Characters

  • Juni Okuda
  • Joe Rock

Locations

  • Camp Bondsteel

For a lot of young ‘uns, this is their first deployment. And having been to Iraq, I see this more as a “duty rotation”. I mean, we do get various hazard-pay bonuses and the like, and this is technically a sort of “frozen conflict” with some parallels that can be drawn to the Korean situation…

…but we get days off every so often, we are allowed a limited amount of alcohol (in rationed portions, but we got absolutely none in Iraq) and we have a regular, comfortable chow schedule. Some duty stations are staffed 100% of the time but there are many that are the status of day jobs. Of course, if something happens we can be called back at any hour of the day, but that chances of that are relatively slim.

For the first-timers, this is challenging. Many have never really been away from home for an extended period of time, and we just navigated through the holidays which can really be challenging for many people.

I try to keep my perspective about Kosovo and being on Camp Bondsteel, and for me, it really is just “a resort with chores”. Certainly not the most fun resort out there but overall, an experience I would describe as “actually pleasant” compared to Camp Victory North or Taji AFB, Iraq. But then, those are kind of extreme example on the other end of the spectrum. KFOR is definitely more of a deployment than, say, …Kuwait. (Heheh)

Characters

  • Juni Okuda
  • Joe Rock

Locations

  • Camp Bondsteel

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