To Ssg A With Love

To Ssg A With Love

Dear Soldier,

I want to thank you for your service. Thank you for going off to a war that so many people don’t believe in. You don’t get the luxury of debating whether or not we entered into it legally or for the right reasons. You just get to go.

Thank you for never complaining that the temperature has reached 120 degrees in the heart of Baghdad and that the package I’m sending cannot contain chocolate because it would melt. Thank you also for acting as if the box filled with chips and jerky is the best thing you’ve ever laid eyes on. I promise to not forget the drink mix next time. I’m sure you’d love to be sitting on a comfy couch washing hot wings down with a beer watching the Jets take down Tom Brady. Instead you’re putting on a hundred pounds of gear that may or may not protect you from sniper fire or IED’s.

I’m sorry that your deployment was so hard on your girlfriend and that after weeks of waiting to receive some love from home you received her “Dear John” letter instead. It must be hard putting aside your hurt because some rock star wants to see what life is like on the front line and he needs your protection while he tours downtown Baghdad. I’m glad he has a special convoy ready to whisk him away from the danger that you will stay behind to face. It’s heartwarming the way you are grateful to him for support you feel he offers by visiting a war zone.

Please know that so many of your fellow soldiers come home and receive the highest military honors. The press has won the right to photograph their flag draped coffins so now the public can see the face of their fallen. Well, not their face really, but their coffin. There is nothing like the picture of a widow in black or a sobbing mother to make people realize that war is not like the movies, that it’s a real thing going on somewhere in the world.

I’m sorry that your leave was so short or that it wasn’t the leave that was so short as much as the time eaten up by travel to get home. Maybe one day there will be direct flights from Baghdad or even from Kuwait. You won’t have to get from Iraq to Kuwait to Germany to…well, you get it. You were the one who got to do it.

I hope that when you’re deployment is over that you get a little down time before you have to go back to Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya or wherever. I know that you didn’t get much time between Somalia and Kuwait but don’t worry, Ridley Scott made a great movie about your time in Somalia. I don’t know who got to play you but I’m glad I get to know the real life version.

Veteran’s Day was last week. The kids had off from school. You probably didn’t get to celebrate there because of rocket propelled mortars, snipers, roadside bombs and such, but thanks to you, we were off for 3 days here in the USA. My son worked though which meant time and a half and I even saved an extra 20% off some clothes at a Veteran’s Day sale so thanks for that!

Really, though, Soldier, I hope that you know that you are not lost in all of the parades and sales. I appreciate your service more than you’ll ever realize. The holidays are approaching and I know how hard that can be for you guys over there. I wish you could be here to carve the turkey or decorate the tree but I know that you’re over there and that you actually love it. Despite the sacrifice and the hardships, you are so proud and you should be proud. So thank you so much for your service!

With love,

A very grateful American