War without glory (written by a Vet)

[nosmokes]

Thanks for your service Mr Nack, and thanks for this account.Good luck in your future endeavors
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original-registerguard

War without glory

By Sean Nack For The Register-Guard

Published: February 10, 2008 04:38AM

Iwish I could tell you a story. There would be a believer, a young man, a proud soldier unhindered by doubt, knowing in his heart that he is fighting, ultimately, for the greater good, and that in his lifetime he would see the fruits of his labors — that he could, with his blood, buy the freedom of a people, of a nation.

That is not my story.

My story begins in boredom. From boredom my Army career burst forth, a misguided Athena from the furrowed brow of a confused Zeus. I didn’t so much drop out of Southern Oregon University as I weaned myself off of it. The classes slowly slipped away, the earnest intellectual enthusiasm with which I had attacked my education slowly ebbing and finally dying the slow death that it sought.

Like many of my generation, I needed a direction, a purpose. I needed something, anything, to change. I needed a new horizon. Funny thing about horizons; you never catch one. I’ve followed mine steadily eastward, first to Fort Benning, Ga., School of the Infantry, then to Fort Drum, N.Y., and then Paktika Province, Afghanistan. I wish I could tell you a dramatic story of violence, war, glory and honor on the battlefield.

But that is not my story.

In my story we fight, certainly. We get in more regular TICs (Troops In Contact) than anywhere else in Afghanistan. We roll down a “road,” a rain-carved wadi in the midst of this insane terrain, before we are accosted by explosions. What starts as the whoosh of a rocket-propelled grenade soon becomes a cacophony, a wall of sound and lead that shakes your bones, fear that shakes your soul, panic that shakes your nerve, tempered by a will to strengthen your resolve.

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complete article here

[PDJane]

1. Thank you.

It breaks my heart and makes it tough to see that war as anything but a charade, but thank you.