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Tuesday, June 7, 2005
American greenbacks buy comfort items
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base St. Michael, Iraq — Members of the 48th Brigade Combat Team’s finance department arrived here Monday and soldiers started lining up to see them an hour in advance.
Few of the Georgia soldiers brought much cash to Iraq and there aren’t any ATMs around these parts.
The finance department’s arrival enables front-line soldiers to draw against their earnings and buy the big-ticket items they believe will make their lives more comfortable here. Television sets, refrigerators, PlayStation2s, satellite phones and international cell phones are all on the shopping list.
The local PX, or post exchange, stocks a few of those goodies. But discriminating shoppers tend to patronize the “hajii shop,” a locally owned and operated concession run by an enterprising Iraqi family. The owners, who asked not to be identified by name, have a knack for procuring just about anything the soldiers want ranging from electronics to foam mattresses to pirated DVDs.
They don’t offer credit, though, so they’re expecting a surge of business from soldiers suddenly flush with American cash.
The discussion of what soldiers planned to buy quickly shifted to talk of what they wished they could buy but can’t. In no particular order, here are some of the things they listed:
The color green; dogwoods; azaleas; toilets that flush; three-ply toilet paper; running water; Desperate Housewives; walking outside without body armor; clean sheets; their own beds; peanut butter & jelly sandwiches; fried chicken; bass fishing and golf.
Sgt. Joe Dyer, 33, a Polk County police officer from Cedartown, scoffed at his fellow soldiers’ list of absent creature comforts.
“The only thing that matters to me is being away from my boy and my wife,” said Dyer. He and his wife, Raleigh, have a 7-year-old son Ethan and another child on the way.
“You could say I miss golf, too,” Dyer continued. “But it’s the people I play with - not the game itself. The rest is just a bunch of insignificant details.”
From the Absurdity File, Part 1
Despite extremely limited space for equipment and personal gear, soldiers were required to bring bulky biological warfare protection suits to Iraq. No matter that the military has long since given up looking for weapons of mass destruction here.
From the Absurdity File, Part 2
A group of junior enlisted soldiers were swinging a sledgehammers and manually breaking concrete on a sweltering morning when their sergeant informed them, with a straight face, that they were required to perform 30 minutes of daily “PT,” or physical training, because higher-ups were concerned they weren’t getting enough exercise.
