The Benji Karmis Website Experience

            It’s my second-to-last night in the box here at NTC and things have decidedly quieted down. Our Section has been relegated to a glorified Uber, transferring groups of people that apparently mean more than us from one fancy, temperature-controlled command post to another at regular intervals for a “shift change.” Man, that word upsets me to type because that implies that they have, like, 12-hour shifts. We had this retention NCO with us in our days here in California before we got out to the box who would help us out with our tasks before he stayed back to work as part of the Section that communicates to the real world outside of our training. I like the guy, don’t get me wrong, but he missed an hour of his fireguard shift and so I had to take it in the then-heaterless command post instead of sleep, and when I ran into him a day or two later, he complained about having to work 12-hour shifts. Bitch, you’re only working twelve hours? I worked from...

                  It rained two nights ago. In the desert, it poured from the sky. An absolutely miserable time for everyone, as they sheltered themselves underneath tarps and quasi-weatherproof sleeping bag covers in the sub-35 degree weather. Fortuna blessed me, though, as I had been working the night shift, meaning my sleep schedule was in the middle of the day when it was warmer. In the command post where all the communication equipment laid, I coddled around my precious space heater (see my previous journal for more on that).  Well, until the people started trickling in.                Our Command Sergeant Major was the first to join me after all the Captains had finished their shifts and headed to bed. That is, if you count never quite leaving as joining. The poor Bermuda-born man situated himself in the middle of the room, somewhere between states of consciousne...

                   I’ve been out to the field three times now with this new unit, and every time, heaters have been a problem. It gets damn cold in the night when we’re on fireguard, sitting around the radio. Even here in the desert for our National Training Center rotation, these nights dip down into the 30s – a stark contrast to the pleasant ~60 degree daytime weather where the sun kindly kisses the skin covering our frigid bones.                So imagine my surprise when we not only bring a single heater for our entire staff, but on probably our third night here, it breaks. Just shuts right off, I guess. Which meant we were supposed to head into “the box”, our eight-day training excursion into the yonder of this base as large as Rhode Island, with no heater at all. What madness!              ...

it's been eight years since I last made my website intro, so I might as well update it. whoever you are, thanks for visiting. my name's Benjamin Karmis, but I go by Benji for my writing. I've done a fair share of writing in the past, but nowadays, I make write short stories, and I think I'm going to start uploading some of my journals as well. I write for me, but I do quite appreciate it when anybody else reads my stuff, so thank you (really). hope you enjoy, and feel free to reach out x