Rough Men Stand Ready

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." ---George Orwell


Everybody has an image of themselves. Think about it. You may see yourself as a smart, educated person…a poindexter type. Maybe you are the rough outdoorsy type. You may be the soft, cuddly ‘kitten’ type. Or you may just look in the mirror and see something else. We (the Army) see ourselves in many different ways. Usually those ways are a little rough around the edges, it involves a weapon of some sort and, in many cases, we see a scary creature.




After all, an effective Army isn’t made up of kittens, puppys and little chickens. We think an effective army is better staffed by Knights, Monsters, muscled up masked thingys and other scary sorts. We call ourselves ‘Commandos,’ ‘Copperheads,’ ‘Banditos’ and ‘Berserkers.’ Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Save the powder puff stuff for the cheerleading

competitions. Send your Desperados to Iraq.



Your Army is a practical Army. We have to be since we deploy in the most ugly, God-awful locations. So, when we stop somewhere and stay awhile, such as at places like COB ADDER, we start to make things better. We paint rocks....line them up and call it ‘Improving our foxhole.” When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? Well, KBR is fresh out of lemons but they have provided us with a few thousand concrete barriers. They come in all shapes and sizes and paint adheres to them very well.


So, in an effort to improve our foxhole we paint those rocks and make these inanimate objects serve multiple purposes. One of my favorite Armyisms is to turn them into motivational artwork. There are literally thousands of these painted barriers all over Iraq. They not only provide protection (their intended purpose) but they are esprit de corps builders. If you could paint testosterone, these barriers are what it would look like.

The barriers also serve as a historical record of sorts. Its evidence that a unit has been somewhere. Everybody comes and goes to Iraq through Kuwait, therefore, Kuwait is littered with these barriers. Go to any Army installation in the world and somewhere you will see something scary painted on a wall. It’s just the way we are.

We are YOUR army. You don’t need to be scared of us but the bad guys should be.

So, sleep peaceably in your beds tonight because we stand ready.


And we’ve painted a few thousand rocks to let you know it.


SABER 02
out.