Ahhh..It's the Small Things That Will Get You

An actual transcript and summary of an unclassified part of my day yesterday (25 May 2010).  Buckle up.

Platoon SGT:  Take this radio mount and hook up with the commo SGT to get new radios installed in the CROW truck.

me:  Roger that.   I take the mount to the truck, unlock the truck, and wait at the truck for 20 minutes for the commo sergeant to grace me with his presence. Then I watch him push, pull, shove, grunt, cuss, and finally declare that the radio mount that I was given was no good. Of course. So we go to a reserve truck and "reappropriate" its mount for our use.  More cussing and shoving to get the mount in.  This one fits into the brackets, radios are slid into position, and it appears that the 10 minute job that has taken almost 40 is near an end.  Wrong.....this is Iraq.

Commo SGT:  This thing isn't drawing any power.  Do you see a status screen come up on that top radio?

me:  Negative  

Commo SGT:  Master power is not coming on.  Battery must be dead.  By battery he meant the battery in the truck. Awesome!

me:  Awesome.      Sitting there wondering how it came to pass that I should be in a foreign country far from home dealing with stupid stuff.

Commo SGT:  I guess you need to get it jumped off and then I will install the radios tomorrow. 

me:  Roger.  Jump the truck off to recharge the battery so that we will have power to check and see if the radios are working after you set them up???   Brilliant.  I would never have figured the technical part of that out.  That's why he is the communication sergeant.

me:  Private!!

Nearest Private:  yes, SGT Scar? 

me:  Get this truck jumped off immediently and report when finished.  I'm going to lie down and take deep, calming breaths.

So, today I will head back to the MoPo so that I can meet up with the commo SGT and try to get this 10 minute job accomplished. I am super excited because I already have an hour of quality time invested in this project.  Lesson learned today: NOTHING is easy in Iraq.