David Botti
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Mar 19, 2008 09:13 AM
Along with the Iraq war starting five years ago this week, this
period was also the first time I began writing in the journal I kept
while deployed. I'm posting excerpts today and tomorrow, so you can
get a sense of what was going through the mind of a lowly lance
corporal on his way to Iraq. The entries are not particularly
eloquent, but they're real and I hope they just show what the calm was
like before the storm. I've omitted the names of my fellow Marines for
their privacy.
March 10, 2003
Our platoon commander has been
having meetings with all the squad leaders (planning and training
stuff), and it sounds like we're going balls to the wall. He says if
we're going to the front we're dropping everything, and taking only
food and ammo. Morale seems relatively high -- probably from the
adventure factor. Sounds like we may be in Kuwait within 10 days if
the training schedule at Camp Lejeune doesn't get lengthened.
We
got a slightly propaganda-ish Iraq country briefing, and one on desert
survival. In terms of politics in the world I'm loosing track of all
those resolutions, votes, "phone calls," etc. I just want to get over
there. I've also realized I haven't thought about the future much.
Hopefully, I'll be too busy to think about it. I wonder what they're
doing back home right now. Is it wrong of me to think that I feel
almost lucky to be in this position, to see some facet of the world
which is rare -- and then have the ability to come home and bring those
experiences with me? Well -- we'll see what kinds of experiences I
actually take home...if I want them with me. A- isn't sure if he wants
to go back to school after our deployment. He said he's not afraid of
what's ahead of us, but that he's afraid of what it'll be like going
back home. He looks at other college students w/o a clue as to what's
going on, and gets pissed off. B- said he always just wanted to work as
a bureaucrat, and that because of this he doesn't want anything to do
with that kind of work. He just wants to "go west" when we get back,
and figure everything else later.
March 11, 2003
There
are rumors today we may be at Camp Lejeune for two months. I can't
stand that thought of not being able to go overseas when the war's
still going on.
K- got his family hardship exemption today, so
he won't be coming with us. Some in the platoon say it's a bad omen --
that that goofy bast*rd was our good luck charm.
A bunch of us
went to Ruby Tuesday's at the mall last night. C- showed up with his fiancée. I feel bad for those two now that we're leaving. It just
doesn't seem fair to any of us.
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