Trip to VBC

I was going to write about my exciting trip to Victory Base in Baghdad, and how cool it is to be a soldier doing what I am doing, but then I read about Christian Hood's last mission he went on in Afghanistan and now I am not so sure I feel like bragging.  He is also in the Texas National Guard, but is serving in Afghanistan.  On his blog he writes of three days with no food or water at a mountain top observation point in the rain.  When they finally get to go home, they have to shoot their way through a Taliban ambush.  Wow!  Our night was not so bad compared to that.  We had to wait four hours on the highway for what is usually a 45 minute trip because a roadside bomb went off in front of us. They closed the road down.  I was going to complain about what it is like to just sit there waiting in the dark for some news or for the order to continue the mission.  How boring it is, and how tense it can be.  We were stuck on an elevated portion of a freeway in a location where the enemy likes to sit underneath and throw rocks or take pot shots at the trucks passing by above.  I had to leave the truck a couple of times to relieve myself, and my heart was in my throat each time as I left the relative safety of my big armored truck.  But after reading about Christian's experience, mine didn't seam so bad.  I had an air conditioned, bulletproof truck to sit in.  I am the driver so I have to most comfortable seat.  I had my iPod to listen to and watch recorded television shows on, and I drank cold soda from our cooler and had all the Doritos I could eat from the case that we carry in the back of the truck.  

I guess that I could die in a fiery bomb blast just as easily as Christian could be shot in an ambush, but I have to admit that I am a lot more comfortable and drive around in a lot more style than a lot of soldiers are and do.  If I ever found myself stranded with no food or water it would mean that things had really gone bad.  It's not likely to happen to me.   I guess I really don't have it so bad.  There is always someone who is in a worse situation than you are!