One Soldier's Story
I've decided to begin a new project here at Patriotically Incorrect. My cousin (we'll call him John) is an Army Reservist, and I would like to help him tell his story.
John's father (we'll call him Martin) worked for the welfare office in New York for most of his life, and instilled in John a profound ethic of public service. Martin died relatively young just a few years ago, and left John in shaky financial straits in the middle of his higher education.
He joined the Reserves in the wake of the September 11 attacks, to serve his country in its time of need. He felt that he was doing what his father taught him to do. My mom points out that with mounting student loans, the GI bill probably didn't hurt his decision either.
When he enlisted, he was told that the Reserves wanted him to finish his education before they activated him. Whether or not that's what they actually wanted when they recruited him, it's not what happened. With the invasion of Iraq, he was called up and sent out. His tour of duty, as I write this, has been extended twice and is in its eighteenth month.
Over the months, members of the family have had sporadic correspondence with him; more or less frequent depending on where he was stationed. While John was never a big fan of our current President, he strongly believed in the job that he was doing when he arrived in Iraq. As time has gone on, his experiences in the occupation have caused a steady shift in the tone of his letters.
We are always admonished these days to "support the troops." I know one of our troops, and I would like to support him by telling his story, mostly in his own words. I'll be publishing a series of posts quoting John's letters and correspondence between members of our family with news of John. To protect the anonymity of all involved, I will be redacting some references to specific names and places, which I will usually indicate with square brackets.
Thank you in advance for reading John's story.
9:09:26 AM 
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