The barracks

Editor’s note: As a special service for our readers, WND is running a series of dispatches from Allan Wall chronicling his transition from civilian life as he prepares to fight with his National Guard unit in Iraq. Allan will write for us as often as he is able in order to let our readers vicariously experience what people in his position are going through. We hope you will check regularly for Allan’s dispatches and encourage your friends and family to do likewise.

Fort XYZ, U.S.A. – Life in the barracks for the National Guardsmen training for Iraq duty has settled into a routine of sorts. Every day, there is something new going on, but at least everyone has a place to call his own.

A regular nook in which to sleep, store uniforms and equipment and to prepare for the next day’s activities. In short, a little corner in which one can center one’s activities, and begin and end the day.

In many respects, our barracks resembles a college dormitory. That is, there are rows of bedrooms with a few occupants in each (in our case, usually three per room).

However, there are differences as well. In a college dormitory, the student occupants have different class schedules and come and go as they please throughout the day. Not so in the barracks, inhabited by a military unit which lives together and trains together. When it’s time for a group training or administrative activity, we leave together. And unlike a college dorm, one can’t simply sleep in from time to time.

The standard furniture in our barracks rooms includes a bed, a wardrobe, a small chest of drawers and a large chest of drawers that contains a desk. There is no prescribed manner in which to position this furniture, so different rooms are configured differently. There are so many ways to arrange a room with the same furniture! Also, each room has a small refrigerator, and one room even has a sofa – not sure how they got that.

Individual guardsmen also have their personal items. A growing number of rooms have been sprouting televisions, one has a play station, some have coffeemakers, one has a microwave, etc. And there are free laundry rooms in the barracks, which is convenient.

Besides housing various deployed National Guard companies, the barracks complex includes offices and arms supply rooms. There are even a few pay telephones, for the guardsmen who still don’t have cell phones.

To sum it up, the barracks is our base of operations and our home for the time being.