So, we have been here for about eight months now and we are bored and getting burned out. Since there are no people here to shoot at, we have decided that we should help with the extraordinarily large wild dog population here in Iraq. Iraqi's do not keep dogs as pets. They do use them to help heard sheep, but otherwise they roam around the country breeding like there is no tomorrow. So when we do night patrols, we head out to the remote areas where there are no people and shoot the dogs. At first I was disgusted by this behavior as I am a dog lover. However, now I really do not give a shit. I shoot them too. Of course I would never do this at home, but here I really do not even care.
A couple days ago, we had a dump truck with 6000 lbs of explosives go off on an IA checkpoint. Of course anything withing 100 meters of it was pretty much toast. So now we have this to deal with. And of course anyone who has been here for any amount of time knows that there are hundreds of dump trucks in the cities. Normally, when we drive near one of these our asshole would pucker a bit and you grip the steering wheel of the vehicle a bit harder, and kind of cringe as you drive by. Now though, again I do not care. I do not even feel that pang of excitement anymore. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am already dead, so what does it matter? I am dead. It really helps to have this frame of mind when going out. I am no longer scared, I just do my job and come back to the FOB.
In one month I go on leave and I really am looking forward to this. A few days of rock climbing, riding my ATV and taking my daughter to Disneyland, Sea World and some other places is just what I need to get my head right again. And the best part is that when I return at the end of May, I have about two months in country, then off to Kuwait where I hang out there for a bit waiting my turn to return home. Sweet!