Outside

Today, I finally, really feel like an American Soldier.

Lemme give you just a little back story. My unit controls the pedestrian control point between the city and our FOB. I never have gotten time to visit out there and see what it looks like.
Today we have an unrelated, yet very serious, communication issue that I was repairing, and had to go out to the pedgate. I was idle out there, waiting on someone else to do their part, in another location, so I took a stroll outside the wire.

Yep. My Sergeant of the Guard (SOG) out at the gate took me out the pedgate. The best thing about the pedgate is that the children from the city hang out in front of it. I stepped outside, their was one kid out there. He hollered, and in 20 seconds their were 20 kids, from 4 to 14, all around us. The SOG that brought me out there had a bunch of candy, and we passed it out to the kids. I played Patty-Cake with a few of the little girls, and thumb wrestled some of the boys. I had a blast.

I promise to bring a camera next time I get to go out there.

I finally see how we’re affecting the people that live outside of these walls… these kids love us, almost fight for our attention.. they were crestfallen when I said I had to go. They wanted me to stay. I was a little heart broken.

It’s a beautiful thing.
Matt