Past Excerpts

It may be difficult for some people to understand just how much it means for our soldiers to receive our support. What may be even more difficult, is to remember and distinguish the huge difference in lifestyles. We, here in the states, take a lot for granted. Although their living arrangements and everyday lives may differ from ours greatly, their patriotism and hope shines through. You see this below.

This first excerpt if from a soldier in which I supported in the past. He describes what he see's as he looks out the helicopter, over Afghanistan. His outlook amongst the chaos of war is amazing.

As we flew over the small villages that dot this arid landscape, I was struck again how biblical this country is.  And I don’t mean in a religious sense.  It really does seem like this country is stuck in the 3^rd century.  The houses and huts are all made out of mud bricks, many without roofs.  The smoke from hundreds of cooking fires spiral up like rope into the harsh desert sky, camels and sheep and goats just EVERYWHERE!  Being tended to by old men and young boys wrapped in shepherd robes, prodding the animals with long poles to get from one place to another (though I have no idea why they do that, as “that place over the next hill” looks as barren and desolate as that place they currently are at).   I must have flown over hundreds of square miles and I saw virtually no water.  Just endless wadi after wadi, stretching out to the horizon, mountains stacked upon mountains in the shimmering heat.

 

Flying over  a Middle Eastern city, everybody so crowded together, hundreds of thousands of mud houses clinging to the sides of the hills.  It was an undulating carpet of drab, mud-colored blocks of houses, like brown waves on an angry ocean.  I could feel the heat and hear the voices of millions of people all jammed together, like the houses they lived in.

The next excerpt is one I received via email, in regards to his birthday. His pride shines through! His words are so beautiful. I also enjoy the last paragraph, where you can see an example of something we may take for granted.

"First off, I thought how “natural” it felt for me, on my birthday, to be screaming over the dunes with the doors open on a Blackhawk, hot and sweaty in my tore-up boots and dusty ACUs.  To have my 9mm pistol on my chest, sunglasses protecting my eyes from the glaring sun, as I casually dangled my foot over the edge.  Being a soldier.  Man, I can’t really picture myself being anything else at this point in my life!  I pictured what it would be like on my birthday if I was “working in an office, with a suit and tie, in a cubicle working on a computer for a company that exists to make money.” 

NO WAY

!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Life is very, very hard here, for all of us, but I can’t picture myself being anything else but a soldier.  I thought about how important it is to me to feel like I am making a difference in the world, how important it is for me to not just work at a “job” but to be serving others in a profession.  So many professions in this world, people making this world a better place…mine just happens to involve heavy machine guns and roaring around in helicopters.  I thought a bit about what it felt like working in the glass palace of US Northern Command…how, while that was very important work, it didn’t feel like soldier work.  Well, I most definitely felt like a soldier yesterday.  Doing my duty on the far side of the globe.  I actually pulled out the small flag that I keep tucked inside my patrol cap and rubbed my fingers over it a bit.".

"...I then walked over to the ************ where I exchanged out my desert boots (ripped down the side) and my ACU top (shredded down the sleeve from some sharp rocks).  AND THEN I WENT TO BURGER KING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah…the Whopper.  There’s a “Burger King” at ***** but it’s not like the nice, sit-down air-conditioned Burger Kings in the states.  It’s basically a metal box that they’ve turned into a Burger King.  You sit outside on benches and dust is everywhere.  You have to eat fast so you don’t get a lot of dirt in your burger but I didn’t care.  I have seen soldiers sitting there in a full-blown sandstorm, happily eating their Whoppers, hunkered down with their burgers inside their Gortex to keep the worst of the sand out of it.

OH MY GOSH THAT BURGER TASTED INCREDIBLE!!!  I had not eaten at Burger King in 9 months and I was practically drooling as I took my Double Whopper with cheese, lettuce, tomato, lettuce, and king size fries over to the table.  I closed my eyes as I took the first bite:  never has a burger tasted so good!..."