flying CD. I estimate 12 sutures.
Well back to screening music, still haven’t figured out the soundtrack for the second quarter, wish the bride was around, she sees everything through the lens of song.
Monday, June 02, 2008
My brain has stopped adding words together
I’ve hit the slump of the deployment along with many of the Marines and Sailors that I work the only difference is this is the first time that the slump has shut down my writing cold. I would put an idea on paper and try to expand on it and would end up having monosyllable conversations with myself. As painful as it is to have a conversation with one of those people, it’s worse to read it.
I did a two blog post a while back ago called Twilight of the Deployment (take one and take two) and I can’t really improve on either of them with this block filling up my head just to note that my unit is in that period of time.
The Dear John’s or Jane’s have started trickling in one party, here or there is shocked and can’t believe it’s happening to them. It’s that season of the deployment, between the middle till right before we get home. I’ve been here before and most of the Staff NCO’s I work with are on their second or third marriage, it’s the junior guys that worry me. Right now is where relationships crumble, one party realizes that they really don’t like being alone or that their significant other isn’t the “One” or meets someone special who isn’t far away and don’t know how to break it off with someone on the other side of the world then waits till right before they get home. There is no easy way to break off a serious relationship.
Where one party is lonely and falls for someone they are interacting with daily and breaks the relationship off. The spouse that cleans out the bank account and max’s out credit cards out of spite and disappears. Tired of the lack of email, phone calls, letters, etc. Tired of how the other party is spending their finances.
I see these stories every single day, the names and faces change and as a leader or a healer, you have to help these people make something constructive out of the crap that life took on them. For an air unit like mine, it’s not the suicide bombers or the mortars that cause most of us to toss and turn at night or think it’s not worth it anymore. It’s the worry about the person we expected to spend the rest of our lives with on the other side of the world. The military is tough on family life any way you look at it and there isn’t a cookie cutter solution that can fix all of the problems.
For me, this trip I’m just soul weary tired, 4 trips out here is beginning to add up and it’s tough to keep that cheery grin on my face or to find the words to put words down on paper. The last year was a bit rough on my psyche and I haven’t a chance to patch all of the holes that have been made. It all adds up in the end.
If I haven’t proved it in the past, I do write when I’m depressed but that’s not exactly what I’m feeling right now. I just a sense of numbness in my brain, I’m trying to talk some of them out, the heartache I’m feeling isn’t for me, it’s for the people whom I work with and care about. It sucks not having an answer to such big questions when they are so desperately. My head feels like I’ve stretched something too far and it broke away.
Speaking of away, while I wasn’t typing on the keyboard I did get a chance to read everything by an author named Jim Butcher and Bane, I agree, thanks for the tip. One of the ingredients that probably added to my writers block was the lack of sleep I was getting because I couldn’t stop reading. Seriously, he’s good.
I’m sorry for not popping my head up for an entire month, every writer I know hits a low point in their writing and this has been mine. Some days they flow from my fingers but I just haven’t found it lately and I’m not one of those people that like tossing up words.
I did a two blog post a while back ago called Twilight of the Deployment (take one and take two) and I can’t really improve on either of them with this block filling up my head just to note that my unit is in that period of time.
The Dear John’s or Jane’s have started trickling in one party, here or there is shocked and can’t believe it’s happening to them. It’s that season of the deployment, between the middle till right before we get home. I’ve been here before and most of the Staff NCO’s I work with are on their second or third marriage, it’s the junior guys that worry me. Right now is where relationships crumble, one party realizes that they really don’t like being alone or that their significant other isn’t the “One” or meets someone special who isn’t far away and don’t know how to break it off with someone on the other side of the world then waits till right before they get home. There is no easy way to break off a serious relationship.
Where one party is lonely and falls for someone they are interacting with daily and breaks the relationship off. The spouse that cleans out the bank account and max’s out credit cards out of spite and disappears. Tired of the lack of email, phone calls, letters, etc. Tired of how the other party is spending their finances.
I see these stories every single day, the names and faces change and as a leader or a healer, you have to help these people make something constructive out of the crap that life took on them. For an air unit like mine, it’s not the suicide bombers or the mortars that cause most of us to toss and turn at night or think it’s not worth it anymore. It’s the worry about the person we expected to spend the rest of our lives with on the other side of the world. The military is tough on family life any way you look at it and there isn’t a cookie cutter solution that can fix all of the problems.
For me, this trip I’m just soul weary tired, 4 trips out here is beginning to add up and it’s tough to keep that cheery grin on my face or to find the words to put words down on paper. The last year was a bit rough on my psyche and I haven’t a chance to patch all of the holes that have been made. It all adds up in the end.
If I haven’t proved it in the past, I do write when I’m depressed but that’s not exactly what I’m feeling right now. I just a sense of numbness in my brain, I’m trying to talk some of them out, the heartache I’m feeling isn’t for me, it’s for the people whom I work with and care about. It sucks not having an answer to such big questions when they are so desperately. My head feels like I’ve stretched something too far and it broke away.
Speaking of away, while I wasn’t typing on the keyboard I did get a chance to read everything by an author named Jim Butcher and Bane, I agree, thanks for the tip. One of the ingredients that probably added to my writers block was the lack of sleep I was getting because I couldn’t stop reading. Seriously, he’s good.
I’m sorry for not popping my head up for an entire month, every writer I know hits a low point in their writing and this has been mine. Some days they flow from my fingers but I just haven’t found it lately and I’m not one of those people that like tossing up words.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Playing with new toys
Sorry about the blogging hiatus, I’m in the process of shutting down my old laptop and getting my new one spun up and backing up everything twice. This is the first laptop that I’ve actually maxed out the RAM and it books. I’ve taken it though it’s paces and haven’t been able to find anything that really slows it down. Even when it had 2 gigs of RAM, editing a half hour movie only caused a few second pause and processing the movie? 15 minutes.
There still is a dent in my wallet but like everything, it’s a speed bump in the past since I did have the spare change sitting around. There were no loans or credit card payments to worry about.
I’ve also started of all things, water aerobics. Yes, there is a pull on this base with clean cool refreshing water. It’s a definite change of scenery being out in the desert and only a short walk away from the barracks. I didn’t know what I was missing.
Currently the weather is dusty and windy with occasional brownouts where you can’t see more then 10 feet away. Daily clean up is a necessity and I fear taking the new laptop out of the plastic bag I have it secreted in till the dust goes down.
