Things don't always go as planned.

Things don't always go as planned. I learned this when I was in kindergarten when I intended on jumping out of a tree and landing on my feet. My bright pink cast on my arm was an everyday reminder that things don't go as planned (for 6 weeks anyhow).

18 years later, I still get reminded that things don't always go according to plan. I am not a country fan, but there is a song that sticks out in my head by the man of country, Garth Brooks."Unanswered Prayers" which contains the lyrics "Some of Gods greatest gifts are all too often unanswered...Some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." I often think of this song when things don't go as planned.

SPC Johnson and I got a reminder this all week. On Sunday we got to the Helipad at 0600 to wait for our flight to Camp Taji so we can cover some stories out there. Apparently dust storms in Iraq hinder travel. The dust was rather thick in the morning. We could not see the sun, nor could we see the blue of the sky. We waited, waited, and waited some more. No flights left. We spent 18 hours at the helipad before we called it a day and went back to our comfortable beds and went to sleep.

We finally made it to Taji on Tuesday. We were ready to go on a mission with an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team on Wednesday. We were under the impression that they would be conducting a controlled detonation of explosives found in a scrap yard. Most of the munitions were already spent, so they posed no threat. I was looking forward to seeing a controlled boom.

Then, we were scheduled to go on a patrol early the next morning. We got a knock on the door after I had already fallen asleep to tell us our mission had been scrapped. Needless to say, this is how our week went.

This mission served as a reminder for me that things don't always go as planned.