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Site Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: CAC
Posts: 18,362
My Corvette(s):
The mythical 1990 ZR-1
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A Letter from a friend's 20 yr old son
This letter was posted in another online community that I'm a member of and, I wanted to post it to let some people know what goes through the heads of some of our young men when they are over there...
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Hey All
Well, here I am six months into my year long trial in Iraq and now I am known as a "combat soldier". Today, I was presented with my right shoulder sleeve combat patch of the 101st AIR ASSAULT Division. You all have heard of the great 101st, the first airborne unit to land in Normandy during WWII, and one of the oldest units in the US Army. The patch of the 101st is one of the most recognized patches throughout the world. The Bald Eagle gives the 101st its nickname "The Screaming Eagles" (and where we Rockets jokingly call it the “Coughing Chicken”...) Yet here I am at age 20, two years out of high school, still very much the boy that a lot of you knew while I was growing up in sleepy little Hawaii. For some reason, here I am now a man, a father, and a soldier... What do all of these titles mean? Many things, for that is who I am... You all know that I dreamed to serve, but many thought I would grow out of the "stage" and go off to college like a lot of my friends did after high school. Instead, I decided to go and take care of my small family. I joined the Army at the age of 18 less than four days after my birthday. Now, I sit here at a tiny MWR (Moral Welfare and Recreation) that my unit runs in the housing area referred to as the "crack houses". I am thinking back to that day two years ago barely even thinking I was going to graduate high school and much less make it though Basic. But somehow the Lord decided that I was meant to be a soldier. So he allowed me to make it through. I was still very much a boy in a green uniform. I still had my faults, such as my stubbornness (I think I will never get rid of it). I did get knocked down a few pegs when I got cycled out of Intelligence School. It changed my life and that of my family forever when I said that I would become a “rocket surgeon” known as a 13M or, as we call it, 13 misalliances.... But here I am a year after getting out of AIT at Ft Sill, Oklahoma and now assigned to the most prominent MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) unit in the Army. I have the privilege to be the last batch of soldiers to deploy and face my "baptism of fire" with them. It’s funny looking back at this past six months and looking at all the soul searching I have done and all the things that have happened to me.
1.) I deployed to a hostile country away from my family and friends. 2.) I have been shot at and almost blown up (NOT fun but it makes you thankful). 3.) I have fallen more madly in love with the woman who accompanies me on this road called life (I love you *******). 4.) I have found that there is a God and there are demons out here in the world. Not the little ones we see on television with the pointy ears and the pitch forks but demons more of the mind... I have not slept a lot since I was shot at in Ballad Market Place at the start of the month. I am still scared to even drive through the place with five 50 cals on either side of me. I still clench my weapon and pray as we haul ass through that city. For some reason I think I was meant to have all this happen to me and then some. God has truly blessed me with this life. I would not change for anything (besides maybe better vision sometimes). But still, I like me for who I am. I love my family and friends that have not only been there in the rear supporting me, but encouraging me to do better than what I am doing. I still don’t know whether I am going career. (As much as I talk about it I should). The things that makes America great is I can think about it, pray for guidance, and hope for some divine intervention. I know that’s not going to happen any time soon but still it would be nice to have someone just say yes you will do another four years… that’s only a wish. I have not written much because I try to keep busy. I usually hate going to the main MWR to use it for only 30 minutes because I am talking to my wife (I’ve got to say it “Love ya *******!”). SO what I am mainly trying to say here is I am as confused as a dog that has lost his bone and can’t smell it because of a cold...
Well, I am only human. I am glad that I am truly blessed with such a great extended family. Thank you one and all for all the love, support, and more importantly, the phone calls at 3:00 in the morning, the Instant Messages that I know never make sense and the email, and, of course the packages that I get at least once a month from, at least, one of you. (I like Ramen) More importantly, I think I have actually done something great in my life other than bring such a little rascal into this world who I love to death. I really try to be a good husband, son, friend, and brother. I think I finally understand what a great man once said: "It is the blood of Patriots that must some time be paid with the ultimate sacrifice and the greatest of challenges, so that FREEDOM can be given and protected for every one on this great Earth of ours."
I was asked by one of my sergeants before we got on the plane to come over here if I was scared to die for my country. I said yes because I was afraid of death. Now I feel at ease with the idea. I will be the first to admit that I do not want to die. Above all else, I feel I have a lot I can still accomplish as a father, husband, son, brother, and most of all a SOLDIER. I am not afraid to die. I am afraid; however, that if I am killed, I won’t be remembered. I know that will never happen. I get reminded every day of the lives I have touched in my short two decades on this planet. Still, the idea lags in my head… Will I be just another pair of boots on the ground with an upside down rifle and my Kevlar and dog tags hanging on it? I hope not. I am not feeling sorry for myself. I am just thinking a lot today as I stare at my Screamin’ Eagle, "Ol Abe", as he is called. I wonder about those civilians who protest what we’re doing over here and about the families that rally to get us out of here because they have lost a loved one over here. Please, if I am called upon to pay for freedom with my blood, do me this favor. Mourn for me but don’t say we should not be over here. My heart soared when I met a little Iraqi girl at the hospital the day. I injured my hand and she gave me a small wild flower she was holding. I still have that flower and I look at it every day in my room. It makes it worth while, all the blood, the pain, and the suffering that we Americans go though in the name of freedom.
I don’t know, I guess I am just a bald sentimentalist but it makes me feel like there is a God and he is truly watching over us here. Do us a favor. Pray not only for me, my brothers and my sisters but for the children of Iraq. They make every mission seem like we are truly doing good out here. As Edgar Allen Poe once said "It is my job to write but my religion to do good in the world." I try every day to bring a little bit of happiness into everyone’s lives I meet. I smile every day. I still can’t wipe that stupid grin that the battleship made me wear every day I was a tour guide. I guess it is a part of me like how my rifle is now a part of me. I don’t know. Maybe one day I will get the meaning of it all. Hopefully, that’s many years down the road while I am sitting watching the sunset over the Pacific again.
PFC ****** ********
6/27 FA (HET)
__________________
Rob Loszewski, Site Administrator
Corvette Action Center
NCRS Member #27792
"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt." - Sun Tzu
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