Thankful
0100. I’m not sure what was more frustrating: the fact that the indigo light on my sports watch was growing weaker or the fact that I had been trying to fall asleep for almost three hours with no success. My stomach was churning with a serious case of indigestion and a hint of bloating from the monstrous Thanksgiving feast I had just eaten. Even in one of the most poverty stricken countries on earth, thousands of miles away from my mom’s kitchen, I nor any of the 140 soldiers of Attack Company showed any mercy on our digestive tracts this Thanksgiving. I was paying for it now though. My digital watch keeps time in two separate time zones. I keep one at my current lo

Higher
My Platoon Sergeant and I stared at the map of our Area of Operations in our platoon tent. Our eyes were not fixated on points or grids. We were done with the planning process. We had already delved into our platoon’s task and purpose, nested within the company’s mission statement…now, it was time to take a step back and look at the big picture. “Wow…this looks like a giant clusterfuck,” I chuckled, trying to be at least mildly humorous. “Well,” SFC Nix responded calmly, “It is what it is.” He nodded and returned to preparing his gear for the mission. “It is what it is,” I replied. These five words have become the catchphrase for ou

Forest Edge Drive
I remember watching news reports from Iraq and Afghanistan as a cadet at West Point. I thought to myself, “Wow…my friends are there. They’re making history!” I envied the pride and fulfillment they must have felt serving at the tip of the spear of American foreign policy. Now that I’m in their shoes, it turns out the gravitas is not quite as remarkable on this side of the ocean. We don’t get to see ourselves on CNN. We don’t get to read much about the war in the New York Times. We do have military-catered newspapers for some general information about what’s going on the world, but for the most part, traditional news outlets on a Forward Operating Base are few

Twenty Somethings
Anyone who has even scarcely paid attention to the news in Afghanistan recently knows that it has been a rough week for us here in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. While soldiers may have varying degrees of relation to the tragic incidents over the past few weeks, it undoubtedly touches all of us; as a profession…as a family. A couple days ago, in the silence and darkness of night, I found myself twisting and turning my cot. I couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t anxiety or stress, nor was it fear or depression. I just couldn’t sleep. It’s not uncommon for a deployed soldier to experience some difficulty sleeping. After all, we interchange so frequently between day and ni

Hadji
(I write this post primarily for the junior officers and senior enlisted who may read it…this is a change that will happen only at our level.) Warfare is just as much an intellectual battle as it is a strategic and physical one. I find the biggest strength of the U.S. Army, and our biggest shortfall, is our ability to simplify (or oversimplify) extremely complex concepts and technology for our masses to understand. Working with the world’s most sophisticated communications and weapons systems is not easy. But somehow, the Army’s teaching style makes it so that 20-year old Corporal Joe Dirt can safely operate a multimillion dollar piece of equipment that could anni