The First of many
I would like to welcome everyone to my online journal. This is my first entry and i will try to update as much as possible, keep in mind i have a very busy life and the next year will only be busier. First off let me give you some history and try to explain how i got to where i am right now. About 8 years ago my older sister graduated high school and chose nopt to go to college. She started on a downhill slope and a year later she decided that she would join the Army at the age of 19. So she left and was gone for about 6 moths before i saw her again. Keep in mind i was 10 years old so i never really understood what exactly she got herself into and the effect it would have on my life. When she returned from her training she told me the stories and showed me the pictures and to a 10 year little boy like i was it was a dream come true to have an actual Army person as a sister. Needless to say i wanted to be in the Army after that but that didnt last long. About a year or so later my sister broke down and couldnt take it anymore and it got progressivley worse in the years to come. My mom couldnt take the fact that her first born might deploy one day and me getting more mature everything i realized what the military can do to a family and decided that i didnt want to do that to my family again. Now you might ask "Then why are you in the Army now?" Well i started down the same path my sister did but at a much earlier age. At 14 i was arrested for shoplifting and put on probabtion until i was 17. I started doing drugs and drinking at 15 and once i got into highschool it all became much much worse. I woldnt go to school, i would just ditch out and go smoke or drink which put me way off track for graduating on time. So i started to realize that i was fucking up... big time. i would have to do an extra year of school just to graduate and my pride wouldnt let me do that so i started looking for other ways out. The only thing i knew i wanted to do was become a mechanic. i loved it, it was about the only thing i did sober and enjoyed it.So i tried everywhere to get a job at a shop but no one would hire a 16 year old kid with no other expirience other than working in the front yard with his dad. In my search for a way out i found an automotive college that was exactly what i was lookign for and only required a highschool diploma or something equivalent to one. It was perfect except for one thing, i didnt have the money to go there and my parents couldnt afford it. So now that i figured out what i wanted to do i needed a way to do it. And finally this is where the military comes in.I started looking into the Army, i didnt even waste my time with the other branches, i knew that if i was going to go into the military the Army is where i was gong to go. They told me what i wanted to hear, "All you need is something liek a diploma and we can make you a mechanic for us and we will pay for you to go to that college you want to go to." Hell that was it. The day after i turned 17 i took a highschool proficiency test and passed so i was done with school. Next day i went to the recruiting office and started going through the steps to becoming part of the worlds best Army. Before i knew it was was raising my right hand and repeating after the master sergeant in charge. I recieved the date i would be sent to the basic training, and only after i went home i realized "Holy shit that is a month and a half away!" Everyone was proud of me except for my girlfriend at the time she hated it. We ended up not staying together which was a goodthing. We decided that we didnt want a long term relationship. "Cool, i have an excuse to be a manwhore until i leave," or at least until i met Raven Mckenzie. She was the girl everyone has been talking about since freshman year. The one that you cant help but stare at from a distance but never have the balls to walk up tp her and tell her she is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. I'm not quite sure why we were there and why that night i felt like i have known her forever but we just clicked. It was amazing, i couldnt believe it was happening. After, we talked and i explained to her my situation and how i was leaving in a month. She told me that she has been looking at me since freshman year and after what happend that night she wasnt going to let me just walk out of her life as quick as i came into it and i felt the same. I can do it for her. I can be away forever and stay faithfull knwoing that i am goign home to her when im done. Well that motnh went by and next thing i know I am on a plane to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training and i would stay the for my advanced induvidual training as well. i spent 6 months there and by the end of it all i was ready to get back to my honey in California. Instead i was sent to Georgia for my permant duty staion, Fort Stewart... Home of the 3rd Infantry Division and the most rapidly deploying post in the nation. i hadnt been home in so long and when i asked for leave they denied it. i couldnt take it anymore, i needed to get home. I tried everything, i even ended up in a mental institution for 3 days because i was having extreme breakdowns. Keep in mind i was 17 and this was the first time living on my own away from everything i knew and loved. They still woudlnt let me get home so i left. They call it AWOL, i called it doing what i had to to. i was gone for a month. i never planned on staying away forever i just needed to go home for a little while. And ill be damned, it worked i got back i was ready to do this. i was ready to do my job everyday and get done wat i signed up for. Yea they punished me and took money and rank but it was worth it, it was definatly worth it. Since i have returned i havnt had one problem. i turned 18 in July and had my girlfriend come ou here to see me for 3 days and it was amazing and to top it all off she told me that she wants to marry me. I was bloen away because i had been toying with the idea of asking her to marry me and there she was standing in front of me saying yes before i even asked her. it was definatly the best birthday i have ever had. Shortly after getting engaged my unit came down on orders sending us to Iraq for a year. I knew it was coming and so did she. it was only a matter of time before it did. so with the thoughts of deployment in our heads we decided to get married when i come home for block leave in November. We have been planning and planning and exactly what we are going to do when the time comes, and personally i cant wait :) . But until November 14th i will not be able to see her and i so hard to be away from her. All we have is the phone. We are on it constantly. But even now that is getting extremely hard ot maintain because we are so busy here getting ready for deployment. As a mechanic we are resonsible for keeping this unti rolling and for iraq we need to be pepared. we have ordered 3.5 million dollars worth of parts and the 5 of us are responsible for unloading them and loading them into connex's (metal containers). It is very hard work. all of these parts are amored which translates into some heavy shit. On top of laodong and unloading them, which is and everyday thing, we need to do the training with the unit preparing us for our tour. so we have spent a month and a half in the field out of the last 3 months and everytime i havnt been able to talk to my fionce as much as i would like to, as much as i need to. As the deployment date gets closer and closer we find out more and more about our mission while there, we will specifically looking for roadside bombs which is a scary thought if you think about it. At first i thought, " Well that shouldnt be that bad Im just a mechanic, im not going outside of the wire, thats the MP's (im in a military police company) job. Until last week that was true. Last week i found out that i am going to be my company commanders gunner. Yes, tis 18 year old kid will be sitting on top of a humvee behind an automatic weapon, exposed to everyone and everything, including explosions and snipers. Im a little nervous about all of this and my fionce is too. But i am going to do what i have to do for i am a soldier first, then a mechanic. So as you can tell i have a lot of things to deal with in the next couple of months and plenty of parts to deal with and plenty of training. I have another field training exercise in a week where i will be gunner the whole time, my first time training as one, so wish me luck. i will try to update when i get back from the field. I am going to try to keep this journal all through Iraq as well so if you are interested check up on this every now and then, ill try to keep it exicting ;).