A Quick Glance

I am not going to lie. I have never read a blog before now. Therefore, I am not sure how to start off writing a blog. Intuitively, I want to keep it academic. I have been writing academic essays for too long and I have almost forgotten how to express my personal opinions in writing. When speaking about a subject I understand, I am at my best. I stopped expressing my thoughts and feelings through writing at an early age, after my parents learned about my misdeeds when reading my personal journal. Since then I have tried not to write anything personal, in fear of incriminating my-self. But I am going to try and write professionally and candidly about my experiences and opinions in a manner that will maintain your interest.

Since this is a veteran’s blog, I will begin by telling some stories about my military experiences. Boot camp was hell. Every day I paid for any lack of attention to detail and every day I had to convince my-self to keep going, I didn’t want to come home having failed. The highlights were breaking my nose, severe concussion, stitches above my eye, molars pulled out, and pneumonia. I only missed 2 days of training. So I don’t want to hear anything about this new Corp versus old Corp crap, I am pretty sure I rate my Eagle, Globe and Anchor.

Most the time I dreaded going to drill while being a reservist. You don’t think of it when you sign the contract, you don’t think of a lot of things, but giving up a fourth of your weekends is a real inconvenience. I would often have recreational plans, school, and professional work that would have to be put on hold and a lot of time we were merely playing “hurry up and wait” games. I was sometimes envious of active duty guys; they didn’t have to balance everything I did. I have to admit sometimes I enjoyed going to field, sleeping in the dirt and snow, throwing grenades and shooting machine guns (it gets less fun every time), eating with truck grease on my hands, being tear gassed, and the otherwise inexcusable talk Marines partake in. It allowed me to get away from the monotony of life.

I had to interrupt my university studies to go over to Iraq. What was most troubling to me is I really thought I would never accomplish my goal of earning my college diploma. I thought I was going to the sandbox and I was going to come back home in a box. So I lost my mind for a minute. I took sporadic trips to Park City, San Diego, Vegas, and Denver with money I couldn’t afford to spend. Picked fights with guys twice my size, just to prepare me for the fight. A fight I would never see. I probably displayed more symptoms of PTSD before I left, then when I got back.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. To put it bluntly, I enjoyed my deployment to Iraq. I had my life mapped out, what to eat, where to sleep, when to man the 50 cal. machine gun, I was told everything, but whom the enemy was. I had camaraderie, a workout schedule, books, and big flat screen next to my bed. Yes, I had flat screen television in my tin can full of 30 Marines. More guys got injured on my deployment at the gym then in combat.

I only had one Devil Dog in my platoon get sent home. An IED almost blew of his head and left a pretty nasty wound in his neck. But he still had his head, he wouldn’t have had is head if we would have been stuck with those worthless hummers they had during the invasion-- you can thank Donnie Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration for ill equipped armor, in what they thought would be an easy invasion. At the time I had never encountered anything like it, but I still thought just another day on the job. Nevertheless, the Marines before me did most of the fighting. The country was literally blown to pieces when I got there. When I left we handed over what was once the most dangerous province in Iraq over to local control.

I came home and to no offense to my family and friends, I wanted to be back in Iraq. I was just in cultural shock, I felt enormous pressure to get my life in line and I felt I was starting from scratch. Getting a car, job, enrolled in school, and spending time with everyone was more overwhelming then stepping outside the wire for the first time. Eventually, I finished school and was able to take an internship at the VFW’s National Legislative Office. Now I am have to find a career I enjoy, which in this economy has proved to be “mission impossible.” Going to Afghanistan is tempting and a real option for me.