Once again it’s that time of year to remember my best friend. I’ll never forget the hug he gave me before his first deployment, right before I was etsing. He told me to be careful and to wait for him to come home. I cried that night not knowing if I’d ever see him again. We talked, we wrote, he called when he could. When I did pray I asked for his safety. Several deployments later he came home with severe PTSD. It wasn’t until I went to see him and a friend just how bad it was. He sat me down and explained why he was home and getting medically discharged…he saw so much death, destruction, hurt, pain, and he was away from his 4 girls that he didn’t know them and they not know him. He took the barrel of his M4 and stuck it in his mouth. Thankfully another soldier witnessed this and reported it up his CoC. He couldn’t take it anymore, he was once a career army man,… Hell we both were career but I got out with my bad knees, he got out with what tiny bit of sanity he had left.
I was thankful to have my best friend back on US soil that I knew he would be safe. We’d grow old together and then we’d do things that best friends do.
But little did I know that a year and 3 weeks later I’d be waking up, 3 weeks after the happiest moment of my life…the college graduation I had struggled to get that he pushed me toward cause one of us had to get one…to a message I can never bring myself to erase or forget. He was gone, murdered by some punk ass kids who have all used a technicality to get away with it. A father, brother, husband, son, friend to us all was gone.
So no, I don’t go out and grill for this weekend, nor do I for Veterans Day. I sit and remember the one person who kept me sane all those years. I shed tears as I am now while writing this. I remember all those lost for this country we live in. So enjoy your chicken, ribs, and whatever. Cause if it hadn’t been for those who came before you…you would not have the luxury to do so now.
R.I.P. SSG James (Ret.) we love and miss you.
