true words.

Afghan was interesting. It was alway nice to get back to Bagram. Orgun E/Solerno were the most interesting. Just a bit of trivia for you that I'm sure you'll know or at least appreciate.

Jalalabad is the farthest away from an ocean that the USMC has ever operated in a combat environment. It's a new world we live in.

I understand the life of a Colonel's family. There is life experiences they have I'll never know (in the same way that I'll never know the true life of an Elec Tech Warrant), I just hate hearing commentary from anyone who hasn't been there.

I respect Kidd and I like him a lot.

I like how you put it about the family. Getting out of CONUS is surely the best. I had a wife and that was hard, but as you stated, the Marines have short deployments (didn't know about the 6 months for AF).

The heat that went before me arrived the same time as an Army Engineer Battallion. They left, we came, we left, they came back and they left with the Army Engineers.
That's got to kill moral. I feel for you guys. Maybe one of these days the DOD will open their eyes to the benefits of the Marine program and the Army will adopt more than just our cammies (sorry, cheap jab).