sgtdub

20 June 2011,
Last night I got to sleep on my new mattress! Now I know that's not always an exciting event, but the one I had in my b-hut was spring based and wrapped around me like a hammock. When I rolled over the entire b-hut knew it. The new ones are said to only last about 3 months but it's a memory foam style and very firm. We have six rooms in our b-hut with each soldier getting about 70 sq ft of floor space. Soldiers are allowed to do what they want with their room, such as many make their bed into a bunk bed and put a desk under it. My bed sits about 40 inches off the ground so I'm not that high up and I still have plenty of storage room underneath. I lucked out in having a homemade shelf unit and clothes rack. It was entertaining to watch the soldiers get their rooms. Much like a pot luck dinner or dirty Santa. The billeting manager would take the lock off the door and what ever was inside is what the soldier got. One room had two light switches hard mounted connecting to a string of Christmas lights strung on the ceiling. Some had fans, extension cords, shelving, rugs. Our A/C isn't working as well as it could but it's not bad. What I hate the most about Bagram is the dust. There is very little vegetation surrounding Bagram so the dust just blows everywhere. I also hate the gravel.
Mrs Dub said this deployment I could actually take a trip during my R&R leave to where ever I wanted. Based on my position my leave will be either too close to now or too close to the end of our rotation and the emotional roller coaster we go thru on saying hello/goodbye can be exhausting. I can't talk her and Miss Dub into meeting me anywhere as she really doesn't want to fly across the ocean without me. So if you had a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world where would you go? At 45 am I too old to backpack across Europe? Maybe visit my cousin in Alaska? New Zealand? Two weeks in Ireland? The decisions are tough. Going home would be the easiest but this is an excellent opportunity.
Well, give me some suggestions
Be safe and have a great day!