for the soldiers over seas

[Dotta]

my name is Tom Rundell I am a private in the United States military thirty first platoon sixth devision. we are on an over crouded persanal ship there are over two thousand men on this ship it is hard to get around and we are on a seven day journy across the pacifice ocean. funny thing is this is day eight and we have not gotten to land. I am scared to death when I think of what we will face when we get there I am told it is not as bad as I think but how do I know I have never been to war. my buddy Garth is a Corpreal and he tells me he was over seas a year ago when the real war was going on and it was scary as hell. Garth was there while they bombed Baghdad he told me that he could hear the screams of children for miles and the smell of bodies paluted his brain for the last year.

[Dotta]

people try there best to hide there fear and as soldiers we have training on how to supress out emotions but nothing you say or do will ever take away the memories of war. that is what GEnral Scott Hugen told the presedent when they met. I think Bush is a joke but he is just a pupet I think if he wanted to he could do alot more to stop this war then he dose though.

when the boat finnally got to its destanation on day ten Tom and Garth kept close to each other as they made there way in marching formation to the planes. there were eight huge planes that carried about two hundered troops each. the planes would carry them in to the middle east but not all the planes were going to the same location. while Tom was boarding the plane he looked on the runway at a plane that was unloading men who were coming home. some of the men had missing limbs but it was not as common as Tom would have thought.

[Dotta]

the hole time flying Tom thought about the men he saw on the way on to the plane. one man had a missing arm and he was still walking around with a beg on his back and a rifle in his hand. Garth told Tom some time in the middle of the night, "we might get in to a gun fight but they are not as common as you think. the things we really got to look out for are booby traps and children serving the teleban" these were things Tom had heard from the commanding officers all threw training. Tom had a grilfriend back home and he tried his best to think about her but he was so afraid

[Dotta]

when Tom and Garth got to base camp it was placed in the middle of the desert, by the air strip there were four huge barrels of waste that reaked more then words could discribe. while Tom was getting off the plane the barrels were the frist thing he smelt and he asked Garth, "man what is that stench?" Garth remarked, "that is our shit barrels they are nasty as hell. you get used to the smell but when you eat make sure to cover your food because sometimes with the wind that shit sprays around the base it is pretty nasty" Tom remarked, "here we are in the worste place on eath and just to make things better they leave huge barrels that spray shit all over the base?" Garth laughed and remarked, "welcome home"