Entry #16: November 19, 2005

Camp Buehring, Kuwait (somewhere near the Iraq border)

I made it. I’m here. And it looks exactly like a base camp on Mars. You know when people talk about the middle of nowhere, I can now say I’ve been there, done that, got the combat patch. I have never seen so much of absolutely nothing as I have here. It is sand for as far as the eye can see (which is very far here considering it’s extremely flat). Right now I’m sharing a tent with 40 guys from my company and a Military police platoon. The food’s great though. The dining hall has fresh fruit, fresh lettuce, good main course, although Kuwait cows definitely eat something different than grass, cause their milk tastes extremely funny.

The trip here began at 2200 on November 15. We arrived in Kuwait at around 1930 on November 16 and got to our camp by 0200. It was a long and tiring trip. In the civilian world it would have taken probably around 12 hours, but this is the Army. There are three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way.

We still don’t have a final destination. Everything is still up to change. The hardest part of this is the uncertainty that is accompanying it. I’d feel more at ease if I knew where I was going so I could get focused. This has most of us frustrated. With Soldiers, morale is a very high priority, if not the highest. They work best when motivated and excited to do their job. It’s kind of hard to do that when you don’t know where or how you will work. Looks like I gotta come up with something. And so the Soldier’s life continues…