"Solomoments"

By SSG Lyndsey Prax

Life in Afghanistan has pros and cons.

For example I am NEVER hungry. There is unlimited food here, ranging from healthy salad bars to delicious ice cream bars and everything is in walking distance, including the 24 hour gym. My Garmin says I walk on average about 10 miles a day give or take a few steps, which I like to believe works in my favor and counteracts all of the consumed ice-cream.

But I’d have to say the biggest challenge is sleeping, eating, showering, traveling and working with the same people every day. No matter how much you like a person, you are bound to find something annoying after spending every instant of your life with them.

However, for every annoying moment there is a fond moment, and those are what make a deployment worth it in the long run.

Reflecting back on the past six months we have been in Afghanistan, there have been some hilarious moments, and a lot of them are credited to SPC Ariel Solomon.  Which brings me back to the title of this blog post: “Solomoments.”  If you know SPC Solomon, you probably know him as the guy who doesn’t say much, and to be fair, you’re not far off.  But when he does say something it usually results in a story we will talk about long after our deployment is over, so I’ve decided to share the top three Solomoments.

I think I remember you

After four days of traveling, we finally arrived to Kandahar Airfield. Solomon was exhausted and barely able to keep his eyes open when he was greeted by one of the Soldiers of the 70th MPAD from Missouri National Guard. The Soldier was so excited to see Solomon and approached him with the demeanor of having known him for years. Solomon stared at him with a blank stare, trying to figure out who this guy was and where he had seen him before:

“Solomon, don’t you remember me?” asked SGT Lee.

“I think I remember you,” responded Solomon.

“I was your roommate at DINFOS for three months. How could you forget?”

That night Solomon got some sleep and by the next morning the memories of Lee had returned. But Lee had expressed that his worst fear had come true: he had been forgotten.

I can't concentrate anymore, Sergeant Major

A few weeks into our deployment, the Public Affairs sergeant major from ISAF Joint Command came to visit us in Kandahar. He had prepared some professional development training for us and was very passionate about it so we all listened intently to what he had to say. About an hour into his speech Solomon, who was sitting uncomfortably near the head of the table, raises his hand and interrupts the sergeant major mid-sentence.

“I’m really sorry, but I can’t concentrate anymore, sergeant major,” he boldly announced.

What seemed like a matter of minutes was in reality less than a second and we all just sat there momentarily shocked that he had the audacity to talk to a sergeant major so candidly.

The sergeant major stared at him perplexed.

“I really have to pee,” Solomon continued.

We all relaxed as the sergeant major stared to laugh and excused him from the meeting.

Should I be Worried?

We were all sitting at our desks tuned out from the office surroundings and totally focused on whatever projects we had going on when all of a sudden we heard SPC Solomon’s voice making a phone call to the base hospital.

“Hello sir, I may or may not have swallowed a staple. Should I be worried?”

Apparently Solomon had been eating a bag of chips when all of a sudden he felt a small metal staple in his teeth. He looked in the bag and noticed there were a bunch of staples mixed in with his chips. Rather than panic and announce to everyone that he’d been snacking on staples, he calmly picked up the phone and called the doctor to ensure the possibility of staples in his stomach wouldn’t cause any permanent damage.

In conclusion, when we return from our deployment we will have many Solomoments  to reflect on, but one thing for certain is that they wouldn’t be entertaining or possible without Solomon’s ability to roll with the punches and laugh at them with us. I think I can speak for all of us when I say I am glad he's here with us.