I was given orders to a suicide mission. I told you if I was just going on a regular deployment then we would be having a different conversation. I am still here but you made your choice before I even started writing about you in the journal I take back with me as a time traveler. Deployments always end at some point. Even if I knew I was going on a very long deployment then we would have had a different conversation. I wondered about all those United States Marines before me who left their loved ones back in the United States and then some of those Marines were killed days later on some beach somewhere in the Pacific. I knew I would never get to the leave this place when I left. My orders are to hold out here until the end.
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 04/09/07 8:27 PM
8.78 goddamned years of 100% deployment.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 9 April 2007 excerpt ends]
