Spring might come along one of these days if the wind dies.  I see and hear the robins here and there, but I still need a jacket outside, and I can’t seem to kick this cough.  The smoking probably doesn’t help and I always do that more when I’m bored.  The flotsam of  late fall is strewn about post now that it’s finally free of the snow cover and everything looks drab and grey just before the green explodes.  I won’t see that.

The training is done.  From California to Missouri to Wisconsin we have checked every box and completed every task.  We have learned how to float in our uniforms should we find ourselves suddenly in the water.  We have learned how to prevent our buddies from committing suicide.  How to shoot.  How to drive in a convoy.  How to perform first aid.  We have been validated.  The families came here.  We had a ten minute ceremony and were talked at by a full colonel that we had never heard of and who had probably never heard of us.  There was sheet cake and punch.  We had the day to spend with our families and now we will not see them and they will not see us.

We are leaving.

I don’t know when, but soon.  Any day now.  Someone knows I’m sure.  There has to be a plan in place to move this many people that far away.  All I need to know is that my bags are packed and my troops’ bags are packed and one of these mornings they will come and wake us up very early and we will go and get on a plane and be gone. We wake up, go to breakfast, come back, and sit.  We watch movies and play video games and do push ups, and take naps.  And sit.  Although sitting usually requires a chair and since all we have are our beds, we lay.  I don’t mean to make it sound miserable.  It’s just boring.
 
We will get on a plane in Wisconsin, on the verge of spring, and then we will get off the plane in the middle of the desert that stretches from the Gulf to Baghdad.  It will be hot.  It will still be windy.  It will be utterly different than it was five years ago.  It will be utterly different than anything my Soldiers have ever seen or done.  There is anticipation and excitement and apprehension.  I think we have trained them well.  Now we’ll see.

I just want to go so I can come back.