Sgt Jess

Tonight I drank with the 82nd Airborne. Apparently they are the most rapid deployed troops this country has. They can mobilize in 2 hours and be on a plane headed, well, anywhere. We drank shots of Jager to 2 dead men I never met. The toast was for the men, but after toast we tapped our glasses on the bar before putting them to our lips. That was so that Haji could hear it down in hell. Haji is the name of the enemy in Iraq, like Charlie or gook was in Vietnam. Sergant 1st Class Jess of the 82nd Airborne showed me his scar from an injury that kept him down for 9 months. It wasn’t pretty. He still feels bad that because of that he was unable to “return to the wire” to stand alongside his unit. After 9 months he is now fully recovered. His next deployment is Afganistan.