Coming Home

I'm currently in Kabul waiting to come home. It's not long now. I thought I'd sit down for a minute and just put down some thoughts on this deployment.

I knew when I joined the Army that deployment was not only possible but also highly likely. I didn't know it would come quite as quick as it did, though. At the time it seemed like an awful long time to be away. I sat down the other day and thought about how long I've been gone. With all the schools I had to attend before deploying, I've been home for maybe a month since June 2006. But looking back, my time here has gone by quickly.

I've met a lot of interesting people - people that I will never forget as long as I live, people that I will happily forget within hours of departing, and people that I nor anyone else will ever see again on this earth. It's the people here that make this tolerable. Without those friends, it's a miserable, lonely existence. Laughter is the one thing that holds us all together. We giggle at fart jokes. We belly laugh at homosexual references at another's expense (we know his turn for reprisal is coming). We laugh nervously at the unexpected and surreal events of a firefight or IED attack.

It's been said that war changes people. Who am I to dispute this? It does, but it changes everyone in a different way. For me, it's allowed me some time to put things in perspective. It's shown me moments of love, joy, and happiness. It's also shown me horrors that I couldn't have imagined and will carry to my grave. Even so I'm still glad to have been here. I can say that I was something that others didn't want to be. I went places that others feared to go. I was a soldier.

I'll be home in a week or two. It's been an adventure to say the least, but I'm ready to hang up the rifle and the helmet for a while...at least until Uncle Sam calls me again.

I made this video a while back and am just getting around to posting it. It's kind of a overall of my time here, plus a few other shots from different schools I went to. Enjoy!

Go Tigers!!

Hey everybody! Just a short one today. Our 1SG took this picture for me the other day and I thought it turned out pretty good. Of course, it was a picture of me, so naturally it's good!! About 2 more months to go. I can't wait.

The Gang's All Here, Too

Well after a..."ahem"...relaxing, restful R&R (see Mom's blog), I'm back to business in Afghanistan. I finally got a group picture of everyone just before we rolled out the other day. They were not so enthused about it. Imagine that. We spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week together and in close proximity to each other, therefore we can't tolerate a group picture. Anyways, I told 'em to shut up and stand still. They didn't even have to smile....and they didn't. Here they are....

Left to right it's Shorty (our interpreter), Special K (my driver), Justin (new guy and replacement for our CPT), Pac-man (another new guy and replacement for our other LT), yours truly, Dumbo (he's a cop in North Charleston), Cheska (his pashtu nickname meaning sexy - only problem is that a group of Afghani guys gave him that nickname), Alabama (our team chief), and Doc (team medic). Not pictured is Steve (our other interpreter who's taking the picture), Grif (my gunner who is home on leave) and SFC Airborne (our sour-puss E7 who didn't want to participate). For operational security reasons, I can't give you their real names. I don't think you can read anyone's whole name in the picture. Anyway, these are the guys that I trust my life to and who trust me with theirs everyday. I know that I've said that the reason I'm here is to provide safety and a future for the kids of Afghanistan and stuff like that, but when the doo-doo hits the air circulation device, these guys are what I'm here for. Men in foxholes don't fight for God or country, they fight for their buddy in the foxhole with them.