life in iraq

popuptarget

Cadet
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
28
Subject: How to Prepare for a Deployment to Iraq<br /><br />1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.<br /><br />2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.<br /><br />3. Six hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip<br />open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry,<br />wrong cot."<br /><br />4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the<br />middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level.<br />Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the<br />toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three<br />sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For<br />a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and<br />use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away.<br /><br />5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.<br /><br />6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair<br />and dump dirt on your head.<br /><br />7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on<br />"HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.<br /><br />8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have<br />your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.<br /><br />9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for<br />proper noise level.<br /><br />10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.<br /><br />11. Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making<br />sure the wind carries the soot across and on to your neighbor's house.<br />Laugh at him when he curses you.<br /><br />12. Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up<br />garbage in the other side of your bathtub.<br /><br />13. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly<br />sandwich on a saltine cracker.<br /><br />14. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in<br />your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an<br />unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.<br /><br />15. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night.<br />When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you<br />can. Simulate there is no hot water by running out into your yard and<br />breaking out the garden hose.<br /><br />16. Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put<br />it back together again.<br /><br />17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six<br />hours before drinking.<br /><br />18. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their<br />strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months.<br />Exchange clothes with them.<br /><br />19. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee<br />table and lie under it to read books.<br /><br />20. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back<br />doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the<br />sill every time you pass through one of them.<br /><br />21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the<br />bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.<br /><br />22. Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case."<br />Every time.<br /><br />23. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to<br />you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then<br />say, "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."<br /><br />24. Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean<br />clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the<br />garage where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without<br />ironing or removing the mildew, proudly wear them to professional<br />meetings and family gatherings. Pretend you don't know what you look or<br />smell like. Enthusiastically repeat the process for another week.<br /><br />25. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily<br />armed, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent<br />in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help<br />them.<br /><br />26. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for<br />Malaria.<br /><br />27. Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a<br />morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.<br /><br />28. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper<br />ambiance.<br /><br />29. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and<br />fragmentation.<br /><br />30. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and<br />culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before<br />proceeding.<br /><br />31. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00<br />AM. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just<br />registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable<br />substitute for their shattered windows.<br /><br />32. Drink your milk and sodas warm.<br /><br />33. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.<br /><br />34. Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clearing barrel<br />you placed outside the front door before they come in.<br /><br />35. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover<br />in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and<br />make them rebuild it.<br /><br />36. Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.<br /><br />37. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the<br />exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web<br />page. Type up a Form 9 and staple the web page to the back. Submit the<br />paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son<br />the gum.<br /><br />38. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and<br />shoot it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's back<br />yard.<br /><br />39. Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your<br />family that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can<br />perform much needed maintenance on the heater/ air conditioner. Tell<br />them you are doing this so they won't get cold/ hot.<br /><br />40. Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order<br />yourself to repeat this process for another six months to simulate the<br />next deployment you've been ordered to support.<br /><br />By the way thank yall for the kind support. Popuptarget
 

gaugeguy

Captain
Joined
Jun 4, 2003
Messages
3,564
Re: life in iraq

Been there, done that. :mad: How long you been there popup? Comin home any time soon? I've seen some rotation plans and replacements are shipping out every day. Stay safe!
 

popuptarget

Cadet
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
28
Re: life in iraq

Been here since March with the 4ID. Cant says its bad though. Havent been hit yet(always a good thing). We now have hot showers and KBR is here to feed us so I cant complain. Got a picture of the wife and kid in the mail. :D :D Popuptarget
 

gaugeguy

Captain
Joined
Jun 4, 2003
Messages
3,564
Re: life in iraq

Since March? You are a short-timer my friend, you'll be outta there in no time. It's been awhile since I've been over there, but the weather isn't too hot there now is it? I remember actually being cold with those winds that blow. Now August and September will roast your ba!!s. I came off an 18 hour shift when I was there to find some SOB sleeping on my cot, he had sweated through the cot and it was dripping all over my gear. You are pissed when you are there to begin with, so it doesn't take much to set you off, that did it :p <br /><br />Everyone back here is still pulling for you guys man. Keep your head up (down)!
 

popuptarget

Cadet
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
28
Re: life in iraq

the weather is nice right now gets to about 70 in the day and low 40 at night. but the summer. I grew up in Texas. I thought I knew heat. this heat is unreal. whats funny is the Iraqis thought that out body armor had a/c in them because they could not belive we could operate in the 130+ temp with all the gear we had on. popuptarget
 

gaugeguy

Captain
Joined
Jun 4, 2003
Messages
3,564
Re: life in iraq

Did they make you keep your sleeves rolled down, because seeing arm skin is offensive to arabs? We couldn't fill sandbags with Saudi sand because it is "holy sand", they had to truck it in...they brought sand to the @#$%ing desert :mad: :mad: The list goes on and on. Don't show the bottoms of your feet, don't give the OK sign, don't eat with you left hand...I just about threw out an ugly comment about the people, you see it every day, you understand.
 

mikeandronda

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 13, 2003
Messages
1,888
Re: life in iraq

Know this popuptarget, I and my family 100% support you and all of our troups and pray for your safe return. Keep yer head down and feel sure the magority is pulling for you.
 

mellowyellow

Vice Admiral
Joined
Jun 8, 2002
Messages
5,327
Re: life in iraq

thank all the folks in the 4ID for me please...<br />we are very proud of you and the excellent job<br />you have done!<br />godspeed,<br />M.Y.
 

DC698

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
138
Re: life in iraq

Hey Popup, Please know that you have so much support back home here, and be safe! Keep the morale up and you WILL be home soon!! Thank you for your great service and dedication!!
 

JGREGORY

Lieutenant
Joined
Jun 1, 2003
Messages
1,412
Re: life in iraq

Thank you Popuptarget and all of the 4ID for continuing to do what you do. Let be Known that we support you 110%. <br /><br />Keep your head down and be safe. :) :) :)
 

Carphunter

Commander
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
Messages
2,061
Re: life in iraq

Glad to see you post again Popup.<br /><br />As you can see, we all appreciate what you and your brothers, (and sisters), are doing over there.<br /><br />You are all in our prayers.<br /><br />Stay safe, and stay in touch.
 

Bigfun

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
305
Re: life in iraq

Thanks popup, you guys are GREAT. whats an M-Gator?
 

popuptarget

Cadet
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
28
Re: life in iraq

hey guys just got back from Saddam's hole. Just had to get some pics with the gang. yes it was the 4th that got saddam. bigfun an m-gator is a two seater four wheeler. Its raining on us right now. Five months ago it was hot enought to melt my butt into my boots, now we wear cold weather gear. no wonder the hodgies allways looked pissed. I am very excited to be coming home in a couple of months. I am looking forward to a nice steak, good bottle of wine, and a bath with my wife. not necessarly in that order mind you. I also want to thank you guys for all the words of support. popuptarget
 

NOSLEEP

Commander
Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
2,442
Re: life in iraq

Popup, Keep up the Good Fight.<br />You are most assuredly appreciated.
 

JasonJ

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 20, 2001
Messages
4,163
Re: life in iraq

Good Lord I feel you pain Popup. I did that for 11 years, and while I feel for you, a part of me had to laugh my arse off (especially the shower parts). Nothing better than having to take a brutal crap, walking out into the desert, and knowing there are at least three M2 Bradleys watching you with the thermals on. No privacy, ever. Good luck, and stay safe...
 
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