"Hopefully soon he'll stop evacuating his bowels at the sound of a loud noise."

Dare to dream. You'd be surprised how much a slamming door or dropped stack of weights sounds like an IED or mortar. And how fast a human being can run when gunshots are coming from the open stairway landing that you need to run across to get your gear. Luckily I'd already voided myself.

When a mortar came in close enough to have everyone getting their gear, a Marine intelligence guy emerged a minute later from the john and said "Well, I didn't die on the shitter today."

Heh. Indeed.

Now, see, I loved mortars. I loved the vibrations coming up through the bottoms of my boots as they walked the mortars. It make me feel like I was in "China Beach." All our were going out, of course, but that's the way it should be.

When I first came home I thought car alarms were Scud alerts. I reacted about as well as when I sat on a picnic table and watched a Patriot take out a Scud. I kept getting in trouble for being too chilled. I just knew nothing would happen to me. I think it was passenger monkey syndrome.

I enjoyed your post today.

most people have no idea how noisy the military is..hee hee

When you hear c-130's all day and all night for six months..you're never the same.

Geesh. Just keep your head down.