‘The first time I put on that uniform I hoped I would wear it with honor. On Sept. 15, I finally did.’
By Michael Prysner
The writer is an Iraq war veteran.
On the morning of Sept. 15, I held in my hands a uniform that was issued to me nearly five years ago.
I remembered the first time I held it, wondering if I would ever wear it home, wondering if it would be stained by blood or shredded by bullets. It looks much different now than the first time I put it on—it is faded from 12 months of desert sand and sun. The elbows and knees are worn from lying in the street. The boots are tattered from kicking down doors and walking over cities of rubble. As I put it on for the first time since I returned from Iraq, I finally felt as if I was putting it on for a purpose.
For so many years, that uniform has not stood for justice and freedom. It is the uniform that the Iraqi people saw stomp through their towns. It is the uniform that drove humvees and manned machine guns. It is the uniform that dragged people from their homes and interrogated them in prison camps. But on the streets of Washington, D.C., the uniform took on new meaning.
It was no longer worn with the intention of fighting for the government, but fighting against it. For me, and for my brothers and sisters in Iraq Veterans Against the War, the uniform that once symbolized fear and destruction would now be worn in the spirit of justice and resistance.
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http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=8683&news_iv_ctrl=1621
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