We Lost Our First One Today...

Nobody died, so don't get all freaked out. Token went and got diagnosed with some severe sleep apnea and he is on his way back to the world. Or at least the main post of Fort Bragg and out of our company and lives for the next 10 or so months.

Lucky bastard! No more training, no more bullshit, no more nothing, and certainly no more trip to AssCrackIstan. But it still hurts watching him go. I am trying to figure out whether I am jealous that he gets to go home or do I feel sorry for him that he has to watch us go while he stays here.

I am sitting here typing this while he is laying on his rack next to me signing some paperwork that will get him the hell out of here. Looking at him I can't tell whether he feels good or bad about this whole thing. I guess that with two kids and a wife at home its a good thing. Regardless he is a soldier and he most likely wishes that he were going with us. But I don't wish this on anybody. This whole thing has sucked enough and we haven't even left the United States yet.

Needless to say, I have developed over my years in the Army a very keen appreciation for all things American. My friends, my family, my house, my job, my car, my food, my booze, and everything in between. Most Americans will never in their lives have anything taken from them. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines the world over have not had anything taken from them. We gave it freely. Think of it for a while. Imagine being ripped from the arms of your loved ones, tears flowing like a river, taken from all the comforts of American life and thrust into a world that hates and wants to kill you. A world where you sleep, at best on a cot, lots of times on the ground. A world where the food is just one step up from pig slop, a world where you feel every bit of the biting cold, and every drip of the sweltering heat. A world where you spend every waking moment wondering if this is the corner or the time when you meet your maker. A world where you have to try to put your family and loved ones out of your mind or risk madness.

Maybe I am being dramatic. Maybe not. I am actually just glad that token gets to go home. I wish we could all go home...

I love you mom...