A few words from Sergeant Mac

A long time ago, in a desert far, far away I was a lowly driver for First Infantry Division staff officers during Desert Storm. I pulled an AK47 round out of one tire, had another blown off by an anti-personnel land mine (if it would have been an anti-tank mine, I wouldn't be here today) and got to change another tire when I ran over some shrapnel. I drove too close to destroyed Iraqi tanks, I guess. I helped clear some bunkers, but that was pretty uneventful. Mostly, I drove about 35,000 miles in a combat zone in 5 1/2 months.

Amanda's brother Tim outprocessed the Army last year. He was with the Fourth Infantry Division when they were deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would like to share the words of a soldier who's lived in the same desert and experienced a much more personal war. A war where a child you befriend today may be forced to wear an explosive vest tomorrow. It's raw and only gives you a piece of his feelings, but well...

Memorial Day
I guess there are a couple of days in a year that you will see me being serious for once and down to earth. Last year at this time I was at my welcome home party with my family and friends. The next day I had to speak at the Memorial Day services in front of my hometown. Funny how a guy my age can have two days out of the year for what I have done with my life. Have Memorial day and Veterans Day. Memorial day isn't for me really but for my buddies I had to leave behind in Iraq that don't get to experience a life like I am right now. Not a day goes by that I don't think about a day over there and have dreams now and then about what has happen to me over there.

There are memories that will forever stick with me till I die and I can't help that. I remember sitting in our motorpool working on our tanks and relaxing when our radios went nuts. All we could hear was someone yelling for help. A motar platoon got attacked at a children's hospital by an insurgent that dropped a grenade on their position. 3 of my buddies that I hung out with in the barracks were killed with 4 others that I knew wounded. Hurts when all you can do is sit there and listen to the voice on the other end crying for help as his soldiers/friends are dying. Other memories are while I am on guard, one of my buddies tanks rolls past my position and he waves at me and flips me off like we always did when we saw each other. About 30 secs later, the ground shakes and I hear a loud explosion. My buddy's tank was hit by a roadside bomb(IED) and his tank commander was hit and killed. My buddy was ok but, while I helped him clean the inside of the tank from all the blood, he just broke down and cried for about an hour while I just held him like a brother. I guess that is what we were over there, "Brothers". I guess the last thing I will leave you of my memories was a tank patrol left through my gate around 23hrs(11 pm) and around 0030(12:30am) it rolled back in with Bravo's Company Commander no longer with them. Killed by another roadside bomb and again, a father not going home to his kids or wife. Kids that will no longer have a father to play with and be there for their important life events.

I am one of the lucky ones that made it home with only little damage to my body but every soldier has a wounded heart and a piece of them gone. Every time you loose a fellow soldier, you loose a piece of yourself. So now you know what some of the things I have seen. I am lucky to be here and going to live my life to its fullest! Please just remember my friends that look over us everyday and remember the pain we all have gone through. To those that aren't here, thank you and you are still my brothers! Don't tell me that this war we don't need to be involved in because my buddies didn't die for nothing. They made a country's life somewhat better to the best that we could. Yes I hate that country and I hate the people over there. I never want to go back and I just wish they would blow it up but my buddies didn't die for nothing!

Sgt Mac out!