Reply #33: I have two Marines who are my son's friends [View All]

[texastoast]

They joined together in the "buddy" system where they got to go to boot camp together. One did really great in boot camp and "tested out" of going to see battle. He was stationed in Okinawa and crew chiefed (flight engineer?) on a C-130 running missions like moving the bags full of tsunami victims for identification. The other has crew chiefed on one of those very scary helicopters that crash a lot (Apache, I believe) and is now on his second tour of duty in Iraq, third total. His first tour was in Afghanistan.

They took off the September after graduating from high school in 2002. Neither is a boy any more. Their eyes have that sadness that only those people who have seen real horror can have. They try to protect me from it, but I see it. I watched them grow up from children. I hope they make it home to have families and know love and relationships.