mentor

No, I'm actually a Marine, but I have worked with many in the 82nd...

Teri B.

Wait a minute here. I think I'm getting this. That pic was taken in Iraq? You're training Iraqis? I've never seen american military wear uniforms like that, even in training.

mentor

You are perceptive! It is a standard MARPAT uniform. You have seen it, but I'm not wearing my blouse or cover, because we just finished running several miles.

bengalcat

OH MY!! The men on this board get better all the time!!

Teri B.

Wow! Very, very interesting.

My brother's brigade went to Iraq without him, because he blew out his knee about a month before they deployed. They're coming back now - sometime this month. So, he had to stay behind in Alaska, do paperwork, etc. and be a casualty assistance officer. He's had to accept the fact that his knee will never again allow him to be combat qualified. I have a feeling though, he's going to get himself over there to train Iraqis before it's all said and done.

mentor

I was thinking it was the other way around!

mentor

Teri, give him all your support. Casualty assistance is probably harder than combat, but those involved often believe they have no right to feel stressed by it. But they are...

Teri B.

Yeah, I know. I've spent many a night talking to him till the wee hours of the morning. He'd never let it show, but this job has almost broken him. That fishing pic was the first sign of happiness I'd seen in him in a long, long year.

My brother is the soldier in this photo:

mentor

A close personal friend has had to knock on 27 doors, and all that goes with that. He is one of the hardest Marines I have ever known, and it almost broke him too...

Teri B.

I don't know how many. A lot though. That brigade took a lot of casualties. My brother doesn't come off as the warm and fuzzy type, but it's been something of an advantage here, because these families don't actually need someone else slobbering all over them. He was solid as a rock when our mother died a few years ago, and he's the youngest, but this . . . this has taken a huge toll on him.