Welcome to Round 6 of the Round 3 series. Get caught up with number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 if you’d like. And if you’d like a piece of signed merch, swing by the shop! I’d appreciate your business, and if you buy something, I will include my gratitude in your parcel.
There were plenty of opportunities to relax while deployed to the 332d. When I wasn’t sitting in the 332d ECONS office, in the gym tent, or sleeping in my room, chances are I was sitting at Black Rock Park. Black Rock Park had everything you needed and more, and is a large part of the 332d’s identity.
During past deployments, going back to my room to read, write, or watch a movie was a viable option. My living quarters on those deployments were larger, with a desk, rolling office chair, and maybe even a television to plug my Xbox or computer into for easy streaming or gaming. As an added bonus, I had those rooms to myself, so I wasn’t worried about bothering a roommate with whatever activity I might have chosen.
This was not the case during my third deployment. For most of the personnel on the base, we were stuffed into an eight foot by eight foot box with a shoddy mattress, small bedframe, tiny wardrobe, and a roommate. Simply hanging out in the room when I wasn’t sleeping just wasn’t an option.
The 332d ECONS had a pretty sweet setup in their office buildings. A nice, big conference table, a massive television for training purposes (definitely not movies or anything) and strong Wi-Fi made the office the place to hang out even after hours. I did a ton of writing in the ECONS building, but when I needed to soak up the sun, Black Rock Park was the place to go.
Black Rock Park is the 332d’s outdoor Morale, Welfare, and Recreation area, so-called for the black lava rocks spread across the ground. It had everything one needed: beat up lawn chairs, picnic tables, a volleyball court, bonfire pits, the Designated Tobacco Area, and Chappie’s Bar. This was fortuitous, because when the main MWR building went down for routine maintenance on a twenty-year delay, Black Rock Park became the sole MWR hangout spot. For those reasons, I think I spent more time in Black Rock Park than I did in my own decrepit RLB room.
Since the main purpose of the ECONS is to buy things to support the 332d’s mission, we fairly regularly went out into the Host Nation and procured mission essential stuff. During these Government sanctioned shopping trips, we would also swing by a local grocery store and pick up meats for our smoker. Once we had some meat to smoke, we would roll our Pit Boss out of our Conex Box and into Black Rock Park. Our Senior Enlisted Leader (SEL)/Superintendent, Joe, had a simple and delicious smoked chicken recipe that provided some much-needed variety from the typical DFAC fare.
Many of the contractors in the Host Nation don’t work on Friday and Saturdays, and Sundays were the always exciting, but often disappointing Chicken Tender Day at the DFAC. In order to maximize our good food opportunities, we typically fired up the smoker on our lighter workload Fridays or Saturdays. It was fun to make a day of it, sitting around watching the smoker, reading, drinking beer, and smoking pipes. It almost felt like we were in yard back home in the States. Except the lava rocks and Hesco Barriers all around us.
Hesco Barriers are large, rectangular battlements made of heavy wire mesh and burlap which are filled with rocks and dirt. They are used for flood control as well as building military fortifications and they became a staple of post-9/11 military outpost construction since they can be quickly filled, easily transported, and stacked into all sorts of configurations, like building blocks meant to stop bullets and shrapnel. The 332d had Hesco Barriers all over the place, and for me they became the visible basis for what I termed “the Hesco Theory.”
It might be a scientific faux-paus to publish such a theory without rigorous testing, but seeing what passes for “expertise” these days, coupled with the fact that this is my blog and I can do what I want, make me comfortable enough to at least socialize the theory with you, Dear Reader. Simply stated, the Hesco Theory is that the closer you are to a Hesco Barrier, the closer you feel to the mission. At the 332d, one couldn’t walk for more than a minute or two without running into a wall of Hesco Barriers protecting you from the outside world, the damn things were everywhere. I believe this helps give a visible sense of purpose to the men and women of the 332d to keep the mission running, a willingness to dig in and grind at their jobs for the length of the deployment.
Contrast this to Al Udeid, that mega-base in Qatar. I can only think of one spot on the base where Hesco Barriers were readily visible, and they were pretty beat up, a small, dilapidated remainder from the beginning of the Global War on Terror. Al Udeid has been built up considerably over the past twenty-plus years, with at least a facsimile of hometown Americana scattered across it. Consequently, I believe it is hard for some people remain connected to the mission. When your hardened dorm room doesn’t even rattle when the massive bombers are taking off and you might go days without even seeing the airfield, it becomes hard to feel connected to the “Fly, Fight, and Win” the Air Force is so fond of.
Also for your learned consideration is the Comfort to Suck Ratio, which is a rough comparison of the niceties a base has to offer and the environmental factors that make it “suck” to be there. Some might think that the higher the comfort, the less things suck, but there is a weird thing that happens in the military revolving around comfort. When there are too many nice things on the base, people loose focus of what is important. As some people lose focus and get too comfortable, then the deployment starts to feel like you never left home. Except you did leave home, and that sucks on its own. So you get more creature comforts but you can’t figure out why you’re at Al Udeid in the first place so it starts to suck more than it would have if they just had refrained from installing that third ice cream place.
This theory and ratio are not an exact science, but maybe you get the picture. The “Hesco Barrier” in the theory doesn’t have to be an actual Hesco Barrier. The visible reminder might change from airman to airman, mission to mission and that is to be expected. The general idea of the Hesco Theory is that having an easily visible reference to orient your mission focus is very helpful in staying motivated.
The 332d had an excellent Comfort to Suck Ratio, really making it a hidden gem of deployments to AFCENT. We didn’t have to sleep in tents or on the ground, but the jets rattled the absolute shit out of our little tin huts every night. We weren’t getting shot at, but we did have bunkers close by, just in case in the eventuality that someone felt froggy and started lobbing ordinance in our general direction. We had a cool place to relax, smoke meat, and have a bonfire, but it was ringed with Hesco Barriers to remind us the war was just on the other side of the wall.
When I look back on my deployment to the 332d, time spent at Black Rock Park will likely be the most prominent memories. Impromptu mentoring sessions around bonfires, eating smoked chicken with the squadron, reading books, and smoking pipes are some of the first things that come to mind when I ponder back on the deployment. We worked long hours, and got a ton accomplished, but when we weren’t working, Black Rock Park was the place to be.