The Real Call of Duty
Scott McIntyre
This picture is the only one I am allowed to show on a public sight. I am inside a “clam shell” canvas shelter starting my day by drinking to my addiction at the time to Bluebird OJ. It was free so I drank a lot of them.
This picture was taken while I was in the country of Qatar. I was tasked as a crew chief (maintenance manager and mechanic for my assigned airplane) The typical day was as follows:
Get up at 11pm (night shift) head to the chow hall, eat then go to work.
Work was from 12 midnight to noon (sometimes longer depending on the situation of my plane. I would have a few periods of down time if the plane was ready to go (which usually was not the case.)
The temperature was the hardest part of the job (100F at night with insane jungle humidity despite being in the desert.) At about 9am it was miserable since I couldn’t go around in shorts and sandals. I would take breaks under the shade of the airplane wing on the concrete and pour a bottle of cool water on my chest to cool down. I would be dry in 15 minutes. This was 6 days a week for 100 days and sometimes 7 if it was needed. I remember going four weeks without a day off and I was always dreaming of how I couldn’t wait to get home.
At the end of the work day I would head to the gym and workout (it’s a good way to relieve stress), eat, then shower and head to bed. The next day I would start all over again.
The days could get hectic at times and as the weeks went on, people would start to ware on each others nerves. I did get to go to Doha a total of three times for both deployments, but it wasn’t during my time off (a van would going during my normal sleep time during the afternoon.) It was still worth the sleeplessness just to get to see something other then sand as far as the eye could see.
As a side note I will say that the army has it far worse then I ever did, I wasn’t getting shot at at the time and it was only for 100 days which I did twice. The army regularly goes for a year at a time which would probably make me loose it.
