First Thing

“What is the first thing you are going to eat when you get back?”
“What is the first thing you are going to do when you get back?”
“What do you miss the most?”
“What is the first thing…?”

These are the questions that one hears constantly while one is deployed, especially if one eavesdrops just a little… People talk about this for hours on end day after day… Answers vary quite a bit… A sampling of things I have heard include (in no particular order):
Going fishing, watching TV, golfing, eating good food, doing nothing, drinking a cold beer, hanging out with friends and family, and a few other things that I won’t put in this PG-rated blog…

As far as eating—that is the major topic of discussion—what to eat when one first gets back—burritos (near the top of my list!), pizza, a good steak, fresh fish, sushi, vegetables of any sort—these are the common answers…

So, the answers to the query, “What do you miss the most?” are not a surprise: good food (see a pattern here?) and those activities that are the answer to “What’s the fist thing you’re going to do when you get back?”

When I was stuck in Balad—read that post here—we had a chance to watch a few movies. One of them was Crash. In the beginning of that movie one of the main characters—immediately after being rear-ended in an automobile—says that in Los Angeles people don’t touch each other and they miss the human contact, so they crash into one another to make up for the lack physical closeness… I think that being in the US military in Iraq is very much like living in LA—no human contact… Now, there are good reasons why we don’t go around hugging each other all day every day—that would be a whole new Marine Corps!! But, that is what I miss most, the closeness of family and friends.

So, when I get back, the first thing I will do (and, I imagine, everyone else that can) is to hug my family and hold on tight! I don’t even care what we eat, although a Santana’s burrito wouldn’t be a bad thing…