The other night, I slept in my office. It was a long night of coordinating transportation for troops and their pickup was only two hours away. Heading back to my room, getting changed, and falling asleep then heading back to the office would have cost me another hour. So, I slept in my chair.
As I began to doze, I heard a strange noise behind me. It took awhile to stand out since there are a lot of weird sounds you hear around here. But, eventually I recognized that it was the sound of a mouse or rate scratching right behind me. The buildings we work in are nothing more than concrete slabs with a plywood building built on top of it. They are drafty. It sound like the mouse was trying to get in through the electrical outlet. After banging on the wall, the sounds stopped and I tried to get back to sleep. Then it started up again.
Last night, as I was driving back from the dining facility, I saw a cute little red fox on the side of the road chewing at something. I stopped my truck right next to it and started making goo goo noises. After staring at each other for a few seconds, I drove on.
Every now and then when I get back to my room late at night, I see an orange cat running away from somewhere. Not sure if someone is feeding it or it’s just finding food on its own. But, it doesn’t seem to like people.
There are a lot of strange animals around here. I’ve seen bats, rats, mice, and cats. And no one knows what diseases they hold.
There have been a few deaths recently of troops that were bitten by animals they’ve either taken in as pets or were bitten by on patrols. Rabies has a long incubation period. Soldiers may seem completely normal for months before showing signs of flu-like symptoms. If not treated quickly, rabies is deadly.
I learned my lesson about mangy animals from watching Cujo as a kid. Have you seen that movie? Frightening!!
I posted an article on 5 October detailing the F-35B (Marine Corps variant of the Joint Strike Fighter) making it’s first shipboard vertical landing. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel posted a nice follow up to that story yesterday giving us a glimpse into the life of the pilot who made the landing, Marine LtCol Fred Schenk.
