Ode to a "T"

What a great letter, T. It adds so much to our language.

It has given us a great beverage to drink...cold to drive away the heat in summer and hot to warm our tummies in winter. It gives us comfortable shirts to wear...I have several packed away from various Army units and missions, vacation spots, and goofy restaurants. It holds up our golf balls and allows us to make great shots (into the water).

But for us here in Iraq, the letter T has given us one more thing: protection from bad guys. Surrounding us at all times are T-walls...concrete barriers that are placed strategically around buildings to protect other buildings from blasts. They surround the DFAC, the laundry, all of our CHU living trailers, the exchange...everything.

It's weird to walk around Camp Liberty and see nothing but T-walls. They block the line-of-site across camp and hide buildings. Unless someone actually puts a sign outside of the T-Wall it's difficult to tell what building is inside the line of T-walls.

They are also a blank canvas for units to leave their mark for others to see. Units take a blank T-wall outside of their buildingand paint their logo on it...I've seen some that were works of art. They were everywhere at Camp Buehring, Kuwait and some of the command posts around Liberty have their T-wall painted next to the T-walls of units who have since departed.

What a great letter, T!