Jo's Cafe

A chaptered story told on many blogs starts here and continues here:

Chapter One: First Call

On Fridays, we don’t have an early meeting. Other days of the week certain members of the team meet at 0630 for two reasons. Early on in the deployment, we didn’t do this. We thought we could “play by big boy rules” and everyone would do the right thing. Meaning, of course, that we would get up at a reasonable time (for military folks, that is) and get started with our day. On days without an early mission or other task, we would do some PT (Physical Training) and then do the SSS, eat and get into uniform. After that, start on your daily duties, different for all of us, and do great things for the US Army, Iraq , and the citizens of Planet Earth.

Well, it didn’t work that way. Turned out, some folks, yours truly included, were having a hard time getting up “at a reasonable time” without some hard pressing reason to do so. The commander was getting frustrated, rightfully so. So, the S-3 and I talked and I recommended that we have a 0630 meeting. I explained that while it would be great if everyone would just do what they needed to do, some amount of institutional structure was still needed. I used myself as the example: if I don’t have a reason to get up, I’m not gonna! But if there’s a meeting or a formation and other folks are counting on me, not only will I be there, I’ll be happy to do it. The other reason, PT. Not enough guys were doing it, even though they told themselves they’d do it later in the day. The commander agreed with our recommendation and thus it became so.

However, being Friday, we get to sleep in. I stayed up a little later than I usually do last night, so I slept in till 0730. After a quick trip out to the port-o-fun, I sat down and checked email and surfed my usual news outlets and blogs to catch up on the current events that occurred since I checked the day before. After that, a stroll over to the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) to see if anything is going on and then on to the DFAC (Dining FACility) where I grab a couple of thingees of Cheerios and two cans of tomato juice. I really like our DFAC. It is a wooden patio, screened in during the summer months and boarded up during the winter months, with a serving area and a dining area. It is large, comfy and well laid out. We usually have just a few cooks on the FOB and these guys do a fantastic job of cooking, cleaning and maintaining the storage of our foodstuffs. Great guys.

Note from Jo:  Go to the top of this post after you’re done reading and click on the link to the post on Jack’s site with the rest of the story.