Kelly Smith Weblog Aficionado: Just a guy vs. Life

WWGD (What Would Grunts Do?) Imagine that you are a Soldier in an Infantry Battalion. You have been gone from home for a few weeks shy of 15 months. You have experienced Snipers, RPG's, IED's, and your fair share of fire fights with the local milita. You have had dangerous duty patrolling in Southwest Baghdad. You have had your fair share of action, and you are now smart enough to know that "boring" days are good days. Now your time to rotate back to the world is at hand. The new Battalion is there to replace you, and you are simply waiting for your turn to get onto the freedom bird (airplane home) What would you do with your free time? Make your Lieutenant's life a living hell..... ....and they say they love me.....

Unbelievable.... Sitting at an informal military gathering, many drinks were purchased and downed. One superior Officer, (in rank only.....because he has been in longer than me and the system hasn't flushed the turd), made the statement, "Yes, I know I am cheap...but hey, I don't apologize for being "Niggardly" (Italics and underline is indicative of his inflection on the word). Being the only Black Officer in the Officer call, and one of three in the battalion I just looked down and pondered my drink. A hush fell over the members of the table..... I chuckled. He says.... "Let me guess, Smith...you think I am prejudiced because I said, "niggardly"? I reply..... "No Sir, I think you are prejudiced because you assumed I didn't know what the fuckin' word meant." He was mad. I couldn't make this up folks.

I see that I need a turtle.... One of the new additions to family life that occurred while I was in Iraq was the purchase of a dog. A dog that has gotten on my nerves to no end. The kids like her so I can't very well get rid of her. She has pooped on some of my military gear and chews everything. Maybe I need to invest in a turtle like these.

Persona non grata....me. Storytelling: In the days that have passed since I got home from deployment, more than anything people have asked me, "So how was it?" My friends who are not in the military have this notion that every day things were going on like those shows, "Over there", or "the Unit". More often than not I would say, "It sucked..but it could have been worse." For some reason people are inclined to believe that I am downplaying things but really I am not. I had Soldiers wounded, but not one death. Not even a death in our battalion. At one point we were the only battalion in theater to not have had anyone killed. In that regard I consider myself lucky. We were engaged by both Shi'ite and Sunni militia, but more often than not our engagements were because of spillover between factions. I really haven't had the urge to go into a great amount of detail about things. More often than not, people want to know things, but g...