I know this blog has been focused on Jordan’s deployment and all that goes along with that. The thought just occurred to me that people might be wondering what Jordan does on a daily basis. What is his life like in Charleston? What duties is he assigned to? I thought I might take some time and fill those who are interested in on the life of a Security Forces (Military Police) Airman.
Jordan is on a really annoying work schedule (well annoying to me anyway.) He works for six days then gets three days off. For the first three days he works from 1:00 pm – 10:00 pm, while the second three days he works from 9:00 pm – 7:00 am. As you can tell, this schedule may become extremely inconvenient and irritating to those who want to visit him and have an 8 – 5, five day a week job. Throughout these six days, Jordan is assigned to a different area of the AFB. He can get anything from patrolling the flight line to searching freight trucks to guarding a gate and checking cars as they drive on to base. The majority of the days and nights are uneventful. And I guess you could say that an uneventful night in his line of work is a great thing.
Normally when I ask, “How was work,” I get an amusing story about finding underage drinkers boozing at the gazebo, or having to pick a drunk guy up off of the street who is wandering aimlessly around the base. Nothing major, right?
Well, one day I asked Jordan, “How was work?” You’ll be surprised to hear the response I got on that particular day. He responded with, “I had a pretty eventful night!” Here is what happened…Jordan was on patrol one night with one of his close friends, Klotz. They got a call to go to a house where the owners had suspected someone was breaking and entering into their house. Jordan was told to run around the back of the house and watch the back yard. Meanwhile Klotz went into the house. Jordan could see Klotz moving through the house with his weapon drawn. Jordan immediately withdrew his weapon as he suspected there actually was an intruder. After all of the excitement, they came to find out that something fell in the bathroom, causing a loud noise, which led the couple to believe someone was in their house. Wah…wah…wahhhhh!
So after the hype of the breaking and entering episode, Klotz and Jordan got another call. This time it was for a domestic dispute. They headed over to the house only to find one of their own Security Force team members and his extremely battered wife. Both Klotz and Jordan were shocked and baffled that one of their own guys had the capability of doing this horrific thing.
Jordan was told to console the wife and gather information of the incident from her. I think this was the perfect job for Jordan to be assigned to. I know he has always done a great job of calming me down when I’ve been in a panic. They ended up arresting the husband and ensured the wife was taken to the hospital.
About a week or so later, Jordan was getting ready for work. He was in the building where all of the Airmen in his squadron meet before they go to their posts. The same guy that was arrested for the domestic dispute walks up to Jordan and says, “Hey man, what’s up,” as if nothing had ever happened. He tried to give Jordan a hand shake but luckily Jordan’s hands were full of gear. Jordan just looked at him and said, “Hey?” while wondering why he thought he could pretend to be Jordan’s BFF. The young man is awaiting his punishment, so until then he has been subjected to doing “busy work” around the squadron.
I know Jordan loves his job. He loves ensuring people are safe and he loves making sure the bad guys are taken care of. He loves the adrenalin of getting a call, he loves taking care of the drunkards and laughing about it later, he loves simply saying “Hello” and “Have a nice day” to those driving through the AFB gate. But above everything he loves being a part of something that is so well respected in the eyes of all America. He is proud and everyone that knows and loves Jordan is extremely proud of him too!
So all in all, the military isn’t all about war and deployment. There is a day to day life these guys and girls lead. So not only do they have to deal with the fears and emotions of fighting a war, but they also have to deal with the stress of their regular jobs too. It really makes me think twice about complaining that you have to only work 40 hours a week in an air conditioned office, with my regular Saturdays and Sundays off!
-posted by Lindsay
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