My greatest money saving photographical purchase has been a lens filter for the Canon S3, I received the filter in the mail and originally thought, this thing is huge. It covered up the entire telescopic portion of the camera with a tube and the filter screwed on the end and gave it a larger footprint. In my head I was thinking “Oh man, when am I ever going to use this?”.
Then the first dust storm happened and the lens hood totally blocked out the dust and when I had the camera in my cargo pocket and accidentally bumped the power button, the lens wasn’t jamming against the sides of my pocket which is one of the top killers of digital cameras (broken gears and motors). Instead it would turn on, open up in it’s space then close when it timed out without me ever knowing. Don’t have to worry about scratched lenses and can take pictures in the midst of the gnarliest dust storm without the fear of my camera dying.
Other news, the real reason I haven’t blogged is because I’m suffering some serious writers block, I’d write a few lines and my thoughts would fragment. Maybe the 4 trips out to this place are getting to me? I’m up for orders in January and am still unsure of where I’m going, hopefully get a change to call my detailer tonight and be able to get an answer. Take care everyone and hope you are all safe.
There still is a dent in my wallet but like everything, it’s a speed bump in the past since I did have the spare change sitting around. There were no loans or credit card payments to worry about.
I’ve also started of all things, water aerobics. Yes, there is a pull on this base with clean cool refreshing water. It’s a definite change of scenery being out in the desert and only a short walk away from the barracks. I didn’t know what I was missing.
Currently the weather is dusty and windy with occasional brownouts where you can’t see more then 10 feet away. Daily clean up is a necessity and I fear taking the new laptop out of the plastic bag I have it secreted in till the dust goes down.
My greatest money saving photographical purchase has been a lens filter for the Canon S3, I received the filter in the mail and originally thought, this thing is huge. It covered up the entire telescopic portion of the camera with a tube and the filter screwed on the end and gave it a larger footprint. In my head I was thinking “Oh man, when am I ever going to use this?”.
Then the first dust storm happened and the lens hood totally blocked out the dust and when I had the camera in my cargo pocket and accidentally bumped the power button, the lens wasn’t jamming against the sides of my pocket which is one of the top killers of digital cameras (broken gears and motors). Instead it would turn on, open up in it’s space then close when it timed out without me ever knowing. Don’t have to worry about scratched lenses and can take pictures in the midst of the gnarliest dust storm without the fear of my camera dying.
Other news, the real reason I haven’t blogged is because I’m suffering some serious writers block, I’d write a few lines and my thoughts would fragment. Maybe the 4 trips out to this place are getting to me? I’m up for orders in January and am still unsure of where I’m going, hopefully get a change to call my detailer tonight and be able to get an answer. Take care everyone and hope you are all safe.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Head in the Sand, Eye on the Lens
Sorry about not raising it up, I’m in the middle of working on the unit midterm cruise book video and the project has taken up a rather large footprint on my brain. By virtue of being the guy behind the camera, I tend to get caught in the side jobs of putting all of the pictures I took together into a cohesive whole. It’s a little bit of pressure on me because it’s not one of those jobs someone gets trained at doing, just something I’ve picked up over time.
Each time I do a new project, I add to my skill set and gather up newer more expensive equipment but nothing can really cut the time back on looking at thousands of pictures and videos and putting them all together. I’m imagining (dreaming about a day) sometime in the future that I’ll be able gather a geeky representative from each shop and give them a class on how to make movies and let them choose and gather what footage they want to use off of the share drive and how to put it into a movie and we can go over each others work. Alas, this time it is not to be.
While personally I do take more pictures then everybody else in my unit, but there are swaths of people who I hardly ever see unless I send out an email saying that I need to give them a shot. Some of the officers rarely emerge out of their Batcaves and stalking them like paparazzi doesn’t really work. Waiting in the bushes for that ring of the Batphone to call them out, blinking in the unfamiliar bright light is just a waste of time.
Besides, the stalking thing only works in Hollywood. Out here? I’ll probably have security folks jump me and beat me with sticks till I cry for momma and drag me away in zip ties (no they don’t beat people with sticks, that’s just my overactive imagination after watching the new Rambo movie). That doesn’t raise any of my fun alarms.
Well back to my music video grind, hopefully I can get my codex’s working so my computer can stop crashing. My S-6 (IT guys), tell me that I’m wasting my talents in the medical field because I understand their world better then some of them. Who knows, maybe I’ll go down that route when I grow up.
Happy hump day everyone!
Each time I do a new project, I add to my skill set and gather up newer more expensive equipment but nothing can really cut the time back on looking at thousands of pictures and videos and putting them all together. I’m imagining (dreaming about a day) sometime in the future that I’ll be able gather a geeky representative from each shop and give them a class on how to make movies and let them choose and gather what footage they want to use off of the share drive and how to put it into a movie and we can go over each others work. Alas, this time it is not to be.
While personally I do take more pictures then everybody else in my unit, but there are swaths of people who I hardly ever see unless I send out an email saying that I need to give them a shot. Some of the officers rarely emerge out of their Batcaves and stalking them like paparazzi doesn’t really work. Waiting in the bushes for that ring of the Batphone to call them out, blinking in the unfamiliar bright light is just a waste of time.
Besides, the stalking thing only works in Hollywood. Out here? I’ll probably have security folks jump me and beat me with sticks till I cry for momma and drag me away in zip ties (no they don’t beat people with sticks, that’s just my overactive imagination after watching the new Rambo movie). That doesn’t raise any of my fun alarms.
Well back to my music video grind, hopefully I can get my codex’s working so my computer can stop crashing. My S-6 (IT guys), tell me that I’m wasting my talents in the medical field because I understand their world better then some of them. Who knows, maybe I’ll go down that route when I grow up.
Happy hump day everyone!
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Sean Dustman, Columnist?
A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from an editor at the Navy Times asking me to do a column on their back page called Backtalk. I thought for a couple of days, wrote up a post and a couple of days later, submitted a very edited version of that post with some pictures. They liked it and it sounds like it will be in the next edition of both the Navy and the Marine Corps Time with a possibility of future articles. So welcome new readers to my stomping grounds and I hope you enjoy your stay.
Also if any of you want to see the official side of what is going on in my area. The 3rd Marine Air Wing (Fwd) just started a blog with all of the articles they’ve submitted from this area and some videos. They’re just stepping into the blogosphere and I told them I would pass some traffic on their way plus I’m their technical consultant. Some good stories that don’t reach the Main Stream Media.
