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My wife, Charity, and I came to Fort Drum, N.Y., on Aug. 28, 2008.
We knew once I returned to active duty deployment was inevitable.
We never realized it would happen so quickly.
We were married May 1, and May 8 I was shipped to Fort Benning, Ga., for four months of training before being assigned to a unit.
We have spent more of our marriage apart than together.
My unit orders were to leave Dec. 10 for Afghanistan, but Charity was pregnant so I would not have to leave until after the baby was born.
Keira came Jan. 20, and I stayed with my family for another month and a half.
We never talked about what it would be like once I was gone. We just lived in the moment.
March 4 was my flight date and it came fast. Our last night together was quiet. We ate dinner, watched television and put the kids to bed. We spent most of the night next to each other in silence. I held my wife close and we fell asleep.
The ride to Brigade Headquarters was only about 10 minutes and it was silent. Before leaving, I told Charity I did not want them to come in to see me off. I just wanted them to drop me off and leave because I knew it would make it that much harder for me to leave.
I arrived in Afghanistan on March 6 and met with my platoon March 11 at Forward Operating Base Airborne.
Bravo Company’s area of operations is in the Nerkh Valley. Snow covers the mountains surrounding the FOB, so there will not be much fighting in our area because the Taliban usually wait for the snow to melt. March is a quiet month.
Our daily life consists of looking for the Taliban. Whenever we run into local farmers we ask them if they’ve seen the Taliban. Usually, they respond “No.”
In April, our company moved from the FOB to a site we had to build with our own hands.
We patrol the Nerk valley in armored vehicles. We stop and talk to the locals and ask if they need anything.
We look for the Taliban, but we never seem to find it.
On June 1 two platoons from Bravo Company hit IED’s, four were killed and five were wounded badly.
Our Company is distinguished in having the most losses in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.
We lost nine and more than 40 are wounded. Many of the wounded are amputees or confined to wheelchairs. I cannot tell if the situation has gotten better or worse since we have arrived in Wardak.
I have no clue if we are accomplishing our mission because I was never given a detailed mission of what we are to accomplish.
Usually when I go out and something happens, one of the first things I do when given the chance is call Charity and tell her I am fine. I try never to give her any details of what happened. I don’t need to worry her more than she already is.
I am not afraid of dying but the anguish my death would cause does bother me.
I think about that all the time. I worry about dying and what would happen to my family, how they would cope. You have to live with that and make peace with the fact that every time you go on a mission, you might not come back.
I think about my wife and kids constantly. I call when I can and I make it a point to always end our conversation in a good light. I see some of the men argue with their spouses on the phone.
I cannot understand why they want to.
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Thanks,
- JaclynJaclyn Cosgrove
Web editor
The Daily O'Collegian
jaclyn.cosgrove@ocolly.com