Anbar Province or Bust

Drill weekend. Standing around with the usual grind going on. A urinalysis test. A blood draw for the entire company. More standing around. When will it end? Finally, last formation. Saturday breezes by without a hitch. My arm hurts from having my blood drawn and I was still on a high from passing my PT test that I took the day before. All I want to do is go to sleep and wake up refreshed Sunday morning. While Saturday is uneventful, Sunday is when the real bomb drops.

I had gone out to the bars with my sister and her friend Melanie. I got only a few hours of sleep (literally three hours) and had to be up at around 6am Sunday morning. I wondered what we were going to do for the day considering everything else we had to do pretty much was done the day before. Anyone who was important as far as senior leadership and officers would be in a meeting for God knows how long. So, we were told to go back to the Wilmington Armory (we were currently at Carolina Beach) to put an install kit in a Humvee for the radios. I got down and dirty, getting greasy, running antenna cables along the underbelly of the vehicle and we all finally finished up. More sitting around.

Lunch time rolls around and I go back to my apartment to munch on some leftover, cold pizza, which is the best, in my opinion, no matter what time of day. I watched a few more episodes of Nip/Tuck, by far one of the greatest shows ever made. I had bought the DVD series 1 and 2 on Black Friday. They were $15 each. I also bought my 22” LCD monitor for my laptop. Its something to do when you’re bored. 1:00 rolls around and lunch is over, so I drove back to the armory wondering what was to become of our idle time.

We sit around for another hour or so awaiting what was to happen the rest of that day and next drill in January. We were sitting around and getting the news on what was to happen in the near future, and that’s when we were told where there was a strong possibility of us going. My jaw dropped and for once, I actually thought God hated me. I laugh at that, but where we were going was punishment. My world stopped, and the first thing I thought about was calling my father to tell him.

Everyone was leaving around 2:30 and I drove home, dialing my dad’s number as I drove. I told him, upset, but not insanely concerned because it was still a year out. I could tell by my father’s response that he was in denial and he knew that his baby boy was going to be in harm’s way once again. I felt like shit for signing up again, knowing full well what was in store. But why I did it was for the life I missed, for the bonds that were formed, for the pride the uniform provided. And once again in my life, what I served for wearing that uniform was about something bigger than me, and I knew on some level that my dad understood that. He was a retired Marine and Gulf War vet himself.

No one wants to see their children in harm’s way, and as strong as my dad is, I knew that it hurt him to know what was in store for me because of where we were going. He had the optimist’s view that things would change and maybe I wouldn’t have to go over there or maybe I would go somewhere else. I’m a realist. I never wanted to hurt my dad, but in the end, he knows I’m going to do what makes me happy, and signing back up was what did it. The best he can do is be the supportive parent and back me up 110% like any good dad would who is always proud of his son.