For G.I.’s, life on the front lines has two sides. There are, of course, the adrenaline-fueled moments of fighting, when soldiers try to forget their fear, remember their training and watch one another’s backs.
And then there is everything else, the dirty, sweaty, unglamorous and frequently tedious work of being infantrymen. Filling sandbags. Stirring caldrons of burning waste. Lying in the dirt while on guard duty. Cleaning weapons. And more than anything else, waiting ”” for orders, for patrols, for the chance to sleep or eat. They even wait for the fighting they know will come.
It is a life of wild pendulum swings. One moment, their sergeants are barking at them to stay ready, eyes focused, rifles loaded, protective gear at hand. In the next, the soldiers are searching for amusement, killing time with the skill of people who have had plenty of practice.
Funny how the article didn’t mention that the US military is being used to protect opium production in Afghanistan at the behest of our civilian leadership…the same opium that the DEA will break down your door and shoot your dogs to try and find in your house. What a world!
I feel for the poor GI that remarried his ex-wife, only to file for divorce because she was cheating on him…AGAIN! If I had been his sergeant, I would have advised him that she was just going for his military benefits and steady pay. Once a cheater, always a cheater. Poor kid. What kind of woman cheats on her husband…the one that loved her enough to forgive her past cheating and take her back…and cheats on him again while he is in combat? Evil is as evil does.