18 march

Ok, so this was too funny not to write home about.
I get woken up this morning around 6:30 because theres a mission and their platoon medic had been out most of the night. I took it so he could get some sleep. It was just supposed to be a patrol that normally lasts a couple hours. This was not to be.
Things started out well; we left at about 7am and stopped in town, spoke to some of the residents and gave out a bunch of candy to the kids. On our way between our second and third stops we get a call that we need to respond way to the south because another company is apparently taking some sniper fire. Ok...no problem. We roll out there and attempt to set up some security. Here's where things go wrong. While trying to position the Bradleys we have to roll through some pretty serious mud. Anyone who's gone mudding before knows not to follow in the leading vehicles tracks or else you might get high-centered and end up stuck. Apparently, the same theory applies out here as well. Cruising along in the mud, our 35-ton Bradley grinds to an abrupt halt. I'm thinking that there's no way we can get a Brad stuck...I'm wrong. No amount of rocking or steering is going to get us out of this quagmire. Figuring that this will be a simple fix, we hook our tow cable to the other vehicle and they begin to pull us out. It works...at first. We end up stuck for a second time. As they move around for a better position, they get stuck! Trying every trick we can think of succeeds only in covering a number of us in mud. So, our pride bruised, we hop on the radio and call for the wrecker. They head towards us, with the commander as well. Great. They made easy work of freeing us from the muck as this wrecker is designed to pull tanks weighing double that of a Bradley. While we had been trying to free ourselves, two more Bradleys got stuck several miles down the road. As a convoy, we all head towards the immobilized Brads. There's nothing for us to do, and at that point we'd been gone about 6 hours so we broke out the MRE's (meals ready to eat) and had lunch while we waited for the wrecker to do its job. Then we get the radio call...now the wrecker's stuck, and the track on the commander's Bradley has slipped off. All 5 of us in the back of our Brad looked up from our food and just shook our head. Yep, that figures. The wrecker has a giant winch on the front, and apparently managed to free itself, though the two Bradleys were still suck, and the track needed to be fixed on a third. Over the course of the next two and a half hours, they finally managed to unstick and fix all the vehicles, while managing to stick and free a humvee in the process. At long last we were able to return to base, slightly muddy if nothing else. All in all, 4 Bradleys (one of them twice), 1 wrecker and a humvee all ended up stuck in the mud; and that was just our company. Others from the rest of our battalion were having the same problems. We finally rolled back onto base at 3:45; eight hours and fourty-five minutes after we left that morning.
Since I left in a hurry this morning, I didn't get the chance to shave. I tried taking care of that as soon as I got back. I managed to shave half my face before the battery on my razor ran out of juice. I had to pull the razor (and a number of hairs) off my face so I could recharge it. Deciding I didn't want to walk around half-shorn, I finished with a blade and called it good.
That's been my day so far. But, if this is the worst my days will ever get, I think I'll be ok with that. However, I think I'm going to head back to the aid station and attempt to avoid any other "email worthy" incidents.

Hope all is well with everyone!!!
Troy