Introducing the Home Team
Today seemed like a long day. In addition to the aircraft work, which was minimal, we made some more headway on the extension of our office inside the clamshell hangar. I spent quite a while searching far and wide for wood scraps to complete the construction. We were able to “procure” everything except enough plywood to complete the ceiling. Tomorrow is another day.
It seems that each day, I am reminded, again, that I have some really great soldiers. I feel privileged to be the one leading them through this deployment. Our platoon is comprised of the following people. To protect their identity, I’ll just list their call signs.
“Falcon”, “Ninja”, Rebar, “Hit man”, “Wheel Man”, “Bear Cub”, “Chickie”, “Stock boy” , “Romeo” and “JET”.
Each soldier earned his or her call sign by a significant event which pretty much paraphrased their personality, demeanor or some other obvious trait or personality spike. My call sign is “Merlin” because I seem to magically make things work after many, much more intelligent people have given it their best effort. I also specialize in making things disappear and reappear as necessary. The latter, falls under the category of covert operations and will be discussed here with much reservation. ‘Nuff said!
Here is a brief run down of my platoon and my summarization of their personality and abilities. My intent here is not to undeservingly criticize any of my soldiers but rather it is my attempt, feeble as it may be, to draw a portrait of what I perceive to be, prominent features of their individual Chi. I can’t dance around it any better than that. Legal disclaimer noted!
“Falcon” is equal in rank to me and I had hoped that he would be someone who I could jointly share responsibilities with on this deployment. I had never worked with him before and didn’t know what to expect. “Falcon” turned out to be a poster child for incompetence; Not only in the military but pretty much in life in general. He is extremely introverted and has very little leadership ability to work with. He is almost incapable of making a decision on his own and forget making any decision making on the fly.
"Ninja", has good people skills and is a mediocre mechanic. His natural strengths are perfect for a sales occupation. He often takes shortcuts which will rear their ugly head later on down the line. He seems to have the potential for being a good leader, he has just never taken the step that separates the leaders from the sheep.
"Rebar" has a very negative personality. He is also very much of an introvert. He has daily issues with being deployed away from his family and just can’t seem to come to grips with the fact that he is here in Iraq. As a result, he suffers from what I believe to be depression and may be slightly bipolar. Most of the guys are hesitant to turn their back on him. He has made periodical references to doing others harm or doing harm to himself. It took until now,after many attemtps, to convince the command to seek help for him. We’ll see what comes next. I wish him the best.
“Hit man” is from Jersey and he’s Italian. He’s a great guy and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s one guy who I would want with me in a firefight. He'd be the first pick if theres a scuffle. That pretty much sums him up.
“Wheel Man” is probably my best all around soldier. He brings active duty experience on Blackhawks both as a mechanic and a crew chief and exercises good judgment... most of the time. He’s smart, mechanically inclined and is self motivated. He’s a natural leader among the junior ranks and if I had the power, I would make him a sergeant yesterday. He’s also one of my picks in a firefight. He gets his name because he claims,"If it has wheels, I can drive it".
“Bear Cub” gets his call sign because he likes the Cubs. He’s the soldier every leader would like to have. He executes without questions, gives 110%, all the time and an intelligent and quick learner. His self proclaimed fuse is as long as the day. Sign him up for the firefight on my team.
“Chickie” is my only female soldier and a bit of a tom boy but still maintains her feminine qualities most of the time. She’s very young, impressionable and somewhat naive. She keeps us laughing daily. She’s a good worker and has learned a great deal about maintaining and repairing helicopters since the beginning of the deployment. I need to constantly be on the watch for the guys who would like to take advantage of her naivety.
“Stock Boy” also brings active duty experience to the table. He’s a bit of a hard head and a pretty good mechanic. His down fall is that he’s not exactly the neatest person I know. He’s happy to get into the grease, oil and dirt but he doesn’t care too much to clean up afterward. I have to watch his personal hygiene habits from time to time and encourage him to use the other three uniforms that were issued to him. Sign him up for the fire fight roster as well.
“Romeo” is a decent mechanic. He’s also argumentative and a constant complainer. He’ll complain about anything. I think he spends most of his waking hours talking on the phone to his wife, chatting on the internet to his wife or walking to and from the phone or internet. If you ask me, too much of a good thing is not healthy. I feel as though too much of his attention is not focused here on the task at hand.
Last but not least, there’s “JET”. He’s the oldest of us I think. He’s a large man with not many teeth and has poor personal hygiene. His breath is his most outstanding quality and a leathal weapon. Although he would have you believe that he is a true soldier of fortune. JET is too far gone to teach new tricks. He’s a friendly guy and would do almost anything for anyone. He performs well at taking care of the truck, running errands, pulling guard duty and telling stories.
That’s the rundown of my platoon. Over all, I feel like I am pretty lucky to have this group of soldiers. A couple are constant distracters and tend to wear me down as they test my leadership skills. Still, these are the card that I was dealt and I intend on doing my best to win the game.
Signing off from somewhere in Northern Iraq.
"MERLIN OUT!"
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