IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head
(Meaning: My Warped, Personal Opinions and Musings)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!
For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"
Cognitive Dissonance, Moral Dilemmas, and a "Hypothetical Situation"
Hypothetically speaking, of course...
After completing a mission and chilling out until their extraction site was confirmed, two buddies finally got the squawk:
"Camel Rider 11("One-One"), Sultan 20 ("Two Zero"). Over."
"Sultan 20, Camel Rider 11. [Read You] Five by Five. Over."
"Camel Rider 11, expend your unused grenades into "The Black Hole" [the adjacent, recently discovered mass grave]. Over."
Suddenly, the two operators hear what sounds like moans, groans and whimpering from the pit.
"Sultan 20, we hear signs of life coming from "The Black Hole! Over!" the concerned medic quickly reported.
"Roger that, Camel Rider 11 . Inconsequential. Execute last order and immediately proceed to your flying carpet at coordinates....Over."
WTF?!
Both operators were experiencing major cognitive dissonance and seriously wrestling with this shared moral dilemma!
But it only took seconds before the other operator and I (Oops, I mean, the "fictional SPECWAR Operators" in this "hypothetical" scenario) agreed on what to do next:
Pulling out and making crinkling sounds with his space blanket (an aluminum/int'l orange anti-exposure/signal blanket) into the comms, the medic said, "Sultan 20, comms intermittent, re... (crinkle, crinkle)...peat...(crinkle, crinkle, crinkle)...peat...ast...(crinkle, crinkle.)."
And not having enough time to investigate the noises emanating from "The Black Hole", both operators quickly doffed all survival and medical gear, tossed them in the pit, and made a beeline to their flying carpet.
Although Sultan 2.0 had his suspicions about what really happened; mainly because both Iridium Tactical Comms Units from the mission were thoroughly tested and found to be in perfect operational condition, he didn't intervene.
Sultan 20 stated, "From personal experience, I KNOW that atmospherics can degrade comms - no matter how modern or expensive they are!"
Privately, Sultan 20 also admitted that, given the same circumstances, he probably would've done what he suspected his two favorite operators might have done.
"Who gives a fuck? As far as I'm concerned, those boys completed their mission," Sultan 20 (the Commanding Officer) said aloud to his Executive Officer.
And neither of them questioned, nor redacted the operators' final after action report...
Parting Shot -
"A Survivor from The Black Hole?"
By JaiChai
Mighty Kind of You for stopping by.
Truly hope to see you again!
About the Author
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.