Dec 27
Very, very sweet Shabbas. SFC Cohen and I cleaned up the whole area and set 13 places at the table, with siddurim, Khanukka handouts and cards, kosher MRE’s, water and wine and some candy that arrived in a box of donations yesterday from the 5 Towns in Long Island. Last week the soldiers were asking for challa, and we actually had one that was in good shape.
Exactly 13 people were in attendance and I was almost able to hit an occasional note. A few days ago our out of town guest was telling us about a time when his FOB got hit, and he wasn’t able to get out of his room for 3 days. His roommate wondered why he had stockpiled food and water under his bed, but he was prepared that moment.
As I taught the parsha, I used him as an example of a lesson learned from Joseph’s planning during the 7 years of plenty for the 7 years of famine.
I was talking off-line the other day to one of our regulars who is an MP, and she expressed concern about advertising our services- “This is where all the Jews are going to be gathered,” was the way she put it. She commented that once we are all in the room and have begun, her ears are highly attuned if the door opens. I guess that’s a good thing. They all have weapons close at hand and are still endlessly comparing equipment with each other, so I feel extremely safe. It’s sort of cute how if one person makes one tiny adjustment to their weapon, everyone notices (and has an opinion).
I was looking forward to my one bit of authorized wine of the week, but, sadly, it was completely awful and I was not desperate enough to drink it.
The AZ theme continues. As I was hanging out in front of the chapel annex waiting for someone with a key, an enthusiastic young female Captain-Chaplain greeted me. She’s on her way home after a year long deployment, headed back to- Tucson!!!!! She’s thinking about going on active duty and I gave her my card in case I can be of assistance.
We had one new person last night, a guy who walked in and was so excited to see me- he heard me speak at Fort Huachuca’s Days of Remembrance program last year and could not believe that we would cross paths20here at BAF. (I guess that counts as yet another AZ connection.)
Another CPT joined us, a regular who has not been by since I’ve been here. I asked him how he came to join the Army, and he told a long and fascinating story of his 9/11 experience. He had been visiting a friend in NY- on 9/10 he toured uptown and was planning to go downtown on the 11th. His friend suggested that he begin with the World Trade Center, as parking would be easier there first thing in the a.m., and he communicated to his family that that was his plan.
Late that night a friend from Europe phoned and encouraged him to drop everything and drive up to Montreal, saying, “The Twin Towers will always be there, but how often do you get to see me?” He found this a compelling argument and drove through the night, without advising his family of the change in plans.
You can imagine the chaos that ensued the next a.m., as he stood outside an electronics shop watching the demise of the first tower and the hit on the second. Someone in the crowd asked him what he, as an American, was going to do about it, and he just came out with- “I guess I’m going to join the Army.” And he did!
He is now attending law school in between deployments!
0A
He told one very funny story which I hope you don’t have to be a soldier to appreciate. As you are aware, the Army speaks in the language of acronyms. One of the most common is the TOC- Tactical Operations Center. Every place has one- it’s the place from which the battle is controlled and decisions are made.
We speak this language and somewhat take for granted that everyone knows what we mean. So, he recently had a soldier who had to write up a report and reference the TOC. Only, in his 6 year career, no one had ever explained to him what TOC actually meant.
Being an astute individual, he wrote up his report about the “Talk”. What else could he assume people were saying? “All you guys do there is “talk”- so I figured that’s what it was called!”
Great commentary on meetings and powerpoint and forms and regulations and how stuff gets done in the Army.
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