Deployment Tussle
“ALL CLEAR!”
The announcement was made via the emergency notification PA system. It was just a pre-recorded voice clip that was triggered when the rocket attack was over, but I always thought about the “lowly” enlisted Soldier or Airman that had to initiate the announcement. Was it a large red button protected with a solid glass case? Or was it simply a click of a button on a computer screen? I knew it would’ve been a stupid question to ask, there were more critical things to worry about at Bagram Airfield.
Was it a large red button protected with a solid glass case? Or was it simply a click of a button on a computer screen?
It was a fairly chilly Friday night. The only real reason I recall the day of the week was due to my excitement for Friday steaks and lobster. The steak was boiled to perfection, while the lobster was shipped in from God knows where to the landlocked country of Afghanistan. The latter fact bothered quite a bit of people, so much so that they refused to eat the lobster. But for me, this deployment was actually my first time trying it, so I loved the quote-unquote, lobster.
So, I crawled out of the top bunk, as quietly as possible as to avoid waking any of the other seven people in my b-hut. Literally, have no idea as to why it was called that, but it was roughly a 5'x8' plywood shack, divided into eight separate rooms, with you guessed it, more plywood. I strapped my boots on, threw on my multicam jacket, grabbed my M9, and locked my plywood door.
As I stepped outside I felt the cool mountain air slap my face. I slid on my approved knit hat, loved that thing.
Side Story:
I stayed in a hotel on my way out of Baltimore for my second deployment. The night I was there, I decided to walk to Five Guys for one last juicy cheeseburger. On my way there, I met a homeless man named Jacob. He was prior Marines. I had dinner with Jacob at Five Guys. I gave him that hat. Good dude.
I walked across the gravel: crcksh, crcksh, crcksh, passed the smoke pit and laundry tent. I was about to make my turn by the cadillacs (bathrooms) towards the DFAC (dining facility). I saw, and heard, a group of soldiers, one male, and two females. They were kind of joking around in an obnoxious manner and one of the females shoved the male telling him to “shut up!” flirtatiously. It was at-intersection and along the gravel pathway, the concrete t-walls sat. They sat close to the b-huts to protect them from the rocket-propelled grenades that would be launched just outside of the base. These t-walls kind of guided you, sitting on the edge of the gravel walkway, while the cadillac sat at the top of the t-intersection. The soldiers would walk straight through the intersection, from the left to get to the DFAC. I was coming from the bottom of the intersection and had to turn right. It was clear from both of our paces and distance from the intersection that I would make my turn before they walked through, leaving me about five paces in front of them. This left me with an uncomfortable feeling. I just knew they were going to say something to me. I started to run through all the possible scenarios and exchanges in my head.
I made the turn, right of schedule and pace, and was indeed just a handful of steps ahead of them. I saw the DFAC about 300 meters in front of me, but I saw another male soldier walking towards me coming out of the DFAC. His demeanor was sulkier. His head was low. Hands in his pockets, against regulations. And just about every other step, he kicked a bit of gravel, intentionally or not.
He never looked up, but once he passed me, not two seconds went by when I heard someone shout and it all started.
“What the fuck?! You trying to start something?!”
I whirled around to see that the lone soldier had thrown his hat to the ground and looked visibly pissed. I hadn’t heard the group of soldiers say anything intelligible since the flirty shut up.
At this point they were shouting back and forth, flailing their arms about, spit flying from each of their mouths. For a few seconds, I had to gather myself. What the hell happened exactly? I came to the conclusion that the lone soldier heard more than just the whisper and giggles that I did and assumed something he found offensive was said. The cursing continued and the two males were face to face sizing up, go figure. The lone soldier…you know what we’ll call him David…David reached around to grab his M4 that was slung behind him, which I’m pretty sure they were supposed to walk with their rifles slung in front like the three other soldiers had. David brought his rifle in front of him and held it at the ready. This, of course, caused the Goliath of this scenario to pull up his rifle as well.
I don’t recall ever specifically thinking about this at the time. But when I was around seven years old, I was at my babysitter’s house. I was hanging out in the basement with my buddy Will. We weren’t doing anything, in particular, just playing when Anna and Joey came down the steps. They happened to be friends of mine as well, but the first thing they did was make fun of Will. Just some stupid nonsensical kid stuff, but unjustified abuse nonetheless. This was my first memory of such a clear case of bullying and the fact that they were all my friends made me freeze, I guess. The verbal abuse quickly turned to abuse of a physical nature. Will was now pleading for me to help him. Anna and Joey had together thrown a kitchen playset on top of him, that was at least twice is size, and sat on it. I mean it was obvious what I had to do, RIGHT?!
Nope.
My little asshole self just hoped to ignore everything going on around me. I do remember one thing particularly clear. I remember thinking to myself how cool Joey was at school, and how I didn’t want to ruin our newly developed friendship… I just told Will he was fine and ran upstairs to watch whatever stupid show was playing. I clearly did the wrong thing that day, not intervening in that fight.
This time, with rifles almost pointed at one another, our modern-day David vs. Goliath had two females shouting at them.
“Just stop! This is crazy!” one shouted.
“Oh my God!” the other sobbed.
Threats of shooting one another were flying left and right. They each started to be more and more careless with what they were doing with their rifles. It was time to act, so I just wedged myself between them as quickly as I could. Both of these dudes had at least 50lbs on me. I’m fairly certain if they really wanted to mess each other up, the few rookie grappling techniques I had learned in SERE (survival training) wouldn’t have held up against these two.
“Same side! For fuck sakes,” I screamed, over the shouting, in the deepest voice I could muster.
This actually deescalated the situation fairly quickly, to my surprise. Ole’ G calmed down the quickest of the two, giving David a good smirk. As he turned towards his friends David lunged back at him, with me in his way. He definitely knocked me back. I regained my footing and braced my forearm against his chest. Goliath turned his head quickly to see, but chuckled and called David a pussy.
David didn’t react at this point. He just backed up to his hat, recovered it, and placed it back upon his receding hairline. He then just proceeded down his original path, while the three others continued to the DFAC, discussing what happened amongst themselves.
Surprisingly not a single other person heard this exchange, even with it taking place in the center of the living district. Or maybe people did hear, but just didn’t care enough to investigate. I just stood there for what felt like an hour. In reality, I’m sure it was no more than twenty seconds. I wasn’t hungry anymore. I just headed back towards that bunk. Crcksh, crcksh, crcksh.
As a society, we try to take care of our veterans.
It’s actually truly inspiring to see how united we are on that front. I do feel like this compassion can be a little derailed. The national anthem debate is a good example. People, including veterans, are really getting behind the idea of “kneeling during the national anthem is comparable to spitting on the graves of our fallen heroes”. This idea, although noble in intentions, is forgetting about our servicemen who are currently fighting…still fighting. These wars have taken a toll on all of us, including this soldier “David”. I do not think his actions were warranted, no matter what this Goliath said. I’m sure he has his issues, and I’m sure they can be traced back to, what is more than likely his third, fourth, or even fifth deployment. Help take care of people, listen to people and their problems, really listen, to all people.
