Bethany heard from Evan twice today. Not much news. He is actually bored this week, and not as satisfied with the work patrolling the streets of Iraq.
When in Afghanistan, he worked in landmine and IED removal, mostly on large, rural road construction projects. It was usually a good experience. At the end of the day he could look back and say—“yep, opened two miles of road today, found and blew up a couple landmines, nobody got hurt, that’s good.”
After a few months, when sections of the road opened, he watched what was once a barely navigable path now carry trucks full of wheelbarrows, food or people across the countryside. Working in the desert, while very rough, provided wide-open views and generally peaceful days.
Iraq, so far, has been a crowded urban experience. Sometimes he’ll just sit in his gear all night on standby with his squad, in case they are needed for an emergency mission. But the personal active sense of "mission accomplished" is not the way it was in Afghanistan.
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