Becoming One Purple Heart (Formerly Purple Hearts)

A Little Piece of Home

(Luke's Point of View)

I have just awoken from a solid 8 hours of sleep and I feel human again. It's about 10:00 AM here in Iraq and I think it's a Sunday, but honestly I'm not sure. Prior to sleeping our unit had been fighting for 60 hours straight which was complete hell as the fighting has been getting worse but it's not surprising given it's the middle of June which means it's the middle of fighting season here in the Middle East. Today we have a day off which is rare, but it just means our unit is not required to be on patrolling duty but we do get a workout in, perform maintenance on our weapons, study new intel, and stuff like that and of course we are alway ready to leave at a minutes notices if we are needed and given how things have been going here recently I think there is a high likelihood that we will end up having to leave base today. I get up and head to the bathroom so that I can use the restroom, wash my face, and shave. 

(Frankie's Point of View)

I am just waking up as I am sweating as it's about 120 degrees outside and it's about 10:15 AM, that's Iraq for you in the summer though. When I look over at Luke's bed he is already up but his bed is not made so I assume he just woke up and probably headed to the bathroom. Making your bed, keeping this tidy, and good hygiene are all very important aspects of being in the military as we are not rugged mountain men even though living conditions over here are less than ideal. I decide to get up and head to the restroom and then I'll come back and change, make my bed, and tidy my stuff. Just as I thought when I arrive at the bathroom I spot Luke who is shaving his face at the sink. I join him and I quickly wash my face and then being shaving my face too. About 10 minutes later I have finished and I quickly use the restroom and then wash my hands before heading back the room where we sleep on our cots. When I get back to the room Luke is making his bed and I walk over to make my bed too. Since we are on a large military base here there is an actual room for sleeping which has foldable cots for us to sleep on therefore we make our beds when we get up to keep things tidy. Once my bed is made I change into my workout attire which includes dark green shorts and a dark green shirt. Once I am dressed I put on my workout shoes and I head to the dining area. 

When I arrive at the dining area I see a bunch of boxes on one of the tables. I quickly grab an MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) pack from the storage bin on the floor and then head to a table. The food is one thing that is not always so glamours  about life in a combat zone. We usually have a cook as this is a large base that we are currently stationed at, but the Four cooks who were stationed here just went home as their deployment ended about a week ago, so for the last week or so we have been eating MREs which means most of our food is in packages that basically never expire, but food is food so we eat it. The rule of thumb here is eat and sleep when you can as they can both be difficult to come by some days especially during fighting season. Today I have beef ravioli as my main dish and blueberry cobbler for dessert and I begin the warming and assembling process. Moments later I am joined by Luke and a few other guys from our unit, Nicolas and Evan, who also have their MREs in hand. When Luke opens his MRE he looks like he has just won the jackpot. I then say to him "what did you get there Luke?" He then says "chili mac and peach cobbler." I then say "I guess it's a lucky day for you Morrow." He then laughs and looks at my food and says "hey you got beef ravioli and blueberry cobbler which is also pretty good so I would say that makes us 2/2 today." I then say "you're right, in terms of MREs I think we got the best two meal options." Just as we begin tucking into our meals our unit commander walks in and says "I have two pieces of good news for you the first is we have new cooks who will be joining us on base tonight late tonight which means starting tomorrow we will be back to eating hot meals when we are on base instead of MREs. The second piece of news is we had a mail delivery arrive early this morning. There is quite a lot of mail and it is all over on the table arranged in alphabetical order by last name. Lastly, though we have the day off from patrolling today please make sure you have everything prepped to go if we are needed at any given moment."