An Iraq Tale Vol 8: (Another Long Night, Thanks To Murphy)

A picture of the road from our motor pool. Yes it is a bit dusty.

Some times the days can start out perfect. Yesterday another mission day could not have started out better. At our daily gun line brief our Section Leader was putting out the "poop". All the brief times and when we leave from Liberty to run our mission. Then the good stuff started, he went over the time line of events for our rapidly approaching re-deployment back to Indiana. Everything was going great. Another easy night. I was to be the gunner in the first truck. I volunteered, so the other guy could have a much needed night off. Not to mention, I am working my way to the 100th mission, a milestone I want to complete before I get home.

So as we made our way into the brief tent, I first noticed a lot of new green suiters (military personnel). This should have been an indication the night was going to be messed up and we where in for another long night. As the night progressed things became worse and worse. From the start the mission was horrible. First, the "cherry" green suiters staged in the wrong area. Next along one of our routes there was another mission laying barriers that made us take a detour. Then the FOB we where escorting our convoy too was not only just mortared, but had a few convoys coming in and out which caused us to play the waiting game until the other convoys rolled out/in. Finally our job was done and we had chow.

The way back was no better. Not only was the same route blocked off, but we where detoured down a black route (a dangerous route do to high IED/EFP activity). And while traveling down this route, the cherry green suiters, not only took one wrong turn, they took two. This caused a cluster because we had to go through the slow painful process of turning them around, and getting them back on course. So all in all what should have been an early night, turned into another Iraqi sunrise. Finally, we made it back and I cleared my gun slipped on my iPod and zoned out thinking to myself how messed up a night it had been.

As we rolled down the road back to our gun line a realized something that had been playing in the back of my mind for some time. You see it does not matter what the mission or who is in charge. No matter who is the highest ranking person is on that particular mission. There is always *Murphy's Law, you see Old Murphy out ranks anyone. Murphy can be a general or a private but he always gets the best of us all. No matter what facet of life we are in we all have to deal with Murphy, he has been mucking up even the best laid plans since the beginning of time. I smiled a little thinking of this. I thought of all the "easy" missions that turned crappy because of a flat tire, a truck running out of gas, new guys, a sandstorm, or whatever happens to hold up progress and stop us from getting back to whatever we want to do. I also realized that sometimes maybe Murphy isn't so bad, that although I might be a little more tired when I wake up, I learned a lot. I also saw that no matter what Murphy puts in front of us we always find a way to get back. And although the mission sucked, we did all in fact make it back. So In truth, I guess it was a good mission after all.

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