Half-Mast

The flag in front of our company office flew at half-mast today. I would have loved to get a picture and post it for you, but the camera I brought with me succumbed to the heat about a month after we got here, so you will have to be content with the mental image of our flag flying at half mast in front of a raw wood building where Marines carry out the work that was triggered by the events that are so prevalent on everyone's minds today.

I don't really have any deep insights to offer for you today, no philosophical musings about life, the military, the Taliban, politics, what have you. What I do have for you is this: the things we do here make a difference. Yes, it's true that some Afghans support the Taliban, but it's also true that many of them support the Taliban only because they are coerced to do so, and that others risk their lives to help Marines. Marines, Afghan Soldiers, and other Coalition Forces are still engaged in a fierce fight and losing their lives, but we are fighting in the Helmand River valley--the birthplace of the Taliban; their home turf. You can't get much better for taking the fight to the enemy! And we'll keep fighting for as long as our Commander-in-Chief tells us to.

I've been thinking lately about how I've joined the group of millions of young (and not-so-young) men and women throughout our nation's history that have been called away from their homes and families to defend someone's freedom, and how proud I am to be in this group. Yes, I miss my family--I got up at 5 this morning so I could call home and sing Happy Birthday to my brother (love you, bro!) before they all had cake and ice cream and retired for the night. (Okay, so I walked back to the barracks and went back to sleep for another hour and a half once we were done.) Yes, I get tired of the dust that gets everywhere, and the chow hall having the exact same thing week in and week out, and working seven days week in and week out, and I'm counting down the days until we go back to the states. But if someone had given me a time machine before I'd gone to OCS, and I had known exactly what it was like out here before I even joined the Marine Corps...I would still do exactly what I did.

Semper Fidelis.