Comrades-in-arms

As this deployment winds down and we start packing up to go home to "the real world" I find myself realizing how many brothers in arms I have. Friends that I have made this past year now mean more to me than others. I have lived with these men and women and I know them more than others do. I never thought I would get that feeling of a brotherhood like that. I am a loner type person that rarely connects with people on this level. I do my own thing and leave others behind.

Now that we are leaving I realize I will bring back with me friends of a different kind. Friends that will have my back no matter what. We have been through things that you don't go through in the normal world. We all ran from the same incoming fire. We saw the rockets streak and the flashes of light. We all heard the same gunshots. We have all seen the same things on a daily basis. We can look each other in the eye and KNOW who cannot hack it, and who knows what we are talking about.

As we talk about meeting up in one location and driving back to base on leave, I once again realize that we will be there for each other no matter what country we are in.

Weird...