03 September 2007

Like Gameboy, only bigger.

I just played Tetris with forty men, two forklifts and two shipping containers. I did all that at two AM. I just had the most fun I’ve had in Iraq.

The most painful part of redeploying to the states is the constant packing, paperwork and repacking. We have to make sure everything will fit inside the shipping containers (aka milvan, conex), then, starting at nine at night, we have to lay it all out on the ground and wait while the US Customs inspectors look through it all to make sure that we are not smuggling back illegal items (porn, alcohol, dirt [I shit you not], animal parts, human remains, embargoed merchandise [Cuban cigars], weapons, etc). Then, under their watchful supervision, we reload all of the equipment into the containers, seal them up and leave them to be loaded for their journey, by way of Kuwait, to the US.

We laid everything out, it was inspected, and time, tonight, came to load it all back up. Around this time the First Sergeant left, leaving brief instructions with various squad leaders on how to make the load plan happen. Aside: this, in and of itself, is not a big deal. Squad leaders, especially after over a year in combat, can most likely handle themselves and make things happen. The problem with leaving like he did was mostly that there was little centralized leadership – which is where Staff Sergeant Buenteo (my senior NCO and acting Platoon Sergeant while SFC Howard is away) and I came in.

Once all the boxes and bags that were going into the conex were packed, we went to work. We had loaded a good number of large boxes called conex inserts (continently shaped and sized to fit well inside conexes), but when loaded these boxes, about five feet by four by three or four high, are rather heavy – not liftable by hand. One of my guys suggested that we steal a small Bobcat forklift that was sitting, unused nearby. About two minutes later, another one of my guys was at the wheel (with the appropriate safety equipment, amazingly enough) lifting and moving inserts around. Once we started with those we began to load smaller boxes, crates and other items. I directed, with Sergeant Buenteo, from inside the conex, hopping from box to box and hauling things up to me. By the end I had climbed up on the piles several times, grabbing stuff, throwing it around, moving bags and boxes to better spots. I was holding the last bag up as we closed the door, and I had to pull my arm as they it closed.

Sergeant Buenteo had moved over to start the next conex over while I finished up the first. I finished and moved over to the other conex which was about half full. The Milvan required a little more gymnastics, in the end necessitating that four of us crawl over the top of the inserts, through a space perhaps two feet high, to the back and push a wall of inserts forward because the forklift couldn’t get at them.

We finished the last conex after two thirty in the morning. I kept joking with people “That was fun. Let’s do it again tomorrow night!” which of course was wry because we have three more conexes to load in the coming nights. But it was also true. Near the end of the first conex, I realized I hadn’t looked at my watch for two hours and didn’t realize it was one thirty. It was exciting to actually be doing something physical (yeah, split infinitive, I don’t care), not paperwork. It was a fun challenge, trying to find a place for everything. It was fun working with all my guys and other soldiers on a task that we could accomplish. It was also at night, so a fair amount cooler. I had a hell of a lot of fun.

posted by Interested Soldier @ 07:12