Book Journal - Ghost Soldiers

 

I have a friend here at Eden who I rode the bus with from Johnson County.  They had picked up a group from Parker County before they came to Johnson and he was with that group.

A few weeks after I was housed in H, he got moved over to H as well.  

I noticed pretty quickly that he was getting a lot of books sent in.  One day during mail call I spotted a book in the mail that caught my eye, called “Ghost Soldiers”, by Hampton Sides.  

It was marked to go to my friend James.

When he started to read it, I asked him about it and he said that it was a pretty good book and that I could borrow it when he was done.  At the time, I was reading “The Outpost” and I offered it to him but he declined because he had spent time in Iraq so it would bring back unpleasant memories for him.

Once I finished “The Outpost” and “Tales from the Denver Broncos Sideline”, I read “Ghost Soldiers”.  Not long after I had started reading it, 

I realized that I’ve seen a movie about the same story.  It’s the story of the POWs that were rescued from the Cabanatuan POW camp.  They were the 500 remaining soldiers in the camp that were left from the Bataan Death March.  Not long before the rescue mission took place, the Japanese had sent 1,600 POWs from that camp and taken them to Japan as slave labor.

This is my favorite genre of books to read so I really enjoyed this book a lot.  The movie that depicts this story is called “The Great Raid”, and I remember it being great too. 

The book highlights the bravery of the POWs, the Ranger division that conducted the mission, and the Philippine troops that fought in the mission as well.  It also tells about how so many aspects of the mission were almost miraculously successful.    

I highly recommend “Ghost Soldiers”.

Book Journal - Denver Broncos

 

When I was at Johnson County, one of my sisters sent a book about the 

50 top players in Denver Broncos history.  My sisters know me well, lol.  

I was glad to be able to finish this book before I was moved as I wanted to read about all of the players that made it into the top ranks in this book.

My uncle’s girlfriend sent me a Broncos book too, which actually arrived on my birthday, but it took the mail room a few weeks to get it to me.  This is a hardback book and from what I understand, it could be used as a weapon apparently, lol.  I was able to talk to the mailroom into giving it to me since they had told my family that it was fine to send in hardback books.  Our mailroom is actually pretty awesome, Mrs. Cruz is one of my favorite people here!

The book is called “Tales from the Denver Broncos Sideline”, by Andrew Mason. It is a history of the Denver Broncos. 

One of the coolest stories is about why the Broncos and the AFL were formed.  It started because the minor league baseball team, the Denver Bears, were going to have an addition made to Bears Stadium.  To justify this decision, the owner wanted a pro football team to play there as well.  

In order to have a new team play, they needed a league too.  The AFL and the Broncos were born from this idea.  Many more additions were made to Bears Stadium to accommodate the fans of the best team, the Denver Broncos.

Bears Stadium eventually became Mile High Stadium.

I loved the stories that this book told.  I had never heard many of them from the pre-90’s.  But most of the stories of the post-90’s I already knew.  

One of my favorites was in both books I read, which was the story of Tim Tebow’s short but successful career in Denver.  Of course, his career highlight was his playoff pass to Demaryius Thomas on the first play in overtime to beat the Steelers. 

I highly recommend this book for all Broncos fans – and for the un-educated as well 😊 

Book Journal - The Outpost

 

When I was first housed in H-Unit here at Eden, I was watching a cable news show and they were interviewing Jake Tapper who is the author of a book called “The Outpost” which was made into a movie.  Because I really enjoy military history, I decided to put this book on my book list.  I was pretty excited when it came in and I was up for the challenge of reading this 622 page book.

This is the story of Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan, which was located close to the Pakistani border.  It was located here in order to attempt to slow down the flood of foreign fighters coming through this area from Pakistan.

The outpost was installed at the base of three mountains in a small valley.  One thing that was repeated by anyone who flew into the outpost was, “Why did they put an outpost here?!”

The author is deliberate in pointing out the flaws in the strategy of putting an outpost in such a dangerous location.  I agree 100% that whoever made that decision obviously did not take the advice of those on the ground.

Tapper did a great job of investigating the entire history of the outpost from start to finish, and in great detail.

With all of that said, it was a difficult read.  I don’t remember how many soldiers were killed in the story, but the author introduces them to the reader and makes the reader familiar with the soldiers who lost their lives there.

It is a tough story, but it is one that should be told.  It’s also hard to read because of way that it’s written.  The author did so much research that it reads more like a newspaper article or a textbook with all of its detail.

If you are interested in knowing the details of Combat Outpost Keating, then I recommend this book.  But if you’re looking for a feel-good story, stay away from it.  I doubt that I will enjoy the movie, but I’ll still try to watch it when I can.

 

Respect

 

Sometimes I realize that y’all don’t have much of a perspective of how things work in the prison system.  Most everyone I correspond with has an interest in wanting to understand more about this, so I’ll attempt to shine some light on as many subjects that I can in some of my posts.

Many things I won’t write about until after I leave each facility because all of my letters get read.  I don’t want to endanger anyone, and I don’t want to help the authorities here by giving them too much information about fellow inmates.

I do my best to keep a positive attitude, outlook, and to maintain respect for the staff here at Eden.  I also try to keep them on track as far as how they treat us as well.  

One institutional issue is that the officers in any facility like this tend to let their authority go to their heads.  It’s very common for a CO to talk down to inmates in a demeaning manner.  This type of treatment fosters a rebellious attitude among the inmates.

