The Countdown (written 10/27/2009)

We’ve been contemplating this deployment for quite some time now. For me, this is the beginning of the inevitable deployment that was only a matter of time. And now it’s here.

We are all strewn about this large transient tent. There’s barely one foot of space between our rickety cots, and packs and seabags are crammed around our respective areas in any available space. Despite this complete lack of privacy and personal space, I find it eerily comfortable. That may just be the Polyanna in me, but it bears a certain degree of truth. This shouldn’t be comfortable (or comforting for that manner), but it is. I’m not sure if that is something that attracts me to this life, or it is simply something I have grown accustomed to over the years. Either way, we’re here. Period. Live it and love it, or live it and hate it. Maintaining one’s sanity is far easier if you abide by the former rather than the latter.

We are headed to combat. No one can escape that fact, and I feel as if this preoccupies the minds of the Sailors and Marines around me in this tent at this very minute. Amidst the gear, weapons and cots, and just under the din of the countless conversations being held at this very moment, it’s palpable. And the leadership is recognizing this. Directly following a string of lectures yesterday that covered a variety of topics from operational security to first aid, I overheard a Platoon Sergeant reassuring and refocusing his men to the pending tasks at hand. He urged them not to focus on the current danger and the casualties being inflicted; he reassured them that they would be okay. He certainly knew the pulse of his men, and I hope that his confidence and reassurance provided them with some sort of solace.

I will close this entry with the concession that I have written about this preoccupation with a pending combat deployment before. And, before I wrote it down last time, it was certainly thought of the many times before that. But each time it’s different, and each time it’s the same. This time however, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with the difference in this one – this deployment. I have waited my entire career for a deployment like this – a true combat deployment with a Rifle Company to a very hot area of operations. I truly hope that my (our) preoccupation is all for naught.

More to certainly follow.