Sooooo - Ho! Long time since I sounded off. Not that anybody missed me. Not that I give a Flyin' F.

Flying F - that reminds me of the Flying Horse. Bet I'm the only one here that remembers that. It was a red horse with wings, the symbol of some filling station back in the days when I was a little kid riding in the back seat of a Model T.

I remember lots of stuff like that, for what it's worth. Probably isn't worth anything. Just dusty old memories rattling around in my head.

It is said that as we get really old we lose our short term memory but retain the long term memory. That's a depressing thought. To think that I'm about to slide into oblivion with the memory of an advertiser taking poetic license by capitalizing on the symbol of poetic inspiration.

I bought a set of civilian clothes to walk around in during our off time, but it feels funny, doesn't quite sit right. And I'm constantly trying to figure out what I'm forgetting until I realize it's my rifle. The other Marines have this same problem (the rifle one). I expected this after my last deployment but I can't remember how long it took for this feeling to fade.

I spoke with a couple of soldiers in the smoke-pit who will spend their entire deployment here in Kuwait, in relative luxury, and felt a twinge of envy.

But last night, lying on my cot in our tent as it began to rain, I quietly enjoyed the sound of raindrops hitting canvas, flashes of lightning intermittenly illuminating everything, the tent around me swelling and heaving like a living, breathing thing, and I thought: how could I appreciate this tiny, perfect moment if not for my earlier experiences, ones those soldiers will never know? I realized that they don't even know to be envious of me.

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