Stone Soup

I had a chance to talk with the USMC general that leads the Task Force I work for. He was out at the courthouse area (he lives at some other base and was just here for a visit). He did a re-enlistment for one of the troops and spoke a few words about how important our mission is and gave a motivational speech. I found his words to be helpful since I’ve often wondered who really cares about what we are doing here. He helped to put things in to perspective and that we are the front lines in a strange way. He gave some good Declaration of Independence references to remind us of why we do this and that we want the locals to see us do this to help lead by example. He remembered me from the CNN piece and made a few comments to me (he was here leading the CNN guys around that day). He was curious if my family had seen it. It was a fun minute or two kidding each other about it. He stuck around for some pictures and chatting with the troops after the impromptu ceremony.

In the morale department…we recently had boxing night. They do that regularly here…and allow people to sign up and have a series of bouts on a designated night. They also had a recent talent show. I didn’t get to see either event because I was busy with work or something. But I wanted to say it’s nice that they try to have some different things to make life fun for the people.