Milblogs

Every week when I look at the milblogs, I am impressed and touched even more than I was the week before. This week I got a better understand of one of the many tough decisions our soldiers make every day. This soldier had the opportunity or burden of deciding what to buy for his unit; he has a list of things that his unit needs to become more effective, and efficient at what they do. One of the items they need are digital cameras, the only problem with that is, digital cameras are on the do not buy list! The cameras would give more evidence to convict someone of a crime and get them off the streets so the people can move forward with their mission. It’s a tough decision, buy the cameras and be convicted of fraud, or not buy the cameras and let the bad guys off the hook. And this is only a minor decision that a soldier would have to make! WOW!

I also watched a video that was put together by a soldier, the first part of the video is a tribute to the Third Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, and the second part is to all of the fallen soldiers of the Brigade. There were many emotional pictures in the video, there were pictures of the soldiers at what looked like training or an actual firefight. They also had pictures of the guys and what they did in their ‘down time,’ sitting around smoking a cigarette, or just talking with the other soldiers. The second part of the video was extremely emotional for me, I know two guys that were killed across seas when they were on duty. There were pictures of all the fallen soldiers of the brigade; some of the men had pictures of them holding their children. This really made me think about the family of the soldier, a son or daughter will grow up, and never really get to meet their father, the fathers’, mothers’, and children that were left behind had to go through a lot! In the video I could also see the respect that the soldiers had for one another, the living or the dead. Their brigade was like a second family, when they had a fallen soldier they would stand their helmet, boots, and what looked like their gun, in a little memorial so the soldiers could pay their last respects to their comrade.