I try to be as friendly as I can with every CO and staff member that I come across.  I know that they work a lot of hours and deal with criminals who act like toddlers.  I like to counteract that for them as much as I can.  For example, the other day one CO was coming trough the door of our dorm and I saw that he really seemed to be having a bad day.  I opened the door for him and said, “Hey, CO, how are you?”  He kept marching right past me in a huff.  Once he was done with whatever he was doing, I opened the door for him again.  This time I said “Hey” in a way that got his attention.  Once I knew he was listening, I told him that I didn’t want to be here either.  He took a deep breath and told me “thank you”, as he walked away.

But sometimes, I have to stand up for myself and remind them how they should treat us.  I think that when we are dealing with other people, it’s important to understand how to treat each other in order to bring about the best outcome and the best out of each other.

I spent about ten or so days working in the kitchen.  I really enjoyed it but getting up at 2:00 am was not worth taking away from my schedule and everything else I am trying to do.  So, once they said I had to go from working the 8:00am to 2:00pm shift to working the 2:00am to 8:00am shift again, I switched over to working in the dorm cleaning toilets.  Although it cut my daily income in half (from $2.00 to $1.00, lol) it was worth it.  I also didn’t mind because I like having clean toilets 😊.

Once they switch us over in the system, we are not allowed to work in the kitchen unless we are cleared by medical again.  We could get into trouble for working in the kitchen if we’re not on the list.  I had switched off the kitchen on Monday, and on Thursday morning at 2:00am the overnight CO in charge of our unit woke me up.  He stated that I was still on the kitchen list and that I would be written up if I didn’t go to work.  I told him that I had been a dorm porter (worker) for three days already and was not allowed now to work in the kitchen.  He asked if I wanted to talk to the captain who was the one saying that he would be writing me up, so I told him yes and got up to wait on him.  After a little bit, the CO told me that it would probably be a while, so I went back to sleep until breakfast arrived at about 5:00.  I asked the CO when the captain would be arriving and told me that he probably wasn’t going to be coming.  When I told Ms. Bingham, who is the unit team member who had switched me over, she was not happy about it at all and told me that she had put the email showing that I was no longer on the kitchen list on the CO’s desk.  We figured out that Captain Tabor was using an old list and he was trying to exert his authority to get his way. 

Recently we asked the CO to call the captain to see if we could leave the TV on until the Broncos game was over which would be after the 11pm count, which is usually when the televisions have to be turned off.  He said no.  Our unit doesn’t ever cause any problems, but we are not ever rewarded for that either.  But he’s in charge and there’s nothing productive that we can do to change his mind.  The next time I see him I’ll probably be asking him why.

When I sleep, I have to use a CPAP machine and have to wear a mask that I’m a bit self-conscious about.  So, I put up a sheet that gives me a little bit of privacy when I’m sleeping.  I’ve been doing this ever since they took us out of H unit (which had individual cells) and put us in D unit which is one big room.  Not one CO or staff member has ever said a word to me about it.  The other night at about 11:15pm, an officer named Sandoval who was assisting our nighttime CO in doing a count pushed my foot to wake me up.  He told me that I had to take my sheet down or I would be written up.  I told him that he was the first person to ever say anything about it, to which he replied that rule is in the handbook.  So, I got up and moved the sheet and then watched as they finished their count.  Almost every inmate in our unit also has a sheet or blanket that hangs down from the top bunk in order to provide a little bit of privacy, but they did not wake anyone else up.  After they were done with the count and they called it in, Sandoval was headed out of our unit when I stopped him.  I quietly and respectfully asked him why he singled me out to wake me up and threaten me with discipline but didn’t do it to anyone else.  He said he would be back to wake everyone else up and make them take their stuff down too.  When he told me that, I knew he was full of crap.  That would cause a lot of problems, as most inmates are not as calm as me, lol.  Actually, I was quiet but not actually calm.  It was the second time that they had woken me up and threatened disciplinary action over something ridiculous.  I’m normally very calm, but I did surprise a few of my neighbors with how upset I was.  They had never seen me upset over anything before.  Compared to reactions that I’ve seen from other inmates, I was very calm.   I went and grabbed a grievance form and filled it out.  I also moved my sheet back to give me some privacy and no one said anything about it to me the rest of the night.  And I doubt that they will again.  

I don’t have a problem with helping the CO by moving my sheet.  I do have a problem with being treated like a child and being treated unfairly.  I believe that I have a responsibility to do my part to try to change how inmates are treated. 

I firmly believe in most everyone’s potential to change.  But in this type of climate, I’ve found that sometimes I have to assert myself in order to get what I need to succeed in being productive and having a purpose and making sure that I have a chance to be contributing member of society again when I get out.

I am now back to working in the kitchen again on the dinner shift.  We don’t do a lot of actual cooking, mostly prep, serving, and cleaning.  Tonight, there was more drama with a CO when a spoon came up missing.  We are supposed to clean and store all utensils before throwing out any food as utensils have accidently been thrown out in the past.  They do a count of all utensils and lock them up in a cage.  It turns out that our missing spoon had fallen on the floor and the CO picked it up and put it in his pocket.  He decided to see how far he could push the crew with threats of a strip search and accusations of us losing and stealing things.  After we searched everywhere for over half an hour, he revealed that he had it, which didn’t go over well with the workers.  Many of them are threatening to quit, but the CO was just rude about it and doesn’t care. 

I don’t know yet what my days off are supposed to be, but I’m taking Sunday off to watch some football and catch up on some letters and studying.  There is a big chain going out of here tomorrow, but I’ve been told that I’m not it.  I will continue with my routines and continue trusting in God’s grace and timing in all things.