08MAR2009: Normal day at work.

"Lawrence, the best career strategy for you is to get out of a stifling organization like the military," says Sgt. Roos.

He's recently had an epiphany to get the hell out of the Army. When Sgt. Roos has a new idea, it tends to become a running theme for days, weeks, until finally he either has a silent change of heart and you no longer hear about it or he's moved on to the next big thing. (More on that later...)

"Sgt. Roos! Stop it."

I inarticulately come to the rescue of young, impressionable, almost 19-year-old Pfc. Lawrence. Okay, he's not that impressionable... But he is young and fresh out of training, and waived his non-deployable status to deploy with us, so don't discourage the kid.

"Lawrence is like a Chia," I say. "You need to help him grow."

"That makes no sense," says Sgt. Roos.

"No, it doesn't," agrees Lawrence. "I'm not made of terracotta."

Jungels laughs. "What?"

Our team. All 12 of us. We all get along so well that I consider myself lucky (most of the time). I honestly would not want to deploy with anybody else.

But then sometimes I wonder: Do we all genuinely like each other that much or does every unit learn to adapt and eventually learn to love the people around them? ...Well, if that's the case then we all learned to put our differences aside - no, fuck that - celebrate each others' differences and bond in a very short amount of time.

Intros on the 12 of us yet to come.