How to Build a Fire

October 1st - October 5th, 2009

Some time around my Junior or Senior year of High School my dad was trying to teach me a valuable skill that would help out around the house and possibly one day help me in some way or another. I figured it was kind of silly because hey heat seemed easy....just turn up the thermostat right? So my dad taught me................

How to Build a Fire.

Sounds easy right? Well you would think so, especially since most teenage boys like to make fires when given a chance. But you see you can't just throw a log in the stove and expect it to catch fire off some old newspapers. There is actually a little science to it.

We had this old wood stove, and I mean old, that sat in our kitchen. It resembled a stove you would see in pictures from like back in the 40's or 50's. Just a small 1 foot by 3 foot stove that actually heated the house pretty good, when it was going. Problem was my parents went to work at 5:30am, I woke up on a good day at 10:00am on the weekends......wood doesn't burn that long in such a small stove and usually there were very few coals left over.

So what did my dad do in a desperate attempt, I assume, to get me to build a fire and help out the family. Well he came across this old article titled "How to Build a Fire". I never read it, I hated reading as a teenager, but he did eventually teach me how to get a fire going from scratch.

Well thanks to my dad I was able to pass those skills along to a group of Soldiers that have been positioned on to a Observation Post (OP) to over watch their units bases. They are in a pretty remote place, as a matter of fact the only way that we had to get to them was to be flown in by helicopter in the middle of the night. Our first day there we asked about how we were going to make dinner chow and they told us the grill. Awesome right, every good old American loves a cook out right? So the closer we got to dinner the more information we actually got about how the grill was used. They had a nice set up, a 55 Gallon Drum converted into a nice grill that in the civilian world you would pay hundreds for. I asked about charcoal, which they said they got from time to time but it was usually gone in a day or two. So then I asked, so how we gonna get this fire going? To which they replied, DIESEL!!!! So at first I thought maybe they were joking, especially since Diesel does not ignite the same way as regular gas so it can be a little hard to get going, but they were dead serious. Why not they have an abundance of it, that's what they use to get rid off all their other trash and stuff (I will let your imagination figure out what else).

In their defense, 7 out of 9 Soldiers on the hill were not what the Army considers "Combat Arms" (Combat Arms are basically Infantry, Artillery, Armor etc type jobs). There little group consisted of 5 - Mechanics, 1 - Supply Clerk, 1 - Medic, 1 - Scout, and 1 - Forward Observer. Most of the guys because of their jobs in the Army have never been trained in survival skills, and therefore the easiest and most efficient way to build a fire for them was to start it with GAS.

Well I didn't want my steak to taste like JP-8 (Diesel Fuel), so my buddy and I who had gone to this OP decided we would show the gents how to build a fire.

Its funny the things we take for granted even in a combat zone. A lot of Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, and Sailors have it pretty good compared to those who came before us. You don't even have to go back that far. In 2001, when this all kicked off those men and women lived in their vehicles and tents and faced the elements, didn't have Internet or phones, or HEATING / AIR CONDITIONING. A lot of people complain and gripe about how bad they have it over here or that combat is so rough on them physically and mentally. The funny thing is at least 60% - 70%, or more, are what we call FOBITs (they don't leave the FOB {Forward Operating Base} for anything except to go on R & R or Re-deploy back to the States) and they get free Internet / free phone calls home. Even when you pay for it you can get on a phone call for 4 cents a min now a days back to the states. That's better than state to state long distance in most places. I am not gonna lie I was actually kind of looking forward to living that lifestyle this tour. I had no plans on going anywhere.....well I guess the people above me decided they had a better plan. Those who know me know I hate sitting behind a desk on some FOB anyways and sometimes its good to take a step back away from these blue walls and go out and be with the guys. My wife on the other hand would wish it to be different for her own sanity and love it if I could just stay on the FOB but I know she understands even in her worries. Don't worry mom I don't travel to much just enough to stay sane not as much as some but more than others. I just consider it site seeing.

Anyways, the point of all this was to show that not everyone has it good in modern combat and to thank my dad for teaching me something that there is no way he could have know would effect the lives of Soldiers in combat one day. I know that for a small group of Soldiers on the Pakistan Border appreciate eating their chicken, steak, goat, and occasional sheep without the taste of Diesel. Thanks again DAD