Kenders' Musings

A good friend of mine, Sgt. Hathaway, a "tanker", has volunteered to go back into battle, this time in Iraq. He leaves between Dec. 15th and Jan. 15th.

He has been in since late '96, and re-upped when he decided that civilian life wasn't all he wanted out of life.

He just returned from a deployment to New Orleans, along with another friend of mine.

He went to Bosnia in '88-'89, slugging it out in the streets over there through the winter.....now, with redeployment looming and some job somewhere humping boxes or filtering water on the "most-likely-to-be-assigned-to-you-Sgt.-Hathaway" list, he has decided that he simply needs to be in the thick of it.

He did that military thing with chain-of-command, in effect sending his qualifications and desire to be in the thick of things along said chain, and got what he wanted. He is off to Iraq, Armored, to a unit that has lost a lot of men in the last three months......he has friends over there, and has jumped at the chance to get back to the fray.

We were talking on the phone tonight, and I asked him, of course, if he was worried. He said;

"Hell yeah I'm worried, but I'm not afraid to die.....dying doesn't scare me Kender. What scares me is becoming Lt Dan."

(A reference to Forrest Gump)

He continued

"This is what I do Kender, it's who and what I am. I am a warrior, a fighter...a soldier, and if nothing else, I should be there for my men.....some people, Kender, join the military looking for a career, and that's fine, but I didn't join looking for a career, I joined to serve my country, because I know this is where I fit best, and the Army has taught me Respect, Self-Reliance, Dignity, Honesty and above all else, the true meaning of Honor and Duty. The military isn't just my job Kender, it is my life.....these people are my family, just as much as my family I grew up around. I would fight to the death to save any one of them, and they would do the same for me.

That is why I serve, Kender."

His B-Day is two days before mine, in Dec. and we are gonna go get smashed and chase women....he'll be in uniform.....maybe, just for the fun of it, we'll go find us a martini bar in the Blue part of town.....as he said, "Fightin' or fuckin', Kender, one way or another I'm gonna have some fun."

HOO-AH Sarge.

HOO-AH!!!