In the Morning

As daylight pours in and begins to warm the sand, I will be preparing to get on a helicopter. Many thoughts weigh heavy on my mind tonight, with the next day’s travel being especially significant. No matter what happens in the coming hours or days, lives will surely be changed, landmark moments in life will be witnessed, and the healing process will finally be able to begin. Say an extra prayer today in the interest of justice, whatever that may be.

Do not forget the sorrow…

I often said early on in writing this blog that it was getting harder and harder to write. While my original intention was to provide a nearly daily account of my experiences, this has surely, over time and much to my regret, degraded to the point that many of the experiences have been neglected and, I fear, lost altogether. Some I don’t remember, some I don’t want to remember, but all being said, the only true and accurate record of my experiences will surely be my recollections while the memory is still fresh, and therefore the maintenance of this blog becomes important. I knew full well, given the nature of the situation I was walking into, that at times this was going to be a difficult thing to do. However, I owe it to our citizens, as Americans who not only lack an understanding of what it is we go through, but also do not have the opportunity to live this life in order to come to understand. I also owe it to my future self, despite the feelings of myself at present, to have a record to remind me of this journey. And I owe this to our guys, the men I serve with, and a promise I made to a dear one of them to never forget the sorrow…

Dreams of Better Days

It is pouring. The monotonous rumble of plinking on the metal roof of my CHU and the sound of thunder rolling in the background take over. I love it. If I close my eyes, I can almost transport myself to a memory of drinking hot chocolate in a chilly house, elbows resting on the chilled laminate of our kitchen table, and staring out the window at the shining, glittering asphalt. I fight to have those days again. To feel that same comfort and calm…

The Last 29 Days

I swear i have written this entry ten times, and just cannot get it to come together. It always ends up degrading into disorganized rants about one thing or another, and so I scrap it. But i know you all carea lot more about knowing how we are doing than how well written this particular entry is, so let’s keep it simple and just hit the major points. Sorry for the lack of usual flair, but at this point, i feel as though if i dont get this out soon im never going to get this update out. Meanwhile, stuff keeps piling on top of everything else and every day i put off writing it, something else happens and there is one more thing to add. So here we go… the last 29 days…

Peaks and Valleys

Whether you ask a retiree, with over twenty years of service, or a young service member with just a few years in, they will invariably tell you that life in the military has its highs and lows, and they are usually in the extremes. You are either sitting in a retirement service for an E9 (the highest enlisted rank), listening to all the accomplishments he has made in his long and storied career, with your chest puffed out, never having felt more proud to wear that crisp dress uniform; or you are spending 10+ hours mopping floors and polishing chrome foot plates for some visiting general that walks over it once and never looks down, leaving you to feel like over-glorified cheap labor. It is this constant succession of peaks and valleys, faith and utter hopelessness, pride and disgust, surety and doubt, that eventually transforms your life into this strange dichotomy.

Close To Home

There are no doubt, these certain, indelible moments in life that change you, and your world as you know it, forever.

These moments often happen in times that make you reevaluate your concepts of life and death, safety and security, and how much control we really have over the general chaos that is life. Suddenly and abruptly, they make you remember that the longevity of life is always a question mark and there are no guarantees; we are all on borrowed time…

Reality Check

Yet again i have put off the update until too much has piled up. So instead of organizing by day, this time i have organized by subject. Sorry it has taken so long, but this time it was for good reason. This one was harder to write…

Home Sweet Home … sort of …

The Recap

Again the time has come for an update, so i suppose we will begin with where we had last left off. Last time i wrote, we had arrived at camp victory, and were preparing for drivers training on the MRAP.

Hurry up and wait…

We are long overdue for an update and now it is going to be very hard to fit in all that has happened over the past week without making this a ten page email and boring you all to tears. so here goes.. lets break it down.

So…

It feels like day three because i started on the 8th, or day 1 because i haven’t slept, but it is officailly day 2 of my 365 day journey.