My 2nd combat deployment to the Middle East took up most of this year, and when I returned from it I went deep into Joshua Tree National Park, bouldering & off-roading in the first Jeep I’d ever been in. Leaving my first combat unit, I went on to others, completing months of work as an instructor out in a fake town built for training thousands of Marines and other operators at a time. I worked with hundreds of Iraqi-Americans who were hired as roleplayers for lifelike scenarios and drills. I got to use more of the Arabic I’d started to learn since 2004. The live-fire simulated full-scale wars we had out here lasted well into the night and wee hours, lighting up the dark with flashes of color that made me think of the laser-battles in G.I. Joe episodes and Star Wars. So much cool stuff came out of this hidden desert practice war-zone. Rumors of buried military hardware, treasure, and ruins were gained, too, and I went back years and years later to investigate some of them.
Month Titles
So many people in the military treated me and the other truly good guys like absolute shit, rude as can be, ruder than I’d ever thought anyone capable of. They wasted our time, ignored our talents, and even tried to get us killed many times. I could go on and on. Many of us were permanently damaged from how they abused and overworked us. I paid them all back, though; I took just about everything that wasn’t bolted down, including when they ordered me to stand watch over the weekends while they all went out and partied. It cost many of them thousands, and it cost the Corps millions at least. I never bothered to tally up the monetary value of all those assets that were redistributed and re-purposed in the only real justice that their unit and side of base had known in years. I’ll continue doing this to them throughout their lives, long after our time in the Corps, until they grovel, truly sorry, and beg to do anything to make it up to me and the others they so grievously and shamelessly wronged. Obviously their evil asses will never do that, so I’ll enjoy a lifetime of taking everything they aren’t keeping an eye on, including their reputations, permanent records, credit, you name it. They ignored all laws and ruined the good Marines, and so I now ignore all their void laws all the same. Bet they were never expecting that.
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Also see these albums:
- to Kuwait – 2005
- Iraq deployment 2 – part 1
- Iraq deployment 2 – part 2
- Iraq deployment 2 – part 3
- Iraq deployment 2 – part 4
- layover in Ireland on the way back
- re-entering the USA through Maine
* Technically, some of this second deployment of mine took place before 2006, but it ended in 2006, so I’ve placed its related images here.
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