I went to Iraq, but I wasn’t Infantry. Yeah, I went to Iraq but it’s not Afghanistan. I was in the Army, but I wasn’t Special Forces. I wasn’t even Airborne or Air Assault. I was just a Commo guy, not even a radio operator.

I went to Iraq but it wasn’t World War I,II, or Vietnam. I wasn’t in the Pacific. I didn’t experience trench warfare. It wasn’t Revolutionary or Civil War type fighting where we line up and shoot at each other.

These are my constant thoughts. I’m proud of the job I did and the support I gave to my unit but some how I always feel like I could’ve done more.

There is a tremendous amount of respect due to everyone that served. They risked so much and many paid the ultimate price, some just short of that physically mentally and a combination of the two. I’ve never felt worthy of a “thank you” from them or anyone else.

Was everyone else’s deployment tougher? Maybe, I guess it depends on the individual in the end. It seems to be a sort of fad or trend to be a veteran now. If you let them tell it, everyone was infantry. There is no way I was the only commo guy EVER in the United States Armed Forces. If I was, in that sense, I guess i was Special Forces!

I loved doing my job so that others could do theirs, team work makes the dream work. Most of us made it home, how do you judge the toughness of a deployment? Do you judge it? I don’t, I can’t, maybe someone more qualified can.