Hillah, Iraq.

I have found that the mood of the team ebbs and flows. For a while, we will spend a lot of time with each other. We all go to chow together. We will congregate at the pool or in the team room, and there is a festive atmosphere.

Sometimes the place is like a ghost town. I spent most of the day sulking in my hooch because my Beautiful Bride was mad at me. I told the Warrant Officer that I was taking a day of Hooch Leave, meaning that I would be in my hooch if my presence was needed, but otherwise I preferred to be alone. He understood. As it turned out, everybody spent time alone today. Our area of camp looked deserted. No one was walking around, and the team room was empty.

I suppose this cycle is a natural consequence of having a small group of friends in forced close companionship. Even if you are the grooviest person in the world, eventually, somebody will get tired of putting up with your crap. [nervously glancing in the direction of my Beautiful Bride] So…anyway.

We are very close to the midpoint of our deployment. I have given the general atmosphere a lot of consideration. The best analogy I have to convey the experience of a long deployment is a long road trip. I do not mean some dinky four hour drive from San Antonio to Houston. I am talking about the time you and your friends loaded up in a Honda to drive the sixteen hours to Steamboat Springs. At first, the whole trip was fun, and everybody was having a good time. Then the energy began to wane, and soon the only noise was the sound of Slim Jims being eaten and one of the three CDs that everyone could agree upon. Soon, the car smelled like old socks and you just wanted to be there.

It is not that the trip or my companions are unenjoyable, but sometimes it really is just the destination and not the the journey because the journey has gone on quite long enough, thank you.

As we start onto the back side of the deployment, though, many changes are coming that will make time go fast. In fact, I suspect that the change after so much stasis will be shocking enough to make one long for the days when things were stable.

The Green Berets will start packing up soon, which will slow our optempo, and mark the beginning of the end. The new ODA team will arrive towards the end of the summer, and suddenly we will be surrounded by strangers. It will be strange to have new faces, names, personalities, and habits to deal with, considering we know each other so very well right now.

Soon after the Green Berets leave, the Anglicos will begin preparing for our rotation home. It will be strange to begin packing up, then meeting up with a bunch of unfamiliar Marines that were once brothers.

The collective time out seemed to have been reborative, as after chow we gathered in the team room for a movie. I realize that time alone is the deep cleansing breath that allows those you love to keep loving you. I miss you, Beautiful Bride.