Why Are We Here Again?

We all started to get adjusted to our new life. I can say that 90% of us still didn’t fully understand why we were there or why they needed us. None of us really felt our job was important mainly because there were other Soldiers already doing it. We kind of felt in the way. But we were all there together for some reason. I volunteered to work in the Public Affairs section. I figured if I was in the Public Affairs section I wouldn’t just be sitting at a desk all day and typing shit. I swear desk jobs will kill you. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I was assigned to work with an nine man team out of Washington state. When they arrived (6 months before we got there) they started the Anaconda Times. The Anaconda Times is a newspaper that focuses on events happening on our base, outside the wire (what’s going on in the villages around us), and anything else of importance happening around Iraq. I was told I would be working as a Staff Writer. I was so excited…but I had never received training before…I never had written an article. When the Sergeant in charged asked me if I had done anything like this before, I lied and said I had taken a journalism class. I just wanted this job so bad and if I had to sit at a desk for a year I would’ve killed myself.