A cowboy moment

I lean back in my chair, staring out over the desert at another glorious sunset. Taking another drink of warm coffee from my thermos I scan the panorama in front of me. The endless desert, in the back ground, a single dirt road and a gate. For the first time in the last 12 hours I am alone in the tower. My guys a slogging the 500m as the troop walks are just leaving the protection of the wire.
It is a quiet cowboy moment, the strains of Chris Ledoux come from the Zune in my shoulder pocket. A wire runs up under the body armor, under the gaiter and up into a wool watch cap covering my ears. It is the last time I will sit in this little tower, and for some reason moments like this bring out the cowboy in me. More than a million men have rotated through this place since 2003, and all of them have had moments like this, but this little chunk is mine.
A blood red sky hold the setting sun, softening the harsh clay flat earth stretching to a blurred horizon. The guys are outside the wire and approaching the Iraqi manned gate, I pick up the binoculars and scan the area. Everybody looks relaxed, the same as the last six days. I rest one hand on the but of my rifle, the magazine well on my thigh and the barrel pointing down between my legs.
Half my brain directs my eyes scanning the far distance, then the gate, then the road. The other half looks back into the past. How many sunsets spent looking for an enemy that isn’t there. Quiet twilights, catching a moment of peace in a cruel world.
My soldiers are talking to the locals, catching a prohibited smoke. I scan the future. Another day closer to the big dream to the magic trip. Next to that trip this is a country club. Another drink of coffee finishes it up and I pour the next one from a green Stanley Aladdin Thermos, not hot, but warm enough.
A week ago the three of us came out to this detail as three soldiers from three different platoons, now we work smoothly as a team. For all the Active Duty bullshit all the stupid rules, we have grown to know each other quite well and that alone would be worth the duty.
The gate is closed and locked, my guys are walking back, and I trade the coffee cup for the binos. The Iraqis head back to town, the scene is deserted. Nothing but a departing car, I give it a few extra seconds of attention then trade up for the coffee.
The troops are back inside the wire, and I drain the cup, putting it back on the thermos. And begin to clean up the tower. The day is done, time to pack it in and go back to camp. It is getting dark and I need to turn everything in. Next week it is back to the road.