Mornings After 13 Years

Thirteen years ago, I was waking up to recruits running around the barracks getting ready for the day. Morning PT(physical training) was a constant every day in our lives, however there was always this strange odor in the mornings. This morning as I'm walking out my apartment door today a familiar odor taunted my memory as I breathed out the air from my apartment into a crisp fall air.

During this short memory, I can hear the faint sound of feet hitting the ground in time, Drill Sargent's yelling out cadences, soldiers making their way through the morning routine of PT. We could count on this everyday while in basic training to Advanced Infantry Training because we were all Infantry. AIT (advanced individual training) for me lasted four weeks or so, lots of field training and honing our craft. In many ways I love the idea of morning routines including exercising, quiet time, and devotional time. These are things that are intentionally worked into morning schedules if possible.

It's crazy because I remember guys from my time, they stand out more so than those high school memories or friends who were never really there. Their faces are etched in my mind, just like the men who I went to war. We spent from October 2003 till February 2004 together, learning and honing our skills, hours daily spent practicing our craft that if we should ever deploy outlives would depend upon. There are practical things which may seem funny or odd to people who have never been in the military. These things people may never know unless they know the craft, the trade, and to the extent which we have developed our skills.

It's November so there's that, there is more emotion tied up in the next two months than the rest of the year for me. It's like the damn elephant sitting in the room which everyone is tiring to avoid talking about. It's the month of "Thank you for your service" statements and "the free food for one day" however this is not why we did it. We did it for the men and women who may never come home, for those who are still fighting battles, battling their demons, and those who have lost. We raise a toast to our dead, we joke about times past, and live like nothing can keep us back. We are blunt, we are honest to a fault, if you ask what we're thinking just prepare yourself lol!

After all these years these memories still hold on just by simply walking out the door of my apartment and breathing in the air.