Paradise, keep telling yourself that........

Hey everyone, I felt that I would get on and share a super fun story that I have for ya. It comes from one of my latet missions. Well it wasn't really a mission, just a trip to go and get some equipment. So here it is, hope you enjoy.

The other day my team leader came up to me and told me that we (my team) had been volun-told that we were going out on a mission to pick up a HMMWV (hummer) and that I had to pick one of the guys off of my fire team to go and do it. I decided that it's not really anything that any of us want to do, so I volunteered myself to be the one to do it. I was a little bummed about it though because it's not really my job to be a battle field repo man, but what can I do besides suck it up and drive on. Than he told me where the HMMWV was. I compare it to a uniformed officer going into the middle of Compton and and picking up a car. Yeah he's a cop but really I don't think they care, he's not well liked there. Well the same with where I had to go, the "Compton" of Afghanistan (AF). Just as a little side note, my superiors feel that they can call on us more than any of the other companies bcause they don't really trust the others to go out side of the wire. Kind of makes you think twice about being good at what you do. So the day comes and we go out. I got to at least ride in one of the new vehicles, it's called an MRAP (mine resistant, ambush protection). They're pretty nice. Well at least when it comes to keeping you alive. It's basically 18 tons of armor rolling down the road. Yeah, NICE!! Comfort wise is a different stroy though. The seats feel like they're made of armor too and you have a four point seat belt that basically pulls you into the seat. My butt fell asleep in 10 minutes easily and I still had plenty of ride left. The ride is about two one way. We finally got to the base and got the HMMWV ready to go. Now keep in mind the HMMWV belongs to one of the other companies so it's their responsibility to keep it in good shape and running. After things were ready to go they decided to make me the driver. I'm fine with that, if something happens I know that I have control. I jump in and get the truck going and I put in reverse. Nothing happens.... the truck just sits there. I gas it and the engine didn't even rev. "Great, I get to drive a broken truck." I put it in park and than back into reverse, it goes this time. We get loaded up and start to move out so I reach up and turn on what A/C it has and nothng but hot air blows out. I already hate this day. I now have to be a repo man that gets to drive a broken truck with no A/C. The HMMWV is about 6 tons of pure armor. You can't open the windows while driving or it doesn't do anything to protect you from exposions. Let me tell you that the armor sure heats up fast. Ten minutes after leaving I have a steady stream of sweat running down my face. It was tollerable until it starting running into my eyes. It got so hot in there that I had to wear my gloves to touch anything. I tried to grab my pistol with my bear hands and it burnt me. The guy that was sitting next to me kept burning his leg on the metal door. I'd guess about 150 to 160 degrees in the truck with no wind to cool you off. Fine I can still handle it. It sounds bad but I'm alive, nothing has happened to us in "Compton" yet and plain and simple I'm a soldier that is expected to just keep going when it goes bad. Than life just had to throw something else in there. My truck started to over heat and we hadn't even got to the hills yet. So I turned on the heater in the truck to try and pull some of the heat off of the engine. it started to work, just a little bit though. I seriously felt like I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. IT WAS HOT! About 30 minutes later though we got to another small little base and we pulled in to give the trucks a break after climbing up some hills. We instanly jumped out of out the truck and went running to find a mechaninc to help with or truck. They came over and changed out a contol valve for the A/C and we put in some antifreeze because out truck was almost empty. It all took about an hour and a half to fix our truck. It as kind of fun though because I helped them the whole time just to get it done and out of there. So we take off again and start working our way home. Most of the ride is on narrow switch backs through the mountains. We got to one point where we were right by a river. As we came around a corner we ran into yet another problem. A big delivery truck with huge containers about the size of a train car was teatering on the edge of the road, blocking our path and also getting ready to fall off of the edge. I wished that we could have helped but it was part of the plan. We couldn't stop a whole convoy to help the truck. So we drove down the hill next to the river and went four wheeling through the Afghan country side. We had to go through the river a couple of times and one of those times my truck just happened to get stuck. Perfect timing for the transmission to quit again. I put it into reverse, nothing. I put it into drive, nothing. I tried four wheel high and low, but nothing. We weren't going anywhere. Finally as I'm getting pissed at the situation I put it into reverse again as I yelled a couple of words and it started to go. I'm not to fond of just sitting there and making a target of myself especially when my truck isn't even working. We finally got around the falling truck, the river and all of the mud. We worked out way back to the road and kept going. An hour later we finally go back. It was perfect timing too. I was hungry, tired, and ready to get rid of that HMMWV. I got back and called it quits for the day. I was done. it was a fun little mission, about 10 to 12 hours for the day. Now it's hard to complain though. I got to see how I would react in a crappy situation and other than not having any air in my truck for the last little bit it turned out just fine. I've still got all of my body parts and I'm alive. Not every day is like that though. That was just an every now and than event. It wasn't the first and I'm sure that it won't be the last but the main thing is that I continue to keep my cool and be happy that at least I get to have the opportunity to experience another crappy day. There's other bothers in arms here that don't get to because they paid the ultimate price. I love you all and I hope that you all are safe and well. No reason to worry about me, I make sure that I take every step to keep myself safe. I miss you all and can't wait to see you in a couple of months.