A Heavy Heart

I have a CD I listen to pretty regular.. One that helps me not forget.. I'm not talkin bout 9/11 either.. I'm talkin bout our troops in the "sand box" and in areas away from home.. I remember the days when I was sent to some shithole and told to do the impossible for days on end.. Days when your best meal of the day, came from a fuckin box full of cans that didnt even have an expiration date on em.. Its just strange to me, how I can feel that so many of folks could miss the feeling I feel, that I did something good, and worthwhile.. It wasnt wartime, but damn near it.. Still, I had a feeling that I was doing something that was gonna be the difference between war and peace.. I joined, by choice, in 1977, under Jimmy Carter, and felt that the Force needed me.. I wonder why ?? I got to see first hand why the boys had such a fuck up in the desert of Iran.. Bad equipment.. Bad command.. Bad plans.. I have never had the chance to witness a chinese fire drill first hand, but I know that we used that term a lot during the first couple of years that I was in the Service.. Bear in mind that this was the beginning of the All Volunteer Force.. Our supervisors were the ones that came back from Nam that thought they were gonna do the time and retire.. Little did they know that Ronald Reagan was gonna be elected POTUS and the pressure was just gonna get hotter.. Bout this time, they decided to thro in a few pieces of new equipment for us to learn how to use and to get a license for.. In the meantime, our Reserve and Guard Forces were so lost that they couldnt even see up from where they were.. That is where I came in.. I set the standard for what the Guard and Reserve was gona be like for the next few years.. Shame we didnt have email back then.. It sure would have been a lot easier.. I'm very proud of what I did in the Service, but still wonder if the one that followed me was as good as I was.. Or, about the one that followed them.. I set really high standards for the folks who were protecting this country back then.. I can only hope that the the folks that are in that same position today, are just as dedicated as I was back then. That song I was talkin bout at the first of this post ?? It is by Lone Star, and the tittle is "I'm already there ( message from home)..