The Unseen Enemy

No matter how much training you may have had, whether it be recent and fresh in your memory or burned into your brain cells through years of slipping through myriad locales throughout the third world on various deployments, you will one day slip up, and you can only hope that it won't be fatal.

It's the price of living in plain sight while at the same time trying to not make yourself an obvious target. You will slip up ... they vastly outnumber you, and while they do not know you, they will show you no mercy in their ruthless war on your system. And they will get you even in otherwise trusted locations.

I had made a similar slip in a remote corner of what we euphamistically called Southwest-Asia nearly twenty five years ago ... it was an ostensibly friendly area, but it was clear, with or without command briefings, that the area was teeming with hostiles of all sorts, known and unknown.

I thought the glass looked a little too dirty. I also didn't trust the slice of lemon and ice cubes in it. As for the can of cola, it was just a little too dirty on top. Still, I accepted the drink as offered in the lovely town of Palma de Mallorca, figuring "The streaks on the glass are probably just the lemon, the ice is probably safe ... and I'll just wipe the dirt off that can."

And just like twenty five years ago, I lost three days of my life to the never-ending low-intensity conflict between man and microbe. This time, no less, in the heart of modern Europe.

You can never let your guard down.