How would you be feeling if you were a 19-yr old PFC in Iraq....?

[kentuck]

tonight? Hunkered down in the sand hole with artillery rounds and explosions going off around you...some close and some far off... you feel the sand shake and move with each exploding round. You think about your family back home. You wish you had a nice warm shower and a good night's sleep. You wonder if the next round is going to come down on your head...You really never go to sleep...you permit yourself to close your eyes for a bit but are on guard at a moment's notice to move to your bunker...

You would not be thinking much about your government...you are too busy thinking about surviving and getting back home. You really hope they don't extend your mission by the 90 days they are talking about. You would really like to see the NBA championship coming up. That would be nice to watch it with a few of your friends and have a few beers and laugh and joke...

But there's another artillery round! That one was close! I wonder when they are going to relieve me and let me go back to the camp and rest a bit. This *%&$*#* shit is getting old! I wonder what Melissa is doing right now. I wish I was with her. I would tell her how much I love her. I wouldn't be as shy as I used to be...

[AGiordino]

1. Scared shitless and pissed I took that oath

n/t

[kentuck]

2. you would learn to adapt to your fears....

But it is all the little things you miss and think about....

[Skittles]

3. my mum survived bombing raids in England as a child

almost 60 years later the smell of rubber in the shoe section of a department store will freak her out because it reminds her of the gas mask she had to put on to get under her desk at school (she had asthma and would choke). It's not just the fear of physical injuries or death - the chronic sense of the unknown damages their minds and their sense of well-being. And it will likely stay with them for life.

[TexasMexican]

4. I better kill more Iraqi's

better them than me.

I'm sure thats what the Iraqi's are thinking the same about us.