Thus far on this deployment instead of being able to eat for free in the military's dining facilities, we've had to pay for every meal, and then been given a daily per diem to cover the cost of those meals. By far the most expensive places to eat are in the air base Dining Facilities - known as DFAC's. And probably because of this fact, some little establishments run by some of the other NATO countries, as well as some favorites like Burger King and Subway have sprung up. That's the back ground information.
Earlier in the week, myself and two other individuals had gone to a Dutch Army facility to get dinner, and because it resembles a restraunt and has a WiFi connection - it tends to get very crowded and has alot of noise. About half way through eating our dinner, one of the cooks comes running into the restraunt dining area yelling for everyone to get on the floor, incoming rounds...
Everyone in the facility immediately fell to the floor and awaited the prescribed 2 minutes - nearvously looking at each other. At 2 minutes - as we are instructed to do - we immediately exit the facility and find the nearest bunker to await the all clear signal over the bases loud speaker system.
All very uneventful for us - because we neither heard the warning beacons, or heard the rounds impact - which there were two I'm told. However - it brought home the fact that this is a hostile place, and is an active war zone - even in the middle of 20,000 some odd soldiers, airmen and private contractors.
The humorous side of the deal is that the on base police immediately rushed to find the impact points, and when we stepped out of the restraunt - about 7 police cars started up their lights and headed off into the night on their search - and of course true to form - they were parked reasonably close to the only Donut shop on the base......if you can call it a donut shop...
Too funny..
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