Boosting Morale

There's not a lot of "entertainment" on the FOB, but that doesn't stop people from trying. Almost every movie ever made is available here. Usually, the younger members of the FST watch a movie or two each night. I've managed to watch a few of them, including Full Metal Jacket (one of my favorites). Ya gotta love R. Lee Ermy!

For Halloween, some of the guys dressed up and went to a "party". Their costumes were great; we had a mummy, Freddy Krueger, and Jason. LTC Smith put his orthopedic skills to work making Jason's mask. It turned out quite well.

Also, many of the younger soldiers here are into MMA (mixed martial arts). Once every week or two, they will get together and fight. One of our medics, SPC Tobey, has been doing MMA since he was 14. I watched him fight 2 Sundays ago and he beat up one of the Polish guys pretty badly. He's a tough kid. The fights are tightly regulated for safety reasons, but they are still pretty brutal. The fighters, however, have a lot of respect for one another and I've not seen things get carried away.

We only have 1 television here that gets AFN (Armed Forces Network), and it's in the D-Fac (Dining Facility). Because of the time difference, I have not seen one live football game since arriving here. What really hurts, though, is that I haven't seen ANY STEELERS GAMES. I was up this morning and thought I would catch the Monday night game versus Denver, but the television was broken. I hope the Steelers make the playoffs this year; I should be home in time for the AFC Championship at least!!