A Soldier’s Thoughts During His Last Night In Afghanistan

Harrison Lee11 years ago

My roommate and good friend is a proud member of the United States Army. In 2012, he returned home from his one-year deployment in Afghanistan. Given the recent happenings with ISIS, many people do not know what it is like over there. On his final night in Afghanistan, he sent an email to his friends and family to share his thoughts about his experience there. Below is that email.

Looking at what, hopefully, will be my last night in Afghanistan. It has been quite an experience. One I am grateful to have had the opportunity to go through, but one I hope I never have to go through again.

It has been humbling supporting and serving alongside some of the heroes out here.

I think some people would have us believe America just isn’t what it used to be. And with the way things are going in DC, that could be the case. I, however, have had the pleasure of seeing firsthand what makes the USA the most badass country in the world. And it’s the men, and women, who are out here laying their lives on the line and kicking ass almost every day. There are bad days and really bad days. But there are only a few things I can think of that are better than the guys rolling out and coming back 45 minutes later with a few extra “passengers” and just knowing the mission was completely dominated. Talk to any one of them, and they will tell you they are no hero, they are just doing their job. Well, they are certainly heroes to me and they have been and are doing one hell of a job.

Back home, we pretty much only hear about the bad news, and I think because of that a lot of people just have no idea what’s going on over here. I have only had a very small glimpse, but this place is pretty messed up and probably could be categorized as a Fourth World country. On top of their incredible lack of infrastructure in any sense of the word, they have lunatics who will bomb markets and maternity wards of hospitals in order to keep people living in fear so that the terrorists can maintain power. The Afghan people need help. Whether they deserve our help is a whole separate argument. But we are here nonetheless, and that is the job we are trying to do. Regardless of the actual reason we came over here, it doesn’t change the fact that there are people here whose sole purpose in life is the destruction of the USA. Fanatics (read cowards) who will sacrifice the lives of their children and their wives in order to maybe, possibly inflict harm onto US and NATO personnel. It is very hard to fathom this level of derangement and hatred. And unfortunately this mentality is not confined to Afghanistan, in case you have been living under a rock (like a guy who was hung, or that other guy who got two to the head) this past decade, it is fairly rampant throughout the middle east. Islamic statism and American democracy just do not mix. I could go off on a few different tangents here, but my point is there is some real evil out here, and despite what the mainstream media might say or allude to, it is not us. And speaking as an American citizen, and not as a soldier, I would rather have the men and women who volunteered to do this kind of job, proactively fighting that evil over here, rather than reactively fighting it back home.

Speaking of being back home, I am crazy excited to get back. I can’t wait to start complaining about not getting 3g on my iPhone or how although I live in a metropolitan area, there is literally nothing for me to eat, or how terrible traffic is.

This is obviously a bit winded, but it has more or less been a year in the making. I am very thankful it is almost over for me, and for those who it’s not almost over for I urge you to keep them in your thoughts and in your prayers.

America

God bless our troops.