>>509269969
Yo nigga. I joined 5 years later. Too young for the GWOT experience but still got the ribbons due to WESTPAC deployments. I ended up in Administration and one thing that still bugs me to this day, is how many dudes I linked up with 5-10 years older than me, who joined in the wake of 9/11, just to end up fucked up and have no idea how to really "explain" the war.

I had one guy I got very close with. He would tell me his door gunner stories from 2003-2005. Never seemed to shook by it. One day we went out drinking and the guy lost his mind. Broke down, starting rambling about missed chances and lost opportunities. Luckily his wife was with us and was married to him since before his experiences, so she calmed him down.

Whenever I see combat vets from that time, or catch stories on the more than 3,000 we lost in the War on Terror, nothing pisses me off more than knowing America's Gen X and young millennials left a thriving late 90s/early 2000s America just to die for literally nothing. And then they were replaced by the shit skins here in America through mass immigration - who we were warned to look out for and be cautious of.

At least I got my bennies!