9 years ago today

Nine years ago today - March 19, 2003, wasn't something at the time that seemed like a significant date to me.  I was working full-time at a bank, had just turned 21 and was going to school full-time.  Iraq was not a word that had much meaning to me at the time.  Like the majority of Americans, I could recall where I was on September 11, 2011 and I stood every time Old Glory passed in a parade.  My family had always been patriotic, so the somewhat temporary patriotism that passed for many people, had been a norm in our house for as long as I could remember. 

The same as it is for many Americans who enjoy our freedom so blindly, the service members who were crossing over into Iraq and putting their life on the line was something that seemed so much of a world away that besides on the news I was oblivious of.  That changed for me a little over a year later.  One of the guys that I worked with, who I had also attended high school with, was anxiously gearing up for his wedding and excited for his best man to be back from Iraq to help him get everything in line.  July 29, 2004 that all changed and so did my world.  He had been on break a little longer than normal and our section was starting to get busy, so as one of the team leads, I went looking for him.  I found him out on the fire escape crying - he looked at me and said 'he's gone'.  Knowing that I had known Joe as well and known he was deployed, I immediately knew who he was talking about.  Suddenly, that war that I had only heard about on the news became VERY real. 

Joe was the kind of guy that everyone knew and everyone loved.  He was the hometown football hero who had married his high school sweetheart, the kind of guy who would do anything for anyone.  Even though he had been injured twice before and had been given the option both times to stay back, he felt his place was with his men and he had redeployed.  He had only been back in country for a couple of days before he was killed by a sniper.  At only 21 years old, he was laid to rest - which required a ceremony at the football stadium as there was over 2000 in attendance. 

Shortly after that was when I first met with an Army recruiter.  It was like life had a whole new perspective and I decided to follow through on something that I had wanted to do right out of school and that was becoming a Blackhawk pilot.  Less than two months later, I enlisted and two days before Thanksgiving I left for basic training. 

Iraq now has a different meaning - it's not just a country in a 'far away land' that I have only heard about on the news...  I have been there and lived it, I have left it in my 'rear view mirror' twice, I have seen first hand what it has done to people and have had the extreme honor of providing the first leg home for seven fallen soldiers. 

Iraq is such a small word, that has such a huge meaning to those who it has been real for.