Just wanted to give you an idea of what we are living in at Camp Cupcake... give you an idea of you walking in our shoes.
- Move into one of the kids rooms. Lock all the rest of the bedroom doors, bathroom doors, closet doors and deny access to the kitchen and all other rooms of the house.... Now send the family to live about 7 time-zones away. One more thing: we are going to move 3 of your favorite neighbors in with you, and I will even let you pick which ones.
- The bullet above leads into what you have... You only get two big duffel bags, one carry-on sized bag, one laptop computer bag and one big back-pack sized bag. Mind you, that is a lot of space, but everyone else in the room will get that same amount of stuff, and you have to be able to carry ALL of it at the same time about 50 yards. (That is how far we have to carry it to and from the helo's we have to move around in.) One more thing about the stuff. You have to have all your combat gear, including your weapon(s) and stuff which takes both sea-bags to carry and starts your weight off at about 100 pounds. Happy packing!
- You have no vehicle asset on this camp, so you have to walk everywhere you go... Other people have vehicles because, well, you don't know why, but they do.
- The good news is that all the food in your camp is free, except the restaurants... but you still have to walk and the nearest grocery store or chow hall is about a half-mile away.
- Your nearest bathroom is a quarter-mile away and it is a port-a-john. There is a warm, shower/bathroom facility about a half-mile away. Both are cleaned and re-stocked with toilet paper about once a week. You have to take navy showers to conserve water. That means you turn on the cold water to get wet, turn it off to shave or whatever, turn it back on to rinse off, turn it off to lather up or shampoo or ..., and then turn it back on to rinse and repeat as necessary.
- Your work is about a half-mile away and you get to work 12-18 hour days. Those neighbors of yours, yeah, they all work different shifts and need to get into their/your room every so often in the middle of their shift.
- The laundry service is free, but it too is about a half-mile away. They are open from 0500-midnight, so they have very flexible hours.
- About every quarter mile, someone is stopping you and asking to show your ID card. In every facility you go into, you have to show your ID card.
- Everyone is wearing the same uniforms, including you, for the whole time you are there. No one is wearing denim or colors or normal clothes except for civilian contractors and foreign nationals and they are not all that prevalent. At this location, there are thousands of people walking around, looking just like you, haircuts and all.
- The gym is also free and about a half-mile away. It is full of any type of running or riding machine and every free-weight or resistance exercise machine available.
- Throw your phones away and cut off your cable. You can watch the TV at the restaurant, but you cannot choose the channel. Your internet is now dial-up and even that is intermittent. There are pay-phones but they are, you guessed it, about a half-mile away.
- You are required to carry a pistol and 15 rounds everywhere you go and are required to clear it before entering any building.
- At night, you have to wear a reflective belt and/or carry an illuminated flashlight with you everywhere you go.
- Every 3 months you are going to move neighborhoods. It is OK, you are going to a friend's room who lives across town and he is going to go to yours. The trick is, we are not going to tell you exactly when or if it is really going to be 3 months or not. You don't know what the living conditions will be like there and don't know about the room-mate situation. Remember, you get to carry all that stuff with you too....
- About 4 times a day, you hear an explosion off in the distance, just for fun. You really don't know what it was or who was doing it, and it happens at random. Most of the time it is just Marines shooting things at a range or conducting a controlled detonation, but ya just never know.
- Helo's fly around at all hours of the day and night.
- There are no animals around and the only plants around are trees in random places.
- You get mail once a week and still have to pay all the bills. The good news there is you get a 20% pay increase.
As goofy as this life would seem, that is what we are living in over here... and this is much, much better than at the Ramadi Police District Headquarters. We (those of us over here) chose this life though, so we are all good with it.
Obviously some have it better than others, and some have it worse.
Thanks for all your prayers, and now you can have your master bedroom back!
Semper Fi,
m
- Move into one of the kids rooms. Lock all the rest of the bedroom doors, bathroom doors, closet doors and deny access to the kitchen and all other rooms of the house.... Now send the family to live about 7 time-zones away. One more thing: we are going to move 3 of your favorite neighbors in with you, and I will even let you pick which ones.
- The bullet above leads into what you have... You only get two big duffel bags, one carry-on sized bag, one laptop computer bag and one big back-pack sized bag. Mind you, that is a lot of space, but everyone else in the room will get that same amount of stuff, and you have to be able to carry ALL of it at the same time about 50 yards. (That is how far we have to carry it to and from the helo's we have to move around in.) One more thing about the stuff. You have to have all your combat gear, including your weapon(s) and stuff which takes both sea-bags to carry and starts your weight off at about 100 pounds. Happy packing!
- You have no vehicle asset on this camp, so you have to walk everywhere you go... Other people have vehicles because, well, you don't know why, but they do.
- The good news is that all the food in your camp is free, except the restaurants... but you still have to walk and the nearest grocery store or chow hall is about a half-mile away.
- Your nearest bathroom is a quarter-mile away and it is a port-a-john. There is a warm, shower/bathroom facility about a half-mile away. Both are cleaned and re-stocked with toilet paper about once a week. You have to take navy showers to conserve water. That means you turn on the cold water to get wet, turn it off to shave or whatever, turn it back on to rinse off, turn it off to lather up or shampoo or ..., and then turn it back on to rinse and repeat as necessary.
- Your work is about a half-mile away and you get to work 12-18 hour days. Those neighbors of yours, yeah, they all work different shifts and need to get into their/your room every so often in the middle of their shift.
- The laundry service is free, but it too is about a half-mile away. They are open from 0500-midnight, so they have very flexible hours.
- About every quarter mile, someone is stopping you and asking to show your ID card. In every facility you go into, you have to show your ID card.
- Everyone is wearing the same uniforms, including you, for the whole time you are there. No one is wearing denim or colors or normal clothes except for civilian contractors and foreign nationals and they are not all that prevalent. At this location, there are thousands of people walking around, looking just like you, haircuts and all.
- The gym is also free and about a half-mile away. It is full of any type of running or riding machine and every free-weight or resistance exercise machine available.
- Throw your phones away and cut off your cable. You can watch the TV at the restaurant, but you cannot choose the channel. Your internet is now dial-up and even that is intermittent. There are pay-phones but they are, you guessed it, about a half-mile away.
- You are required to carry a pistol and 15 rounds everywhere you go and are required to clear it before entering any building.
- At night, you have to wear a reflective belt and/or carry an illuminated flashlight with you everywhere you go.
- Every 3 months you are going to move neighborhoods. It is OK, you are going to a friend's room who lives across town and he is going to go to yours. The trick is, we are not going to tell you exactly when or if it is really going to be 3 months or not. You don't know what the living conditions will be like there and don't know about the room-mate situation. Remember, you get to carry all that stuff with you too....
- About 4 times a day, you hear an explosion off in the distance, just for fun. You really don't know what it was or who was doing it, and it happens at random. Most of the time it is just Marines shooting things at a range or conducting a controlled detonation, but ya just never know.
- Helo's fly around at all hours of the day and night.
- There are no animals around and the only plants around are trees in random places.
- You get mail once a week and still have to pay all the bills. The good news there is you get a 20% pay increase.
As goofy as this life would seem, that is what we are living in over here... and this is much, much better than at the Ramadi Police District Headquarters. We (those of us over here) chose this life though, so we are all good with it.
Obviously some have it better than others, and some have it worse.
Thanks for all your prayers, and now you can have your master bedroom back!
Semper Fi,
m
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