Friday, March 05, 2004
About to Leave
We are booked on a mid day flight on Sunday on a chartered 747. This is good news, for the well known C-130 would need to stop about four times for fuel to get to the Iraqi theatre.
We are now on a 25 hour pass. In order to get the pass, a Command Sergeant Major had to come by and inspect our barracks. Cleanliness in the Army is somewhat of a farce, as it's more important for the brass to shine and the urinals to smell like pine oil than the latrine be disinfected. At my medic school, we had a major inspection and locked all the mops and brooms we used in a closet while displaying brand new, ceremonial, mops and brooms, for the inspection. This happens with other equipment; one set of tools you use on your M1A1 tank and the other set sits on a shelf for inventory.
I've tried to take initiative to improve sanitation, but haven't had much success, besides pestering Supply for paper towels when we run out. One time, when an outside inspector came by to look at the latrine at the scheduled time I suggested that he show up unannounced so that the latrine would be maintained in reasonable state at all times. The thought that an inspectee would ask for a surprise inspection was so foreign to him that I had to repeat it three times before he got it.
We are booked on a mid day flight on Sunday on a chartered 747. This is good news, for the well known C-130 would need to stop about four times for fuel to get to the Iraqi theatre.
We are now on a 25 hour pass. In order to get the pass, a Command Sergeant Major had to come by and inspect our barracks. Cleanliness in the Army is somewhat of a farce, as it's more important for the brass to shine and the urinals to smell like pine oil than the latrine be disinfected. At my medic school, we had a major inspection and locked all the mops and brooms we used in a closet while displaying brand new, ceremonial, mops and brooms, for the inspection. This happens with other equipment; one set of tools you use on your M1A1 tank and the other set sits on a shelf for inventory.
I've tried to take initiative to improve sanitation, but haven't had much success, besides pestering Supply for paper towels when we run out. One time, when an outside inspector came by to look at the latrine at the scheduled time I suggested that he show up unannounced so that the latrine would be maintained in reasonable state at all times. The thought that an inspectee would ask for a surprise inspection was so foreign to him that I had to repeat it three times before he got it.
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