FOB Delaram, Afghanistan

6:43 September 28th, 2019

I wake up with sweat and dirt filling my nose. Another day in the Marines. I get up and wash my face in the cold water coming from the old sink..

It is hotter today than it was yesterday. About 102 degrees, but we still yet have to wear our camo pants, army green shirt, and brown military boots. Just the life I love living. Serving for my country every single day.

I hear voices on my radio. I pull my radio from my pants and put it up to my ear.

All I hear is “We need backup! Lt. Henderson, Cpt. King, Lt. Ford report to headquarters now!” That’s me. Lt. Ford, and I am proud to be. I hook my radio back on my pants, and head to the west side of the base.

There is a war about one hundred miles from here. That is what the backup is for. I haven’t been in a war like this since last year. Hundreds of innocent people lost their lives. I had to kill some of them, and now I can’t bring them back. I have to do things I don’t want to do to protect my country. The red, white, and blue. I sometimes regret killing innocent people. I mean, they don’t deserve to die. None of this is any of their fault.

I get to headquarters in under five minutes. I am a fast runner, good thing I chose this career.

Once I get inside I see Gen. Adams standing right in front of the doorway.

“Lt. Ford, the helicopter is waiting behind us. Get on board with everyone else. Here are your weapons. Watch you brothers backs, and don’t get killed out there,” he yells a couple feet from me. It is because of the blowing from the helicopter.

“Yes sir,” I say with a loud voice, but not too loud. He nods and turns around. I then turn around and head toward the helicopter. I hop on it, and it takes off.

As we fly over the hot, dry land, I look at my fellow two brothers. Man aren’t they brave. Looking at them now makes me think about what will happen when we reach where the war is. Will I die, or will I survive? Are my brothers going to make it out, or are they going to stay on the battlefield? I give a lot of thought into these questions, and the only way to find out the answers is when the war is over with.

I can’t predict the future, but I sure wish I could. I would know if somebody is going to die soon or die a long time from now.

After a couple minutes of thinking about all of this, we are almost there. About five minutes later we are there. We are going into a war. Here we go.

When we get there, Lt. Henderson gets up and throws down the rope ladder and stands back. He motions us to go first, so Cpt. King gets up and goes first. I follow behind him with Lt. Henderson right behind me.

Once we reach the hard brownish- tanish ground, we go straight toward the trees. There aren’t very many, but that is where most of the other soldiers are hiding and waiting for the right time to go out. The other soldiers are already involved in the war. I kick a couple rocks on the way to the trees, but nobody seems to hear it.

Once we get with everyone else, all of us moving closer into the war. I see Lt. Anderson- who has been here for a while- holding his fingers out. One. Two, and then three. We all burst out from the trees and into the dent of the town to see Afghanistans and American soldiers lying on the ground. Not too many Americans, but some. Most of them aren’t even in my squad, but it is still sad that they weren’t able to make it out of this war alive.

There isn’t anybody alive with guns here. They must have been running them up to the mountain. We have a lot of climbing to do. We start walking up the hill in a pack. On our way up there, I see lots of dead bodies, Americans and Afghanistans….no, lifeless American and Afghanistans. I shake the images of their bodies laying there, the whites of their eyes showing, Their blood stains in the tan sand. I keep marching, following everyone else. (Well not really marching. More like walking weirdly.)

We get to the middle of the hill, when we hear a gun go off. Instantly, We have our guns up and we are all looking around, trying to figure out where it came from. We hear another shot, then another. Instinctively, I shoot into the sky, but that wasn't a good idea. Everyone looks at me with disappointment?

“Nice going, Ford. Now we probably lost some of our soldiers because of that,” Lt. Anderson whispers as he passes by me.

Everyone follows, including me. Why did I have to do that? Now some of the soldiers probably aren’t going to make it home alive, or at all. They might just stay on the battlefield for the rest of their lives.

We go up the little mountain and hear more gun shots, but closer. Close to us, real close.