Dust and other annoyances

For the second day in a row, I have had a flight canceled due to low visibility. Now and then, the ever-present dust here gets a new layer blown in from Syria. Sometimes, it blows enough that flight operations get suspended (it's no state secret that our airfield isn't instrument-landing capable). If you're lucky, you're here when it happens. Sometimes, our folks get caught in the air and have to land somewhere else. They might be there a few hours, or a few days.

Not that being here is so great when the dust is thick. It gets in everything, including your ears, nose, and mouth. Unless you wear goggles, it gets in your eyes, too. Lots of blinking going on here. And, even though our rooms seal up pretty well, the dust gets in there, too. You get used to it.

Another annoyance -- once again, our Task Force command overdoes things and micro-manages. This time, it has to do with laundry. Now, nearly everyone makes sure they take their sensitive items (e.g., access badges, thumb drives, and so on) out of their clothes before they drop them off. Well, of course a few people will forget. And, with the usual knee-jerk over-reaction, we were ordered by the TF commander to have our laundry inventoried when we drop it off (this means counting everything and having the laundry guys list it), or be subject to UCMJ (that's Uniform Code of Military Justice) actions. Plus, if something does get through, there would be automatic UCMJ action as well. The unfortunate one would probably lose half a month's pay, if not more.

Not only is this overly harsh, but it is a slap in the face for all the leadership beneath the task force commander. They have no power in this matter now. Instead of being trusted to handle things themselves (say, within each company), as is normally the case in most commands, the company commanders are forced to follow the draconian policy of the TF commander.

And, let's not forget us flunkies. We now have to take a big chunk of time (because there's always multiple people in a vehicle going by the laundry) to drop off our laundry. Micro-management is a wondrous thing.

Last (I'm running out of time today), some minor annoyances at the DFAC. Most horrifying, they have been out of cookies for the last few days. Plenty of other desserts, but not good enough for a cookie-holic like me. This will change in a few days, no doubt. Also, there are other random outages of various things you get used to having every day. Among them are bananas, diet soda, and chicken breasts. Not a big deal really, but when all you have to look forward to some days is your meal, you get cranky about these little outages. Fortunately, the Army will likely never run out of bacon.