Squiggles

Ok, so I was driving along some random, inconsequentially named road. I mean the road system names are arbitrary because, well we made them. Anyway, aside from some digressive tirade involving naming conventions and promotions in the military (its a whole-nother story and yes I make words up as I see fit to keep the stories flowing so stay sharp). So we are driving along the road and I see an Iraqi at a check point without his head gear on. Now some of you may say, hey they don't know any better, to you I say, we have been here for how long now teaching them? Exactly. Now you may also think this is an uncommon occurrence, to you I say the old cliche- "If I had a dime...". (And yes the last sentence IS grammatically correct, look it up.)

SO I tell my gunner to make the correction. As a side note I must add the temperatures here are now dancing in the low hundreds and he may have been feeling those UV effects, I say UV because I and my Senior staff make sure our guys hydrate, yes, that's a big deal in the Army. My gunner promptly yells, "Put your Kevlar on! Squiggly Squiggly ".

I had to laugh as well as chide, because it wasn't "PC" to say Squiggly Squiggly, but you have to admit, that was creative. I mean, Arabic would have been preferable, but to the untrained eye...

It is also AMAZING to me at how indigenous people do not see our perspective as to how the written language appears to the untrained eye. I have spent many a conversation relating our impressions of trying to read their language using gibberish squiggles, lol. When done in that method, they understand, well everyone but my interpreter, go figure...

Until next time,
CR