I love my job because.......

NO! That is not me.

That is just how I feel sometimes. When things get really overwhelming, and I want to get lost in fantasy. Kind of like I am the one out there saving the world. Or I am making a movie, and I am the good bad guy ready to save the world.

Considering the situation from the point of view of a love hate job choice, I love only one tiny iota of the aspect of the job that I am currently employed in. That iota is small but very important in the overall scheme of things. I am working here by chance, and a little by choice.

I work for the Federal Government in the capacity of an essential worker as a civilian employee. I am on what is known as an Overflow Military Base for mostly a regular unit allotment of military personnel. However, whenever, ( for example, in the case of the present crisis of a Pandemic), and for emergency situations, when there is nowhere else for enlisted soldiers to go, they are sent to this base. Here they await their orders for deployment, whether permanent or temporary.

Our job is to make sure that whether they are coming or going, they have a comfortable home away from home. Many are with their families, many are alone and away from their families. They travel on airplanes or drive for many hours to get to different destinations. On arrival they are exhausted, jet lagged, car lagged from claustrophobic close confinement in vehicles for long periods of time. They just want to take a bath and go to sleep.

They travel with children, pets, luggage, equipment, and many have to hitch and haul their cars, boats, RV's and any additional accoutrement that goes with their jobs. We make provisions for these additional and extemporaneous circumstances.

I am especially concerned for the young, single ones who are away from home and family. It is a lonely life for them, so we try to make them feel like they have an extended family and are welcome.

By the time they get to us all is prepared and waiting for them so they can get some well needed respite and a comfortable clean bed and lodging facility after their long hard days or hours of travel.

They do this year after year, month after month, day after day, it never stops. This is the military life. It is not easy, it is sacrificial and it is tiring and draining on entire families and individuals. Still they do it.

The job is not glamorous, it takes sweat and toil, we have been working six or more personnel short since the pandemic began. We all have been buckling down and doing each others job. I will not lie, sometimes we have come near to fists flying, it is very tiring and stressful. Truthfully federal pay, in any capacity is seriously lacking. But, we have to look past the material and see the real reason for doing what we are doing.

The on base military hotel provides these soldiers with all the comforts of a home away from home. For many of them, they transition to our temporary facility to await a permanent home which is being prepared for them, they remain with us until the home is made ready for move in day.

Children and pets are easily accommodated and provided for. I must say that most of our guests are appreciative and grateful for the effort that we expend in trying to make them as comfortable as we possibly can. There are always some bad eggs to whom it makes no difference how the job was done. Just that it was done. But that is of no importance. It is in the satisfied appreciation of the few that one finds the strength to continue just one more day, and that is all that matters.

We keep going. Doing out part to help them protect and serve.

It is the end product that matters, THE PEOPLE who are serving the country and taking the real risks every day to keep us safe. My own son is one of them. Many of you have brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins etc., serving in one capacity or the other.

If they are, and it's not IF, they ARE willing to get out of bed every morning, most times it is not a bed that they are getting out of, it is a war zone and wherever they can sleep, (and you must know that military personnel have to wake up far earlier than civilians do), they do it every single day. Irrespective of the physical dangers, and the mental havoc these kinds of dangers can wreak on their psyche. They are all still getting it done.

Sometimes I wonder if the world takes a moment to stop and think of the sacrifices of the people who unselfishly bear the brunt of the pain so the majority of us can live a relatively safe lifestyle.

This is literally just a snapshot of the many dangerous processes involved in what they do in the everyday discharge of their duties.

They are exhausted Servicemen, Doctors, Medics, Snipers, Pilots, Musicians, Mechanics, Engineers, Cooks, Comedians, Actors, Entertainers, Policemen, Generals, Black operatives, Green Berets, Technical specialists in every area, all encompassing the country's military family of individuals.

My tiny contribution to this worthy cause is what keeps me centered and reminds me of why I get up every day and make my small difference in the giant cog that is the military wheel.

They do all the hard and dangerous work.

I realize that I had become complacent in doing my part, the monotony and stress of the pandemic has taken it's toll on essential workers. But now my eyes have been reopened and I realize that it is not always about me. If they have kept going through it all, and are still forging ahead, so should we all.

No matter how small or large a part we play, in the end, all the parts have to come together like a giant puzzle in order to fit perfectly together. All parts are important, some have wider implications than others, but all are vital to the completion of the task.

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Photographs can be found under Military pictures on Unsplash