At the age of 21, served in Iraq with USMC in '03. Got shot, paralyzed from waist down. Had a conversion by way of this website in '05 from repub to indy-liberal-mix. Never looked back since!
Back in Nov 2004, my friend Cpl. Jared Hubbard was killed in Iraq. Shortly after being killed in combat in Ramadi, Iraq, his two other brothers, Nathan, 21 and Jason, then 31, joined the military in honor of their fallen brother. And now, sadly and unfortunately, Nathan, the youngest, was killed yesterday in the Blackhawk helicopter crash that happened in Iraq.
This is my first diary in a long time. But I felt the need to display some much-needed optimism concerning this whole "O'Reilly Situation". I believe that some good can come from all this bad publicity.
Hey there fellow Kossacks, how the hell are ya? It's been a while since I've written here, so hopefully some of you still remember me. I know I said I'd be back in about a month or so. Well...I lied. Actually, I figured I would after I got my new apt here in Moore, Okla, and got settled in and all. But something happened...I fell in love!
Well folks, I arrived here at the VA Hospital in Houston, TX one year and two months ago, on Oct 24, 2004. It's been a long, slow and boring time for me here. But last Wed, I found out I'm finally going home! I'll be leaving in 3 days, on Sat morning. I'm so damn excited! That's the reason I didn't do my Friday night diary, "My 23 Days In Iraq--Part III--", last Friday. I figured I stopped the week before with the day the invasion of Iraq began. So I figured, instead of writing another one last Friday, I'd just continue my series of diaries later, after I'm home and settled in and all.
I finally learned how to link(Who's yo daddy?) yesterday. So if you want to read my original "23 Days" diary you can do so here. And you can find Part I of my little adventure, "My 23 Days In Iraq--Part I--Civilian to Marine", here. I would recommend you just read Part I first, then this one. Don't worry about the original one if you haven't read it. I'll be posting it again to finish up my series in a few weeks, also on a Friday night. And I'll be adding to it with more details and such. Anyhoo, here's Part II....
I, like many Marines, wanted to join the Marine Corps from a young age. About 14. My best friend's older brother was enlisting and told me that the Marines are the first to fight. And that's all it took. I wanted to join. I was young and dumb back then, and actually thought that to die in combat under a hail of bullets was a glorious thing. Almost romantic. But I've learned that that is complete bullshit. That to die in combat is a painful, horrible, gory/graphic, god aweful shitty and tragic thing. There's nothing glorious or romantic about it. A man(or woman) dying in combat is a symbol of a nation's failure to compromise and negotiate peacefully. And that's what happened, and is happening, in Iraq.
I've been coming here for a good six+ months now, and I've been a member for about two or three months. I can't say enough about this site. It has kept me informed and entertained in equal amounts. I have learned alot by just coming here and reading. I've also been educated on several occasions when I posted a comment that was stupid/irresponsible. That's probably the best part: Engaging in conversations and interacting with all of you. And there's always someone to put me in my place when need be, and to tell me I'm wrong, explaining why, and thus educating me further. I can't believe this site is free!!
Read on to see how I found out about the Daily Kos in the forst place. It will make you smile, I promise.
I had a GREAT day yesterday! My best friend Chris, who's in the Navy, and my friend Emily, came down here to the Houston VA for the weekend and hung out with me. And yesterday I got a pass to leave the hospital. And boy did I have a great time! First of all, Chris is like my brother, I haven't seen him in over a year now but we used to hang out all the time until I joined the Marine Corps and he the Navy. We used to drink alot, smoke pot alot, and party our asses off. Well, at least until we both joined the military and got all serious and grown-up and all. More about my fun-day below...
