Ares, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? 3:10 AM

*WARNING, THIS POST HAS LANGUAGE MANY CONSIDER UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN, ALTHOUGH NO ONE FOLLOWING THIS BLOG BESIDES US HAS CHILDREN, MY ASS (OOPS, THERE I GO ALREADY) IS NOW OFFICIALLY COVERED.

Yesterday was rough. My roomates got sick a few days ago and I started to dose myself with orange juice and used hand sanitizer every few minutes in hopes of avoiding their fate. I thought I had actually manged it too for a second because both of them started to feel better a couple days ago and I wasn't down with anything- until yesterday when a full out flu assaulted my entire system, giving me a head pounding fever, body ache, upset stomach, the full meal deal.

I'm feeling slightly more human after thirteen hours sleep, six bottles of water and four advil. But that wasn't the worst part, oh no, a little flu bug is nothing compared to the news I got yesterday. I found out what my new job is going to be on staff.

I'm the Public-Fucking-Affairs-Officer. No shit. I'm a goddamn newsletter-writing media handling MOTHERFUCKING PAO! GODDAMN IT ALL TO HELL! This job combines the worst of everything. I will answer directly to the XO, I will work my ass off coaxing stories out of that which can be unclassified- now to tell the truth, that which IS classified (at least at my level) is boring as all hell. What the fuck interesting is there to write about shit that ISN'T classified? Oh, and since it's not directly involved with real operations, I will be an extraneous nuisance with a generic OER and little respect from anyone in the battalion, especially myself. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!

Sigh.

Lord (the real God, not the metaphorical Greek mythological figure), give me strength and, perhaps most importatnly, patience to rise above. I know it's not that tragic and that it's not going to fucking matter when I get to my next post, but if I was listing possible assignments I DID NOT want, PAO would probably be the first one I thought of.

Fuck.

Captain Watson, You are Hereby Sentenced to Serve the Remainder of Your Tour on Battalion Staff... 7:49 AM

Yep. It's official, after having fought the good fight and stayed at the battery level for the first three and a half years of my career I am now being pulled, kicking and screaming, into my first staff assignment. I don't know which S-Shop I'm getting yet but in any event it's the end of an era. I am become Power Point Monkey, waster of time.

Ah, well. I wasn't really doing much here anyway, maybe now the tour will start going faster because I'll be working my tail off. They say suffering is good for the soul.

Yeah, I Started One Too... 12:17 AM

Welcome, friends, to the inaugural post of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the latest and greatest time-waster of your humble servant, me. As anyone liable to read this will probably know (but I'm going to announce anyway) I am in month eight of a fifteen month tour in Iraq and it is starting to drrraaaggggg. Do not misunderstand me, I am very pleased with the progress of the war at this point, but the new hands-off approach leaves many of us with a LOT of time on our hands.

So I'm going to expend some of that time by throwing my rants out there onto the ether for my friends and family, and passerby to peruse at their liesure. I'm terrible at taking pictures, but I'll see what I can do about getting some of those up as well. Do not expect dramatic combat-camera pics, this is, thankfully, the most boring combat tour in history. I sincerely hope it stays that way.

"You just said your life in Iraq is boring. Why, then, Justin, should we expend precious time reading this blog?"

Because if you've gotten this far you are almost certainly one of the following people; my wife Michele, Kellen or Julia(okay, doubtful that Julia will show up, but I concede the possiblity), Eric, Jake, Stacy, Joe or Tucker. If you are one of the aforementioned, or another friend who will undoubtedly take me to task for forgetting you, then you should read because you love me and it will make me feel good to know that you care enough to wade through my latest rambling discourse on the subject du jour (Michele, check my French spelling on that).

"Dude I stumbled onto this by accident or linked from your Baen's Bar account and I'm losing interest fast, why should I keep reading?"

Because I'm intelligent, funny, charming and insightful. It says so right on the label!

If you like science fiction, I'm almost guaranteed to talk about that regularly. If you like military history, I'm going to discuss that frequently too. I have been obssessed with the study of warfare since I started elementary school. In addition to talking about science fiction that is already out there I am also an aspiring (nice word for frustrated) science fiction author. I won't post any of my writing directly onto the blog on the off-chance that it might be saleable, but I will talk about writing and books a lot as well. I welcome discussion from similarly interested individuals.

Note to friends: I don't care if you like those things, you still have to read, so there.

Finally, if you like immature humor and stories of America's finest young men and women, the soldiers I have the incalculable honor of leading, doing HILARIOUS stuff on occasion, that will be here from time to time too as events occur.

Of course that's the good. The bad is that I reserve the right to philosophize rant, on rare occasions, on things that royally piss me off. I despise, amongst other things, transnational progressivism (google Tom Kratman or John Ringo for detailed indictments of that particular trend), cultural relativisim in many, although admittedly not all, of its forms and American self-hatred. If you are a great fan of or heavily indulge in any of these concepts or their close relatives, I've got nothing for you.

"Who the hell are you?"

Well, there's my profile, which I will fill out very soon, but the salient facts are that I am a 25 year old United States Army Field Artillery Officer. I have a wife, Michele, and baby daughter, Evelyn, who are the foundation of my entire existence. I am an unapologetic Christian and Patriot, though I readily admit you can certainly be one without the other. Like most professional soldiers I have a love-hate relationship with my job and I am a HUGE NERD. I love science fiction, fantasy, history, science and Marvel Comics from the '80s and '90s. If it's past the Onlsaught plotline in X-Men, I haven't read it.

That'll do it for now. Tune in later for some less introductory material.

You stay classy... Planet Earth.