Also if any of you want to see the official side of what is going on in my area. The 3rd Marine Air Wing (Fwd) just started a blog with all of the articles they’ve submitted from this area and some videos. They’re just stepping into the blogosphere and I told them I would pass some traffic on their way plus I’m their technical consultant. Some good stories that don’t reach the Main Stream Media.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
I missed an afternoon
Last Sunday, I took most of the afternoon off and went to my room and watched SciFi channels Children of Dune in its entirety and ate sweet rice with fish sauce and crushed red chili. Basically disconnected from everything behind the comfort of my blue walls and kicked my feet up. Little did I know that outside a storm was raging, the dust had got so bad inside of my work that fire alarms were going off and there had been a classic “Mummy” style wall of dust that overtook the base prior to a rain storm but I didn’t feel or sense a thing.
When my room mate and I moved in, we turned the pink room into a fortress, insulated windows, automotive grade blue paint and almost airtight doors. When the door shuts we’re cut off from the rest of the world.
What finally did get my attention was the concrete building I lived in, started to shake from a roll of thunder and I went outside to look. Lightning, rain and darkness had covered the landscape. When I had come home at 2, there was a clear blue sky without a cloud in sight.
The next morning, I came in to people asking me if I had got some pictures and video of the dust storm moving in and was sad to say that I had totally missed it.
Also wanted to send out some words of thanks, Martin, thank you very very much for the big ticket item you purchased from my Amazon Wish List, all I can say is wow. I’ve always wanted one but never got around to buying it, don’t worry, we’ll definitely get some good use out of it. Cathy and Josh, thank you for the care packages and coffee, Troop 859, thank you for the huge box of Girl Scout cookies, I passed out all but one box which I kept for myself. Thank you for the support everyone!
I decided to hold off buying the new laptop for a little while even though the paint is coming off of the speaker covers and they’ve started to rust. I purchased a 12 cell battery and 2 gigs of RAM, which should extend the life another few months, the grinding sound from the fan finally stopped, either that bearing wore smooth of the piece of sand jammed in there fell out. Everything is backed up at least.
When my room mate and I moved in, we turned the pink room into a fortress, insulated windows, automotive grade blue paint and almost airtight doors. When the door shuts we’re cut off from the rest of the world.
What finally did get my attention was the concrete building I lived in, started to shake from a roll of thunder and I went outside to look. Lightning, rain and darkness had covered the landscape. When I had come home at 2, there was a clear blue sky without a cloud in sight.
The next morning, I came in to people asking me if I had got some pictures and video of the dust storm moving in and was sad to say that I had totally missed it.
Also wanted to send out some words of thanks, Martin, thank you very very much for the big ticket item you purchased from my Amazon Wish List, all I can say is wow. I’ve always wanted one but never got around to buying it, don’t worry, we’ll definitely get some good use out of it. Cathy and Josh, thank you for the care packages and coffee, Troop 859, thank you for the huge box of Girl Scout cookies, I passed out all but one box which I kept for myself. Thank you for the support everyone!
I decided to hold off buying the new laptop for a little while even though the paint is coming off of the speaker covers and they’ve started to rust. I purchased a 12 cell battery and 2 gigs of RAM, which should extend the life another few months, the grinding sound from the fan finally stopped, either that bearing wore smooth of the piece of sand jammed in there fell out. Everything is backed up at least.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
New nickname
My doctor dubbed me the Grim Reaper last night and to others, mentioned the name, Angel of Death. You know, that guy with the pale bony face who supposedly appears right before someone kicks the bucket? Not that anyone has kicked the bucket in my presence for a long time but because all of my injured Marines have been kind enough to do it when I happen to be taking pictures with my camera. Yes, I have caught every single accident with the mechanism of injury for all of the trips to the hospital. My last shot of each of these days is usually what ever it is that took them out.
Guess that's one of the strange perks of being a corpsman/unit photographer. For my last two patients I took over, I was there in the ER talking to the Doc on duty, telling them the story about what happened and the patient history. Towards the end of me passing on the info, a light would flare in my head and I would say "wait", pull out my camera and sure enough, there it is.
Sort of spooky, because when I see the injured Marine, my brain goes into crisis mode and the camera goes down into the bag and I forget that I even had it then at the hospital. Then the thought would rise up in my consciousness, was I filming or taking pictures when it happened? I never remember actually taking the picture and the actual memory of the event has always been different then the reality that my camera shows.
It's first hand proof for me that adrenalin does warp space and time.
Another thing that sinks afterwards is all of the aches and pains that comes from running on that adrenalin and manhandling people around. I'm getting old. I also didn't miss the waking up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how I could have done something different and second guessing myself. I'm not afraid of dying or getting blown up, what I'm afraid of is having those I'm responsible for get hurt and not being able to save them.
Guess that's one of the strange perks of being a corpsman/unit photographer. For my last two patients I took over, I was there in the ER talking to the Doc on duty, telling them the story about what happened and the patient history. Towards the end of me passing on the info, a light would flare in my head and I would say "wait", pull out my camera and sure enough, there it is.
Sort of spooky, because when I see the injured Marine, my brain goes into crisis mode and the camera goes down into the bag and I forget that I even had it then at the hospital. Then the thought would rise up in my consciousness, was I filming or taking pictures when it happened? I never remember actually taking the picture and the actual memory of the event has always been different then the reality that my camera shows.
It's first hand proof for me that adrenalin does warp space and time.
Another thing that sinks afterwards is all of the aches and pains that comes from running on that adrenalin and manhandling people around. I'm getting old. I also didn't miss the waking up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how I could have done something different and second guessing myself. I'm not afraid of dying or getting blown up, what I'm afraid of is having those I'm responsible for get hurt and not being able to save them.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Easter and Juno
Just lying in my bed watching Juno and my roommate is across the way is watching wrestling which seems to be on out here every other night. I’m totally digging the movie and typing this at the same time which calls for much editing later. But got to write when the feeling calls.
We had a Bar-b-q for Easter Sunday, even though we’re at the edge of the world, our PX still carries frozen t-bones, hamburgers and chicken. Had a good turn out, 60’s music playing and horseshoes were making ting sound in the background. I donated a rice cooker full of sweet rice and everyone pitched in something, chips, soda, non alcoholic beer, ack, non alcoholic beer. For the moment, it was almost like we weren’t on the opposite side of the world from everything we love.
