One thing that I started to figure out as I began to embrace my social self more, is about social pacing. Many people will not come out and say, hey I like you, let's be friends. It doesn't happen like that. It is more like... You have a conversation, and the two of you click during that conversation. You exchange info or one decides to ask the other how they feel about hanging out in the future or invites them to a specific event or suggests an activity based around shared interests. ...
What Have I Learned? What I learned in my year in Iraq is that in chaotic systems, human life has no inherent value to it. We are no different than the rocks and trees, or any other animal that roams this earth. In war, a life is a fleeting entity that is terrified and focused on its own survival in a gruesomely utilitarian manner. All other values that our society believes in are trumped by this savage desire to live. When we hear about atrocities that arise in a combat zone, ...
I Was Not Ready To Go Home Within a matter of days, we left from BIAP and found ourselves awkwardly reunited with our families. When we returned, the soldiers stationed at… to aid with processing deploying and redeploying soldiers were being sent on leave for the Easter holiday. The decision was made to put us on leave as well. This shortened the amount of time separating our families from the desert. I was not ready for this at all. I wanted it more than anything, but at the ...
The randomness and chaos inherent in the road-side bomb really struck home for our platoon during a several month mission when we ran escort and security missions out of a small compound northeast of Balad. We took over convoy escort missions from a battalion that was being utterly obliterated by roadside bombs and small arms fire during their daily trips into the red-zone of Baghdad. With heavy hearts, our platoon took up the mission, fully knowing what lay ahead for us. What really wrenched ...
The face of death was now everywhere. Nowhere was safe. My life could end at any time. This was made painfully aware on the way to the shower when we were the most vulnerable. Many of the people in the platoon surprisingly shared this discomfort. Walking across the compound wearing shower-shoes with shaving bag in hand and a towel draped over the shoulder, quite a few soldiers pondered the all too real possibility of getting hit head-on by a mortar in their weakest moment. Like ...
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