First Person: A Part of Me Will Always Be in Iraq

As we near the 10-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, Yahoo News asked U.S. servicemen and women who served to share their perspectives and discuss how it changed them. Here's one story.

FIRST PERSON | While my story is nothing worthy of national headlines, it is none the less mine. I was a part of the 511th Military Police Company, which was made up of the finest men and woman I feel the Army had at the time. We did every job a military police company can be tasked to do. You name it, we did it and then some.

I was only 18 when we left Ft. Drum, N.Y., and made our way to war.

Everyone expects you to say you were afraid, which I was, but not many people expect you to say you were excited. It wasn't the typical kind of excitement that you may think of. I was excited by the challenge of discovering who I was in this uncertain time. Basic training and AIT can only prepare you a small amount for what life in the military is really like. Nothing else in life will ever compare to being deployed and no matter what I say about it, unless you have been there, you can never fully understand.

While I never experienced many of the events associated with war, I had many unique and life-changing experiences of my own. Our unit was able to work in the city of Mosul with local Iraqi police. Every day, when we pulled up to the station, we were greeted by a group of about 20 children all trying to get our attention, trying their best to use the few English words they knew to get us to talk to them. They were typical kids except for the obvious fact that their country was at war.

Working with the Iraqi police was interesting. Very few spoke English, but that didn't stop us from having in-depth conversations about a wide variety of topics-- from the fact that I was a female, which they couldn't get over, to American movies and family.

These men became my friends and when one of them was killed by a man who was angry that he worked with Americans, we all mourned his loss. It was not different to us then losing a member of our unit.

Coming home was bittersweet. The people I served with are my family. They will always be a part of my life, and I know I could call on any of them at any time for anything. Being with my civilian family was hard. I had changed, yet to them I was still the same person I was when I left. You never fully seem to come home from war. It is always with you in the back of your mind. I can't say with 100 percent certainty that going to Iraq was the right choice. Sure, I saw good come from us being there, but it's not clear yet if the end justifies the means.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-person-part-always-iraq-182900115.html

ray allen Savages Home Run Derby 2012 San Diego fireworks steve nash july 4th Malware Monday