And then there were Eight

When our team boarded the plane from Texas, we numbered ten.
Sirsquatch and Tyrone ran the team, one on the side of the soldiers,
and the other in a more administrative role. G-Money and Blue were the
middle management so to speak, both leading a team. Under G-Money were
Thin Mints, Sausage Fingers, and 68. Under Blue were Old White Man,
Jibba Jabba, and myself.

We all showed up to Kuwait. We all laughed and joked and trained. We
all put up with the same pointless formations and orders and crap in
transit to our destination. Our destination switched from left to
right, as easily as the winds. Yet it wasn't until we reached Balad,
and soon began preparation to exit there and head to elsewhere which
we lost one of our own. Traded away like some long cherished baseball
card, Old White Man was sent to another team and we were given The
Scream instead. The Scream will never be part of us. He is a wild card
rookie for a Honus Wagner. In short, we traded away someone who fit,
and got someone who doesn't even exist in our eyes.

Now, through what our leadership is claiming no specific reason,
Sirsquatch is being transferred off. Supporting the claims of our
company, we have done zero legitimate operations since our installment
on this FOB. We have provided no intelligence, and have successfully
integrated ourselves with no active forces here on the base. So
rightfully, Sirsquatch is to blame as the senior member of our team
for our lack of success.

From the other perspective however, there is zero mission here. We do
nothing, because there is nothing for us to do. Recently we traveled
an hour to link up with a team more integrated to ongoing activities,
and they had nothing for us to do. So little in fact that we were sent
home after only a day of integration. And the blame could be placed
anywhere on that little expedition, from our vehicle breaking down at
a rather crucial (and embarrassing) point in time, to our inability to
operate some of our own equipment. All of the events were
circumstantial however, and we left the same way we arrived, as a
team.

We traveled back home, laughed and joked, pondered what truly went
wrong, and shrugged it off. We awaited the arrival of Thin Mints and
G-Money, who had been tasked out to a group elsewhere, doing god knows
what for three weeks. We arrived, unloaded our vehicles, and went to
sleep.

The next day, today, which by the time I post this, will be many days
from now, we learned that Sirsquatch was being removed from our team.
As I said, the company said there was no specific reason, someone was
needed elsewhere and he had to cover down for them. Between the lines
read the word failure, as if we would believe for a single moment that
our unit would replace him without reason. It drove the point home
when a field grade officer showed up to "help" him move out.

I'm trying to be vague while still being informative, and I feel it is
failing. I have my own reasons for attempting to remain under my
unit's radar, and the less I put out in public details the better. But
this needs to be said:
The timing of his removal is all wrong. If the final straw was his
inability to retain perfect relations with the special team we
rendezvoused with, then his removal from our team wouldn't have been
the day following. It would have happened later, a few days or a week,
who knows. But one overnight with a Major escort involved didn't make
sense. Not until Thin Mints mentioned that G-Money had been speaking,
one on one, with the people above the Major. Not until her pasty face
emerged from the helicopter she flew in on, and her attitude said it
all. Not until we all realized that she had turned coat against
Sirsquatch, and by doing so, against our entire team did the timing of
his removal make perfect sense.

G-Money is less than dead to us now, and I don't speak of this alone.
Tyrone, Blue, Thin Mints, Jibba Jabba – they are all against her, as
am I. Sausage Fingers and 68, while I think of them as on our side of
this, they're possibly neutral. [As of today, three days after her little deed, both are on our side] Only The Scream, who now holds a higher intrinsic value than G-Money does, only he might be on her side. And his allegiance stands as it is only because no one informed
him of anything going on.

Sirsquatch, he was a team member. If nothing else is said of him –
that should be sufficient. In our books, he's a good guy. He is a part
of Team 3, like it or not. And while he had his moments which made us
want to get rid of him, no one deserves to be stabbed in the back. The
method of that sanctimonious little bitch in this whole ordeal was
sinister, and she will pay for it. Until then, there will only be
eight, although if you asked me to count right now, I'd somehow only
get to seven.