September 16, 2003
Uncontrolled Explosion
Heh P: Finally found email. Lots going on here. I think I should stay as long as possible. Pretty safe, although the Palace came under mortar attack two nights ago. At first, I thought it was controlled EOD explosion. By the time I got to my room, a third round hit and all the guys were just standing around like nothing had happened. In fact, somebody found a rat in the hooch which demanded their full attention--never mind the mortars.
It was a good choice to stay with the enlisted guys. The room is crowded--with me, the distance between bunks must be about two feet. 11 or 12 guys crammed in a tiny room. The room is literally part of one of the palace gates, so they whole thing is sandbagged.
Pretty diverse groups of soldiers, all of them except for the squad leader, are either teenagers or in their early 20s. The youngest is a kid named Wilf who joined the Army at 17--that makes him 19 now. He--and many of the others--are straight out of South Park. For whatever reason, I can relate to them and find them pretty amusing.
