Hello i'm a sailor in the USN and i was deployed on cruise for 6 month's in the persian gulf. During this time i got seperate orders to iraqi. i'm only 23 no family or GF due to me being gone for so long. SO i was scared as hell when i was told that i had to go over there. they gave me 3 weeks of combat training, and i couded off on my way.
When i got there it was just i like imagined it, we had to sleep in tents, and wear full body armor all day with a pistol on are waist. marines would go out all day and patrol and would come back to the camp 15 -16 hours later only to go out again 4 hours later. i could hear the sound of bombs going off from the airstrikes. seeing wonder marines come back, not seeing marines come back.
Lucky for me my job was technical support, so i never experienced combat. But while i was there there would be constant raid alarms and treat alerts i was crazy. One incident the battle got really close to our camp. I mean like duck your head or you might not have it anymore close.
I would always be in fear of my life, i didn't sleep much and i ate even less. But you know what i noticed out there, that those were actual men and wemon out there risking there lives everyday. Dedicated to what they do, after an incounter i would see marines come back to base and get patched up. Dirt and blood covering there face, hands shaking with a dead look in there eye's staring off into nothing.
When I would see that i knew that they had seen things that I couldn't even imagine. At times it would bring tears to my eyes, to see men suffer so greatly. And beleive me when yo look at them and you see them the way i have you know they have suffered. When you see this you think, these are men and women, someone brother or sister, mother or father, uncle or aunt. And they are literally risking there lives doing this.
When you talk to them you expect to hear how bad it is, and how much they hate this, and how afraid they are. But no not one person told me that, I was truly amazed when they would tell me this.
They all said they did it because they love thee country and there fighting for te safety of there family and lover one's but mostly i fight for the safety of my brotherand sister standing next to me in battle. I fight to protect there lives. And when you look in there eyes when they say this, you know they mean it.
Looking from the outside you would say fighting this war is usless. just a wase of lives, but when you say these words. You say them without meaning, just trying to prove a point. But they are human beings out there dieing people you love fighting not for our politics or our government, or oil or money. but for there lives and the lives of those who stand next to them on the battle field. And for the confort you feel when yopu go to sleep at night knowing a bomb wont drop on you head.
I've laid down many of night with those fear, and until you know them you will never know how precious that comfort, that safety, that we all have truly is.
The reason i'm writing this is because out of the hundred's of marines and soldiers i've talked to, they rely so heavly on the support of the people back home to keep them moving.
One marine told me and i will never forget this. " with all the adrenaline that i get from the battle, and almost dieing. I would not be able to move an inch if my family wasn't supporting."
And that's what this post is about, because if you have family anywhere in the marines or in the navy or airforce. Who's out there fighting that battle show your support. Send them a letter everyday if you have to, because you dont know how much that means to them. They truly need it.
I hope whoever reads this and know someone in the military stop what they are doing and give them a call or write them a letter. because they need you now more than ever.
Thank you