Appreciation

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

We had rain today.

It came in the early morning hours.

I awoke during the rainfall, and experienced one of those rare pleasures.

The pleasure of hearing the rain falling heavily outside of my cave, and being able to roll over and curl up under my blanket and return to my slumbers, safe, warm, and dry.

It has not always been so.

In my time in the service I have been asked to sit waiting through the night in the rain for an enemy to wander into my kill zone. I have also sat patiently as the snow fell about me in similar circumstance, i.e., awaiting a target to come into the kill zone of the ambush we had set up. There were other nights where there was no rain or snow, just cold air, or hot air, or dust. For me, all of those little excursions weighed with the concern for the soldiers entrusted to me.

I have also known what it is like to sleep (yes, sleep) with nothing between yourself and the elements but a helmet, the clothes on your back, and a leaky tree to keep the cold rain water off you. That is to say not even a poncho, just a uniform.

I was in the infantry, and pretty much accepted that all of this was my possible life. I did not join expecting to always be warm and toasty on cold days, cool and comfortable on hot days. I expected to be hot, cold, grubby, tired, miserable, exhausted, and a host of other things.

Much of that I did experience, if not in Iraq and Afghanistan, then in Korea.

The experience of it, however, lends great appreciation to being able to hear the rain come down, and be able to just roll over and go back to sleep.