Reconciliation

As I find myself back in the Middle east, it has definitely brought to surface old memories of being in Iraq back in 2006 and how much has truly changed, to include the improvements that the American military has done for yet another foreign country. In the beginning I completely agreed with starting this war with both Iraq and Afghanistan, even understanding that it could and did cost many American lives. Brothers, Fathers, Friends, Nephews, Cousins...many have paid the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us can live without fear. And although I am a veteran myself of two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I feel forever indebted to not only the friends I lost in this war, but to all who gave their lives, because simply put I know what they were fighting for.

I truly hope that all my friends and family back home know why I will always feel obligated and dedicated to not only the military, but to the absolute defense of our way of life. Being here now in Afghanistan has only reinforced that feeling, seeing no familiar faces, but I have gotten back the feeling of comradarie amongst complete strangers. It doesn't quite match the bonds that I made with the Marines that I served with in India Company and our brother companies, but its quite enough for me for the time being.

To reference back to what I said earlier, this has surfaced a lot of memories of my first deployment to Haditha, Iraq from March to October 2006. Sometimes I look back at it and I find it hard to remember how we all managed to carry 100+ lbs of gear, in 140+ degree weather on a daily basis with little to no sleep, and little to no food. We constantly were on the edge, just trying to keep eachother alive on a daily basis, and to make sure we would all potentially come back home to our families respectively. I miss all those kids dearly, they had truly become just an extension of my family. We hit those streets everyday, sometimes out on patrol 20+ hours a day in the heat, day or night, it didn't matter. We fought the insurgents on those streets, gave candy and trinkets to the children, got blown to shit by IED's, and still did our jobs. Anyone that was there with me will forever be bound by the memory of the experience in that god awful place.

For the record, I can't wait til that spineless hypocritical bastard is out of office. If you don't know what I'm talking about your about as ignorant as the rest of my pathetic generation.

Anyways, just a first blog, maybe I'll keep writing just so I remember shit, cause in my ripe age of 23 I'm starting to forget a lot of things.

Semper Fidelis,
Rob