Halloween Patrolling

Every holiday here passes without much notice. Hell there are barely even weekends here as everyday has the same consistency. It's a lot like the sloppy food that I'm now realizing is bland and so familiar that I greet it like a school child greets homework each night.

A friend here, a fellow shiftmate whom I'll call Hal for the sake of his mischievous outtakes brings the dreary day a shot of life. He's cut out some ridiculous paper mask which he has ripped from a magazine and he has it propped upon the front of his Kevlar helmet. Somehow he's managed to get a postal box full of bags of candy and he's hellbent on handing them out to the gates. This late in the deployment it becomes clear that neither I nor the other passenger in our vehicles cares for the consequences of being seen with a paper goblin hanging out of the turret. And when I say that I mean that we could care less what repercussions any authority figure would bring up against us.

We travel around to each gate, causing some faces to light up. Candy has that effect on anyone be it soldier or child (or Navy squid). The paper mask makes an impression too and we're all three of satisfied with breaking up the monotony of patrolling and the boredom that comes with gate duty for others. Hal screams "Open the @#&*ing gate, Happy @#&*ing Halloween!" and whips candy at their heads. He's a pseudo psychodellic halloween santa and it fits him well.

Not content to end the day with one simple spike in entertainment we roll down to the pier to inspect the ocean. We've been coming here a lot lately and meeting many of the foriegn nationals in the process. Hal is incredibly sociable and good at communicating through the thickest language barriers. He'll stand their playing charades for 10 minutes trying to get his point across.

He leaps on concrete trucks for the simple pleasure of chatting with a worker. It's not uncommon that he's offering water, drinks or magazines for things in return. He's even got a hold of homeade beer through one of his contacts.

Somehow he balances his sociable skills with a keen addiction to pyromania. Just today he was setting a box on fire, five foot flames licking the humvee. He's had infernos explode in his face from barrels doused with diesal. He's set elaborate wood effigys of words like "Happy Fourth of July"ending in a puff of burning gunpowder he removed from a bullet shell casing by hand.

Always a treat when Hal's riding with me, crazyness and all.

You can see a shot of it all here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/krimzen