I saw a guy last night at the gym who is currently in the first unit I was assigned to in the USMCR ^[1]. They recently got back from Iraq. All he said about it is that it is a completely different world over there. He had a rather large tattoo on his shoulder, and we talked more about our tattoos than anything else.

It was weird talking to someone who wasn’t even more when I joined the Corps. Especially since I wasn’t in when there was a war going on, and he had more actual battlefield experience than I do. Had I stayed in, I’d have been in both Gulf wars, and I’d have 22 years in the service by now. I could be collecting a pension. But you know what? With everything that I heard from the guys that I used to serve with who wound up in Kuwait in the First Gulf War, I’m glad I didn’t go. I’m sorry, but I’d rather not have to deal with “Gulf War Syndrome”, or as I like to call it, radiation sickness.