The weather people say that there’s a sand storm on the way and I can feel the hairs on the back on my neck sticking up. Of course it all could be my imagination but I think it’s a big one is coming.
It’s late and I wonder how all of my people are doing back in the states. Lonely times and this movie makes me miss home.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Coping Cliques
Coping Cliques
We each find our way of coping with the distance. Being a Corpsman of Marines, it's turned me into a watcher of people and being tapped as the unit photographer, that gives me an unbiased license to see everything.
Humans are social beings, the interaction between people give me hours of enjoyment just observing. Lately my focus has been on the unconscious cliques people form to deal with the stress of deployment.
If you're watching us from the outside, the first people to catch your eyes are the PT Studs in all of their muscled glory. In some past life before they became Marines, they were probably jocks or someone who had dreamed of being a jock. Now they're deployed and are unencumbered by the social niceties of family and network television and have free reign to shape their bodies into an Arnold-like state of physical perfection. Back home, it’s rare to be able to fit a daily three-hour workout into your schedule. But here? Once work is completed, a distraction-free day provides optimal work-out conditions.
Another group is the Halo/Call of Duty/Unreal Tournament Super Virtual Soldiers, they're sort of an upstart group, only appearing in the last decade or so. These guys spend a good percentage of their deployed lives training their brains into becoming one with their warrior avatar till they find that cyber nirvana of being where they are able to last waste to that online countryside that the game produces and bask joyfully in the sound of curses and moans of the Marines whom they have fragged. In decades past, their ancestors were probably D&D players. The hardest task these guys have when returning to the states is remembering that they have responsibilities outside of the game.
No matter where you go or how primitive the environment is, you'll find a group of people who live to play cards. They spend hours each night practicing telepathy on each other, not that it works but watching from the outside, you expect to hear a eureka moment that never happens. They lie in wait with an empty chair at the table waiting for fresh meat to have a seat and when they lose to the outsider, their moans can be heard for weeks. The banter of card players has become the familiar drone that has laid the backdrop for every conflict for centuries and don't think it's going to stop anytime soon.
Myself? I follow more of the nerdy studious crowd. I walk around with a paperback in my cargo pocket and when I'm not reading, I spend a fair amount of time online catching up with email and talking to people around the world.
There are as many categories as there are people, I just named a few that stick out. The folks who end up having the problems out here are the ones who haven't developed a good method of spending their free time.
They spend hours dwelling about being in the middle of the war or feeling lonely, many of a clock ticking in their heads counting off the seconds to that date far off in the future when they get to go home.
These are the people I watch the closest and when I have to, intervene.
I've learned over the years, the more time you hold in your head, the less space you have to use for other things. The old adage of taking things "one day at a time" actually works.
I'm lucky in most respects, to sort of quote one of my SSgt's, "There's too many Frikkin happy people around here!" It's true. This trip I've deployed with a cheery bunch, every morning, I'm forced though a gauntlet of smiling Marines saying "Hi Doc!", "What's up Doc?", "Good morning Doc!" with high fives. You think I'm kidding? Nope. At least they like me and it makes it hard to be down for too long. Most days, it’s difficult to imagine these guys as lean mean fighting machines but I've seen them slip on their battle skins and then it's hard to believe that they were ever soft.
We each find our way of coping with the distance. Being a Corpsman of Marines, it's turned me into a watcher of people and being tapped as the unit photographer, that gives me an unbiased license to see everything.
Humans are social beings, the interaction between people give me hours of enjoyment just observing. Lately my focus has been on the unconscious cliques people form to deal with the stress of deployment.
If you're watching us from the outside, the first people to catch your eyes are the PT Studs in all of their muscled glory. In some past life before they became Marines, they were probably jocks or someone who had dreamed of being a jock. Now they're deployed and are unencumbered by the social niceties of family and network television and have free reign to shape their bodies into an Arnold-like state of physical perfection. Back home, it’s rare to be able to fit a daily three-hour workout into your schedule. But here? Once work is completed, a distraction-free day provides optimal work-out conditions.
Another group is the Halo/Call of Duty/Unreal Tournament Super Virtual Soldiers, they're sort of an upstart group, only appearing in the last decade or so. These guys spend a good percentage of their deployed lives training their brains into becoming one with their warrior avatar till they find that cyber nirvana of being where they are able to last waste to that online countryside that the game produces and bask joyfully in the sound of curses and moans of the Marines whom they have fragged. In decades past, their ancestors were probably D&D players. The hardest task these guys have when returning to the states is remembering that they have responsibilities outside of the game.
No matter where you go or how primitive the environment is, you'll find a group of people who live to play cards. They spend hours each night practicing telepathy on each other, not that it works but watching from the outside, you expect to hear a eureka moment that never happens. They lie in wait with an empty chair at the table waiting for fresh meat to have a seat and when they lose to the outsider, their moans can be heard for weeks. The banter of card players has become the familiar drone that has laid the backdrop for every conflict for centuries and don't think it's going to stop anytime soon.
Myself? I follow more of the nerdy studious crowd. I walk around with a paperback in my cargo pocket and when I'm not reading, I spend a fair amount of time online catching up with email and talking to people around the world.
There are as many categories as there are people, I just named a few that stick out. The folks who end up having the problems out here are the ones who haven't developed a good method of spending their free time.
They spend hours dwelling about being in the middle of the war or feeling lonely, many of a clock ticking in their heads counting off the seconds to that date far off in the future when they get to go home.
These are the people I watch the closest and when I have to, intervene.
I've learned over the years, the more time you hold in your head, the less space you have to use for other things. The old adage of taking things "one day at a time" actually works.
I'm lucky in most respects, to sort of quote one of my SSgt's, "There's too many Frikkin happy people around here!" It's true. This trip I've deployed with a cheery bunch, every morning, I'm forced though a gauntlet of smiling Marines saying "Hi Doc!", "What's up Doc?", "Good morning Doc!" with high fives. You think I'm kidding? Nope. At least they like me and it makes it hard to be down for too long. Most days, it’s difficult to imagine these guys as lean mean fighting machines but I've seen them slip on their battle skins and then it's hard to believe that they were ever soft.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Groundhog Day
The rituals are starting to sink in, the little idiosyncrasies, the quarks that each of us do to stay sane with the sameness. Our secret pet peeves are now common knowledge and the people we spend 16 hours a day with are as well known as the back of our hands. One thing about being out here, it wears out the buttons we all have inside of our head because someone is always there pushing them to get a rise.
