Goddamnit!
It wasn't a particularly good day for me to begin with. It was getting better. Then I checked my email.
A long time ago a group of us spent weeks in various holes watching and reporting everything we saw. That's as much as I can tell you about that.
What I can tell you is that a corporal, a good friend and an exceptional marine, did more to accomplish our goal than any other man I know. He did it because it was a part of his nature. And he did it with an endless stream of jokes.
For six weeks we laughed - because he kept it funny. We froze our asses off, but we didn't notice - because he kept us laughing.
He was the first to point out that a woman had sent us to war, putting to rest the idea that female leadership would change anything.
He was sharp; very sharp. If not for him a land mine would have had me. He called it before my foot went down.
I was his nominal leader, but he didn't need me. He had it together. We had faith in each other and we had each other's back. He could have been my leader. Instead, he was an advisor and I never questioned his advice.
In the quarter century that has passed I met him twice very briefly - and we laughed our guts out. He had become a civil servant - still serving his beloved marines. My beloved marines.
Yesterday he took his own life.
And eventually some religious motherfucker will tell me that is a sin.
That will go to prove how stupid they are.
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