Preparations for upcoming missions continued all day today. I briefed my team on our tentative plan for one of the missions. The office received a constant barrage of e-mails and phone calls from the various units we’ll be supporting the next few weeks. In spite of all of our planning, a lot of our support will be reactionary to events as they unfold on the ground. I just call it “semper gumby” – always flexible. The only way we can keep our sanity when we’re on missions is to be flexible. Things change so rapidly it can be maddening. Top it off with all the time spent waiting on flights that never happen and it can be very frustrating. So I continually stress the importance to the team that everyone be semper gumby. If it isn’t something you can control then don’t stress about it – ever! The only thing guaranteed about military operations is that the plan will change as soon as you start the mission.
The big news for today was the weather. It was overcast! We were in shock. Amazingly, there was a cloud cover for most of the day. It made a huge difference to the temperature. It was still over 100. It just didn’t top 110. The clouds stayed overhead until late in the day. Even then it remained partly cloudy. I managed to snap a great photo of the sun behind some clouds shortly before sunset.
I also had a Balad “nature moment.” As I walked out of my office at the end of the day I noticed movement in the tree next to our parking area. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a bird nest. There were two young nesting birds. Momma bird was nowhere to be seen. I crept up and took a couple of photos. Both the birds looked like they should be big enough to fly off on their own. I’m no bird expert. I have no idea what type of birds they were. However, I know enough to state unequivocally that they weren’t pigeons or raptors. They were just your generic birds.
We don’t get many chances for nature moments around here. I’m glad I had at least one moment. Most nature moments around here are encounters with the sickly smell of superheated shit baking in port-o-jons out in the noonday sun.
The big news for today was the weather. It was overcast! We were in shock. Amazingly, there was a cloud cover for most of the day. It made a huge difference to the temperature. It was still over 100. It just didn’t top 110. The clouds stayed overhead until late in the day. Even then it remained partly cloudy. I managed to snap a great photo of the sun behind some clouds shortly before sunset.
I also had a Balad “nature moment.” As I walked out of my office at the end of the day I noticed movement in the tree next to our parking area. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a bird nest. There were two young nesting birds. Momma bird was nowhere to be seen. I crept up and took a couple of photos. Both the birds looked like they should be big enough to fly off on their own. I’m no bird expert. I have no idea what type of birds they were. However, I know enough to state unequivocally that they weren’t pigeons or raptors. They were just your generic birds.
We don’t get many chances for nature moments around here. I’m glad I had at least one moment. Most nature moments around here are encounters with the sickly smell of superheated shit baking in port-o-jons out in the noonday sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment