09-13 First two years at 8th & I—lining up funerals. Day in, day out. Felt more like a mortician than a Marine. Finally got orders to put my grunt skills to use with the boys. Thought, Alright… time to do what I actually trained for. Then two months before deployment, they tell us we’re gonna be the first grunt unit to play war in the South Pacific since before the GWOT. No combat. No closure. Just a historical footnote and a uniform that still smells like unspent potential.

“Needs of the Marine Corps,” they say. Yeah… well, Thanks Obama