She was sitting at a table drinking coffee and wearing a military t-shirt. military t-shirts come in a wide variety, from the simple logo to the weapon carrying eagles and cigar smoking skulls. She was wearing one that was simple with an army logo. It was worn and torn. She was 22 and looked like she belonged in the arms of a boyfriend exploring first love. But she was reading an email and crying quietly. At first glance it would be easy to assume this was about a high school boyfriend sent overseas while she was left behind with one of his old t-shirts. However these are not simple times.
The t-shirt was hers, worn and torn over long duties, mostly behind the wire. She’d spent months working in the hot desert sun, rising early for her shifts and running trainings. She worked harder than most, with unwavering determination to be the best that she could be. She never complained and never gave up. Her nation asked her to serve, and with all the patriotic pride of youth she rose to the task. The girl said good-bye to family and friends and joined the brotherhood of arms. She specialized in communications and knew that her job meant those beyond the wire always had someone to talk with. She charted progress of patrols and coordinated movements beyond the wire. She saved lives with information. However she couldn’t save all of them.
When she left for service her bed was covered in stuffed animals, her walls had posters of heart throbs and her friends would giggle with her over the way a boy looked at them. In the mornings she would look in her closet and find her favorite outfits, matching shoes with the top and her mascara. She would wonder if she would see the cute new boy in the hall after lunch as she is fixing up her hair. She never considered IEDs or car bombs. She never thought about whether or not her friends would be alive by until dinner. The only death she’d known up to then was the death of her hamster. She thought about puppies and the her secret spot in the woods. She looked forward to Friday night and the movie at the Citadel.
Things have changed for her and thousands of other young men and women. They have experienced a different world, a world that demands the innocence of childhood be forgotten, and the responsibilities of life and death be handled. These young men and women live in a world of danger, a world where they follow orders in hope that the people who give them are wise enough to know what is best. These young men and women return to their hometowns with an understanding of life best saved for old age.
She is still at the beginning of her life but she sits with a heavy heart and the knowledge of an ancient woman that has seen death come far too often. Today she reads of another friend that will never come home again.
