The son of a good friend sends long posts from his perch in Afghanistan. He’s recently returned to the “war” and now commands a very select group. I pulled this to share with you:

From the moment I stepped off the helicopter things here have been 100 miles an hour with no chance of slowing down; and what a ride it has been.  My first order of business upon getting off the bird and meeting my troops was to hand out 12 Purple Hearts and various awards for combat and valor with my
Battalion and Brigade Commander. Eleven of these individuals chose to stay with the unit and recuperate on site so they could get back into the fight as soon as possible.  Here is some of the dialogue with one of my soldiers:

“What did you do to earn your Purple Heart?”

“I got shot in the chest, sir.”

“How bad was it?”

“Well my squad leader told me he was pretty scared, but when I realized I wasn’t going to die, I got up and started doing my job.” (Running through a hail of RPGs and gunfire, up an exposed flight of stairs to carry ammunition to resupply the COP towers.)

“Wow. How do you sum up your experience?”

“I am awesome, sir.”

Think Congress can debate the budget a little longer?