Well my two cents about today.

I remember coming in from morning PT at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, AZ. My mind was drifting to thoughts of driving my stuff back to Michigan to visit family and spend time in the U.P. hunting deer and spending Thanksgiving watching football and eating turkey with Mom, Dad, and my siblings. Little more than a month later after returning from leave I would deploy with the 13th MEU on a 6 month tour of the Pacific.

Those thoughts were quieted by the Barracks Duty NCO telling me that a plane had crashed into the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. I spent nearly an hour watching live News footage from New York City and Washington D.C. I remember turning to the TV after a short conversation with some other Marines to witness the second plane crash into the second tower live on television. We all were dumb founded. What the hell were we watching!

Shortly after the entire base went on alert and weapons were carried in condition 1 (weapons loaded with a round in the chamber) by Marines on guard duty. My leave was cut short and my sea duty extended to over eight months. Eight months of staring the grey walls of the Bonnie Dick LHD-6 with short bits of reprieve in Australia, Thailand, and Singapore. Fixing avionics to ensure our birds did their job attacking targets in Afghanistan. Then I returned to the states and left the Marine Corps. My time in was up.

But now it seems like a dream the more I think about it. At times I felt guilty for not doing more or even getting some patrol or trigger time. Those feelings have faded away.

I just got done spending time up at Birch Lake near Elk Rapids, MI. A beautiful little patch of heaven before the harsh winter hits the Great Lakes. We were all there. Mom, Dad, and my Siblings with their significant others (I’m still single, long story). My little brother got leave after serving an 8 month tour in Afghanistan. He only saw two I.E.D. attacks the whole time he was there which was mostly spent staring at goat herds and the vast nothing that is Afghanistan’s high desert.

He too confined in me the same feelings of not doing enough and being in what many would consider a thankless military role. I explained to him we both did our duty and while we never fired a shot in anger and will be forgotten to history I was only concerned we both are here spending time with each other playing video games, smoking cigs, drinking Captain Morgan and Vernor’s ginger ale (which tastes like cream soda) and fishing in a canoe.

Because that’s all that matters at the end of this day. We do our little part no matter how thankless it may seem. And we cherish what’s best in our pleasant company. Our friends and family.