If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,

I suppose that the reason you area reading more and more of the politics of the GWOT here than before is that it is a function of where we are in the deployment cycle.  Our time remaining here is in the single digits now and I think it is normal that when you reach a juncture such as this, you cast a retrospective glance at the things you have both accomplished and endured.

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

Looking back down the path that I have followed over this past year and remembering the places that journey has taken me and people I have met there, it causes the emotions to run deep.  I see monumental challenges and Herculean achievements; I see pain and devastation along with empathy and sacrifice. I see victories in the eyes of a child, and losses in a flag covered casket.

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

More than that though, I see heroes and patriots.  Volunteers all, brought together from all walks of life for any manner of reason for this common purpose.  Together they have achieved accomplishments of epic proportions for a noble and righteous cause only to be slighted by uninformed, self-important misanthropes who have apparently been deprived, or deprived themselves, of the intellectual capacity necessary to grasp the elusive concept of selfless sacrifice.

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

I do feel a bit of pity for those that will revile our involvement in this conflict for many years to come, particularly those who have been able to view it from a detached position of ignorance solely through the media.  This pity is born out of the knowledge that after years of standing firm on their misinformed beliefs, they will one day awaken to the knowledge that their personal values and convictions never demanded the sacrifice of body and soul for something larger than their own personal well-being.  Though reviled by some now, my comrades and I will pass the remainder of our days with the peace of knowing that when our nation cried out, we were there while others will always wonder of the ability to risk all they have and all they are for an ideal larger than themselves.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

The pity for these people will take a back seat though to the empathy I feel for those that will follow me here.  I will empathize with their feelings of isolation and abandonment; with their desperate longings for family and home; with their cursing of the seemingly interminable passing of time; and with their overarching sense of duty which will not allow the mission to fail.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

I also know that I will rejoice with them as they approach the place I currently occupy, with their mission completed and both reunifications and celebrations days and hours away.  I will remember the satisfaction they will feel for their accomplishments, secure in their knowledge that they have done all that was asked of them, appreciated or not; a satisfaction formed from sacrifice that can be neither inflated by compliment nor diminished by disparagement

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,

From where I stand now, these are the things that I see looking both forward and back down the road that I travel, but for today it is enough to know of you few who will read this and say “Well done Soldier, it’s time to come home.”

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Comments

[SK]

Let me be one of the first to say WOO HOO!!!! Single digits! Thank you so much for all that you have given, that which you and your family have endured so we at home might be safer. It is an honor to say "Well done Soldier". I look forward to seeing you post those two special words...I'm HOME!

Sherri

[Chris Mercer]

Sir, congratulations on being so near to redeployment. I just found this blog today, searching for stuff for Salerno. I am the driver for Spartan 5, 10th Mountain Division, 3rd IBCT XO. If you get a chance, check out todays post on my blog, http://xanga.com/zaimor , in regards to your journal. On behalf of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Thank you and God Speed.

-PFC Mercer
Spartan 5D

[MissBirdlegs in AL]

Beautiful post! I think you already know my thoughts on all this. I certainly say, "Well done, Soldier" and thank you for all you and yours have done on our behalf! Anxiously awaiting that "I'm HOME" post with a beer at your side.

[Teresa]

I am so glad you are nearly ready to come back home. Congratulations on your accomplishments. And most of all - Thank you.

[Agnieszka O. in CO]

We got little bit of snow in Colorado past week. Today was really nice and sunny, even in Colorado Springs. Maybe I'll run into you and your family on Colorado slopes :-)
Thank you again for a job well done. Hope you have a good trip home.
Afghanistan was a turist destination in the 1970th. Maybe one day again...

[FVK]

“Well done Firepower 5, it’s time to come home -- You did good!"

Thank you for your service and sacrifice, and Godspeed!

(I hope you don't mind, but I've linked and reposted this post on my blog.)

[toni]

It certainly has been informative to read your blog and in a way to get to know you. Hopefully you won't completely shut this baby down once you're home. Maybe just take a long vacation. :) My thanks to you FPF, it sure was a pleasure.

[Janet in the Heartland]

Dear FirePower 5,

Your post, interspersed with Kipling was so poignant and moving. I feel your pride in all that you have endured and accomplished: the Herculean tasks that have wrought so much in the course of what seemed interminable hours and days. You have been warriors, yes, but as important you have been builders in that far away land, not destroyers.

I feel the pain that permeates what you write. Many will never understand the reasons why you were there. They will always endeavor to diminish what you have accomplished. History however, is full of naysayers. They cannot imagine daring great things so they castigate those who do. There is endless fault finding when only the course of the Creator is flawless. The willingness to venture forth and accept the possibility of a few ill choices will always surpass that of those who sit at home and denigrate those incredibly brave people who dare to try and hence to accomplish through trial an yes, error.

Even in the short term, you have accomplished in a year what our Founders took a decade to accomplish. “There was no plan” is an oft repeated refrain. Then perhaps it is by the worlds most incredible occasion of happenstance that there have been three elections and a Constitution in only a year, one step following another by some strange inexorable force untouched by the hand or mind of man. Not hardly!

Come home safely and know that you have been a part of something monumental. It is just past the germination phase so that what will be there as a testimonial to the best and brightest America has may not be known for decades to come and perhaps not even for a century or so. Who on the Mayflower would have envisioned what “they brought forth upon this continent”? They dared to dream, however. And you too may dream of what your efforts and sacrifices have been about. It is the difference between Pygmies and Men.

May God bless the doers of this world and you and your comrades specifically as you wind up a task well done. Accept the laurels of a grateful nation and a posterity that belongs only to the brave.

[Janet in the Heartland]

FirePower 5,

I was so moved by what you wrote that it was only after I signed off that I realized I had "moved" you from Afghanistan to Iraq!! Nevertheless, though there have there have been fewer elections there has been an election, Constitution and a handover to civilian government. These are incredible accomplishments while fighting a war. The over all sentiment remains unchanged. My unending appreciation, gratitude and awe, really at what has been accomplished, is the same.
God bless and keep you.

[Tony B]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs, then there is a good chance you have misjudged the situation.

Seriously, sir, I love the writing.

[Rob Morse]

Wow. That touches the heart. Bless you and yours. Welcome back

[Roni]

I just wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed your website about Bagram. My husband arrived there March 9 (2006) and I have been searching for as much information about what life is like in this far away world that many soldiers have seen. You have painted a world with your words and pictures and have given me a better understanding of perhaps what he may feel and experience while he is there. Thank you for your sacrifice, thank you for being a soldier, and thank you for leaving this reminder (and information) for the next group, like us, who are just starting the year.

[NBA Basketball Jerseys]

Keep focusing in your post. I adore how we are able to all communicate our feelings. this can be an very good article here.NBA Basketball Jerseys
http://www.nbafansshop.com

[Michael Crabtree Youth Jersey]

good