I have my clique of buddies that I hang out with but at the same time, I stay above the fray. Being the doc, I have to get along with everybody and mostly, I’m pretty good at that but occasionally even I have someone whom I just rub the wrong way and nothing I can do will fix it. That’s where my stellar self control comes in but my invisible armor has a fluctuating power source, there are days where it’s a thin veneer shell, fragile and waiting for that sharp word to make it shatter but usually, it’s so thick and flexible that I can take a mortars falling from sky and not flinch.
It’s a game of give and take, some day you got game and others you don’t. The days are starting to mix into each other and I have to make a conscious choice to look at the calendar to see what day it is. Not much changes, we walk the same mile of property day after day, each of us maintaining in his own way. Got to get to sleep so I can start it all over again, good night.
I have my clique of buddies that I hang out with but at the same time, I stay above the fray. Being the doc, I have to get along with everybody and mostly, I’m pretty good at that but occasionally even I have someone whom I just rub the wrong way and nothing I can do will fix it. That’s where my stellar self control comes in but my invisible armor has a fluctuating power source, there are days where it’s a thin veneer shell, fragile and waiting for that sharp word to make it shatter but usually, it’s so thick and flexible that I can take a mortars falling from sky and not flinch.
It’s a game of give and take, some day you got game and others you don’t. The days are starting to mix into each other and I have to make a conscious choice to look at the calendar to see what day it is. Not much changes, we walk the same mile of property day after day, each of us maintaining in his own way. Got to get to sleep so I can start it all over again, good night.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Blogging Thumbs Up
Last May when I went to the Milblog Conference, there was talk about us being in the last days of milblogging. That military was cracking down on blogging from the front. Being someone who has spent a fair portion of the last 4 years blogging from Iraq, I’m beginning to think it was all a Net Myth.
Unlike many of the anonymous Milbloggers, my real name has been attached to my blog since day one and all over the internet. I talk to our Public Affairs Office (PAO) on a regular basis. In fact, I know for a fact that the New Media Division on the Marine side is embracing blogging done by troops on the ground.
We follow the same rules under the UCMJ that apply to anyone in uniform. They compare it to talking to a Rotary Club, we’re not allowed to say anything that could be embarrassing to the military or talk bad about public officials and to follow OPSEC and the Privacy act. That’s a bare bones description but it covers the basics.
If you watch the news about Iraq, unless it’s something that goes boom or there’s an argument for or against us being here, we really don’t get much air time. The official military sources (PAO’s) are putting out stories every day but are writing for mostly a military audience, unless you’re connected with the military, you’re not going to see much of their work. Main Stream Media is geared towards finding that big story, something that will sell papers and grab peoples attention or something that they can run for 24 hours for most of a week.
I call it the “cute missing blonde story”, notice how much airtime blondes get when they go missing? To me, that kind of news is totally worthless and the cable news people who make the decisions to try overwhelming the public with this garbage are no better then spammers. Maybe there is a reason why bloggers talk so bad about the MSM sometimes. The News could be great if they only had a brain in control.
Between the PAO’s stories and the main stream media, there’s a huge vacuum with thousands of stories that are left untold plus an entire demographic of folk who spend a major portion of their lives just reading blogs. Ignoring them would be a waste and that’s where people like me come in and fill a small corner of that news vacuum. We try giving you a glimpse of our lives and occasionally, you’ll find a diamond in the roughness of cyberspace. Take what we write with a grain of salt, you are getting an objective story told by one person, not the big story, just what I see.
Back to the point, as Milbloggers, we all follow a loose framework of rules, no one tells us what to write as long as we fall inside of that set of boundaries and if we get outside, we try policing each other before the powers that be notice. I’ve talked with the guys in charge of keeping track of blogs and they haven’t asked me to change a single thing about my writing nor push forward a message. They prefer us to be raw and original and I’m totally okay with that.
Unlike many of the anonymous Milbloggers, my real name has been attached to my blog since day one and all over the internet. I talk to our Public Affairs Office (PAO) on a regular basis. In fact, I know for a fact that the New Media Division on the Marine side is embracing blogging done by troops on the ground.
We follow the same rules under the UCMJ that apply to anyone in uniform. They compare it to talking to a Rotary Club, we’re not allowed to say anything that could be embarrassing to the military or talk bad about public officials and to follow OPSEC and the Privacy act. That’s a bare bones description but it covers the basics.
If you watch the news about Iraq, unless it’s something that goes boom or there’s an argument for or against us being here, we really don’t get much air time. The official military sources (PAO’s) are putting out stories every day but are writing for mostly a military audience, unless you’re connected with the military, you’re not going to see much of their work. Main Stream Media is geared towards finding that big story, something that will sell papers and grab peoples attention or something that they can run for 24 hours for most of a week.
I call it the “cute missing blonde story”, notice how much airtime blondes get when they go missing? To me, that kind of news is totally worthless and the cable news people who make the decisions to try overwhelming the public with this garbage are no better then spammers. Maybe there is a reason why bloggers talk so bad about the MSM sometimes. The News could be great if they only had a brain in control.
Between the PAO’s stories and the main stream media, there’s a huge vacuum with thousands of stories that are left untold plus an entire demographic of folk who spend a major portion of their lives just reading blogs. Ignoring them would be a waste and that’s where people like me come in and fill a small corner of that news vacuum. We try giving you a glimpse of our lives and occasionally, you’ll find a diamond in the roughness of cyberspace. Take what we write with a grain of salt, you are getting an objective story told by one person, not the big story, just what I see.
Back to the point, as Milbloggers, we all follow a loose framework of rules, no one tells us what to write as long as we fall inside of that set of boundaries and if we get outside, we try policing each other before the powers that be notice. I’ve talked with the guys in charge of keeping track of blogs and they haven’t asked me to change a single thing about my writing nor push forward a message. They prefer us to be raw and original and I’m totally okay with that.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Have I said thank you?
As usual, I’ve had a team of great people sending me care packages and they are being welcomed with open arms. Thank you, specially Soldiers Angels!
Sorry with the slackness of my blogging, the other half of my team has a rather high tempo look on life and likes that in the work environment. Believe me, my time spent here has been more productive then most periods in my life and I’m known for working my butt off for a project. I’m a little worn out but it’s a good worn out.
