Just some musings..."The People"

It has been a long time, but this recent thought was spurred by walking through an airport...

The people. The war. They all forget. Some clap at the distant reminder of the sacrifices made in blood. Some casually glance and then return their gaze to more important zeros and ones arranged in dancingly beautiful displays on sleek technological sex. So visceral, so stimulating, so cold. Colder even than the shivering mountain top nights under the same moon? Colder than the sustenance provided by their –generously taxed, hard-earned green? Yet, some want to take the sacrifice and cheapen it. They protest at the feet of great men and women. Warriors in their own right. If the devaluation of the sacrifice could be compared to the green they understand and the state of the union…utter chaos worse than the market crash. Crashing bones on the pavement from depression and sorrow. Yet we all live on. We all continue in our worlds. We do not give up silk, we do not give up milk, nor fuel, nor steel. Cars putter on, and lattes continue to be tossed away because it had too much sugar, a new one cheerfully proffered with a false apologetic smile. Teeth bared, grit, hostile. Hostile on the move in everyday life. Blending with the country side. They say we have time, they say we will be done soon and a job well done. We are faced with grit. We do not care. We fight, for you Mr. Man that wears the slacks, bacon fried or nuked; for you little toker, hypothesize for naught; for you little smoker, free to cancerfy; for you media woe, to guess and lie under the auspices of truth; for you average joe, to just swallow their blow. Somewhat jaded, this is true, but reason or cause be damned to you. See what we see, feel what we feel, and then after your shoes are worn, we will listen.

An American Hero

It is without a doubt that I will not remember many things in life. There are too many things going on in this fast paced world we live in. There are car notes, mortgages, bills, jobs, people and bosses to make happy, to name just a few. And everyday I awake, I know that each moment will lead on to the next, good or bad, and that at days end my "Inbox" will still have things that must wait for the next day. There are simply too many new things coming in to be able to remember them or even some of the old things.

But with all of that said, I would like to caution you all not to forget what really matters in life. People. True, they come and go and in many lines of work the people we meet are like boomerangs that catch-up to us again on our journey. But the most important thing is to remember people: our Loved ones, our friends, our confidants.

One such person that touched my life in a positive and unforgettable way was a young man that was wise beyond his years and always sought a quiet perfection in all that he did. No matter what the task, he attacked it with such an intense focus, I was always in awe; yet, all the while he would remember others and help them with their tasks as well.

He was someone you could talk to at whatever the hour and he would listen and if you asked, give his humble opinion. He never made you feel insignificant, but you knew he was one of those people that you meet once in a lifetime and feel so privileged to have know. I was graced with his presence as a room mate and teammate on the Color Guard at the United States Military Academy. I will never forget the way he would put his "Cali-Hat" on, his headphones in and ceaselessly chip away at problem sets after an afternoon of drill practice.

When we first arrived at the Color Guard, he was selected to be the National Flag bearer, an extreme honor. He humbly accepted the position and I became his rifle guard. Shoulder to shoulder we stood. Even though we were peers, I looked up to him. You couldn't help but to be inspired by him. Day after day our team honed our skills to be the best, because he would settle for nothing less.

I will never forget the end of the semester when I asked if he was coming back to run the Color Guard to see if I would stay on and continue our jobs together. He respectfully declined because he had something else planned. I was a bit disappointed, but when I asked him what, he said he wanted to go command our Regiment. All I could do was smile, because I knew he had decided that was the best way he could serve the Academy. I knew he'd be perfect for the job, so I couldn't argue. I stayed on as the Color Guard Executive Officer and he went on to be selected for the Regimental Command job, like I knew he would.

Even writing this brings a smile to my face because he is still someone I look up to and obviously the person I am talking about is Daniel Brian Hyde. He is someone I will never forget. I will always remember him, his smile, his leadership example, and his dedication to service in all facets of life. I will always remember no matter how busy I get to stop and thank him, never surrending those memories to the hustle and bustle of life, never forgetting to venerate The Hero that he will forever be.

All I ask for now is that we as a Nation, his friends, his family, remember with joy the truly Awesome person that graced our presence. Thank you Dan for all you gave and I know you still have my back. God Bless and Keep you.

I'll never know where the positivity comes from...

maybe I am destined to be motivational for someone and it is ordained by God above. If you like this I guess you have to give him the props, I just put ink to paper...

Imagining the best possible outcome
but sometimes life isnt all fun
things come and they go
but there are certain truths i know
Loving and being loved is the greatest thing
and if we can reach Love for all, inspiring
I often see how time ebbs and flows,
you simply have to listen and watch the flowers grow
On and on we all march to our end,
but the important thing is to be a friend.
keep your head up when times get rough
and lend a hand to those who find the way tough
keep moving, onward, upward.

Overdue

No, this is not a tale of past due rentals or literary loans gone sour. This is simply a rant of the past. I have bleed, I have slept, and I have eaten, just like everyone else. Time has marched on and the lack of any communicae has, for the most part, gone the way of the do-do, so to speak. Meaning, out of sight or thought, out of mind.

