Its Just Tough Being a Girl in the Army

One day we were on a training exercise and we were supposed to be outside but it was bad weather, I think, and so they moved the training inside. The details are a bit sketchy to me but what I do know for certain is that we were supposed to be outside, we got moved indoors, we had to eat an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) for lunch.

We had to sit along the walls in the basement and eat our lunch and not being a stranger to MRE’s since we had them in Basic and AIT too, I opened mine and began to prepare my meal.

I neatly tore open the package & examined the contents carefully one by-one. I laid all my food out in the order which I was going to eat it then I found my wet nap and wiped my hands. I don’t remember what my main dish was but it was something I didn’t like so I decided to pass on it and just eat the peanut butter & jelly with my crackers. So I lined up my crackers on a napkin and began spreading peanut butter on each one with my little plastic utility –which was basically just a plastic stick (like the packages of cheese and crackers you can buy). Suddenly I feel a strange sense of silence and being watched, having been in my own little world up until now, I look up and around and see all my fellow male soldiers starring at me.

“What? Why is everyone looking at me like that? What?”

Finally one guy says, “Who spreads peanut butter on their crackers like that? You’re not frosting a cake –YOU’RE IN THE FIELD!”

Then there were some chuckles and all the guys went back to eating –er well, inhaling their food. I sat there still a bit confused. The guy across from me said in between his quick bites, “Hey, you’re in the field –the enemy is at our back. We’re not here for a dinner date or anything –you gotta eat what you can and move on!”  Then I noticed before I could even get my peanut butter evenly spread onto my crackers, they were just about done eating.  They were squeezing their food right from the package onto their crackers or even into their mouth.  It wasn't like they were eating like savages --but they weren't exactly being dainty either.

It was kind of comical to see these male soldiers throwing food down their neck, barely tasting or chewing the stuff and in the midst of that, I was eating my lunch as if I were on a sunny Sunday afternoon picnic!

It’s just so tough being a girl in the Army.

*reapplies lip gloss*
*taps soldier next to me on shoulder*
Excuse me, *rubs lips together* does my lip gloss look okay? I don’t have a mirror or anything . . . . . .how does this shade look with camouflage?