Powerful stuff...good read. I had read this previosly in another article. True Devil Dogs until the end. I'm sorry for your friends loss. I know it's a heavy burden in your heart my man. I spent my time in that sandbox, lost a lot of damn good brother Marines and Army and Air Force and Navy service members.
I'm 49 yrs young this year...if I got a call tonight or tomorrow...I'd suit up and boot up, tell my children I love them, kiss them on the forehead, for a little retribution with those SOB's. I've seen, smelled, tasted chit in those wars that would make a billygoat puke. And yes...I was absolute complicit in it. When humans hunt humans, it changes everything...It gets in your head in a combat zone.
That was a good post you put up my brother...lest we never forget those who've perished so we live with our freedoms.
I live every day of my life thinking what could I have done better when the lead got to flying. I enjoy my work now on C-17's to ferry these young men and women into a possible combat zone, humanitarian relief, etc. I do my damnedest every day on that base being in the position I'm in, to make absolute damn sure there are zero plane malfunctions. And I take my job damn serious. Some of these C-17's are the same birds that ferried me/our Marine Corps asses there and back...they simply get updated and retrofitted with the latest, greatest upgrades.
I'll say it again...if they called me tomorrow...I'd be packing and gone for a little desert Kill-Fest vacation. Once the enemy is in ya...they're in ya...in that environment. It was what it was...and it is what it is fellas.
