Thoughts on tower guard:

Seven days. Looking out past the barbed wire. A whole different world than the bubble of America or the relative safety of Anaconda. I rub my eyes and look again realizing that the woman with her face covered in a black veil is real. This isn’t T.V. People really wear this shit. Turbins… long white gowns… donkeys pulling carts and children playing in fields. They are farmers. Picking low grade cotton and egg plant.

If I squint and ignore the silohette of my rifle, this could be Florida or San Diego. There are palm trees and blue skies. A little man-made stream runs across my view. It would be an ideal vacation spot if there wasn’t any yelling on the radio. Reports of shots fired. Explosions and rocket smoke trails. Helocopters flying by with wounded from Baghdad or Mosul or wherever.

If I didn’t have to calm my tower guard partner down from shooting an Iraqi boy just for waving at us, then maybe this place would be nice. If I didn’t have to load my rifle and point it out into the distance. If I didn’t say over and over again in my head the escalation of force procedures: Shout, Point Rifle and Shout, Fire Warning Shot, Shoot to Kill. You are Authorized to use Deadly Force.

In my binoculars, I notice something strange. A little Iraqi girl, playing with her 2 brothers, has on a little pink sweater. I see a picture on it and try to get a closer look for curiosites sake. It’s a snow man. A winterland scene with a little Christmas snowman on it. The normal is becoming so strange to me.

As I climb down the tower on my 7th day, I give a sigh of relief. This won’t be the last time I’ll be doing this, but at least it was uneventful the first time around.

They tell us cameras are allowed during the day shift. So like the good little tourist I am, I take advantage of the opportunity. I’m a bit embarassed as I take photos of the men and women harvesting with their children playing in the dirt road. But I know that I’ll be upset with myself if I leave here without any photos.

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