Went Somewhere... Did Something...

Right. The subject line of this email sort of tells it all.

Generally, the lowly Soldiers in Iraq have no idea where they will have to go next and absolutely no idea what they have to do once they get there. It's a new surprise every day. In my last email I asked him to let me know some of the things that have been happening over there. His response?

"Yesterday we went somewhere and did something. It was boring. That was my day." (End of email.)

I sort of felt offended. Didn't he want to let me know what was going on? Was he upset? Was he mad? Was he depressed (more so than usual)?

And then, I read an excerpt from a letter that a Soldier in the SBCT sent home to his family. (Some of the newsgroup publish this sort of thing.) There it was. Right in front of me in black and white, almost the same exact words. "The other day we went someplace, and did something. When we got back..."

Ha! What he had told me was probably exactly what he was told to say. "We are going someplace and we are going to do something." The reason they went where they did and did what they did was on a need to know basis. And we didn't need to know.

And to be honest, learning that yesterday was boring is sort of a good thing. Excitement is something we don't need.