Hopefully the end product is as good as the work I’m putting into it. I’m actually doing something that takes advantage of my 4 trips out here at all levels with the typing of this SOP. With each page I type, I open up another can of worms and questions that I have to answer. Hard questions are becoming routine and impossible just take a bit of patience. I’m probably the best candidate for doing this out of anyone I know.
On the war front there isn’t much to say, other then training my guys haven’t seen a single live round, just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the hostiles don’t start jumping out of a sand dunes.
Everybody is getting into their training routine, the martial arts classes are starting and I’ve taken loads of pictures and videos. My own training is 3 abdominal classes per week and some cardio mixed in. As usual with PT, I’m a late bloomer but I’m sure that won’t stick once I finish this project.
I’m missing home but in some respects, this war has become my other home. Thank you for the support everyone.
Sorry with the slackness of my blogging, the other half of my team has a rather high tempo look on life and likes that in the work environment. Believe me, my time spent here has been more productive then most periods in my life and I’m known for working my butt off for a project. I’m a little worn out but it’s a good worn out.
Hopefully the end product is as good as the work I’m putting into it. I’m actually doing something that takes advantage of my 4 trips out here at all levels with the typing of this SOP. With each page I type, I open up another can of worms and questions that I have to answer. Hard questions are becoming routine and impossible just take a bit of patience. I’m probably the best candidate for doing this out of anyone I know.
On the war front there isn’t much to say, other then training my guys haven’t seen a single live round, just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the hostiles don’t start jumping out of a sand dunes.
Everybody is getting into their training routine, the martial arts classes are starting and I’ve taken loads of pictures and videos. My own training is 3 abdominal classes per week and some cardio mixed in. As usual with PT, I’m a late bloomer but I’m sure that won’t stick once I finish this project.
I’m missing home but in some respects, this war has become my other home. Thank you for the support everyone.
PS have I mentioned that I totally love the new Foo Fighters album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace? It rocks!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Milblogging is tough..
..on electronic gear. Over the years, this has turned out to be quite an expensive hobby but then again, I'm a techno geek and would have probably bought most of the gear anyways. Not that I would trade blogging for anything but since 2004, I have gone though 5 digital cameras, 4 laptops (shopping around for number 5), 2 8mm camcorders and 2 external hard drives and an assortment of thumb drives.
I can tell you how most of them went down, the first digital camera died in the middle of trip number one in 2004, the dust had made its mark so I ordered a digital Rebel which lasted till my Thailand trip in January of 2006, then the autofocus went out and my old eyes couldn’t get it to focus right so I passed it on to my photo taking niece. I got a second pocket Panasonic pocket camera in the middle of trip #2 and it lasted till the middle of trip number 3.
Trip number 3 was expensive. I lost an external hard drive which spontaneously combusted with a couple thousand pictures in the midst of all of that I had another HP snap and shoot that the zoom went out of, then a Panasonic lasted till it fell apart a year later for no apparent reason, the hundred dollar camera I got over last Christmas break? It took such horrible pictures that I was embarrassed to show them.
My old 98 desktop was replaced by a laptop prior to my trip in 2004 (thanks, know who you are), when coming back to the states from that trip, the heat from the desert fried the video card. The replacement laptop’s power cord got tripped on at a party and broke up the inside, then my wife’s computer had a problem with it’s power supply and battery. Now the HP 5000dv that I'm currently using is in it’s last days, the battery won't hold a charge and the fan sounds like there are little screaming banshees living inside of it, well when it turns on that is. So I’m pricing out a new one to handle the heavy video editing that I foresee in my near future because I’ve been tapped for being the squadron photographer.
Believe me, I take care of my gear but I also probably utilize it more then the average bear, if I'm covering an event (like the basketball game), I'll take 4 or 5 hundred pictures which eventually get turned into videos and posts. I'm just doing the first month of deployment complaining and no, I don't expect any sort of help in getting a new one (unless you are Bill Gates then help away!). I can handle buying it on my own.
It's my hobby and my world would be a much lesser place if I wasn’t doing it.
So far my out of pocket is reaching into the 5000 range easily but it's hard to produce the product without the gear. Well in actually, I could just type up blog posts and put them up at the internet café, my photography life is something I raised my hand and volunteered to do but was it expected of me? No and do I care about the cost? Not really, just noting it as I take a financial management class. The positives outweigh the negative and I wouldn’t ask for it to be any other way.
I can tell you how most of them went down, the first digital camera died in the middle of trip number one in 2004, the dust had made its mark so I ordered a digital Rebel which lasted till my Thailand trip in January of 2006, then the autofocus went out and my old eyes couldn’t get it to focus right so I passed it on to my photo taking niece. I got a second pocket Panasonic pocket camera in the middle of trip #2 and it lasted till the middle of trip number 3.
Trip number 3 was expensive. I lost an external hard drive which spontaneously combusted with a couple thousand pictures in the midst of all of that I had another HP snap and shoot that the zoom went out of, then a Panasonic lasted till it fell apart a year later for no apparent reason, the hundred dollar camera I got over last Christmas break? It took such horrible pictures that I was embarrassed to show them.
My old 98 desktop was replaced by a laptop prior to my trip in 2004 (thanks, know who you are), when coming back to the states from that trip, the heat from the desert fried the video card. The replacement laptop’s power cord got tripped on at a party and broke up the inside, then my wife’s computer had a problem with it’s power supply and battery. Now the HP 5000dv that I'm currently using is in it’s last days, the battery won't hold a charge and the fan sounds like there are little screaming banshees living inside of it, well when it turns on that is. So I’m pricing out a new one to handle the heavy video editing that I foresee in my near future because I’ve been tapped for being the squadron photographer.
Believe me, I take care of my gear but I also probably utilize it more then the average bear, if I'm covering an event (like the basketball game), I'll take 4 or 5 hundred pictures which eventually get turned into videos and posts. I'm just doing the first month of deployment complaining and no, I don't expect any sort of help in getting a new one (unless you are Bill Gates then help away!). I can handle buying it on my own.
It's my hobby and my world would be a much lesser place if I wasn’t doing it.
So far my out of pocket is reaching into the 5000 range easily but it's hard to produce the product without the gear. Well in actually, I could just type up blog posts and put them up at the internet café, my photography life is something I raised my hand and volunteered to do but was it expected of me? No and do I care about the cost? Not really, just noting it as I take a financial management class. The positives outweigh the negative and I wouldn’t ask for it to be any other way.
