If there's one thing that the military does to soldiers, it's that it teaches them to hate waiting. It's not just that soldiers wait a lot more than civilians, but that we're rushed into it (if that makes sense.) In the army there's a saying, "hurry up and wait", that is an extremely accurate description of what a soldier goes through more often than not.
Case in Point
Yesterday I was told that at 4:00 a.m. today I would be leaving for the area in which I'll be working for the next 8 - 12 months. Today at 3:00 a.m I awoke and packed my bags to board a helicopter. After packing my bags I put them outside and waited for a truck to take them and me to the local airstrip. At 6:00 a.m. two hours after I was supposedly "leaving", the truck arrived. I and the other soldiers who were leaving put our bags on the truck to the near musical accompaniment of our first sergeant who was hollering for us "hurry up" because we were "already two hours late!" As if it was our fault the truck came late.
At 6:30 a.m. we finally arrived at the airstrip, where we promptly waited another hour for a chopper that would arrive at any moment.
At 7:30 a.m. we took our bags outside to the airstrip because the chopper was ready.
At 8:00 a.m., after waiting a half hour for some random guys approval, we loaded the bags on the chopper.
At 8:30 a.m. we were told that the flight was canceled and we'd have to wait until another time to leave. So we unloaded all our gear and waited another hour for a ride back to the tent that we're waiting in.
Hurry up and wait.
The good news is that at least I'll get hot food for a couple more days.
No comments:
Post a Comment