March 15, 2003
In the other platoons, soldiers are working on graphics, marking up plastic overlays to show routes and objectives on the maps for the battles to come. Some soldiers break down their weapons and clean them. Others climb up on their tanks for preventative maintenance – lubing, checking and tightening bolts – looking for bigger problems to report to the maintenance chief. Capt. Wolford and Lt. Tomlinson, the XO, head across the desert in their Humvee for another in the endless round of planning sessions at battalion headquarters.
First Platoon is the duty platoon today and will be burning dukie. It is the most hated task, but the one that seems to be conducted with the most laughter. I’ve somehow made it this far in life without seeing shit burnt, so I come along.
They haul the sawed-off 55-gallon drums out of the plywood three-seater latrine. They drag them 50 feet away to the pit where trash is burned. They pour in diesel and set it afire. One soldier with gloves on uses a six-foot-long metal fence post to stir the flaming excrement, adding diesel until the fluids are burned off and the rest is reduced to ashes. In the desert’s winter morning cool, the soldiers warm themselves on the billowing flames, taking care to keep out of the heavy black poop smoke. The smell is mainly that of diesel and it isn’t as horrible as one might think.
“This here’s nice and warm. Anyone got any hot dogs?”
“Someone ate some corn! I hear it popping!”
Something explodes in the nearby trash fire.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Explosive dukie!”
“Propane can!”
“Lithium battery!”
“Time to get out of here!”
The trash-fire tender pokes around in the smoldering pit with his stick and pulls out an exploded can of chicken.
The dukie-burning detail quiets a little as the time-consuming process goes on.
“Staring at the fucking fire … mesmerizing,” says Sgt. Lustig.
“Like watching color TV,” says Sgt. Gibson.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:02 am on Thursday, March 15, 2007
5 Responses to “March 15, 2003”
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March 15th, 2007 at 2:06 am
March 15, 2003
Jules Crittenden.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Bill’s Nibbles // Open Post — 2007.03.15
March 15, 2003
(Critter learns how to burn shit.)
March 15th, 2007 at 3:00 am
I linked at http://www.smalltownveteran.net/bills_bites/2007/03/march_15_2003cr.html but the trackback won’t take.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Heh! Joking during a shit detail! Pretty high morale, for a fact.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Is this fire another of those obscene amenities that our guys are enjoying over there?