Qatar

All of the lower enlisted were able to go to Qatar for a four days of R&R. I ended up going with SGT B and SGT R. It took us about three days to get out of Iraq. All the flights were backed up and we were told to just wait around…which was awesome because we got three days off of work. On the second day we were told to be there at 3:00am. We arrived and just waited and waited…at about 4:00 we started to get mortared non-stop. They were on top of us and we were all rushed to the bunkers. Everyone was silent…I honestly thought we had a pretty good chance of getting fucked up. The insurgents favorite spot to mortar is the airfield. I held B’s and R’s hands as we sat there for about an hour. It was so hot in the bunkers, everyone was sweating and just staring at the ground. The guys made me feel better and told me they’ll stop mortaring us soon. (The mortaring finally ended and no one was injured.) We were told to leave and come back in the afternoon. We got on a flight and flew straight from Iraq to Qatar…it was about a two or three hour flight. Qatar was beautiful, huge buildings, nice houses and cars…and humid as shit. We went to the “club” on post, went swimming, went to the mall twice, and went on a BBQ/sand dunning trip. The club allows every Soldier three drinks…now this is a huge deal. Since I don’t drink I sold each of my tickers for 10 dollars…sometimes it pays to be Straight Edge. We danced, laughed at people, ate…it was nice to just hang out . We were able to wear civilian clothes too. The mall was really nice. Let me tell you one thing, Arabic people fucking love Starbucks…maybe even more then piece of shit Americans that can‘t get over that place. While we were walking around we were stared at a lot…nothing new. The guys wouldn’t stop
looking at you and even made whistling noises. But right when you looked at them they would turn their heads and shut up. The best was the BBQ and sand dunning…we road across the desert in SUVs, went down crazy hills and almost tipped over a few times. I had to go to the bathroom so bad and once we were done sand dunning, I seriously found the only dead bush in the desert and peed behind it. I prayed a scorpion wouldn’t bite my ass. It was awesome. They made us a traditional Arabic meal and we were able to swim in the Gulf Coast. It was so peaceful…the water was blue/green and clear…I thought about hiding out in Qatar. Our four days came to an end and we had to go back.