Some Comic Relief . . . (e-mail from Lincoln)

Hi Honey,

Thank you for the e-mail. It indeed seems as though it has been a while since we had the chance to talk. With the notice which came for our team to move to a new location we have been jumping through hoops to finish and or transfer all of our assignments to others who in no way understand construction or construction principles. We have spent a quite a bit of time educating our replacements rather than just handing the tasks over to them. I never believed that I would have to teach someone else how to use Excel but oh well, everyone has to start someplace. Half of our group has already left leaving the rest of us with double the workload. In the end we will depart and leave this base behind which has become familiar and almost like our home. We had made our rooms comfortable and learned the lay of the land. Our contacts with the various functions seemed to be in place and all was finally running smooth. Oh one must wonder why the Army just feels the need to move teams around when there are others who could have been moved there instead of a group that has so much to offer right here.

On another note, I never thought that I would see this happen but, I saw a Porta John blow over in the wind. And you guessed it, there was someone inside. Talk about a person screaming, the poor guy was covered in you know what when we turned the thing over so that the door could open. What a mess and stench. I think that I would have just stripped right there and thrown my clothes away but that's me. I wonder what he did, as all we saw of him was his backside as he ran for the showers. I can't even think of it without smiling and then feeling sorry for the guy.
I have been under the weather a bit lately primarily stomach related stuff. I think that I ate something bad and have been suffering since. It wouldn't be an issue but when the bathrooms are so far from our rooms or even out work sites one is left with the need to use Porta Johns and oh boy you know how those fun little boxes work. With the high winds these past few days I have been scared to use them but have had no choice but to run to the nearest location and hope that the wind doesn't claim another victim.

Another e-mail:

Good morning Honey,

We had another similar incident which occurred on the other side of the base. Under all of the Guard towers stands a lone Porta Jon. These porta jons are for the use of the Security Forces guys who sit in these towers for up to eight hours at a time. The idea is that the Guard towers are close enough to each other that when the occupant needs to relieve himself they will call the tower next to them so that their particular guard will watch and cover the unoccupied tower. So, here is what apparently happened, I didn't witness it but heard about it at the Base staff meeting, yep, I get to attend those meetings. So, apparently one of the Guards needed to relieve himself. He had to do it so bad that he failed to call the tower next to him. While performing the act the wind tipped him over pinning him in. The placement of these porta jons is in such a way that they shouldn't fall over as they are slightly wedged in between two columns. Anyway, this soldier was trapped with no one to hear him or come to the rescue and was trapped for over an hour. He was rescued when the towers to either side couldn't raise him on the radio and sent a full patrol to find out what the situation was. The Command Sergeant Major (Command Chief) of the Army here on the Base,said that they weren't even going to discipline the individual as his discipline was already carried out with all of the humiliation that went around the Base as all of the occupants pointed him out. He could have been really in trouble because he had left his assigned position when he failed to call one of the other towers. Anyway, we all had a good laugh at that one even though we all knew how sad it would have been if it were to occurred to us. I would have done my best to kick the porta jon to pieces even with it slightly wedged in between support columns. So, for the time being I'm staying away from porta jons for a while at least until the winds die down a bit......:)

Love ya.