Soldiers on Airplanes

I saw a ton of soldiers in the airport - I sat next to a soldier from Atlanta to Detroit.

"Do you carry a cell phone on the ground?"
"Nope. Some of my boys do."
"You lead a group in Iraq?"
"You could call it that. I head a platoon."

He was going to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. He wants to retire there. He was bright, open and a soldier taking a fourteen-day break that divides his fifteen month tour in Iraq.

There were many soldiers my age or younger. Two shaved in the bathroom, I was filling a waterbottle. Some stood in line at Starbucks. Two soldiers and a woman were in line ahead.

A woman: "You girls miss Cosmopolitan?
"We've got a layover at a base before we're home"
"That is a lot of magazines"

They bought at least half a dozen.

"It feels like there is someone with two blow dryers constantly holding them in front of your face. You drink water all day"

The camaraderie I related to: from soccer, from camps, from school even. But they share something else unbelievable. They aren't just words.

"It's not bad. The benefits are great. I'll be done after this tour. It's just the things blowing up, and getting shot at"