Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be here than Bagram or Balad. The trips off base were great and I’m glad I took the risk to venture out there. But this is still a deployed location and I had to do without quite a bit.<\/p>\n
Here’s a list of things I won’t miss about being here…<\/p>\n
1.) Wearing reflective belts at night even though the AF Physical Fitness uniform is covered in reflective screen printing.
2.) The dust.
3.) Eating breakfast at dinnertime, and dinner at lunchtime, and lunch at breakfasttime.
4.) The dust.
5.) Having a first sergeant come up to me outside to ask me to tuck in my fitness shirt all the way. Like he was standing there waiting for me to arrive to give him something to do.
6.) The dust.
7.) Wearing reflective belts at night around my uniform, and around my backpack.
8.) The dust.
9.) Trudging home from work in 90 degree temperatures along the roadside while a young Airman whizzes past me in an air conditioned 2009 Ford F-150 with no other passengers.
10.) The dust.
11.) The smell of ASS in the trailers when we weren’t able to open the doors periodically. One giant collective fart.
12.) The dust.
13.) The smell of dead animals right outside the entrance to the dining facilities. There’s no better way to perk up your appetite.
14.) The dust.
15.) The dining hall main line servers (not military) who always would offer me TWO steaks, TWO pieces of lasagna, TWO Belgian waffles. What, did they think I wasn’t fat enough?
16.) The dust.
17.) Having to walk 90 seconds to the latrine if I have to pee in the middle of my sleep time…and having to remember to tuck in my uniform shirt and put on my reflective belt first.
18.) The dust.
19.) Having to reduce my entire life down to the contents of two suitcases.
20.) The dust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be here than Bagram or Balad. The trips off base were great and I’m glad I took the risk to venture out there. But this is still a deployed location and I had to do without quite a bit. Here’s a list of things I won’t miss about being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[13,63,616],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-5t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":569,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/05\/why-i-fly-in-my-uniform.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":0},"title":"Why I Fly in my Uniform","date":"19 May 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Folks find it strange that I travel to and from my Reserve duty in uniform. In this week's case, I didn't have an official appointment as soon as I landed; I didn't have to report to duty as soon as I landed either. Nonetheless, I have found it beneficial in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/02\/shamal-101.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":1},"title":"Shamal 101","date":"11 February 09","format":false,"excerpt":"I sorta figured this would happen while I'm here. \"What's that?\" A shamal. \"What the heck is a shamal?\" Well, let's define it here. It's a strong northerly wind that picks up dust from Syria and Jordan and carries it all the way down the Arabian peninsula. And it's shamal-ing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":321,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/02\/dust-storm-day-2-wheres-the-pledge.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":2},"title":"Dust Storm, Day 2: Wheres the Pledge?","date":"12 February 09","format":false,"excerpt":"The dust storm continues. It isn't as windy as yesterday, only gusting up to about 25 instead of 35 knots. But the chalky goodness is still flooding down from Syria and Iraq.I'm usually the first to admit that I haven't truly forecast the weather in a really long time and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/01\/combat-crocs.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":3},"title":"Combat Crocs?","date":"14 January 09","format":false,"excerpt":"The base has a pretty clear policy about what kinds of shoes you can wear around here. Boots in your uniform, athletic shoes with your physical fitness gear. But there's also a provision for wearing alternate shoes in your physical fitness (PT) gear if they meet certain safety standards: Black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":323,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/02\/my-first-attempt-at-a-video-shamal.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":4},"title":"My First Attempt at a VIDEO: Shamal","date":"13 February 09","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my attempt to share a video I took about 1\/2 hour after the first wall of dust and wind hit us here on the 11th. Visibility was about 1\/10 of a mile and the winds were from the northwest at 35-40 knots. It takes a REALLY long time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3027,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/03\/colorado-discoveries-30-history-colorado-center.html","url_meta":{"origin":339,"position":5},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 30: History Colorado Center","date":"05 March 14","format":false,"excerpt":"About our visit to the History Colorado Center in Denver.","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_0549","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/DSC_0549-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}