Tag: Returning home

Quotes April 05, 2024

They Served
…reliving memories
that will not die
giving their all
for you and I –
friends taken
lives shaken…”
Muse, Enigmatic Evolution
 
 
 
 
“War was a sorrier business than storybooks told.”
Ralph Peters, Cain at Gettysburg
 
 
 
 
“The Army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another’s lives is unnegotiable and only deepens with time. The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly.”
Sebastian Junger, War
 
 
 
 
“There are two things a combat deployment offers which all of us strongly desire. The first, being purpose. Every morning we woke up and knew why we were there. It is immediate and unavoidable. Although, it is extreme and unpleasant, there is a comfort in that purpose. The second, is simplicity. We have one goal. There are relatively simple rules on how to accomplish it, and we understand that just about everything will go wrong. Pretty simple.”
Adam Fenner, Post-Deployment Wisdom For Those Expecting A Returning Service Member
 
 
“It was strange to see the enemy up close, and at length. I could see fear in their faces – the knowledge that they could be cut down at any moment – but also a willingness to accept that fate in order to perform their solemn tasks. The fighters were young, as soldiers always are, dark beards beneath chestnut eyes. They were of Pashtun origin, but whether from Afghanistan or Pakistan, I could not tell. I only knew that they were the enemy, and when they returned with weapons, then we would kill them.”
Adam Jowett, No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege