Back To The Front

There are some interesting psychological side effects to taking R&R leave and traveling back and forth from Baghdad, Iraq to Anytown, USA. The most readily apparent is the predictable "time warp" sensation one experiences being away from home for any significant length of time. As indicated earlier, you very easily slip into old familiar routines, and you can quickly forget the you've been gone for six months. Then, while driving through town, you're jarred back to reality when you notice a building that wasn't there 'yesterday', or you glance at the marquis of the local multiplex theater and realize that NONE of the titles look even remotely familiar. The most unsettling sensations, however, can come from just from everyday interactions and conversations with family and friends. You find that you are somehow out of sync; that the gears of everyday life are stripped and no longer mesh. This slipping sensations comes from the loss of a common chronological frame of reference. After all, life has gone on pretty much business-as-usual for everybody else, and you are somehow expecting to step back into the world as if nothing has changed. You're a caveman just thawed from a block of ice, oblivious to the passing of history.

"What are your plans for the next two weeks?" This is a common question concerning R&R from Iraq. On the surface it is pretty simple. Given the restrictions imposed on young soldiers deployed to Iraq, most popular responses (depending on who is asking the question) inevitably involve some explicit reference to alcohol and/or sex. Duh. There is another dimension to the question however, that I found unsettling. Once I was home and the boots and uniform had been replaced with tennis shoes and jeans, that simple question acquired the psychological punch (I would imagine) of being told by your doctor that you have two weeks to live. So, how are you going to spend those two weeks? Okay, so the answer doesn't really change that much, but it acquires an intensely vivid urgency. This can be distracting, and if not properly recognized and controlled can adversely affect relationships, and ironically can make it very difficult to Rest & Relax.

Anyhow, playtime is now over and it is time to return to work. I'm back in Baghdad. The journey back to the sandbox was not nearly as bad as the trip home. For some unfathomable reason the army seems to make it so much easier getting to Iraq than leaving it. Hmmm. The flight back had a stopover in Budapest, Hungary as opposed to Shannon, Ireland. How exciting, as I have never been to Budapest. We never got off the plane. We sat on the tarmac for an hour an a half while they changed crews and refueled, and from the windows we watched Hungarian bunny rabbits scurry to and fro in the fields adjacent to the runways.

I popped awake and started this little blog entry at 3 AM, so I think it will take a little time to shake off the jet lag.