Quarter and Dime
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
-Henley
I need to clean my rifle. The sand and grit make it hard to keep anything very clean around here. All the lubricant and little crevices in an assault rifle means that the thing gets caked with grime after a couple of days. It was much worse in Kuwait, though. The sand there was so fine that cleaning took two or three times as long.
I had a round jam on me when I was on a convoy a few months ago. This was down south. The damn thing was stuck IN THE BARREL. I had to yank very strongly on the charging handle to get it to pop free. It made for a very exciting few moments. You want to give it enough lube so that the receiver and bolt function properly, but not so much that it attracts dust and clogs the machinery. It is a delicate line. Frequent cleaning helps. I was embarrassed to have a round jam on me. That is usually a sign that your weapon is not clean, which is unthinkable.
I don't talk to my family about certain things. Maybe that's what I've been avoiding with this talk about weapons cleanliness. I don't tell them when I go outside the wire. I tell Nick, but I hardly ever talk to him. I don't want my family to worry. More than anything, there is some stuff I just don't want to talk about. There are things that happen here that are unpleasant and dirty, and that is why we are here: to keep those things from happening in America. I want certain things to stay here. I want to leave a lot of this behind. My family shouldn't have to know about it. It's enough that we're here, taking care of things.
There are things that you see, sometimes, that you can't un-see. Or un-know. Or un-think. I don't want there to be many of those things in the lives of my children and friends. They shouldn't have to deal with it.
I am not sure why this has gone off into this direction, but I was trying to explain why I talk about video games or movies or books most of the time, in my letters or emails or phone calls. Stuff that goes on here is either too boring to talk about, or would worry people. So I'm sorry for all the fluff and not so much "what I've been up to," but what flavors of ice cream they have or how my workouts have been progressing--these topics are infinitely more interesting and comfortable for me. And, I hope, for You.
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
-Henley
I need to clean my rifle. The sand and grit make it hard to keep anything very clean around here. All the lubricant and little crevices in an assault rifle means that the thing gets caked with grime after a couple of days. It was much worse in Kuwait, though. The sand there was so fine that cleaning took two or three times as long.
I had a round jam on me when I was on a convoy a few months ago. This was down south. The damn thing was stuck IN THE BARREL. I had to yank very strongly on the charging handle to get it to pop free. It made for a very exciting few moments. You want to give it enough lube so that the receiver and bolt function properly, but not so much that it attracts dust and clogs the machinery. It is a delicate line. Frequent cleaning helps. I was embarrassed to have a round jam on me. That is usually a sign that your weapon is not clean, which is unthinkable.
I don't talk to my family about certain things. Maybe that's what I've been avoiding with this talk about weapons cleanliness. I don't tell them when I go outside the wire. I tell Nick, but I hardly ever talk to him. I don't want my family to worry. More than anything, there is some stuff I just don't want to talk about. There are things that happen here that are unpleasant and dirty, and that is why we are here: to keep those things from happening in America. I want certain things to stay here. I want to leave a lot of this behind. My family shouldn't have to know about it. It's enough that we're here, taking care of things.
There are things that you see, sometimes, that you can't un-see. Or un-know. Or un-think. I don't want there to be many of those things in the lives of my children and friends. They shouldn't have to deal with it.
I am not sure why this has gone off into this direction, but I was trying to explain why I talk about video games or movies or books most of the time, in my letters or emails or phone calls. Stuff that goes on here is either too boring to talk about, or would worry people. So I'm sorry for all the fluff and not so much "what I've been up to," but what flavors of ice cream they have or how my workouts have been progressing--these topics are infinitely more interesting and comfortable for me. And, I hope, for You.
posted by Battler03 at 2:27 AM
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