Nursing a double tall

It is 12:30 a.m. and I just gave up my bunk to a U.S. Army officer heading to Afghanistan. I have only six hours left of my stay at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan. This place is jamming with a surge of new arrivals “heading downrange,” which makes bunk space severely limited on base. So I sit, nursing a double tall in a base coffee shop, surrounded with all my gear and a dying laptop battery. I’m so tired …