Rest and Relaxation Army Style.

Greeting from beautiful Qatar where I am on my four day rest and relaxation pass. Bottom line it’s a lot like a work release program from prison. Everything we do is highly supervised and regulated. The nightly night cap is limited to three beers a person and unlike the last time they closed all the loop holes, which I may or may not have used in the pass to score more drinks.

But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Getting here was anything but restful and relaxing. After arriving over a week ago at the airport I found myself being bumped from every flight due to being a low priority. For those who haven’t been reading the news the Russians are at it again and invaded Georgia in response to Georgian military actions. Rest assured the US does not stand for “excessive military response” unless it comes from a country whose name happens to rhyme with kisreal. But anyway I digress, the Georgian military got priority as they urgently and expeditiously redeployed for two days I watch them come in on the helicopters get pep talks from there unit commanders and spiritual advisors, use their break to clean there weapons and fly off to fight an enemy that was tearing through their country. I asked one of the officers how he was doing and he responded with the understatement of the century, “Glad I am going home wish it was under better conditions.” So at least I have that to look forward to a better homecoming. I can’t imagine returning from war to fight a war.

When we finally got here we were greeted by the ground rules. To summarize I am under greater restrictions here than Martha Stewart on house arrest, however despite this it has been a nice little rest. Also I tried complaining telling them we are being treated like children, however on my first excursion out into town one a fine Army member decided to sit down on a display chair and didn’t realize the glass between separating the display area smacked his head on the glass and had to go to the hospital for stitches. This may sound elitist but at least the officers should not suffer from the harsh restrictions after that incident I might not say the same thing about the enlisted.

All in all the trips been fun albeit a tease making me miss home more.

I can’t complain though when I get back I’ll have less than a month and a half to go.

Missing you all.

Ben