Speaking of which, I must tell a quick story about a boy whom I cannot name for his safety. He lives in one of the "larger" remote towns in a random part of a war-torn country. He is small for his age, so small in fact he got angry with me once for picking him up, yelling that he was too old to be playing around like that and I should respect his age not his size. I mean it was said in hurried Arabic and broken English as he shook his fist at me, but after I put him down he said we were still friends. See, he speaks broken English too so it wasn't very hard for me to get the idea. Enough English in fact to week in and week out ask me for whatever caught his eye in my vehicle. More often than not, I would give him a soda or blow pop and even once went so far as to give him a whole bag of tootsie rolls my mother sent me. He was, to say the least, insatiable. Will I miss him? Part of me will, but the other part of me won't because I will be home and time will fade his memory. But what I will never forget is the last time I saw him. He asked me for a football, saying, "Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow, you bring me football." (He doesn't know how to say the days of the week or any number of days, be it one, two, three, etc.) I sadly smiled at him and said, "Sorry buddy, I'm going home." He looked at me quizzically and then said with question-like inflection, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, me, football." I replied, "I'm going home to America man." He asked, "Home to America?!!?" Me: "Yes." He hung down his head and slowly walked next to me until I reached my truck. All I could think to do was teach him how to say, "Pop Tart, Delicious." After two tries he said it and I gave him a box of pop tarts. I closed my door as he ran off to live his life.

That sums up my time here pretty well. A brief moment in the span of lives we touched here, be it in good ways or not so good ways. Time will go on for these people. New units will continue to come and go and this nation will continue to work toward stability. Will it ever reach that end? No one can say for sure. Are there a lot of obstacles impeding the way? Aren't there always... All I can really say with certainty, is that I have done my best to make a difference and hopefully, my efforts to keep my word to the people I made promises to will live on beyond my departure.

Have I grown as a person? I don't know. Have I learned a lot about my job and had a fun, albeit unbelievable time doing it? Yes.

I'm not sure what else I have to say so I will end it here and hope this, in some way gave you a glimpse into some of the highs and some of the lows we experienced here. I look forward to reliving some of the memories and not so much for others. More to follow, as always...

For Lerl

...."whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth." ...."And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to acheive it." Paulo Coelho from "The Alchemist"

Jewels of the Desert part 1: The sun went down as it normally is supposed to. The moon did not fail to rise, but simply delayed it's appearance for the cooler portion of the night. I normally stop to take a moment to reflect on the random happenings in this landscape. I think of a place on the other side of the world that I long to explore. There is a glint in the distance. My eyes have glazed over, but they still see. The dance and glimmer plays off of my retinas like sparkles from the most brilliant jewels I have ever seen. I think to myself that I have actually never seen anything that brilliant before. It isn't blinding and I don't have to squint. I simply let myself exists with the landscape. The beauty of the night is overwhelming. I think to myself that I am lucky to experience this desert jewel. There are many jewels in the desert if one stops to appreciate them. There is another side to everything though, an inherent duality in nature. The desert holds jewels, but if those jewels are dwelled upon too much, one forgets reality of the harshness. But then again, it is that same harsh reality, that causes people to overlook and underplay the desert's magic. All this reverberates inside of me as I think of the heat and of war and that at any moment I could cease to exist. I say a quiet prayer to God to forgive my sins. I do not fear hell, but I respect the fact that it exists. I mix religions into my spiritual prayer to my maker. I do believe he will forgive my sins and that I do not need an earthly conduit. I do not know all the world has to offer, because when it comes down to it, I am a speck. All I need to know is that there are jewels in the desert.

CR

Nature will run its course

As in typical Army fashion, "No shit, there I was..." Driving around in the middle of the night when out of nowhere the sky lights up to show the nightime landscape as if it were day. I waited for the onslaught of noise. Nothing came. I didn't feel the ground shake either, weird. I mean I remember the drudgery of physics quite well and as I recall, light travels faster than sound, so when I didnt feel a shock wave concuss over my body, I was perplexed. We continued on and I began to survey the landscape. Then, it happened again, another awe inspiring flash of light, but this time I saw its source. The heavens above were boiling in rage and the air was charged.

All I could think of was a movie I had once seen in which a man would stake the sand at a beach and collect the glass creations from below after a lightning storm. I wondered if I could make some money off of my experience in Iraq, like in the movie. Crazy, I know, But I am always wondering about ways to sell thatr next great thing. I think Iraqi Lightning Glass is a highly specailized field for those Art Afficianados. Oh well, maybe some other day, but I digress.

The storm was amazing in and of itself. I will say though that Rain in a desert climate isn't good. I mean don't get me wrong, the area has experienced a three year long drought, but the first rains can be deadly. Oils soak into the asphalt all year long and surface on the first rains, not to mention the wadis that fill instantaneously with water and then of course the flash floods. Luckily I only had to experience the asphalt this time. In all honestly, I thought my crew and I were going to get a firsthand account on a reallife rollover drill.

As we all know, and if you don't, take my word for it, the Army is notroious for drilling things into the dirt so they become second nature. It may seem mundane, but I assure you, when you are on the goaline and the audible is called with 3 seconds on the clock, you have to act, not think. Well, in this particular case, time slowed as my driver began to turn the wheel. The back of my 8 ton vehicle swung lazily to the left. Immediately I could feel the drift. I had a flash to the movie, Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. I looked at my driver and he smiled at me. It's funny how you grow so close to someone that you think alike, well in this brief moment we were on the same page, no, the same scene in the movie. Everything was so calm and my gunner didn't even bother to say "rollover" he just got down. I braced and tried to coach my driver through it, but as I said, we were already on the same page. In the next instant, our back end was on the right side of the road and the edge of the highway loomed ever closer. Tailend to the left. "You got this Bro."

I will be the first to admit, when shit hits the fan, my professionalism turns to familism, because I honestly don't see the point in using someone's rank and last name when bullets are flying or vehicles are flipping over, lol.

Me: "You got this."

Driver: "Sir, I wasn't worried, it was like drifting back home..."

Passenger: "What the eF is goign on!"

Me: "It's cool."

Gunner: "I'm back up. I thought we were done."

Me: "Naw, he had it."

Over the Radio: "Sir, you check your pants yet?"