A Change of Pace.

By Major JL Cochrane
15 Jun 2009

 

One of the things that become very apparent once you get to Afghanistan is that the days tend to run together. Between operations, patrols, maintenance, camp defence and various other activities the days can run together and one is often the same as the next. That being said 13 June 2009 was a most memorable day for several reasons.

 

First we’ll start with Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final between Pittsburgh and Detroit. The game started at 0430hrs our time, which of course is Friday Night at home in Canada. We were actually closer to the traditional Saturday Hockey Night in Canada then Canada itself. Knowing that there would be a large number of people up for this game the FOB decided that we would have an early breakfast that would start at the end of the first period, which incidentally was a 0-0 score at that point. The OC, Major Cochrane, and SSM, MWO Stacey, volunteered to assist with the cooking of breakfast, much to the chagrin of the Cooks who all took the opportunity to watch the game. Now although the Cooks were all happy, there were a lot of confused faces when they walked in and saw the SSM flipping eggs; over hard was the order of the day! The OC decided that he was better off simply dishing out the bacon, sausages, potatoes, etc.  By the end of the second period there was a significant increase in the number of people who were in for breakfast in order to watch the tail end of the game to see if Pittsburgh could hold on to its 2-0 lead. The OC was constantly running back and forth from the kitchen to the TV to check the score abandoning the SSM to deal with the rush of people that always seemed to arrive when the OC left. The muffled roar late in the third period indicated that Detroit had scored and that the game wasn’t over yet. However after a nerve racking 6 minutes Pittsburgh pulled out a 2-1 win that was appreciated by all less a few die hard Detroit fans.

 

 The next interesting event that added a little spice to our day was when the SQ, WO Todd Hopkin, who is out for a little visit to the FOB, decide to investigate the Leopard 2A6M. He was closely inspecting the MG3 mount on the tank, when out of no where the spring let loose smacking him in the forehead just above the eye. The end result was a swollen and soon to be black eye and 5 stitches; welcome to the FOB. He claims that it wasn’t actually the MG3, but that he annoyed the SSM who was forced to “sort him out”. The SQ is fine and to quote another one of our soldiers – “Chicks dig scars.” Well SQ you’ve got a fine one to show off when we get home.