Have you ever seen the world through emerald eyes? Not the eyes of jealousy or envy, but through the eyes of a soldier at night. Of course I mean night vision. On this last mission I realized the gravity of my situation. What sane human being says, "Yea I'll wait here with a 240b (a large caliber weapon), at 2 am in the morning, just waiting for someone to fire at us, fighting to stay awake, on the most dangerous road south of baghdad." Man I must be ka-razy.
Through the nods (night operating devices) I cant see the world through the eyes of cats. Its so fun to sneak up on a group of people talking at night and toss rocks at them and watch the chaos through the green glow of technological superiority.
The world changes when people go to sleep. Most people dont realize the goings on of the night. When you dont fill the space with white light and wear NVG's, you can see the movement and the magic. Animals feel safer, the plants ease a sigh of relief and the earth moves itself. The stars become more amazing than ever. It's as if there were only a handful of stars in the sky before the nods were put on. There are millions of beautiful pinpricks of light though the green vail. I remember flying over Seoul one night on a critical medevac mission and I was simply stunned by the sheer breadth and surreal aura of the city in a green/whitish hue. Even though I saw it everyday for a month, I was in awe every time.
A few days ago I walked across the Euphrates River. As I was settling down after the 6 hour raid, I thought find me a handful of americans that have experianced that. Maybe I should put it into context. We marched 10 clicks down the cover of a gully, to the edge of the river dyke. Now when we are suited up our gear weighs roughly 100lbs. Add 30-40 lbs for my medic bag. Now as we wait for the Apache helo to clear the other side with thermal vision, I start to wonder if we are crossing in a boat or what? We get the ok to move across and its now deep into the night.
Remember that I have a PVS14 NVG system. The PVS7 covers both eyes and uses one scope to produce the same image in both eyes. The 14's are monocular. one scope/one eye. The other is seeing regular moonlight. The system provides better depth perception at a loss of unity. Its funny how the body compensates for the lack of the senses with eye domination.
Moving on, we get to the bridge. It is made of old pontoon boats with diamond sheet metal plates strewn across them. At the beginning of the conflict we blew the bridge at the edges to prevent vehicles from crossing. The locals have strewn shabby boards across to make it tranversible on foot. I didnt think of it until we had crossed back over, but if I had fallen I would have sank straight to the bottom and drowned before I was able to get my gear off. It was uncomfortable. It made me ask myself "Why am I unafraid? Have I become so content in life? Or is it that I focus on the task in a tough situation, not the consequences?"
We went to the other side and I was able to taste the dust of Al Anbar desert. It was like the sunbaked rocks of Zion. I found it astounding. I was standing on the edge of life and death. As I faced north beneath my right foot was a wasteland. A desolate area of nothingness. Only the howls of the night and the stars to keep it company. To my left was the green lush land of Babylon. The area had been a host to life since the dawn of man. Mesopotamia. I could not fathom that it was as literally black and white as that. The beauty of duality. Balance. At that moment I was balanced and focused. I hope that when I get these tattoos, they will remind me to maintain that moderation in all aspects of my life and serve as a lesson to others that it can be had.
Through the nods (night operating devices) I cant see the world through the eyes of cats. Its so fun to sneak up on a group of people talking at night and toss rocks at them and watch the chaos through the green glow of technological superiority.
The world changes when people go to sleep. Most people dont realize the goings on of the night. When you dont fill the space with white light and wear NVG's, you can see the movement and the magic. Animals feel safer, the plants ease a sigh of relief and the earth moves itself. The stars become more amazing than ever. It's as if there were only a handful of stars in the sky before the nods were put on. There are millions of beautiful pinpricks of light though the green vail. I remember flying over Seoul one night on a critical medevac mission and I was simply stunned by the sheer breadth and surreal aura of the city in a green/whitish hue. Even though I saw it everyday for a month, I was in awe every time.
A few days ago I walked across the Euphrates River. As I was settling down after the 6 hour raid, I thought find me a handful of americans that have experianced that. Maybe I should put it into context. We marched 10 clicks down the cover of a gully, to the edge of the river dyke. Now when we are suited up our gear weighs roughly 100lbs. Add 30-40 lbs for my medic bag. Now as we wait for the Apache helo to clear the other side with thermal vision, I start to wonder if we are crossing in a boat or what? We get the ok to move across and its now deep into the night.
Remember that I have a PVS14 NVG system. The PVS7 covers both eyes and uses one scope to produce the same image in both eyes. The 14's are monocular. one scope/one eye. The other is seeing regular moonlight. The system provides better depth perception at a loss of unity. Its funny how the body compensates for the lack of the senses with eye domination.
Moving on, we get to the bridge. It is made of old pontoon boats with diamond sheet metal plates strewn across them. At the beginning of the conflict we blew the bridge at the edges to prevent vehicles from crossing. The locals have strewn shabby boards across to make it tranversible on foot. I didnt think of it until we had crossed back over, but if I had fallen I would have sank straight to the bottom and drowned before I was able to get my gear off. It was uncomfortable. It made me ask myself "Why am I unafraid? Have I become so content in life? Or is it that I focus on the task in a tough situation, not the consequences?"
We went to the other side and I was able to taste the dust of Al Anbar desert. It was like the sunbaked rocks of Zion. I found it astounding. I was standing on the edge of life and death. As I faced north beneath my right foot was a wasteland. A desolate area of nothingness. Only the howls of the night and the stars to keep it company. To my left was the green lush land of Babylon. The area had been a host to life since the dawn of man. Mesopotamia. I could not fathom that it was as literally black and white as that. The beauty of duality. Balance. At that moment I was balanced and focused. I hope that when I get these tattoos, they will remind me to maintain that moderation in all aspects of my life and serve as a lesson to others that it can be had.