Milblogging is tough..
..on electronic gear. Over the years, this has turned out to be quite an expensive hobby but then again, I'm a techno geek and would have probably bought most of the gear anyways. Not that I would trade blogging for anything but since 2004, I have gone though 5 digital cameras, 4 laptops (shopping around for number 5), 2 8mm camcorders and 2 external hard drives and an assortment of thumb drives.
I can tell you how most of them went down, the first digital camera died in the middle of trip number one in 2004, the dust had made its mark so I ordered a digital Rebel which lasted till my Thailand trip in January of 2006, then the autofocus went out and my old eyes couldn’t get it to focus right so I passed it on to my photo taking niece. I got a second pocket Panasonic pocket camera in the middle of trip #2 and it lasted till the middle of trip number 3.
Trip number 3 was expensive. I lost an external hard drive which spontaneously combusted with a couple thousand pictures in the midst of all of that I had another HP snap and shoot that the zoom went out of, then a Panasonic lasted till it fell apart a year later for no apparent reason, the hundred dollar camera I got over last Christmas break? It took such horrible pictures that I was embarrassed to show them.
My old 98 desktop was replaced by a laptop prior to my trip in 2004 (thanks, know who you are), when coming back to the states from that trip, the heat from the desert fried the video card. The replacement laptop’s power cord got tripped on at a party and broke up the inside, then my wife’s computer had a problem with it’s power supply and battery. Now the HP 5000dv that I'm currently using is in it’s last days, the battery won't hold a charge and the fan sounds like there are little screaming banshees living inside of it, well when it turns on that is. So I’m pricing out a new one to handle the heavy video editing that I foresee in my near future because I’ve been tapped for being the squadron photographer.
Believe me, I take care of my gear but I also probably utilize it more then the average bear, if I'm covering an event (like the basketball game), I'll take 4 or 5 hundred pictures which eventually get turned into videos and posts. I'm just doing the first month of deployment complaining and no, I don't expect any sort of help in getting a new one (unless you are Bill Gates then help away!). I can handle buying it on my own.
It's my hobby and my world would be a much lesser place if I wasn’t doing it.
So far my out of pocket is reaching into the 5000 range easily but it's hard to produce the product without the gear. Well in actually, I could just type up blog posts and put them up at the internet café, my photography life is something I raised my hand and volunteered to do but was it expected of me? No and do I care about the cost? Not really, just noting it as I take a financial management class. The positives outweigh the negative and I wouldn’t ask for it to be any other way.
I can tell you how most of them went down, the first digital camera died in the middle of trip number one in 2004, the dust had made its mark so I ordered a digital Rebel which lasted till my Thailand trip in January of 2006, then the autofocus went out and my old eyes couldn’t get it to focus right so I passed it on to my photo taking niece. I got a second pocket Panasonic pocket camera in the middle of trip #2 and it lasted till the middle of trip number 3.
Trip number 3 was expensive. I lost an external hard drive which spontaneously combusted with a couple thousand pictures in the midst of all of that I had another HP snap and shoot that the zoom went out of, then a Panasonic lasted till it fell apart a year later for no apparent reason, the hundred dollar camera I got over last Christmas break? It took such horrible pictures that I was embarrassed to show them.
My old 98 desktop was replaced by a laptop prior to my trip in 2004 (thanks, know who you are), when coming back to the states from that trip, the heat from the desert fried the video card. The replacement laptop’s power cord got tripped on at a party and broke up the inside, then my wife’s computer had a problem with it’s power supply and battery. Now the HP 5000dv that I'm currently using is in it’s last days, the battery won't hold a charge and the fan sounds like there are little screaming banshees living inside of it, well when it turns on that is. So I’m pricing out a new one to handle the heavy video editing that I foresee in my near future because I’ve been tapped for being the squadron photographer.
Believe me, I take care of my gear but I also probably utilize it more then the average bear, if I'm covering an event (like the basketball game), I'll take 4 or 5 hundred pictures which eventually get turned into videos and posts. I'm just doing the first month of deployment complaining and no, I don't expect any sort of help in getting a new one (unless you are Bill Gates then help away!). I can handle buying it on my own.
It's my hobby and my world would be a much lesser place if I wasn’t doing it.
So far my out of pocket is reaching into the 5000 range easily but it's hard to produce the product without the gear. Well in actually, I could just type up blog posts and put them up at the internet café, my photography life is something I raised my hand and volunteered to do but was it expected of me? No and do I care about the cost? Not really, just noting it as I take a financial management class. The positives outweigh the negative and I wouldn’t ask for it to be any other way.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Laughing Dogs
One of our in jokes is that we’re going to be eaten by laughing dogs (hyenas) on the way home and I’m not even sure there’s even hyenas in Iraq but there is some sort of canine in the waddie that gathers in packs and makes howls though out the night. Some of the howls sound remarkably like laughter so we imagine that there are hyenas out there. No I haven’t actually searched the internet yet on what it could be, I prefer the mystery and thrill of hyenas in the darkness.
I’m watching Stephen King’s Mist right now, its funny the opening scene is the main character is painting a poster from the Gunslinger series. Everything ties in.
News in the world that has caught my eye? A 6.3 earthquake in Nevada, Castro has stepped down, we shot down a satellite and Kosovo is breaking away. The battle for who will be our next president is going on full swing and a bunch of Kennedy paperwork has been found in Texas, I knew someone was hiding something.
Out here, we notice, we watch but it’s like we’re on another world. Days flow into one another and we form our separate groups, together but split by the customs of military courtesy. We’re together but still alone in our own journey. Each of us handling this trip his or her own way.
Our fears aren’t much different from the fears in the rear, the separation from everything strikes some of us more then others and wondering what the future will hold. Each time I came home from one of my trips overseas, the world has changed. People you knew had a half of a years worth of growth and new experiences that you don’t. Babies are now toddlers who can walk, friends have fallen in and out of love, tragedies and wonders happen that you have no clue about or weren’t there to help experience.
Even though we are making more money out here, what we’re getting paid for is missing out on the lives of people we care about. Two years of time in country is a percentage of my life which will never come back, here’s to hoping it was all worth it in the end, I’m off to work. It’s light out and there are no ghostly laughing dogs to bother me.
I’m watching Stephen King’s Mist right now, its funny the opening scene is the main character is painting a poster from the Gunslinger series. Everything ties in.
