Waking Up in a Hurry

In 2004 I ordered some brand new CHUs (Containerized Housing Units) for Camp Taji. I had been told that the Division HQ was going to move from Camp Liberty to Taji and to get ready for VIP housing. We spared no expense and dolled up some hard structure 2 story buildings for the Generals and ordered one man, wet CHUs (wet means it has its own toilet and shower) for the other VIPs. Keep in mind that most personnel on post lived 2 -4 to a room. These were full 12x40 trailer houses that would have made Brittany Spears homesick for rural Louisiana.

Well........the Division never moved. They stayed in Baghdad. Their loss, our gain. I moved my staff into the 1 man wets. I had my own living room, bedroom, shower, toilet, and TV. I was in hog heaven after living in GP Medium tents, the Hotel California, and sleeping in an Excursion. This was heaven and I wound up living in that CHU for a year and a half.

My first night in I tucked myself into that brand new full sized bed and went off to sandman land. You know how it is the first night anywhere. You don't really get a good sleep because it is a strange place. You don't know where anything is and just don't feel fully comfortable. I finally dozed off and went nappy.

WHOOM! I was tossed out of bed amidst a crash of thunder. I knew that we were taking incoming and I jumped up out of my destroyed bed to run to the bunker. Keep in mind. I'm in a new place. I did not run to the door. I ran into the door. I hit it so hard I knocked myself backwards and into the destroyed bed again. I then just went to the floor and waited for the next round. I knew that if one had hit this close it was most likely that the next one would land farther away. I waited. I waited some more. I then started to get puzzled.

There was no second round. There was no alarm. I got up and made a crab walk to the door and opened it. Nothing stirred, all was well. I stood up and found the light switch and flipped it up. The room instantly was ablazon with light and I noticed that the bed was all askew but everything else was fine except my nose which felt like it was broken.

I lifted the covers and pulled up the mattress and found out what happened. My big ass moved around during the night and caused the slats to shift which dumped the box springs, mattress and me into the floor. That was the crash and bang I heard. Not incoming, just me and the bed hitting the floor. I drug the mattress into the corner and made a pallet on it. Needless to say I did not sleep well the rest of the night.

Big Lou and Bob thought it was pretty damn funny too. I took a a lot of heat for that until Big Lou had the same thing happen to him. Funny how he reacted to that and got the carpenters to make new slats post haste.