[gmays]

Thanks for sharing. I had a similar timeline--sophomore in high school on 9/11. Joined the Marine Corps in 2006 after college and spent 1yr in Iraq 2009-2010 and 1yr in Afghanistan 2012-2013. I was on embedded transition teams on both deployments, where we lived on operated with the Iraqi Army QRF throughout Iraq and Afghan Border Patrol in Helmand province near the Pakistani border.

There were two distinct moments from my first deployment. One was our team hitting 3 IEDs on one of our first operations and thinking we still had 10 months left. The other was being on a clearing operation, seeing an IED go off and learning of our Iraqi soldiers was killed. I remember feeling my heart break and wondering why we do these things to each other. I'm also glad the wars are coming to an end.

S/F