Twilight Zone

Being in the Army can be like the Twilight Zone. Soldiers end up doing things which they never would have done back in civilian life. Some of those things are benign (such as wearing yellow, blue, or orange reflective belts when the sun goes down), and some are quite deceptive (infidelity is somewhat common. Luckily, I have a core group of Soldiers with whom I interact who are committed to their spouses).

One of the things I've done in the last two days which I never would have done before was dumpster dive. When we arrived in Kuwait, we were given a room with beds and wall lockers. That's it. We had no furniture, no television, no internet connection, no power converters or adapters (Kuwait runs on 220 volts, and uses the GB plug adapter); we had nothing. Initially I spent a lot of money on things like plastic totes to organize my clothes and a folding chair to sit on. However, one of my Soldiers (SSG Schmidt) said that he found a gold mine in the dumpster. So I followed him, and he wasn't lying.

Soldiers who leave theater usually try to sell their stuff. Most of them purchased it from another Soldier. This is common because most units replace an outgoing unit. However, ours did not do that so we had to buy most of our stuff new--and at significantly higher prices. In this condition, when the PX is sold out of a lot of stuff, and the cheapest tv is $240 while the cheapest refrigerator is $250, finding discarded goods becomes a viable option.

We found five power strips with numerous adapters, a 2000 watt converter, a tv which worked (a lot did not), and we found three refrigerators. I took the smallest one because I don't think I'll buy enough food to warrant a larger one. (Don't worry, I wiped it clean.) SSG Schmidt found two which were exactly the same. One had tape on it that said "broken motor" while the other was in perfect condition (there was still ice in the ice-tray and ice-cold water in it (which means it must have just been thrown in there because it was about 95 degrees), but someone had snipped the power chord. We decided that we would take both refrigerators back to my barracks, and there we took apart the chords from the fridge that had a broken motor, and then replaced the cut chord with the others. SSG Schmidt and I aren't, as he said, "Tim the Tool-Man Taylor" by any means, but when we plugged it in, we heard the sweet humming of a perfectly working refrigerator. I pray that our jerry-rigged job doesn't cause a major fire!

It was dirty, smelly fun. Every time someone would walk buy, SSG Schmidt would shine his flashlight on the person. He reminded me of a raccoon that is caught going through the garbage, and the only thing which can be seen are the reflection of light in its eyes. Below is a picture of SSG Schmidt unwiring the broken refrigerator. I wish I had taken pictures of us in the dumpster. Perhaps I can take pictures of the scene just for kicks.