CNN just reported that Al Jazeera reportedly recieved a video of the IED explosion that killed 10 Marines, and wounded 11, yesterday. They breifly showed the video on CNN, but I only got a small glimpse of it. From what I saw, a humvee was slowly driving, toward the cameramans position, and an IED exploded on the right side of the Humvee, doing obvious damage to it but not totally destroying it. After it blew, the Humvee just slowed to a halt, but I didn't see any fire or any obvious casualties in the Humvee. I don't know if those in the Humvee were any of the ones that were killed or not, but it looked to me that it held up pretty well. Probably an armored one.
I can't even convey how hurt, how enraged, and how upset I am today after hearing the news that 10 of my fellow Marines were killed and 11 wounded. It hurt so damn bad when I heard the news earlier. Just thinking about all the families that are getting knocks on their doors, from Marines in their dress Blues, and finding out that their sons are dead. Dead. 10 Marines dying in one single day, from the same fucking platoon or company, is unheard of. It just doesn't happen. I can't imagine what all the Marines that made it out alive are going through. When I was shot, and when my platoon pulled out of the city after killing the bad guys that amushed us and shot me, I was later told that on the way back to their friendly lines, they didn't say a word because they were so upset by what happened to me. And I was just one wounded Marine. Imagine 10 DEAD brothers-in-arms! It just doesn't happen!
I want to apologize in advance for the sloppyness of my diary. It wasn't well-planned. And I'm just writing what I'm thinking at this moment.
Damn...It just never lets up. A few of you here on Kos have asked me in your comments to give an update on how I'm doing. In my other diary, "My 23 Days In Iraq"...I didn't really get into all the details on what's going on here at the Houston VA. Well, I've been here for a friggin' year and one month now, for pressure sores I recieved in Sept, 2004, from my road-trip from OK to CA. I went there in order to see my Marine buddies before they went back to Iraq for their second tour there. And all the sitting time on the way there and on the way back gave me some pretty nasty wounds on my butt and thighs. One was down to the bone, and one had a tendon exposed as well.
CNN just reported(finally) on the WP issue. And the anchor showed several screenshots from Dkos. Then talked about how the issue has been pretty big here in the past week. She also showed several websites that Kossascks have gone to to get their info and such.
Talk about free ad space though. And what really got me excited, was the very real possiilty that they got some of their info from Dkos as well. Sorry for the short post. And if someone else has posted this subject before I hit the "submit" icon, I apologize. I just got so damn excited when I saw Wolf on CNN finally talking about something that's been in the spotlight here for the last week. That, and the fact they mentioned Dailykos as well.
Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang...Hell yeah! I think I killed the fucker! Oh fuck. I'm out of ammo. Time for a mag-change. As I changed my magazine, little did I know, a hajji(In this case a Fedayeen Guerilla) had moved out of the bunker in the back yard that I was in. He moved up to where the guy I just wasted was now lying, dead. As I put another magazine in my M-16 A-2 service rifle, he was aiming in on me...from a short 40 ft. away. I racked another round in the chamber, then looked up to see a hajji aimed in at me. And before I could even raise my weapon, I saw an orange muzzle flash. Then I saw black. I slowy opened my eyes and realized I was on the ground and my rifle was about 5 ft away from me. I was sitting kinda on my knees. Then I realized...I was shot. And not only that, I was paralyzed from the neck down. And then I saw the Hajji still shooting in my direction. "Holy shit", I thought. "I'm a fucking gonner".
Last night, as I was watching Commander In Chief on ABC, I saw the results from the election running at the bottom of the screen. I'm an Oklahoman, but I'm at the VA hospital here in Houston as an impatient right now. So I didn't vote here in Texas and had no clue whatsoever what was even on the ballot. And, this parts embarassing, I damn near shat myself last night. Yes me, a 24 year old male, almost shat myself. The reason I almost shat myself was because when I was reading the results of all the issues voted on, I saw this: Gay Marriage-Yes:300,000+, No:100,000+(I don't remember the actual numbers). So I honestly thought that Texas, the most republican, conservitive, and "good-ol-boys" state, had voted YES to allow gay marriage.
