Tough Guys and Ratchet

They just stop by, not even needing work many times. They pretend to be friendly, uh-huh, but it comes out pretty quickly:

"Where's the cat?"

This group of soldiers had one particularly large member. He was smitten by the kitten, you could say. In-between the two pictures of the cat and him, he kissed the kitty. Yes, I held the camera in disbelief. They come for the love. Hope you find this as amusing as myself.

As far as work, AoA has become so popular and we are getting all the parts we need now and so we don't even do engines and transmissions or any other repairs any more, just armor. I see more and more vehicles come in hit by IED's and the cool thing is: they DROVE back in with everyone intact! The armor makes a difference.

Sometimes I have particular fun in this crude environment. Where it normally takes a little patience with a pry-bar and hammer, I open the crates quickly with a sledgehammer. I grind and punch out old bolts instead of toiling with a wrench, spit dust out on the floor, and use the large cardboard pieces as Frisbees or boomerangs. I jump onto and off of the vehicles to grab power tools. When I want the guy's attention, I grunt or just nod. It's great.

Oh sure, there will be a time for manners and social frilliness--all in good time. It's just fun to be a boy and not be socially impugned for awhile. In fact, the guys give me due respect (or even seem a little frightened) cuz I'm a tough guy in my own mind. So are they in theirs. But don't worry, when we return home, they to their wives and children, we will act like we were docile Mr. Manners the whole time. And if we ever see each other again, we will wink and smile when the wives ask...
Who wrote this letter, anyway? Surely not...

Ernie

P.S. Check this out--read it on Foxnews.com:

Christmas Past:
And just to make clear how much things have changed, an e-mail from a viewer pointed to FDR's Christmas message in 1944. Roosevelt began by saying it wasn't easy to say Merry Christmas in a time of war, "Nor can I say Merry Christmas lightly," he continued, "to our armed forces at their battle stations..."

Then he said, "Here, at home, we will celebrate this Christmas Day in our traditional American way because of its deep spiritual meaning to us; because the teachings of Christ are fundamental in our lives; and because we want our youngest generation to grow up knowing the significance of this tradition and the story of the coming of the immortal Prince of Peace and Good Will."

Oh, how times have changed.
interesting, eh?