Pocket Change

Of all the things you wouldn't think Scott would miss--pocket change! Apparently, the government realized that coinage gets pretty heavy in bulk. (Any woman with a handbag could have filed the brief on that one!) So to save money/weight on shipping, they do not use coins on bases in Iraq. They use regular U.S. mint bills but for change they use plastic disks that only have value on base. This seems to work well for everything except calling cards. The little silver film-covered strip on the back of a calling card needs to be scratched off to reveal the card's pin. The discs were useless and since Scott has always been militant about well-groomed finger nails, he was in a phone booth with no way to call home. Then he remembered the one thing he must have on him at all times--his weapon and its ammunition. The back end of a bullet did the trick a little too well and scratched off part of the pin. He guessed at the partial numbers and got through, but the pin he entered was slightly off and the automated voice told him that his new card had three minutes remaining. I think I'll put a quarter in my next letter!