Rough start good ending

Woke up this afternoon very tired from having not slept well. I got to work and saw that we had a mounted brushback mission so I took the least involved position of being a passenger in the back of the MRAP with the medic. We get all loaded up and and roll out from the ready room and headed for our exit checkpoint. As we are cruising through VBC the driver of my MRAP jumps on the brakes and brings us to a very abrupt halt, after peeling my face off the air conditioning system I ask the driver wtf that was all about? He informs us that a pack of skinnies to our 9 had kicked a soccer ball into the road and stopped to avoid running it over. After the TC(truck commander) and driver look around to see if they could see the ball but couldnt, they called it clear and we continued on. We make it out to our check point and go on with our mission that ended up being a uneventfull cruise through the red zone and then we returned to our ready room. Once there the gunner of the truck behind us let us know that we had in fact ran over the soccer ball.  Well apparently this did not sit well with the skinnies cause they started yelling, throwing stuff and flipping the bird to them. Then he points to our white board and someone had written MRAP 1 soccer ball 0. We all had a good laugh over that.

After a few hours rest it was time for us to pull our tower duty which was as eventfull as it sounds. I passed my time by messing with the Ugandan, his name is Robert.

Me . . . So how long have you been in Iraq Robert?
Robert . . . 3 years.
Me . . . Have you shot anyone?
Robert . . . No.
Me . . .You have been in Iraq for 3 years and aint shot anyone?
Robert . . . No sir.
Me . . . Look at me Robert. Now pay attention. You are leaving at the end of this year cause VBC is shutting down correct?
Robert . . . Yes sir.
Me . . . Before you leave here, you HAVE to shoot someone!
Me . . . Shoot an Iraqi.
Me . . . Its required that you shoot someone.
Me . . . Its in the Geneva convention, look it up.
I crack myself up.

My relief shows up and I update him as to what activity I had seen and then head down the 7 flights of stairs to the dirt road below, then walk about 300 meters down the road to my pickup spot. Its about 0430hrs at this point and dawn of the new day is progressing nicely. I have some time before my ride shows up, so I take a seat on a jersey barrier, turn on my hajipod, pop in my headphones and enjoy watching the little brown sparrows swoop through the air after the morning bugs as well as watching a slight breeze sway the tall grass and reeds that line a small creek in front of me. While im sitting there enjoying this I think to myself how freaking cool this is! Sitting on a jersey barrier alone, in full body armour, with weapon, listening to music, watching nature while the sun slowly lights up the sky in IRAQ.