Six More Months

I'm sure St. Kate mentioned that Mustang, a MN National Guard soldier, blogging from Iraq at Six More Months was a friend or relative.  But, I can't for the life of me find the post.

Don't miss his pictures of a dust storm.  (Wow.  Orange air.)  He also relates the story of a day on base with their Iraqi translator, Junior:

During the course of the game, which we were losing badly already, one of our MP’s had to respond to a call. Junior was pressed into service as catcher, ironic because he had never put on a glove in his life. He learned the basics of catching and throwing rapidly, and thoroughly enjoyed the game.

Unfortunately, despite Junior’s strong performance behind the plate, we still lost. Base running remains a mystery to him. He asked me after the game “why, after they hit the ball and run, do they just stop running for no reason? How do they know where to stop?” Those lessons will have to be covered before the next game.

Later, after dinner, Junior was introduced to another great American game, Texas hold’em. After watching a couple of hands, he wisely decided to remain a spectator. Can’t say that I blame him, I don’t quite get the game either. But he hung out, told jokes, and listened to some good old American trash talking around the card table. For a few hours, this corner of Baghdad was transformed into a backyard deck in southwestern Minnesota, and Junior got a glimpse of who we are. 

Afterwards, he thanked us for a great day, and told me “Today I felt like I was with family.” So maybe what we really need here is 25 million softball gloves. You never know.

Thanks, Mustang, for your service.  Stay safe.  I've added Six More Months to the sidebar under the M.O.B. blogroll.

Comments

[St. Kate]

Hey Sandy,

I do not have the honor to be related or aquainted with Mustang, but I'm sure glad to find his blog.

I have a cousin in the Missouri National Guard; he deployed to Iraq this past Saturday and there was a brief post about it at my other site. Thanks for finding Mustang for us!