Mungadai Part 3

For Part 1 click here. For Part 2 click here.

I was tired, I shivered, and I was belching up sardine-flavored rice as I staggered out of the tent-of-love. Not only was I convinced the remainder of the Mungadai was all-downhill, I welcomed it. After being stationary for the better part of 90 minutes my body had completely shut down which attributed to my current level of discomfort. The only way to regain feeling in my fingers and the rest of my body was to get the blood flowing, which is why I was happy to get back to work. Now the hardest part about leaving the tent and finding my ruck sack was strictly psychological. Even though I knew what was best for me a part of me, and I do not know why, did not want to move quickly. Believe me though when I say that those feelings were only temporary as the cold mountain air was a very good deterrent to sluggishness.

The next mission was a simple re-supply mission. We had to walk from Point A to Point B, pick up our “supplies” which come to find out were three filled five-gallon water jugs, and carry the water jugs back onto post. The final destination was where we initially hopped on the bus so many hours ago to begin our “staff ride”. I believe upon hearing we would be finishing very shortly gave everybody the last bit of encouragement needed.

The walk for the final mission had officially begun and within 10 minutes I had a nice sweat going once again which was quite comforting. The distance walked from Point A to Point B is unknown, at least to me; I believe we walked for about an hour although I could be wrong. Regardless of the distance, my squad and I arrived to our re-supply point to find the three (3) five-gallon water jugs, some cargo straps, and a litter (remember a stretcher).

Just for clarification: A litter has four points to it, with four handles, if you are not familiar to what one is. Four people then simultaneously lift the litter to distribute the weight amongst the four of them.

After strapping all three jugs to the litter, four of us began to walk as the rest of the squad walked alongside to take turns as fatigue set in. Initially I was thinking this was going to be easy. I thought, “How much can these three jugs really weigh? And with three other guys helping. Sweet!” I was wrong, really wrong. Carrying those three jugs sucked, a lot. My shoulders began to burn so badly that I felt like my body represented a plethora of red colors for a Bengay commercial. The distance we walked, again, I do not know. It didn’t matter because eventually I began to see the lights to the gate, or to be poetic, the light at the end of the tunnel.

We passed through the gate as the Battalion Commander and Sergeant Major greeted us. When it was all said and done, we had reached the end point of the Mungadai. Everybody congregated until it was time to leave in a warehouse. Some people joked with one another, many others slept, and some just sat down in silence. We covered a lot of ground from beginning to end and the most important part was that not a single person quit. We walked an estimated 30—35 miles over the course of the event; that was on limited sleep and an empty stomach. As everybody sat inside the warehouse, celebrating in their own way, the bus arrived with a destination of certainty, that being long overdue and much deserved sleep.

The bus took us back to where the beginning formation was held at sometime very early in the morning. By the time I got all of my equipment inside, my teeth brushed, and actually settled down to fall asleep it was close to 4:15 a.m. Every bone, muscle, and joint in my body ached – sleeping on the floor never felt so comfortable.

The lights came on around 8:00 a.m. to begin the day. The morning was simple: clean weapons, conduct an after action review with the Colonel, and have a formal dining in with all of the food everybody had been talking about for several hours. Much to my surprise, when it was actually time for the dining in, I did not have the appetite I envisioned.

I am not going to go into the specifics of the actual dining in. Believe me when I say that it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of food eaten, even more alcohol consumed, and even more laughs shared by everybody. Stories were shared that contained less than 10% true and skits were done. The skit my squad did reenacted the previous night when everybody was freezing and chose man on man contact to stay warm. I do not want to go into the specifics of the stories and the skits because I do not feel I could do either of them justice. Some things are better left in the mind, as that way they can never be tarnished, and the contents of our dining in most definitely fall under that category.

Once the festivities concluded there was one last bus ride to take us home. I called Celia to let her know I was on my way home and was in no shape to drive home. Around 5:15 p.m. the bus arrived on post as Celia, Jadon, and Hailey were there waiting. “Honey it’s Daddy! Honey it’s Daddy!” Jadon kept saying. It was great to be back.

The keys hit the door as I instantly went towards the shower. I put my sweat pants on, walked out to the living room to give Celia a kiss goodnight, and fell asleep before my head even hit my pillow.