The Funs Over.

It was time to start training and in late September 2004, our unit was sent to Ft. Dix, NJ. We trained for about a month and a half. We trained on everything from first aid, shooting, convoy exercises, identifying explosives and IEDs, to their culture…basically everything and more. After that we left for Kuwait in mid October.
Before I even got to Ft. Dix I started having the same reoccurring dream for about a month. I dreamt that I was in a firefight with several other Soldiers and I would always end up getting shot in the face. I would never die though….I could “feel” the bullets expand in my face. It was really weird. We would all be running around, hiding behind buildings and screaming at each other. We put our weapons on burst and shot at everything. All I could think was, Jesus I’m going to get fucked up while I’m over there.
The flight to Kuwait seemed surreal. When we boarded the plane we were greeted by a peppy, cheery flight crew…one broad had a President Bush pin on and within 5 minutes she heard so many complaints that she took it off. My three friends and I grabbed a middle row and fell asleep as soon as we could. We didn’t really want to think about where we were going. We finally landed in Germany to switch plans. We all called home and checked our email. Time seemed to go by so fast and before we knew it we were back on the plane. Everyone was up. We cracked jokes, played Uno, and watched movies. The pilot announced we would be landing in Kuwait within 20 minutes. Before he could finish his sentence everyone went silent…no one was laughing, no one was talking to each other…everyone just had this blank stare on their face. It was as if our hearts stopped beating at the same time and everything we could ever want was miles and miles away. People were holding back their tears. Kuwait looked beautiful from the sky. Almost like NYC.