News in the world that has caught my eye? A 6.3 earthquake in Nevada, Castro has stepped down, we shot down a satellite and Kosovo is breaking away. The battle for who will be our next president is going on full swing and a bunch of Kennedy paperwork has been found in Texas, I knew someone was hiding something.
Out here, we notice, we watch but it’s like we’re on another world. Days flow into one another and we form our separate groups, together but split by the customs of military courtesy. We’re together but still alone in our own journey. Each of us handling this trip his or her own way.
Our fears aren’t much different from the fears in the rear, the separation from everything strikes some of us more then others and wondering what the future will hold. Each time I came home from one of my trips overseas, the world has changed. People you knew had a half of a years worth of growth and new experiences that you don’t. Babies are now toddlers who can walk, friends have fallen in and out of love, tragedies and wonders happen that you have no clue about or weren’t there to help experience.
Even though we are making more money out here, what we’re getting paid for is missing out on the lives of people we care about. Two years of time in country is a percentage of my life which will never come back, here’s to hoping it was all worth it in the end, I’m off to work. It’s light out and there are no ghostly laughing dogs to bother me.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Daily Grind
Mornings start out with a shower and shave and I try to make it out to breakfast with Gunny A and my RP1 (religious programs specialist). My normal breakfast consists of a freshly made hotdog and cheese hot pocket, maybe biscuits and gravy, some fruit, dark coffee (they have a choice between normal and mud, I’m in the Navy, we do the mud) and two grapefruit juices.
Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?
I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.
Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.
Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.
The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.
I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.
Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.
Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?
I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.
Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.
Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.
The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.
I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.
Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.
By the way, I've published some of the Combat Basketball pictures over at my fotopage.
Daily Grind
Mornings start out with a shower and shave and I try to make it out to breakfast with Gunny A and my RP1 (religious programs specialist). My normal breakfast consists of a freshly made hotdog and cheese hot pocket, some fruit, dark coffee (they have a choice between normal and mud, I’m in the Navy, we do the mud) and two grapefruit juices.
Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?
I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.
Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.
Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.
The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.
I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.
Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.
Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?
I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.
Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.
Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.
The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.
I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.
Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Combat Basketball
Every time there is an event that someone could get hurt, Marines ask for a Corpsman to provide medical coverage. In the civilian side of life, you worry about medical bills, how long it would take an ambulance to get there or just plain getting hurt. Overall most civilians I know are fairly careful about getting injured. Not so in my line of work.
I think with Marines, having their “doc” there adds a mental safety blanket. They don’t seem to worry about girly things like bruises, twisted ankles or hitting like football linebackers but without pads. Since my ball game is sadly lacking, I usually get out of it by taking pictures.
Last Sunday, two of my shops challenged each other and an afternoon of it with a bar-b-q grill and hotdogs and hamburgers. I took a lot of pictures, in fact I took over 400 pictures with the new camera (Canon S3), a full gig on a 4 gig card. It was a perfect day to take the new camera though its paces, seeing what it could do and it held its own, taking some amazing shots. Even with the digital Rebel, it was hit and miss with sports shots, people getting out of focus because they’re moving towards or away from you. Catching the action just right, usually I had to delete 1 out of every three picture, not that it was a big deal but it was still productive time lost.
Sunday was different, 4 pictures out of 400 were actual bad shots. Two were of a guy who jumped 6 inches away from the camera with his mouth open and the other 2 were lighting issues.
Marines don’t play things halfheartedly, it was full bore in your face street ball, rank got left at the sidelines, the girls that played were just as rough as the guys, when someone got tired, another body jumped in. No quarter given, none asked.
Corpsman doing standbys for such events mostly just sit around and watch and if they’re good at the sport, take part in it. Usually I tend to watch though a lens of a camera and on Sunday, my last picture of the day was a snapshot of an ankle turning in a direction its definitely not suppose to turn. My camera went back in its bag and we made a trip with some ice on the ankle to the ER down the street.
Know how rare it is to catch the mechanism of injury on a photo? I’ll be posting some of the photos later, tonight I’m way too tired. Plus my upload speed is super slow.
The ankle guy was able to walk out of the hospital that night, nothing was broken but he’ll be sore for a while. He’ll also have a picture for the rest of his life to go with the story. In a couple of weeks, he’ll be as good as new. The next day, most of the people playing stopped me in the hallways or at my office for some vitamin M (Motrin) and being the thoughtful corpsman that am, had little baggies ready in my pocket.
I think with Marines, having their “doc” there adds a mental safety blanket. They don’t seem to worry about girly things like bruises, twisted ankles or hitting like football linebackers but without pads. Since my ball game is sadly lacking, I usually get out of it by taking pictures.
Last Sunday, two of my shops challenged each other and an afternoon of it with a bar-b-q grill and hotdogs and hamburgers. I took a lot of pictures, in fact I took over 400 pictures with the new camera (Canon S3), a full gig on a 4 gig card. It was a perfect day to take the new camera though its paces, seeing what it could do and it held its own, taking some amazing shots. Even with the digital Rebel, it was hit and miss with sports shots, people getting out of focus because they’re moving towards or away from you. Catching the action just right, usually I had to delete 1 out of every three picture, not that it was a big deal but it was still productive time lost.
Sunday was different, 4 pictures out of 400 were actual bad shots. Two were of a guy who jumped 6 inches away from the camera with his mouth open and the other 2 were lighting issues.
Marines don’t play things halfheartedly, it was full bore in your face street ball, rank got left at the sidelines, the girls that played were just as rough as the guys, when someone got tired, another body jumped in. No quarter given, none asked.
Corpsman doing standbys for such events mostly just sit around and watch and if they’re good at the sport, take part in it. Usually I tend to watch though a lens of a camera and on Sunday, my last picture of the day was a snapshot of an ankle turning in a direction its definitely not suppose to turn. My camera went back in its bag and we made a trip with some ice on the ankle to the ER down the street.
Know how rare it is to catch the mechanism of injury on a photo? I’ll be posting some of the photos later, tonight I’m way too tired. Plus my upload speed is super slow.
The ankle guy was able to walk out of the hospital that night, nothing was broken but he’ll be sore for a while. He’ll also have a picture for the rest of his life to go with the story. In a couple of weeks, he’ll be as good as new. The next day, most of the people playing stopped me in the hallways or at my office for some vitamin M (Motrin) and being the thoughtful corpsman that am, had little baggies ready in my pocket.
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