Roaches

Before each shift the people doing my job have to arm up, which means a trip to the armory to receive and load our M16, extra ammunition, ASP baton, radio, etc. After arming up we have to stay armed for the rest of the day, until properly released. This means taking the M16 with you to the bathroom, the dining facility, fitting it inside of the truck, taking it to the BX, everywhere. Ever since basic training when we received our M16s (they were  special ones that didn't fire) to carry around with us during training, we've been taught to keep it within arm's reach at all times. There were severe consequences if a training instructor ever got hold of your weapon because you left it leaning on a tree or something when you went to the bathroom. But anyway, that is beside the point. My point was that we have to stay armed up until released, which means that even if we are technically done working and all of the people we are escorting have gone home, we have to stay armed until we are released. We can go to our rooms or to the Hot Spot to play games or pool or something, but we have to keep our weapons and stay in uniform. We all have radios as well. So at the end of our shift, everyone is sitting around with their radios waiting for the call to be released. The point of my whole story was that it is quite comical to hear the release call on the radio, step outside of my room and see FPs (Force Protection, my job) scurrying out from doorways all over the place like a bunch of roaches. They come out of trailers, they come out of bathrooms, they come from the smoke pits, the Hot Spot, the chapel, the laundry room, everywhere, all headed back to turn in their weapons and radio so they can go back to their room and change into our PT (physical training) clothes and go eat or go to the gym or just goof off. It cracks me up every day so I thought I'd share it.

For those that don't know, this is what an M16 looks like.



It weighs eight or nine pounds when loaded, so it's a pain to carry around and deal with and it's nice to get rid of it at the end of the day. Yes we are at war technically so we should be carrying weapons, but the enemies we are facing are cowards that put bombs inside of dead animals on the road or drive a car loaded with explosives into a building, they are not the type to mount a full ground assault on a base. They also randomly launch unguided rockets at our bases hoping to get lucky and hit something important. They are not going to line up in a formation with their AK-47s and attempt to storm the base, requiring us to fire back with our M16s. But, when we are on duty it is a different story of course. We need protection and having an armed rifle on your back goes a long way to keeping the peace without ever having to use it or even threaten to, when dealing with the people we are escorting.