Of the 30 posts that I've written since starting this blog none has generated more emails and curious questions than "The Infantry Pillow." I received 13 emails about it, including photos from some other soldiers of their favorite infantry pillows.
Today I developed a new infantry pillow of my own, and it is now a new favorite!
It's been a very long week here in Southern Afghanistan. We're in the process of changing command at the platoon and company levels. Besides the obvious anxiety of working with new leadership, it creates a chaotic world of paperwork while sorting through hundreds of pieces of equipment as serial numbers are confirmed and equipment is reassigned to new people. This arduous task is done while we continue our regular duties, which for 2nd platoon has been 12 hours a day guarding our base (two 6 hour shifts per soldier).
In total I have slept 6 hours in the last 3 nights. That has been just about what all of the guys have experienced. While there was a short break in our equipment inventory process today I was sitting in my stryker and recognized the opportunity to catch about 15 minutes of much needed rest.
I got straight to building my new pillow. I found a belt that had twelve 40mm grenades in it. I then found a claymore mine (brick of c4 with 700 metal ball bearings). The claymore mine is a gently curved shape. Between laying my head on the curve of the mine, and the grenade belt supporting my neck, that became the best 15 minutes of the last 3 days.
My platoon leader came by and quickly made a joke about how I "do not need to lose my head" over a little lost sleep.
Time to get another 3 hours of sleep before continuing the grind!
Until ne...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Chris
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