by M. Morrison

Created on: August 16, 2009   Last Updated: August 17, 2009

Six months. Six months I'd been here, and my whole world was crashing down around me. Suddenly the enemy looked friendly, the bullets and grenades merciful. Anything would be less painful than the endless ache in my chest. They say that so long as you're proud of yourself, your accomplishments, and your life, nothing else matters. But what happens when the biggest part of your life walks out the door?

That letter took away my reason to live. More than that, it took away my faith - my faith in God, in humanity, in love and family and the sanctity of marriage. I came here to protect our country, our rights, our families, and while I was fighting to protect others' families, mine had left. 'I've found someone else,' she said. While I'm over here putting my life on the line, she's found some prissy little college boy with a big wallet, and she thinks that he's the one who cares about her. He can buy her all her pretty little trinkets, but would he be willing to risk his life so that she can live in the same comfort she's always known? I doubt it.

Who knew that so much could change in six months? Eleven years of marriage and three children, and it was all gone in as little as six months. Countless special moments spent together and so many more to look forward to and she was throwing it all away just like that. 'I need someone who can be here with me,' she said, 'someone who can support me and help raise the kids.' What did she think I was doing over here? She and the kids were my whole reason for coming here! If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have even considered joining the army, but now I was here, fighting and killing to make sure that they wouldn't have to. Fighting to protect their rights, their freedom, their innocence. The last thing I wanted was for my kids to have to go through this when they had families of their own.

I looked around me. The air was heavy with dirt and smoke, and it seemed to vibrate with the endless barrage of gunshots. These men had families too. Some of them were lucky, and still had their family waiting for them at home. Others were like me: abandoned. Yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, since the start of this cursed war, many loyal families had learned that their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers weren't coming home. Some of them didn't have a family to miss them. Some watched their brothers die as they fought side-by-side on the battlefield. Some of us were here to defend our country, some to stand

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