Those Moments of fear and elation; Riding those steel beasts into the attack.

Terror and exaltation wedded in this surreal mix of emotion and heighted awareness…

Those Mornings in the desert as the sun crests the ridgeline…

Where the dark of night transitions in mere moments into the harsh light and heat that only the desert knows…

Those Sunsets on Beach Range 8 as the sun sank into the Pacific…

The horizon aflame in Shades of gold, umber & purple; Waiting for that brief flash of green as the sun sank beneath the waves.

Those nights in Dhahran, when the Scuds were flying…

Bright lights in the sky, Patriots launching, Jets scrambling, the white plasma orbs of detonation followed by flaming wreckage; and the ones the Patriots missed..sparklers falling & then that orange-red flash, the crump of a distant explosion & then the sound of sirens as we responded to the aftermath.

The crack, thump & roar of gunfire, ours and theirs...

The little bright globs of red, white, green & orange as the tracers fly, The deafening crack, the bright white orange flash & heat as the tanks engage; watching that tracer all the way in; seeing that awful shower of sparks and the secondary explosion.

And all the names and faces...

Eddy, Andy, Benny, Dewie, Mendel D., Kiki, Big K, Dave, Ricky, TZ, Roger, Howard and the list goes on and on. Good friends, good stories, some funny, some not so funny. Long gone, some forever. Most leading their own lives fates unknown but not forgotten 

All so vivid & clear… A soldier remembers.