On a military base in Afghanistan, when you don’t carry a gun or wear unit insignia that identifies you as a stone cold killing machine, you have to find some other way to communicate to the world that you are no one to be trifled with.  So, you make up a wicked scary patch:

I can neither confirm nor deny that we Department of Public Works (DPW) employees are trained to kill the enemy using a Number 2 pencil.  That’s classified.

Believe me when I tell you that we can put the hurt on anybody in ways you don’t even want to think about.  Just a few of the areas we control in full or in part: food service; access to non-tactical vehicles, electrical power and water supply; trash removal and wastewater services; housing and office space assignments; placement of defensive T-walls and bunkers; fire and emergency services; entry to and exit from the base; roads and facilities operations and maintenance; service contract oversight.

So, yeah, you probably don’t want to mess with the people who provide your meals, living quarters, and hot showers.  Regardless of whether we’re wearing a patch featuring a black skull with glowing red eyes or just the bone-tired expression of people working 12+ hour days trying to keep this base from falling apart.

MM