A few days off

Can you believe it? I am actually getting a 4-day weekend. Astounding. Amazing. Outrageous. Superlative. Etc.. The USAREC gods have deemed us worthy. Hold on a moment...ahhh...I'm just basking in it.

Anyway, it's just nice to have a little time to spend with the family. Time to ponder and reflect. Here's something I have been thinking about a lot lately, how will I feel if someone I put in the Army dies in Iraq or Afghanistan? I mean, it's different if it's your soldier. You train and prepare them, so if something happens to them while you're out there, you have no one to blame but yourself; vis-à-vis enlisting them and sending out. You have no control over what happens to them, yet ultimately, because you enlisted them, you will be at fault. Not that I don't believe that what we are doing overseas has validity, because I do; I simply wonder how I will ultimately feel about a soldier I put in the Army, making that sacrifice. As a recruiter we spend so much time getting to know people as individuals, we meet their families, their kids, their friends, and so on. It's not an impersonal thing. I know to the civilian world we seem like overblown salespeople, but many of us actually care about those we enlist.

Enough of this. I'll write again on tuesday the 6th. Enjoy your weekend, you can believe I will be enjoying mine.