I really want people to read this. So much damn truth packed into one post.

I take it stop loss was over during this time? I deployed with guys who's contracts were over before we even left. We had one guy who's contract was up and went AWOL. They tracked him down and gave him a choice. Either go to Iraq for a year or spend, I think two years, in the Brig. Needless to say he went to Iraq. What a choice to have to make. I always thought stop-loss was a big pile of dawg doo doo wrapped in a hotdog.

I remember walking through Atlanta Airport on the way home and having to take off our boots and get screened. I was thinking "you have got to be shitting me". Smoke and Mirrors.

I remember getting to the bases you speak of with pools, MWR tents, and Burger Kings. We were in a gun truck company and the roads would go black and at times we would get stuck there for a week or two. Life of Luxury man. But we mostly escorted fuel tankers and there were times the roads would go black and we would be like "yes"..Omaha Steaks, here we come. Then we would get orders. "This base is running out of fuel and you gotta hit the road".
It would quickly turn into "oh shit, get your game face on".

Nothing like escorting a fuel convoy down the road when the roads are black.

Thanks for sharing this. I hope to see it in book form one day.