Some people will talk about how glorious just this one single event is in their life. However, what if the single greatest event in their life, was a series of events? Actions, created over years of pain and suffering. I have Brothers who have paid the ultimate price. Who suffer far greater than I ever could have, they gave it all.
Marines, we are different, I knew that going in and I had prepared for what seemed most of my life to become just what I am today. Regardless of the memories and the trials it took to get here, it’s like they force me to forget. Then society, as unfamiliar they are with war, they start to talk…. They ask the most intrusive Questions.
This isn’t a hero story. Hell I don’t even have a “combat” action ribbon according to Military standards because my MOS was not supposed to be used in the Battle I was in but, what is combat? Yes I still wear the ribbon, my battalion was blanketed with them after we got back, when we went in 2010 to Marjah. I provided indirect fire support for troop movements on the ground, I just followed orders.
“Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death”
Just telling my story, letting you use your own judgment. It’s a long story and one filled with pain, suffering and remorse of a past I can not forget.
Overcoming my mind, as I learned to overcome my struggles.
We shot many missions in total as a Mortar Team. Think of Javelin missile and other weaponry. Plus there was Gun 2.
For me that battle lives in my head every day. If I am not focusing my attention on other things, then I am completely lost in the fabrics of the memories of war. The endless chaos that it was and is, or if I am busy working out, pushing my body to the limit, or spending time with my beautiful children; the memories are still there, but the fleeting feeling it brings fades away until the end of the day. Always a lingering memory.
The thoughts of war are never ending, they encompass my ability to think and act rationally at times. I usually get annoyed, which appears to be anger, really I am just animated because I love Freedom.
I am often lost in thought as I move from task to task. The distant thought of war, the thought of it just right there in the back of my mind all the time, nothing can stop it
I have at times often wondered if my past would come back to haunt me, I realized now, it always haunts me. It haunts me still and no one even thinks to consider what the war meant to me. We fired about 94 fire missions from the adjusting “Gun” 54 HE, 13 Phosphorus and the rest were illumination rounds, two regular illumination missions and IR illumination rounds for the rest. Our two “Guns” I believe covered majority of the AO. The city was spread out but not huge. About the size of Washington D.C. densely populated with maybe a couple thousand people 80,000? Not sure they have census data accurately updated over there.
Of course this isn’t my story to be told alone, I am not some tough war hero that rants and raves and toots his own horn. I just like to tell stories, anyone that knows me would tell you that I make things up, are all stories not made up?
The start is a beginning for another story, here is a story of brothers. A time where men pushed everything aside, their personal differences and what separated them from everyone else and became Brothers. This is the start to my story From Marine to Marjah: The Making of a United States Marine!
