Not the last...

Once again I saw the empty boots, helmet, and rifle of a young soldier on display. Another element held a memorial service for one of their own recently. Some of his buddies who were wounded in that fight were brought over from the hospital to participate. He wasn't from our element so I didn't stay for the actual ceremony. I felt like I'd be intruding.

But the war goes on. The next night his buddies will be ready to go out on another mission if need be. That is the part that I think is hardest to explain. In war movies they cover a battle. Think of the moview Blackhawk Down. That was one mission. What they don't show is that those guys were ready to go out and do it again the next day because that is what we do.

There is that moment of courage people might hear about on the rare occasions that a citation for bravery is mentioned in the news. That moment, however, was one of many throughout a rotation. The day before that moment, the troop in question was out doing the job. The day after, they were out doing the job. A few months after they get home, that one moment that happened to be documented and submitted is memorialized in a citation and they are given the medal. It's just one of those things I think about as I work with these guys every day and do my little part to make their missions happen and as my team mates are on missions in Afghanistan.

It also helps me keep focused while I work in the self-licking ice cream cone that is the JOC. If one of us went nuts one day with a pair of scissors and cut all of our network cables, the teams in the field would still do their jobs. They'd be a little less micromanaged, but somehow they'd survive.

As a disgruntled former team guy who now works on the staff pointed out, we took down the Taleban with a few teams and no giant JOC and no multi-layered planning approval process. We also took over Iraq. Granted, the aftermath may have had some issues, but those problems were in no way related to not enough micromanagament of these particular teams.

And yet... here we are.

So while at lunch with a bunch of the guys, they started to complain about how the Air Force hasn't provided enough of a certain specialty. As the token Air Force guy I felt a need to defend my service, but all I could say was that there just aren't that many people that join the Air Force to be ground pounders.

The Army or SOCOM can demand however many of something from the AF as they want. The AF can even create authorizations for all of those positions. But you still need bodies to fill those positions. I then foolishly used the example of my specialty, Special Operations Weather Team troops.

Most people in the AF don't even understand what we do. Most AF weather people don't really get what we do. So the conversation then became one of justifying my specialty's existence. I answered the initial why. The next question was "Great, but what does that do for my team?"

Fortunately, since no answer would suffice because these guys are suspicious of any AF ground combat capability until they need it, I was saved by one of the Warrant Officers. This particular Warrant Officer told my interragator, the JOC Director, that his team time was over anyway. We then proceeded to make fun of the JOC Director because he was too senior to ever have fun again. Or at least for the next few years.

During this particular meal I learned that our JOC Director earned a commendation for a prank. Really. He apparently created a fake museum exhibit detailing the exploits of an older member of his unit one day. That older gentleman did not find it was funny as everyone else. So, the older gentleman tried to complain to the command and to the JAG that something had to be done. The command agreed.

So, the command, finding the exhibit funny and the old guy's reaction funnier still, they gave the prankster an Army Achievement Medal. The citation mentions how he improved unit morale and esprit de corps. It is real. It is in his personnel file. My faith in the Army was restored.

- - - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, my wife is enjoying a boondoggle in Miami. Free drinks at a medical conference. That can't be healthy.

It's not that I miss it, it's that it's forbidden. And a foofy umbrella drink would complement the heat real well.

And if you haven't contacted my mother to wish her a Happy Birthday, you are wrong.